3.5. Wealth Box

When you gain new Items, add them to your Wealth Box under "Inventory". You may also want to note an Item's effects, number of uses, and Item Grade.

To avoid a tedious game of "loot everything you see", your character also has an abstract system of tracking loot using Wealth Skills and Goods. Both the Wealth Skills and Goods come in four Wealth Categories. Your Wealth Skills and Goods allow you to improvise and actualize items long after you have looted and left a room. Your Wealth Skill and Goods are found at the top of the Wealth Box.

Wealth

There're four Wealth Categories, each representing a different area of the economy. Each Adventurer will have their own balance of these categories that will change what Items they can find in the world and barter for in cities.

General Wealth

Widely available items.
Food, first aid, most raw materials, common tools, household objects, standard weapons and armor, etc.

Grey Wealth

Illicit and specialty goods.
Tool kits and traps.
Poisons, lockpicks, climbing gear, forgery kits, ball-bearings, caltrops, bear traps, etc.

Obscure Wealth

Magical ingredients and gear that are rare and difficult to handle and work with.
Magic scrolls, mana potions, eyes of newt, phoenix feathers, crystal balls, pendulums, dousing rods, hag stones, etc.

Fine Wealth

Highly valuable materials and powerful magic items.
Diamonds, pearls, gold nuggets, enchanted weapons, enchanted clothing, etc.

Wealth Skills

Your four Wealth Skills are Modifiers representing how skilled you are in noticing, appraising, recovering, and trading Items in a given Wealth Category.

All Wealth Skills start as a Modifier of +1 except your Fine Wealth Skill, which starts at -1. You can Improve your Wealth Skills through Archetype Perks, making it easier to get better Items when you Item Search. The GM may also grant you an Improvement to your Fine Wealth Skill if you gain social connections with the right people or reach new milestones of influence in the community.

GM Note: Fine Wealth Skill Improvements

Over the course of the game, you should give out two Fine Wealth Skill Improvements. You should try to grant these Fine Wealth Skill Improvements as a result of Adventurers gaining new important connections and becoming more influential in the community.

If Adventurers were to ever destroy those connections or tarnish their reputation, it may make sense to remove the Wealth Skill Improvement as a way to reflect that change. That said, Adventurers should be aware of these consequences before they happen and be given a clear choice or chance to prevent it.

Goods

The bubbles below each Wealth Skill tracks your current number of Goods in a given Wealth Category. Goods abstractly represent what you have gathered on your journey.

You will most often gain Goods from engaging with the world, exploring and succeeding in battle. The GM will often reward you with half of a Good at a time, though they may reward you with more if you are clever. (Each bubble for marking Goods has a line dividing it in two for noting half-Goods.)

All Good categories have a max of 6 Goods. Once you have hit the max of 6 Goods in a category, your pack will be unable to carry more. At that point you will want to use your Goods or trade them for a different type of Good.

At Level 1, you start with 2 General, 2 Grey, and 2 Obscure Goods. You can use the Item Trade and Item Search Abilities to gain your starting gear, though your GM may want to be present when you perform the Tests for Item Search.

Using Goods

The most common way you will use your Wealth Skills and Goods is with the Item Search Ability.

To use the Item Search Ability, you will first choose an Item from the Item List (in the Appendix) that you hope to gain explicitly into your inventory. The Item you chose will list a Wealth Category associated with it. You will need to spend 1 Good of that Wealth Category, then roll your Wealth Skill for that same Wealth Category to determine your Item Search Score. The Score you get will determine if you gain the Item as well as what Item Grade it will be.

If ever an Item lists more than one Wealth Category, you can choose which Wealth Category to pull from, but the Wealth Skill that you roll must match the Good spent.

Improvised Items

At times, you will want to search for generic items that are not found in the Item List, like a bar of soap or a candlestick. For these items, the GM will determine how common the item is and what Wealth Category the item may fit into. You will then roll the Item Search Ability as normal using the Wealth Category chosen. If you Fail to get a Score that matches the rarity of the item, you may not get the item or get a flawed version of the item, like a fraying rope or a nearly-spent candle. To help with identifying the Wealth Category and Score needed for improvised items, the Item Search Ability lists some examples for the different Wealth Categories and Score Ranges.

Below is the Item Search Ability as found in the Basic Ability List appendix:

Item Search

Time: Action Target: Your own pack
Requirements: 1 Good, access to your pack
Test: The Wealth Skill of the Item you're searching for
Effect: Gain Item

Choose an item you want from the Item List in the appendix. Spend 1 Good from the item's Wealth Category, then roll a Test using that Wealth Category's Wealth Skill.

