Job System Early Version

[Velmont]

I have to correct an injustice that have been made. Nobody has devellop Merchant yet

MERCHANT
You are a merchant, making a living on buying and selling items.
Requirements: Profession(Merchant) skills at 4 ranks and either Diplomacy at 4 or Appraise at 4. Profession(Merchant) skills must be at maximum ranks.
gp/week: 5 plus Profession(Merchant) skill modifier you have (ranks in Craft + Wis modifier + other permanent bonuses).
Special Payment: You can add your Trader PrC level to the gp/week.
Special: You can buy and sell items in a seperate thread while not adventuring. You must possess a merchant scale. If you do not have one yet, you must set aside at least 1/4 of your income for a shop, which costs 500 gp to buy.
You are assumed to have a selection of mundane goods of your choice of field (simple weapons, light armor, non-masterwork items) for sale. These cost neither money nor Craft Points to maintain. Other items need to be crafted or bought first.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I have to correct an injustice that have been made. Nobody has devellop Merchant yet

MERCHANT
You are a merchant, making a living on buying and selling items.
Requirements: Profession(Merchant) skills at 4 ranks and Diplomacy at 4. Profession(Merchant) skills must be at maximum ranks.

what about appraise? I would consider that even more central to being a merchant than diplomacy.

 

[Bront]

As I mentioned before, I don't think the mechanic of having your skill maxed is a good idea. Limits the jobs too much, penalizes players who have low intelegences and/or low skill point characters, and forces a character to choose between a job and adventuring skills.

Knight Otu, what is the status of the proposal from your end?

BTW, here's a slightly less complex thought on the job.
Each player can chose one of a selected list of skills from which to make money from. Each week they are in a city/tavern not on an adventure, they can sign up to use that skill. At the end of the week, they are awarded a number of gold equal to their skill rating in that skill. (Slightly simpler than the profesion rules, but requires no roll or math).

These skills include:
Perform (Entertainer/Street performer)
Profession (A job, obviously)
Craft (Craftsman)
Slight of Hand (pickpocket)
Survival (Furrer/trapper)
BAB (To simulate guards)
Tumble (Similar to perform)
Knowledge: Religion (Clergy)
Heal (Healer)
Bluff (Con Artist)

Am I missing any others?

Just a suggestion.

 

[Velmont]

what about appraise? I would consider that even more central to being a merchant than diplomacy.

Oops, forgot that skill. I made the change. I put either Appraise or Diplomacy. I can definitly tell you that you can make a lot of money (or save a lot of money) even if you don't know the price, but knowing it help a lot.

 

[orsal]

I'm thinking people are being a little too generous with income levels. The most common amount I'm seeing in these proposals is (5 + relevant skill modifier) GP per real-life week. Consider that the SRD amounts for Craft and Profession skills are half of a skill check, on average (5 + half relevant skill modifier) per in-game week. An in-game week is generally rather longer than a real-life week. Adventures which take a couple days of in-game time last 4-6 months real-life time (sometimes longer, especially if they get bogged down by absenteeism), and a week-long conversation in the Red Dragon Inn would probably cover an hour of in-game time. Granted, there's down-time between adventuring and showing up in the Inn that could represent a week or more in-game time of training or other activity, but takes a flick of the wrist of real time. Still, if your character was created a year ago, you're probably thinking of what has transpired since you began playing her as rather less than a year of game time -- how many of us have updated our character's age since first showing up in LEW? So I'm trying to think of a week of real time as considerably less than a week of game time.

 

[Bront]

I'm thinking people are being a little too generous with income levels. The most common amount I'm seeing in these proposals is (5 + relevant skill modifier) GP per real-life week. Consider that the SRD amounts for Craft and Profession skills are half of a skill check, on average (5 + half relevant skill modifier) per in-game week. An in-game week is generally rather longer than a real-life week. Adventures which take a couple days of in-game time last 4-6 months real-life time (sometimes longer, especially if they get bogged down by absenteeism), and a week-long conversation in the Red Dragon Inn would probably cover an hour of in-game time. Granted, there's down-time between adventuring and showing up in the Inn that could represent a week or more in-game time of training or other activity, but takes a flick of the wrist of real time. Still, if your character was created a year ago, you're probably thinking of what has transpired since you began playing her as rather less than a year of game time -- how many of us have updated our character's age since first showing up in LEW? So I'm trying to think of a week of real time as considerably less than a week of game time.

The problem is that I think players/gms are trying to not have to play for 20 years to gain some interesting ammount of gold, experience, and other such things. I'm not sure how much players make on an average adventure, but my guess is it's more than the job system allows.

Now, I proposed the simpler system that was simply skill modifier, not the roll plus skill devided by two, for simplicity. But I do agree that we shouldn't be giving away too much. You can either expand the time frame more (per 2 weeks), cut down the reward, both, or simply not offer it at all.

We shouldn't get something too complex, and perhaps we realy don't need anything, since the dynamic of the campaign is not players doing things in town, but going out on adventures. It's only when there aren't enough adventures is there an issue of giving people things to do.

 

[Velmont]

Let's looks at the Merchant I wrote down for example, at level 1, I would gain 9gp/week, at level 10, I would gain 23gp/week (supposing that I have Trader class at 5).

Now, Rinaldo, the 1st level merchant that arrive in the Inn and I spend a whole month before finally finding a quest, that gave me 36gp. Is that a serious gain? I might be able to buy a light crossbow I didn't had the money to buy.

Now, Rinaldo come back to the Inn, and spend three month in the Inn (adventure for 10th level player are rarer), trying to find a new contract. He made, with his skill, 299 gp. Chipping 1 gp, he will be able to buy a cure moderate wound potion. Is that a big deal for a 10th level player?

In both case, I don't see anything unbalancing. If someone want to wander a whole year in the Inn and gain, let's say, 1200 gp for the 10th level merchant, he could have gain much more in less time in an adventure.

I don't see anything big deal in any of these job, just a little extra gold to sacrifice some skill points in a skill and to have a bit more of roleplay.

 

[GnomeWorks]

Hrm... could I get a summary post on how this system looks right now? It looks like there is still quite a bit of discussion going on regarding how to go about it.

We shouldn't get something too complex, and perhaps we realy don't need anything, since the dynamic of the campaign is not players doing things in town, but going out on adventures. It's only when there aren't enough adventures is there an issue of giving people things to do.

I somewhat disagree. Part of what would make LEW more alive is the ability for a character to "settle down" for a little while and make some cash without risking his neck. It's not as lucrative as adventuring, but it isn't as dangerous, and it's guaranteed cash. It's at least nice to have the option if you want it.

 

[Knight Otu]

There are no real changes to the first post. There is the following part on choosing a job, though:

Pick one that you qualify for, note it on your character sheet, notify a judge. I'm not yet sure if special threads should be used, but if we do, start the thread if necessary.

 

[Bront]

I somewhat disagree. Part of what would make LEW more alive is the ability for a character to "settle down" for a little while and make some cash without risking his neck. It's not as lucrative as adventuring, but it isn't as dangerous, and it's guaranteed cash. It's at least nice to have the option if you want it.

I don't disagree with that, but I don't think we should make it too complex, or force players to sink already scarce skillpoints into a craft skill every level to have a craft job (IE, the max rank requirements). Also, it shouldn't require more bookkeeping than nessessary.

I had a simple solution allowing several different skills to be used, and gave a similar reward to each one, which is balanced by having equal access, no max ranks, and rewards players for focusing on a particular skill, but doesn't punish them if they don't. It's a few posts up.