Is there a limit to the number of cash dice that can be spent on a single Resources roll? I apologize in advance if this is answered on another thread.
P374, second paragraph, last line… one or two dice at a time.
Indexes rule.
Hmm, I read that sentence differently, the whole sentence:
“Multi-dice bonuses may be spent, one or two at a time, across multiple rolls.”
To me, that sentence is saying that a 5D cash die bonus may be broken up and spent across multiple rolls.
The section on funds does identify that: “You may only use one fund per Resources test…”
Frank
My problem is the following: I have a PC who needs to purchase an Herbalism kit (outside of character burning). It’s an Ob 4 Resources (I think). The character has four cash dice but his Resources exponent is just B1. So, assuming he has no other help, he could roll, at most, 1D (Resources) + 2D (cash) for a total of 3D? Even though he has four cash dice?
I believe you clipped a bit too much of the line there Durand “Multi-dice bonuses may be spent, one or two at a time, across multiple rolls.” May be is not Must be.
The way I’ve always read it is: if the player wants to he could use Resources 1 + 4 Cash = 5D (EDIT: or even just use 4D Cash, just in case the player is worried about Tax. Gift of Kindness?).
Yeah, cash dice are not single blobs like funds. That text is there to tell you that if you have 5D in cash, you can break it up for different tests.
If I have the Mummy King’s Emerald Crown and it’s worth 5D of cash then if I use it in trade I’ve got to drop all 5 there. I won’t have the crown anymore at the end and I won’t have spare change. So it makes no sense to disallow putting more than 2 dice down at a time.
Resources is hard enough on the player with its rock hard advancement and the poverty spiral.
Hmmm, yeah, I was pretty sure the 2D limit was mentioned in the forum elsewhere, but I can’t find it with a quick search. Maybe it was from my groups email discussions. Even Revised has the same vague sentence structure.
In hindsight it makes sense that you can spend larger amounts in one go, but in our games we never had more than 2D at a time anyway, and only just cracked 3D resources for a few PC’s. Certainly you don’t combine cash die bonuses from different sources, just like funds, you use one source at a time.
Pete
I don’t see a problem spending it all at once - why not go for the big dramatic rolls? The only issue I see, which probably isn’t a big deal mechanically, is that a pouch of silver is 1D cash, but it would take something like a dragon’s horde for me to give out 10D, much more than ten pouches of silver. But I suspect this isn’t a big deal in practice.
We’ve done it that way too. The players get it.
I remember homebrewing lifestyle maintenence obstacles to maintain an army. The gist of it was that maintenance obstacles went up by 1 each time we doubled the number of men.
Thanks for the input everyone. In the past I’ve always played that any number of cash dice can be used on a single roll and I might stick to that. The system is beautifully abstract, and I have always considered cash dice as cash–a small amount of money. If my players discover a dragon’s hoard or a cache of high valuable goods, I make them turn it into a fund. Thanks again.
That’s what we do, and then generate cash dice as “loans” from it.
Very interesting. I have always abstracted this. After dipping into a fund 10-20 times (or to fit the needs of the story), I just tell the players “that cache of silver coins you found on the pirate ship is officially tapped out.” I don’t get any resistance, because the players usually feel pretty satisfied by the use they got out of it. That said, I like your chart. It’s a good frame of reference. Thanks!
Do you do this rather than have funds deplete in the usual way? (Are your players using the funds for such low-Ob tests that they’re never failing?)
You are correct the funds are generally taxed away. I don’t normally even allow a Resources test on easy things. If it’s an easy thing to find, and well within their financial wherewithal, I don’t give them a roll. Sometimes a fund manages to stick around for awhile, though, especially if the players are using it for the sort of middling Ob tests. My players are crafty like that.
If a fund is going to be taxed because of a bad roll or a tough Ob, I play it kind of by ear in terms of whether I allow the source to be changed into a fund again. Generally I do not. It depends on what the source was, what they were trying to buy with it and so forth. I sometimes invoke the Gift of Kindness but wipeout the fund source as a penalty.