What’s in your Travel Sack? Getting New Stuff!

Let’s continue our exploration of Beyonder gear by looking at how to purchase some standard supplies. This is done using the Wealth system.  Once you understand this system, buying basic gear is easy. When creating the Beyonder system, we aimed to avoid monotonous tracking of every coin and gem you amass. Instead, we use a more qualitative system of Wealth.  

Each character has a Wealth Rating (WR) that represents how much money and resources they have access to at any time.  For example, a WR of 2 might represent an average farmer living in a hut with a couple of animals and a small plot of land to farm.  A WR of 7 might be a wealthy merchant in a large city (like Naldrin or Tarnath) living in a nice, big house, with access to a number of luxuries.  This system continues all the way up through kings (WR 13), large city governments (WR 15), or even entire kingdoms (WR 17). See page 110 of our rulebook, Beyonder: The Science of the Six for more examples of Wealth Ratings.  Each entry includes a sample occupation of an individual or group with their given rating, where they might live, and what might constitute a indulgent purchase for them.  

So how do you change your Wealth Rating?  The same way you might change your wealth in the real world: you get a job that provides you with regular funds – working for a rich merchant, for example.  Generally your WR is a few steps below your employer. You could also get a big, one-time chunk of change, maybe as a reward for some heroic act or a big haul from a devious heist.  In this case you could either blow it all on something nice or spread it out to increase your overall value. In a similar manner, your WR could decrease if you fall into poor favor with your patron or lose a large sum of money on a bad bet.  Generally speaking, Guild members start with a stipend from the organization, which grants them a WR of 3. (See The Science of the Six, p. 109  for more on how to change your Wealth Rating.)

Now that you understand Wealth Rating, buying mundane items is simple.  Check out The Science of the Six for some examples of basic gear as well as specialized tool kits, potions, and poisons (p. 147). . You can buy any one item with a value equal to your WR in one sitting without breaking the bank, or two items with a value 1 less than your WR, 4 items with a value 2 less than your WR, 8 items with a value 3 less than your WR, etc.  You can buy above your pay grade, but that will bring your WR down, showing that you may be digging too deeply into your coffers.

Generally this system is designed to be flexible and approximate.  The steps between consecutive Wealth Ratings are big enough that a difference of 2 WR implies a totally different pay grade, and it should be pretty clear, within +/- 1 WR where something falls.  Be creative! Make your own gear based on our guidelines and let us know what you come up with.

So now we have discussed Gear and Supplies; Weapons; and Armor (Part 1) and Armor (Part 2).  We will finish up this series by talking about everyone’s favorite topic: Energetic Items.