Post by captaincrumbcake on Jun 9, 2016 12:16:39 GMT -5
While we, as designers, should always be conscious of the fact that specific intentions (as in, for our own campaigns), will not/or do not, easily afford themselves to/in others; the idea of generic mechanics is fine to initiate the target market, but cannot take into account the, hopefully, massive number of individual judges and game refs that wish to have their campaigns, personal.
There is a great article in Dragon #25, May 1979, (and repeated in BOD 2) regarding "Character social class". I won't repeat it, here, but included within it is a nice little table that I thought, for those busy judges/game refs with little to no time to spend on countless bits and details--might be useful. It breaks down , with little definition, a generic world's social structure as follows:
01-75= the character is of common background
76-95= the character is of aristocratic background
96-00= the character is of upper-class background
I pondered upon this for some time, and how, if such were in actual use in one's campaign, how it would affect a character's starting money. While 3d6x10 is fine, I feel it falls waay too short and simple; especially when a slight modification could (possibly) help one's game feel a bit more...uh, ahh, I dunno, sensible in regards to a character's background. So, I did some diddling with it and came up with this:
01-25= character comes from laboring servant background; farm hand, apprentice carpenter, etc. (-1 to each die for generating money)
26-40= character comes from common background (RAW)
41-75= character comes from artisan/mercantile background (+1 to one die)
76-90= character comes from lower noble background (+1 to two die rolled)
91-97= character comes from upper aristocratic background (+1 to each die rolled)
98-00= character comes from lesser royal background (+2 to each die rolled)
Obviously, how each of those backgrounds are defined, and all what that means, is subjective and meant for the judge/ref to decide. But, at its core, I feel the mechanic has its applications.
Note: Since gold (as in minted pieces) and such, is not the money of the realm in my Lost Lands campaign, I myself would have to modify the above.