Luck and Wealth

I'd like to briefly discuss the subsystems I have in mind for Wealth and Luck. I've found over years of playing D&D that nothing actually gets tracked below a certain value threshold; food and drink, lodging, ammunition, and other mundane costs are typically ignored after character creation. Some versions of the game have included a monthly upkeep system, which covers that sort of spending depending on your character's lifestyle, but I don't think I've ever seen it used in a game. These issues, combined with my plans for a more early-medieval style setting, led me to consider different ways of handling wealth. In an excellent series of world-building articles written by Rich Burlew (of Order of the Stick fame), he proposed using the abstract Wealth system from d20 Modern for his medieval-level setting, and I found this to be quite an excellent suggestion.

The full d20 Modern Wealth rules can be found here, but I'll give a quick overview. Every character has a Wealth score, typically somewhere between 0 and 30. This value is a combined measure of their savings, credit, and income. For a medieval setting, credit would mostly be replaced by influence--it may be the only way to acquire a magic sword is for the king to grant you one, for example. Every item has a value measured by its "Purchase DC". When you want to acquire an item, you make a Wealth roll: d20 + your Wealth score; if it is higher than the Purchase DC, then you acquire the item. If the Purchase DC of the item is higher than your Wealth score (it is expensive relative to your resources), then your Wealth decreases by 1 or more points after the purchase. On the other side, if the Purchase DC is lower than your wealth score, you don't even have to roll--it's assumed to be well within your budget. There are a few additional details--you can make a Profession roll at level-up to gain additional wealth, for example--but that's the basis of the system.

Now for luck. This particular idea came from a house rule I saw posted on the Paizo forums. This group had a rule called luck or karma. Each character has a Luck score that starts at 10. Any time there's an element of chance (such as a wandering monster roll), the most appropriate character rolls a d20. If they roll higher than their Luck score, things go their way and their Luck score increases by one (making them less likely to get lucky the next time). If they roll lower, things don't turn out the way they want and their Luck score decreases by one. This seems like a fun way to handle this sort of thing, rather than by DM fiat, and so I'd like to give it a try. There's also potential for traits or talents based on manipulation of Luck scores, such as a character that could add 5 to their Luck score (resulting in future 'bad luck') in return for a bonus on a roll.