[TML] Gerrymandering, was Re: Threadjack Counties

[Azalais Aranxta]

On Tue, 11 Sep 2007, Anthony Jackson wrote:

> Azalais Aranxta wrote:
> > I don't know about you, but I play RPGs so that I can have a
> > little escape from my everyday life and its worries--my everyday
> > life in which I can always make rent and eat, but everything else
> > can be a bit of an adventure in itself!  A game in which I'm just
> > one step ahead of my creditors?  Really really not my thing.
>
> I think the reason some GMs are fond of that sort of game is that it's a
> ready-made plot hook to lure the PCs off on the ill-advised Adventure of
> the Week, whereas PCs who have a reasonably comfortable amount of money
> will probably turn their noses up, correctly recognizing the foolishness
> of the latest scheme.

Yeah, you have to be at least as smart as your players sometimes.

> Personally, I'm not big on running merchant campaigns at all,
> for much this reason. Rational merchants are fairly
> risk-averse, and that's just not useful for PCs.

I'm fond of playing high-status characters; but even when there's
no court intrigue to be had, there's nobody less risk-averse than
the younger, badly-supervised son of a wealthy family *g*.

> Incidentally, if you really need to have the PCs temporarily
> desperate, there's no need to have them poor. Just have them
> not currently have access to their money, for one reason or
> another.

Getting them in trouble with the law is another good method,
particularly if you can spring a law on them they may not have
known existed.

~malfoy :)

****************************************************************
Azalais Aranxta (~malfoy)
ataniell93 on LiveJournal and Vox
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/malfoymadness

"I know the true world, and you know I do. But we needn't let it
think we all bow down." --Christopher Morley