The Item you chose will either specify a Score that you need to roll to get that item or a set of Score Ranges and item alterations for each Score Range.

Your roll for the Item also has the following Bonuses:

Boosting. Repeatable. You can spend half a Good from the same Wealth Category to add 1 to your Score, potentially increasing which Item Grade you get.
Treasure. Instead of spending General Goods, Grey Goods, or Obscure Goods into Items, you can spend from your Fine Goods. Doing so allows you to add your Fine Wealth Skill and the item's normal Wealth Skill to the roll, improving your chances of getting that item. The item you get will be fancier (e.g. made of gold, encrusted with jewels, or extra durable.)

Improvised Items

You can improvise items not found in the Item List, but that would be reasonably found in the world. The GM will offer you a Score that you then need to reach for that item. Falling short of the Score for that item will result in not having that item or having a flawed, poor quality version of that item (like a fraying rope or a rusted sword.) Below are example improvised items for each Score Range:

General Wealth
- [..6] F Tier: Raw Materials & simple items: Bell, Candle, Raw Food, Hammer, Knife, Oil, Soap, String(10 ft), Water, Writing Supplies.
- [7..9] C Tier: Common Manufactured Items: Commoner Foods, Compass, Crowbar, Lantern, Pickaxe, Sledge, Rope(50 ft), Tongs.
- [10..] A Tier: Standard Shields, Armor, Weapons, Better Foods.
Grey Wealth
- [7..9] C Tier: Basic Traps & Hobbyist Tools/Kits: Climbing Kit, Lock-picks, Scalpel.
- [10..] A Tier: Advanced Traps & Artisan Tools/Kits: Forger Kit, Jeweler Kit, Leatherwork Kit.
Obscure Wealth
- [7..9] C Tier: Strange Ingredients & Basic Magic Tools: Dowsing Rod, Eye of Newt, Pendulum.
- [10..] A Tier: More Rare Ingredients & Magic Tools: Crystal Ball, Dragon's scale, Void Crystals.
Spend Fine Wealth
- Any of the above: Will be higher quality, made of materials like gold, or come in a greater quantity.

Examples

#Alice needs a Spell Scroll in order to cast Feather, which is a Spell that she does not know:

#Alice looks up the Spell Scroll item in the Item List. She finds that the scroll is an Obscure Item.
#Alice spends 1 Obscure Good and rolls a d10, adding her +1 Obscure Wealth Skill to find her Score. #Alice gets a Score of 9.
With a Mixed Score, #Alice can add a C-Grade Spell Scroll to her inventory. #Alice Notes the Feather Spell Scroll, also choosing two Upgrades for the Spell Ability.

#Bob needs a First Aid Kit to prepare for a battle to come:

#Bob looks up the First Aid Kit in the Item List. He finds that it is a General Item.
#Bob spends 1 General Good and rolls a d10, adding to it his +2 General Wealth Skill to find his Score. #Bob gets a Score of 10.
#Bob can add an A-Tier First Aid Kit to his inventory.

Bartering

If ever you find your Goods getting out-of-balance with one another, you can always find a marketplace and perform the Item Trade Ability to re-balance your pack or sell old items you don't need anymore:

Item Trade

Time: Montage Target: A marketplace
Requirements: Goods

Choose one of the following:

Trade in Bulk.
You may exchange at a rate of 1 General, Grey, or Obscure Good for 1 General, Grey, or Obscure Good.
Trade in Finery.
You may exchange at a rate of 10 General, Grey, and/or Obscure Goods for 1 Fine Good (or vise-versa.)

Items

You can find most of the items you will need to use throughout the game in the following appendices:

Item List: A list of items that you will use more often. These often help solve problems and survive in encounters. The Item List contains First Aid Kits, Lockpicks, Spell Scrolls, magic items, etc.
Special Items: A list of unique Items reserved for the GM or certain Abilities. Adventurers cannot gain these through a regular Item Search.

Item Grades

Items in the Item List appendix list a set of Scores that will determine what Item Grade you get from the Item Search Ability. The Item Grade represents the quality and condition of the item.

Score Ranges and their Item Grades:

[..6] (F)lawed Items
[7..9] (C)ommon Items
[10..] (A)wesome Items
[10!] (S)uperior Items

GM Note: Giving out Magic Items

As you occasionally give out items, be sure to include Items of a lower Score. Flawed Grade Items, like the lowest tier of the Wand of Teleportation can add a lot of flavor and to the story and force Adventurers to think more before using their Items.

