Greetings,
Southernskies wrote:
For example, if 1 Signature Point = 1 GC of value
I strongly oppose associating SP with a monetary value. The goal as I understood Henry's position, was to provide characters a way to gain some personal items to help tell their stories. The point of not assigning costs to magic items is that it maintains their sense of rarity and eliminates future headaches of "Well, it costs X SP which is the equivalent of Y gold, and I've got Y gold, so why can't I just buy it?" Powerful individuals or institutions are the ones able to commission or create items reading the flavor text. I doubt items have standard pricing to the world at large.
Southernskies wrote:
Going further, 1 SP per adventure per Character Tier (not Tier of play, PCs playing 'up' should get that extra boost; it was an issue in Living Greyhawk) will keep up with the higher cost of higher teir items.
Again, I strongly oppose this thinking. This is not D&D where you need to replace your +2 Belt of Giant Strength with a +4 or +6 version. Many items already inherently Tier up with a 1+1/2 Hero Tier benefit.
If you want to focus your character on getting a Legendary weapon or armor with Legendary Rune on it, that should be the vast majority of your SP over the course of all 5 Tiers. You have your Excalibur equivalent. That is your character's signature and I wouldn't expect you to have much else. Alternatively you could have a bunch of lower tier stuff that together give you a bunch of minor benefits perhaps around a theme that define your character's signature. You are the Master of Shadows. That Cloak of the Shadow, Gloves of Manipulation, Boots of the Spider etc. help reinforce your signature.
Southernskies wrote:
Writers could still do specific items within the adventure and assign a 'refusal' SP value to the item (1 SP per Teir of the item is suggested) so characters could trade favour for their preferred reward later.
I thought my initial proposal included that "refusal" SP. I don't know that I'd limit it to 1 per Tier. I think it should be closer to both the SP cost for taking an item out of the reward and the cost of getting one of your own. My feeling is more of a 50/50 rough split. Those kind of numbers would be worked out after general principles are defined.
Nierite wrote:
2) Buying ACCESS to items (which can then be purchased with normal money
Buying access is more bookkeeping and work and would be harder to check and verify totals later. I don't think Henry's looking to turn this into a separate economy.
Nierite wrote:
The types of things that could be purchased this way could be many of the things which are presently restricted:
A. Amalgamated, Permanent, or other Special Runes
B. Magical Items
C. Special Mounts/Creatures/Slaves (ie: Griffin for a Skyrider)
D. Special Materials for gear
E. Access/Scrolls to Exotic Spells (though not Secret Spells which should be unique to Paths)
F. "Cashing In" for other game stats, notably more Fate Points/Adventure or possibly even Gc.
G. Legendary items
I'd support D as part of actually making the item in question and really don't like F.
Nierite wrote:
D. Possibly have a different cost for the different materials
That sounds reasonable to me.
, but have the investment of SP's equal to--say--the item's cost in Silver coins. For example, if we want to make an Exceptional Sarishan Steel Gladius, it could cost 15 Gc. Let's assume that to the Sarishan Steel "Cost" is 1 SP/50 Sc. This means that your item would cost you some combination of 15 Gc AND 30 SP's to purchase. Because it is even more rare, a TEMPERED Sarishan Steel blade may cost 1 SC/10 Sc of cost, meaning it would cost 15 Gc and 150 SP to buy.
E. We know there are many Exotic Spells which have showed up in the adventures or in the books (such as Steamblast). This way you could buy access to a new spell by using--say--10 SP/Spell Tier. You'd still have to take the Learn Exotic Spell (ta), but you'd have the ABILITY to learn the spell.
F. This could be an "Emergency" supply for more money and Fate. Say you could cash in 5 SP for 1 Fate Point (prohibitive, but reasonable) or 1 SP for 10 Sc of hard cash. In this case, you are LITERALLY cashing in your reputation for an immediate benefit.
G. At present, there is no means of gaining a Legendary Item. Perhaps you can cash in a large number of SP (say. . . 20) on top of the 'usual' cost (in Gc and SP) to allow you to gain access to Legendary items/runes. Of course, you'd then have to provide a cost for Legendary items, but it will give options.[/quote]
Respectfully and with a sweep of his hat,
Paul