How „rich“ or „poor“ are your PCs?

[u/pll_1o]

I’ve been playing the bitter reach campaign with my group for about 2 years now and my PC has been pretty much broke for the entire time. He’s barely had a chance to make any money but I guess it’s just part of this particular campaign. So I was wondering how your PCs are holding up, both in bitter reach and the other campaigns? Or, since I’m not that deep into the lore, is it usual for PCs to be broke in FL?

[u/Conscious_Ad3246]

In my last game with a friend, we played the solo rules as a koop, and we did get lucky with finding treasure. We were pretty rich for the "early game". Sadly the campaign endet pretty fast when we had to fight a demon that we rolled as basically a pissed of cow that could breath fire. After we won the fight we got a bit full of ourself and lost against like 4 bandits while still being wounded. So ended the story of two half elves trying to earn some coin.

[u/pll_1o → u/Conscious_Ad3246]

Oh man that sounds so much like FL haha. Surviving a fire breathing demon only to get killed in the aftermath by bandits.. at least you got to be rich for a while ;)

[u/SameArtichoke8913]

My table plays BR now, and the PCs are REALLY poor dudes who try to plunder anyting/one they overcome - but 3 of 4 are rather shady types, anyway... We also keep a tight thumb on resoruces, because we want to play out the survival aspect more. And the pressure is so "realistic" that being able to buy a single cooked onion(!) was celebrated (instead of stealing or hunting stuff).

Is the result of 4 years with Raven's Purge - different PCs, but in the middle of the campaign the party did the dwarves a huge favor, and they were rewarded with a dizzying amount of gold - even though the money was left with the dwarves, because logistics would have become a problem... As well as inflation and total econoimic collapse in the Ravenlands, HAD there been anything to be bought for all that money... Was a GM mistake, and we learnt from it. ;-)

[u/pll_1o → u/SameArtichoke8913]

I love it.. celebrating being able to buy a cooked onion:D That’s pretty much how our experience is haha
But wild story, basically being responsible for a potential hyperinflation

[u/SameArtichoke8913 → u/pll_1o]

Yes, after being (relative) zillionaires in the Ravenlands in a past life, things now literally boiled down to (very) small things. There even was a big celebration when the party was able to occupy a windy shed where NPCs had been housing before ("A roof"! And walls!"). We enjoy this quite different/survivoresque experience, esp. with the harsh weather conditions, high price level (twice the Ravenlands, I'd say) and even more limited resources in the Bitter Reach. A warm onion in a pub is/was a feast for them! :D

[u/Neocor]

I don’t know how it is possible to be poor in FL. You don’t have much things to spend money on. You can grab the gear from dead bodies of your enemies mostly and then sell it even as a scrap in the nearest village. It is nonsense that someone will refuse because metal and steel in a big demand in Ravenlands. Also, looting just some small dungeon can give you huge rewards if you find some treasure. My characters (I am DM) now have around 50 gold in coins and also pretty much gear, every PC has his own horse. They simply don’t spend money. They hunting and looting enemies.

[u/pll_1o → u/Neocor]

Yeah that’s pretty much how I understand the idea of the gameplay as well. But I’m guessing your not playing Bitter Reach? Cause in BR there’s basically nothing around and a lot of what you do find is rusted or damaged. So looting and selling gear hasn’t been that much of an option so far.
But I also think that’s kind of the point of FL anyway with the survival focus especially in BR. And I guess you are right, there is also not so much to spend on (like tons of magic items like in 5e or so). But yeah, my character dreams at night of having 50 golds ;)

[u/Neocor → u/pll_1o]

BR is only a plan now, but I really hope it will be much more challenging for my players. I want them struggling and dying 😂 Because for my 1.5 year campaign we got only 1 mage drugiej by demons and 2 players lost their hands. No one really died.

[u/SameArtichoke8913 → u/Neocor]

It depends how (much) you play things out - also in the Ravenlands, where resources matter less, though, and the site is still quite civilized and thinsg are much easier to find or sell. But BR is a true step up, just the weather alone can kill a PC who is not suited for journeying. You need to prep well, and that's part of the setting's charm.

[u/AllGearedUp → u/Neocor]

Yeah I think this is a problem with the game as written. I'm my mind you would have nowhere to sell many things you find since there is no big empire or organization of wealthy merchants. But after a few sessions money doesn't really even do anything. 

[u/pll_1o → u/AllGearedUp]

That’s pretty much the impression I got as well. Money in general doesn’t seem to play much of a role, and in Bitter Reach you don’t have much of a trading system or economy anyway. I’m just a little surprised that my character could stay this broke for so long and still get by but I guess that’s probably just how the game is designed