The Special Items are also divided into two levels:

SS - Super Special Items
SSS - Singularly Super Special Items

GM Note: Special Item List

The Special Item List is reserved as rewards that can only usually be gained from you, the GM. Below is an example schedule for when to hand out these special rewards to each Adventurer:

By Level 5: Grant 1 SS Item.
By Level 7: Grant 1 SS Item with the 'Consumed' Item Tag.
By Level 10: Grant 1 SS Item.
By Level 12: Grant 1 SSS Item with the 'Consumed' Item Tag.
By Level 15: Grant 1 SSS Item.

Try to give Adventurers Items that complement their character, accentuating their character design and goals. These Items should also be hinted at or teased ahead of time, getting Adventurers excited for their arrival.

Selling Items

An Item's Grade also comes into play when trying to sell an item using the Item Sell Ability:

Item Sell

Time: Montage Target: A marketplace
Requirements: 1 Item
Test: Required Item's Wealth Skill

Required Item's Wealth Skill:

[..6] No effect. You had to give it up for next to nothing.
[7..9] You gain half of a Good of the same type as the Item.
[8..10] You gain one Good of the same type as the Item.
[10!] You gain one and a half Goods of the same type as the Item.
Bonuses:
Fine. Gain an Advantage if the Item was created using a Fine Good.
Superior. Gain an Advantage if the Item is of Superior Grade.
Penalties:
Common. Gain a Disadvantage if the Item is of Faulty Grade.

Item Example

Below is an example of an Item Block and the details you can expect to find in the Item List:

First Aid Kit

Type: General Good
Tags: Consumed, Healing

A small pack of emergency medical supplies.

Gain the following Ability:

Use First Aid Kit

Time: Action Target: Self or Willing Creature in Swinging Distance(1u) that is not a Construct or Undead
Requirements: 1 First Aid Kit
Test: Tinkering Skill
Effect: Healing

Tinkering Score:

[..6] Restore 1 Recovery to target creature.
[7..] Restore 1 Recovery to target creature and the target can immediately use Recover now as a Free Reaction.

Item Grades:

[..6] You gain no item.
[7..] C: No additional effect.
[10..] A: The target can gain one additional Recovery (2 total.)
[10!] S: The target can gain two additional Recoveries (3 total) and can choose to set the dice instead of rolling when they use the Recover Reaction.

The first lines within the item block is a summary containing the item's Wealth Category, Item Tags, and a summary effect.

After the summary is a visual description of the item. This flavor text is a suggestion that helps add consistent, descriptive flair to your game.

After the visual description is the item's mechanical description. Here you will find a full description of how the item works. This description is often accompanied by an Ability that you can perform with that item.

Item Tags

Items will often list Item Tags at the top of their item block. Item Tags help identify common rules that that item must abide by. Below are some of the most common Item Tags to be aware of:

Jealous. The item can become "jealous" of other items that have this same Item Tag. (More on this below. See Item Jealousy below.)
Consumed. The item can only be used once. These items usually have stronger effects. Don't be afraid to use these items, as the 'Multipack' Bonus on the Item Search Ability can give you Advantage when trying to find Consumed items again if you have used them once before.
Wield. Items with this Item Tag can be used to empower your Abilities. If you are ever Disarmed, you will drop that Wielded Item as a result.

Item Jealousy

Some items don't work well together. In the case of magical Items, they often grow attached to their user and can become "Jealous" if you use other Items instead of them.

To represent this relationship, you will start with a number of Friendship Points equal to your Fine Wealth Skill. Whenever you improve your Fine Wealth Skill, you will gain another Friendship Point to use.

Whenever you use an item with the Jealous Tag, you will have to make any Ability Tests with 2 Disadvantages. If you get a Passing Score on any Test with a Jealous Item, you then must place one of your Friendship Points onto that item, unless the item already has 2 Friendship Points. For each Friendship Point on an Item, you can ignore one of the Disadvantages for that Item. As you foster your bond with your items, you will ensure that future Tests with those Items are more likely to succeed. Be careful when using multiple Jealous Items, though. If you have no free Friendship Points, a Passing Score will force you to take a point from one of your other Jealous Items.

Previous Owners

If a Jealous Item had a previous owner, it may come with Friendship Points from that owner. When using such an item, you will have the usual 2 Disadvantages, but getting a Passing Score will instead remove one of the previous owner's Friendship Points instead of assigning one of yours. It won't be until you clear all of the previous owner's Friendship Points that you will be required to assign one of your own Friendship Points.

Next Up: 3.6. Status Box