Re: Money....

From: bethexton_at_...
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 21:21:05 -0000

• In HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com, "Mike Holmes" <homeydont_at_h...> wrote:
  > >From: "Silburn, Luke" <luke.silburn_at_l...>
  > >
  >
  > Note that any break in cost for any ability increase seems to me to
  be an
  > automatic purchase. Players can't seem to pass up a bargain. So, if
  they
  > have a choice between spending a HP to inrease their sword skill by
  one, or
  > to cement an increase their wealth by two, the wealth will be taken.
  >
  > This is somewhat unfortunate. It means that when something like
  this comes
  > up, the player really doesn't have a set of viable options on what
  to spend.
  > In other words, if you have a treasure trove, then you're making
  the
  > decision for the player on what to spend one of his HP on.
  

Couldn't you be a little more flexible in that regard? Let the players know that when there is some find like that, depending on how they use it by the end of the adventure they might have some choices on how they take their bonus. So they could get the two for one on their wealth if they keep it. Or if they present it to the cheif maybe they could get a twofer on their clan relationship. Or if they sacrifice it to their god maybe on their piety....

Another option entirely that has been forming in the back of my head, but which I haven't thought about in detail yet, would be to allow players to have a list of non-HP cemented "disposable" items. A bag of coins, a bottle of fine wine, a secret, a favor owed. In appropriate situations they could cash these in for a bonus in an appropriate contest. As I said, I wouldn't want to make them cement them, as who will spend an HP for a temporary item? But at the same time you don't want to encourage massive scavenging. I'm not quite sure how to control that. Also I note that this is directly contrary to the stated episodic-dramatic intended sytle of HQ, in which one shot items don't carry over from episode to episode.

--Bryan