Over the last few adventures, I've noticed an increase in the amount of 'lifestyle' costs within gameplay.

I don't object in principle, but when you're a Patrician with Expensive Tastes, dropping 50+ sc in one transaction rips a big hole in the savings for 'roleplay' (when adventure rewards can be feast/famine and do not respect your class-based costs).

While Earning a Living and Lifestyle costs are *not* part of the campaign paperwork (good thing), the intangible costs are rising.

PROPOSAL:
Using the same rules as the Benefits of Station (ta:CoH), Earning a Living can be rolled at the start of an adventure for 'pin money'.

Good idea, I like it.

Then what's the point of Benefits of Station?

Expensive Tastes is more than just a RP choice...its something that got you an extra talent. More cheaply than Code of Honor or Lost an Eye/hand/leg.

Benefits of station is GC per pCh..... huge amount of cash difference.

I'm with Eric on this one. It's a flaw you selected because it fit the character and one for which you got a bonus talent. If you want to take a talent that helps offset or minimize the effects of the flaw, that's fine. If you built your character expecting to be able to use the Make a Living rules to help manage the small stuff I don't think there would be an issue with replacing your existing flaw with a different one given you're impacted by a rules change.

One nice thing with the current system is unlike 3.5, gear is far less important, so a lack of money isn't as painful as it would have been then. It could also lead to some interesting RP opportunities, seeking to trade influence or favors for a loan of a few coins to cover expenses.

"Nothing too much, just a trifling really. The tab? Oh, 3 glasses of Savonan Red, an exquisite meal, best room in the Inn, a personal attendant for the bath - oh, and please, I tip generously, don't stint - that ought to cover it."

If you travel with the same PCs it could even become part of a running theme, whether you have the money or not.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

As a character with Expensive Taste, I find it's easy to drop about 40s per adventure, which I feel is a good compromise for the effects of the Flaw not coming up too often. There just isn't much to buy things that have a 'high end version'. If there were a lifestyle cost, I would probably always pay for a living large lifestyle. I only did the "earn a living" to pay for my ammunition!

I will say that money is still important to the game, as buying Exceptional Weapons is almost necessary going into Tier 3 and those cost quite a bit for a lot of folks

John

Personally I would like to see earn a living (if it were to be brought back in this manner) only utilize the Profession skill, as it makes the skill somewhat useful. As it is, I just have to hope that a skill check for Profession (Dwarf Tossing) makes an appearance in a module soon, otherwise I've wasted a half dozen skill points

I understand the logic behind allowing any skill, but I'm still not in favour of it.

I'm not disagreeing that money is useful, but gear is not the be all and end all of a character the way it was in 3.5.

The difference beween a Fine and Exceptional weapon is 1 speed when you use it. Definitely nice, but not critical especially for characters not focused on combat. Also, the vast majority of weapons are 30 - 35 Sc or less meaning that 15 - 17.5 Gc is certainly doable before Tier III.

Also, there have been exceptional weapons given out in the game and discounts for others. While not every weapon in a character's arsenal may be Exceptional I expect the primary one will be.

If they PC ends up behind their companions in terms of gear that's the actual impact of the flaw being felt. If the character doesn't feel the pinch for not having money when they want it to add runes or upgrade gear, etc. then it's not really much of a flaw.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul