Group Resources, or what?

[kaomera]

As I have posted elsewhere, I am working up a campaign based on the world of The Black Company. The game is set to revolve around an as-yet unnamed mercenary unit. Not all of the PCs will start out as members of this unit, and some may never officially join, but I expect it to be an important focus of the game...

Now, this unit is the result of a number of previous units, trapped in a very bad situation, deciding that survival is more important than being paid, and that they needed to work together if they where going to achieve either goal. However, just joining them together wasn't enough for me... One of the themes of Glen Cook's series is “belonging” (at least IMHO). And the instrument of that theme is the Annals. The Black Company has a centuries-old tradition of keeping an account of their travels and exploits and in the same text a record of all who have belonged to the Company... As a GM, I wanted something like that...

In my game, however, the big, traumatic event that ties all of these sell-swords together is very recent; and while it seemed kind of obvious to claim that the keeping of such a record had become some kind of shared ritual among mercenaries, traced back to legends of the Black Company... Well, that felt wrong to me. Personally, the Annals seemed too much a personal thing to the Black Company to really spill over into legend... And without such a monolithic weight of history to these particular lists, it didn't seem to me that they would seem very significant to someone who can measure the cost of a human life in silver.

That, in turn, suggested something to me... If these guys where really serious about teaming up, more than just in name, they would pool their resources... Their money. So I came up with the idea of the Coffers. (Well, it's actually one smallish, empty chest at the moment, but it's the thought that counts...) And then I came up with the idea of the Keys, and their Keeper, one loathsome little git called Toad. And then I wrote a bit of a story and Rake (the Lieutenant) ordered everyone who could to split and had the entire bankroll split amongst those that did... (This nicely prevents me from having to allow any characters into the game that are not sufficiently dysfunctional for my tastes.)

So, anyway, after I got done being longwinded, and got done patting myself on the back at how great the campaign was going to be, and decided to switch from RQ / GURPS to BW, and read through the rules...

Oh, boy... By my third read-through of the Resources rules, I had come to the conclusion that I could not, in fact, conscience just throwing out the rule as written. (Damn you, Luke, can't you write at least one sloppy rule that isn't so tightly woven into the skein that I really can't get away with messing with it???) Which is maybe a problem, and maybe you just read all this for basically nothing...

Is there some way to represent the Coffers rules-wise? I had almost thought of working up “the unit” as a sort of quasi-character, that could then help with Resources, and possibly Circles or whatnot... Or perhaps allow FoRKing a character's Affiliation with the unit to Resources checks? Or do I just call it a communal Cache or Cash on Hand?

Or (and this is what I currently think is best, if not what I like best), since Toad is the (current) Keeper of the Keys, do I just let the players bully him into buying them stuff, and then expect them to turn any (or at least some part of any) pay to him for safekeeping? And speaking of which, it makes sense (to me, at least) for the mercenaries (but not other characters, PC or otherwise) to start off reasonably-well equipped, but penniless after a several-month long journey. Should I make any adjustments to starting Resources, or is that just being picky?

[Thor Olavsrud]

Hey Kaomera. The coffers represent a cache, as per the rule on pg. 92 of the system book.

Cheers!

[kaomera]

Cool. Thanx for the reply...

OK, so assuming there is some small amount of supplies left when they get to Deal that they can sell off, I'll make it the bare minimum... B1 (A Cache has a shade, right? Er, Resources has a shade, so I guess it must... Actually, everything has a shade, doesn't it; I guess I need to stop thinking "does this have a shade"...). It's basically communal, but the Keeper of the Keys is supposed to have control of it (he's basically the Quartermaster; and I'm planning on getting Toad killed off pretty quickly so I can force the job on one of the PCs...); I guess I can either give it to Toad, or else I let anybody in the unit use it but they're supposed to get permission first... That could lead to some interesting black-market type dealings, but things could get out of hand if someone gets too many traitors on a "jet of the dice" and ends up taxing the Cache.

Should I just add to the Cache when they get paid, or start a second one? I'm thinking just add to it. I guess I'll have to do some kind of reverse-haggling (or maybe a full-on DoW) for negotiations as to how much they will be paid.

[luke]

Hi Kao,

thanks for the kind words, btw. :wink:

Another way to handle it would be to assign a B1-2 Resources to each member of the company. When something needs to be bought, everyone has to pony up a die and watch the roll get made. If the roll is failed, then the whole company is fucked as everyone's Resources get Taxed.

Maybe the Toad has a B3, so he'd be the best guy to start with to get the most dice -- so it's natural that he be in charge of the money.

