ADVENTURER’S LUCK question

[Swift]

Just a note on the rogue's gallery Merchant.

In addition to Haggle X, they also have expertise: Haggle.  I find this handy for keeping it simple, as the merchant can always just Take 10, essentially turning it into a DC check of 10+bonus.  While that may set the DC fairly high, it favors the players slightly (averaging 10 rather than 10.5), and prevents the merchant from rolling a really high number that a player might not have a chance against.

If the prices tend to be just too high in general, you can always have them go to the merchant whose caravan they saved from brigands, or whose daughter they saved from kidnappers.  Surely he'll give them regular discounts.  Of course, if they haven't done anything like that, it's a whole new adventure to send them off on.

[Sletchman]

I run prudence after purchases, but anything they buy as an alternate currency [trade goods, gems, gold, etc] gets hit by the prudence.  I do it to represent the party getting to town, hocking their spare loot and buying new stuff before settling down for a week of downtime.

If [someone in the] party owes someone money and buy up an incredibly expensive suit of armour, I might have a creditor come calling and demand their fancy new armour as payment.

Edited for clarity.

[Goodlun]

I run prudence after purchases, but anything they buy as an alternate currency [trade goods, gems, gold, etc] gets hit by the prudence.  I do it to represent the party getting to town, hocking their spare loot and buying new stuff before settling down for a week of downtime.

If the [someone in the] party owes someone money and buy up an incredibly expensive suit of armour, I might have a creditor come calling and demand their fancy new armour as payment.

Edited for clarity.

I like this it allows the characters to load up on the essential gear before they blow their load on winches and ale fair enough.  I like how you don't let them side step it buying gems and the what not. 

[ArawnNox]

I run prudence after purchases, but anything they buy as an alternate currency [trade goods, gems, gold, etc] gets hit by the prudence.  I do it to represent the party getting to town, hocking their spare loot and buying new stuff before settling down for a week of downtime.

If the [someone in the] party owes someone money and buy up an incredibly expensive suit of armour, I might have a creditor come calling and demand their fancy new armour as payment.

Edited for clarity.

I like this it allows the characters to load up on the essential gear before they blow their load on winches and ale fair enough.  I like how you don't let them side step it buying gems and the what not. 

*plays Wenches and Mead by Alestorm*

[Doublebond]

I think if I were to handle the prudence hit I would let the characters buy whatever they might at the end of an adventure, and then apply it. I could do this, I think, because most of my players have stuff in mind that they really want to buy but is typically out of the price range of their coin in hand after an adventure. So they all want to save up for stuff. What's more, I won't tell them a lick about the next adventure until after the prudence hit, which means that they'll be buying gear just for general interest—they can't buy gear specifically in preparation for the next adventure, as they don't know what the next adventure is.

[EloiseCartwright]

I run prudence after purchases, but anything they buy as an alternate currency [trade goods, gems, gold, etc] gets hit by the prudence.  I do it to represent the party getting to town, hocking their spare loot and buying new stuff before settling down for a week of downtime.

If [someone in the] party owes someone money and buy up an incredibly expensive suit of armour, I might have a creditor come calling and demand their fancy new armour as payment.

Edited for clarity.

That's quite amusing actually. Yes you can keep trade goods so as not to be hit by prudence. However when you sell it the base price is your prudence x 5 +15% - you can haggle from there. 

[Arakor]

Folks, I refer you to page 153 of the 2nd Printing:

At the end of each adventure you can transfer a certain amount of your coin in hand into your stake. The rest is automatically spent during Downtime, frittered away on pleasures and covering expenses not expressly taken into account by the rules (e.g. day-to-day living, entertainment, personal debts, and the like). The amount you can transfer into your stake after each adventure is determined by your Prudence (see below).

<snip>...

Money Saved/Earned: This is the maximum percentage of coin in hand you may transfer into your stake at the end of each adventure. This percentage is also used when earning money during Downtime (see page 68).

Note the word "may" in that sentence. I'm reading a lot of posts where the GMs are making Prudence an automatic compulsory action when it should actually be the player's decision.

Personally I'm reading it as saying that the player may choose to transfer up to this amount into their stake because once they leave the city or their home, they won't have any cash on them at all due to the miscellaneous expenses during Downtime.

[Psion]

<snip>...

Note the word "may" in that sentence. I'm reading a lot of posts where the GMs are making Prudence an automatic compulsory action when it should actually be the player's decision.

Personally I'm reading it as saying that the player may choose to transfer up to this amount into their stake because once they leave the city or their home, they won't have any cash on them at all due to the miscellaneous expenses during Downtime.

As it says "The rest is automatically spent during Downtime", I'm not seeing why this isn't the most generous and reasonable assumption that a self-interested and rules aware player would make anyways, I'm not seeing what you are objecting to.

[Typhon]

Yhea I'm kinda confused about what he's saying as well.
Maybe he's implying some GM's aren't letting players use their stake % in gearing up before the adventure ends, that they are being forced to save?

[Goodlun]

I have one player that some times doesn't put anything into his stake instead he just waste it all as part of the nature of his character.

[vardeman]

I have one player that some times doesn't put anything into his stake instead he just waste it all as part of the nature of his character.

Prudence is just an artificial way to pull money out of the game.  If a character lives simply off the land and his Prudence is 0, he still somehow manages to waste all his money in downtime.  If another character with high Prudence attends a plethora of balls and ceremonial functions, he still keeps a higher percentage of his wealth.  Prudence should be a character decision, based on a lifestyle he chooses, rather than forced on him by his character class.  Not all soldiers waste their money carousing and not all courtiers sock away their fortunes in a bank.

V

[Psion]

AFAIAC, the GM has total control of all the cash in the game anyways. There is nothing that says how many treasure picks a creature must have (witness: the final encounter of The Vault.) So regardless of the impact of Prudence, the GM should be able to scale the game where he or she wants it anyways.

Prudence is just a balancing factor that gives you something other than combat to have some characters be able to brag about.

[Mister Andersen]

Looking at the note in the Haggle description about the default %50 cut in resale value, that only seems to apply to gear. Treasure items such as gemstones and trophies would arguably seem to default to their listed values when it comes time to convert them to coin.

[Goodlun]

Looking at the note in the Haggle description about the default %50 cut in resale value, that only seems to apply to gear. Treasure items such as gemstones and trophies would arguably seem to default to their listed values when it comes time to convert them to coin.

I doubt that a merchants that do trade in them are likely to pay as much for them as they can then turn around and sell them for.  This of course is working under the assumption that is what characters are doing.  The other option simply can be they are using them as a direct currency substitute hey I will give you this Gem for 3 torches a mule and a cart.  Although you take a big hit in bartering as well.  All and all I am not keen on trying to get around prudence.

[Mister Andersen]

Consider that you're not being given a purchase from merchant price, you're being given a sale to merchant price