>> I have to say that my players & I like the idea of a Wealth rating. They
>> hated being accountants and having to go through tithing and paying for
>> everything. You could just rule not to nickel & dime everything but then
>> you might as well just use Wealth.
>Yes, the Wealth rating does save all that nasty role-playing of going to
>the family, friends, or dependents to get enough trade goods to buy that
>pretty sword in the weaponshoppe in town. No more tedious bargaining like
>an Arab (or should that be Vadeli?) over the prices, they can now be
>fixed and published, like the never were in reality (sit next to the
>company purchasing or bill collections officer for a while, and you'll
>see what I mean). No arguments over splitting the haul. We can leave
>all that Issaries type stuff to followers, while we heroes play
>priests, sorceror/wizards, or fighters.
I realise that this is an atempt at wit, but it's a failed one. There is no reason whatever why all these things can't be roleplayed, simply because you are using wealth ratings as against monetary values.
Take the sword example. If you run the deal as an extended contest, you might have to persuade your friends and dependents to use their Wealth ratings to help you out in a group contest, or to give you an enhancement in your bargaining attempt. In fact, with wealth ratings you can run bargaining sessions as detailed, character driven exchanges moderated by the group contest rules, something that was hard to do using the dry and even more abstract Bargain skill rules for RQ3.
You also complain about prices being 'fixed and published, like they never were before'. I presume from this that you have never played RQ3 and so have never seen the extensive price lists in the RQ3 rule books? I assure you they did exist.
Perhaps you've simply overlooked he fact that Wealth rating and bargaining abilities in Hero wars can be used in extended, or even group extended contests, thus providing a ready-made trading system that is far more sohisticated and playable than anything RQ ever gave us?
You may not like the HW game mechanics (I don't realy know) but pretending they don't exist and can't be used for roleplaying in pretty obvious ways is a bit much.
Simon Hibbs
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