That's how I'd play it. I'd even go so far as just to assign a B1-2 Resources to characters if it turned out the LPs couldn't generate what you needed, but I'll bet they can.

If you run it this way, every player has a stake in each Resources test.
-L

[kaomera]

Well, I was planning on having each character having their own (personal) Resources. The Coffers are supposed to be for stuff like hiring on a bunch of new guys or surviving a winter unemployed and camped out... I think I may have kind of shot myself in the foot there by deciding that the Coffers should be empty at the start. On the other claw, it means that the Coffers won't matter unless I can convince the players that they should, and that should be fun.

To be a bit more specific about how I'm going to sell the idea: these guys are Mercenaries. They kill and die for silver... So, when they decide to pool all their extra (emergency) funds, it's kind of a big deal. The idea (or ideal?) behind pooling their money is what holds them together.

Also, I want to play up Toad (at least until I kill him off). He's pretty much the lowest of the low, in terms of "scum and villainy" he trumps every other guy out there... And they put him in charge of their money. Why? Well, one, he's a mean-spirited, petty little bastard. There is no way he's paying one shaved quarter of a counterfeit copper coin more for anything than he absolutely has to. Two, you just can't trust the guy, so everybody's already watching him... And three, because the GM thinks he's funny.

The thing is, being the Keeper of the Keys, Toad is excluded from serious private personal interaction with pretty much anyone. Even if he was not the vile little bastard that he is, everyone would always be watching him, and nobody would want him alone with anyone else. And forget gambling... No use in playing him if the money you win might be yours (well, the unit's) in the first place... And if you've read The Black Company, you know how important a game of Tonk is.

So, when I kill Toad off (right about the first Traits vote, I think), suddenly either one of the PCs gets stuck with the Trait "Keeper of the Keys", or they have to foist it off on one of the NPCs (which would call for a DoW at the very least). (Or is that being too heavy-handed?)

Of course, I guess all this is moot unless I can con the players into roleplaying out the fact that the Keeper and the Coffer are important...

I need to revise Toad once or twice more, then I'll post him. I'm going to hold off on deciding what to do with the Coffers until I see how the players seem to be taking it. If they aren't really into the idea, I'll just have them pool resources for big rolls. That will create the same kind of group tension (and thereby either conflict or comradeship), but will close off the potential to stick one of them with the Keys...

[luke]

Private funds are fine! A B2 Resources let's yah live. But it's nothing compared to the B6 or B8 that gets into play when everyone pitches in.

I mean, you can't have wealthy members of the crew going about buying luxury yachts while the rest starve. I'm not saying that's implausible, just that it's probably not going to fit your group MO.

Anyway, a Cache of finite dice or combined Helping dice. Either will work.

And stop writing plot! Jeebus. Toad's a character. He's villianous. You'll put him in situations where he might get killed. Sure, fine. But you can't go defining a Trait Vote! You can't just say, "They'll do X because it's the Plot."

Play the game, see what happens and then vote on it.
-L

[kaomera]

You're right, and I know it... But I'm impatient waiting for the game to start or even to get more (serious) replies on the character front. I'm frothing at the mouth over here! So I've already played through the first arc-and-a-half or so of the Story in my head about five different ways, most of which I will never actually get to use. I think it's ok, because I don't really expect any of my plans to survive contact with the players (they'll probably end up headed for the Jewel Cities or something before they even get to Deal...), but, yeah, I prolly need to back off it a bit.

[Kaare Berg]

I think you are going about this the wrong way. The coffers is a great idea, unfortunatly belonging is , IMO, about more than money.

Take a look at this idea (http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1417), freshly stolen from another game called Thirty.

There is a caveat here. I haven't read the books about the black company. But this mechanic will give the characters an impetous to work together. Heck in some instances their very survival will depend on this pool.

Call it loyalty instead of trust.

So I've already played through the first arc-and-a-half or so of the Story in my head about five different ways, most of which I will never actually get to use

Forget this approach. What Luke is saying is that you should look at the players beliefs and then make your plot. As an exercise, write down Toads beliefs and instincts, heck please share them with us.

When you have these, and a way to make him important to the players, say he provides the Coffer bonus to the loyalty pool, then play him to the hilt and then watch your players agonise over whether to kill him or save him.

[Kublai]

Emotional instincts are fine too as long as the GM knows exactly what it means in mechanical terms. What does "be wary" mean in terms of BW mechanics? Maybe thinking of Instincts as having to conform to a BW mechanic is a sure guideline.