Funds & Resources

During the course of my solo play I found out that one of the hardest things to do is bookkeeping regarding credits and equipment.
I even used the crunchy credits calculator from the Galaxy Guide to Tramp Freighters, and realized that it was pointless.
That might not be a problem for a game where each player manages his own character sheet, and the gamemaster rules out prices, but it’s really hard in solo play when I have to do all the work of at least two people by myself.

Note: I will be using the target number and difficulty number and number of successes interchangeably throughout the post.

OpenD6 has an approach that I find really interesting: The Funds derived attribute.
Instead of managing numbers of cash you roll your attribute against a difficulty number specific to the item.
I really like the concept, but while reading about it, I noticed that I have to modify it, because it uses fractions for automatic purchases and every single difficulty point matters. In my D6 homebrew rules I count successes and I don’t want to run two systems for one game so here goes my homebrew Funds.

Purchasing Rules

• Initial Funds attribute: Equal to the highest of Knowledge or Perception. Add 1 pip for every extra die on any of the following skills: Business, Value, Gambling, Bargain.
• Starting cash on a character template can provide a one-off bonus of 1 pip per tens digit in cash.
• The Target Number for acquiring an item follows the formula: Availability + Cost + Restrictions.
• Availability: As is in Star Wars equipment descriptions
• Cost: each tens digit increases the TN by one. E.g. 6 credits: 0TN 250 credits: 2TN, 3 million credits: 6TN.
• The Funds Die gives the number of attempts per time period. Not necessarily spread evenly.
• The Final Target Number gives the time period: Hour, Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Semester, Year.
• So a character with 5D in Funds can try to buy items of a Difficult (4) cost: 5 times in one month.
• You can Spend Funds in an attempt to buy something more expensive by 1D. The Funds attribute will be reduced by 1D and you get a bonus of 1D on the next roll to acquire the item.
• The lifestyle has a direct impact on the Funds attribute. See maintenance. If the lifestyle is higher than the Funds attribute, the character has a maintenance penalty of 1D per level difference.
• Restrictions: See table below on how to handle different restriction types.
• Wild Die: If the roll gives a 6 on the Wild Die, then the attempt doesn’t count to the number of attempts per dice period. If the roll comes up a 1, then he can’t make any more attempts of that difficulty at the same time period.
• Bargain: If the character uses the bargain skill, each 1 success/failure difference to the opposed roll, is applied to the TN.
• Common Sense must apply!

Restrictions

Restriction	Normal	Permit (Bureaucracy)	Black Market (Streetwise)
Fee (F)	+1TN	+0TN	+0TN
Restricted (R)	Unavailable	+1TN	+1TN
Illegal (X)	Unavailable	Unavailable	+2TN

Maintenance

Lifestyle	Funds
Rags	0D
Poor	1D
Adequate	3D
Modest	5D
Rich	7D
Luxurious	9D

Resources

The Funds rules only cover one part of my requirements. I need to take care of what happens about all the stuff I’m too lazy to write down on my character sheet.
I intend to use a variation of the Funds rules above with some additional restrictions.

Resources Rules

• The character wants an item and rolls Funds as described in the Funds rules.
• Depending on his gear at the time of the request there are a number of slots. He can roll as many times as there are slots. These count in the Funds allowed number of attempts. See slots below.
• A modifier on the likelihood of having the item is applied either as a Die bonus or as a Target Number increase. See Modifiers below.
• Restocking can be performed whenever there is a higher slot item (e.g a character wearing a backpack returns back to his starship) where the slots are exchanged for the slots of the higher slot item, or a total reset when returning to civilization.
• Common Sense must apply! You can’t expect a character walking casually at a bar to roll if he has a Corellian Powersuit on him when the bar fight begins.

Item	Slots
Cargo pants/Military jacket	1
Utility belt/Pouch	2
Rucksack/Backpack	3
Speeder	5
Walker	7
Starfighter	9
Space transport	15
Capital ship	30
Space station	60

Modifier	-
Item is in character’s profession (knife for a game hunter)	+1D
Item is expected on the circumstances (an EVA suit in a spaceship)	+1D
Item is unlikely to have been brought along (diving gear on a desert expedition)	+1TN
Item is bulky or heavy (a portable power generator)	+1TN

Advancement

Missions and events can increase (or decrease) the Funds attribute.
In general a +1 to +2 mission is expected if there is a significant reward.
Character points can be used to increase the attribute, and the time for training is expected to be the time the character dedicates to increase his income.

Starships cost to travel. You need weekly 1TN in Funds.
So, short trips are possible since the character does what he can to get a side profit but a long trip that would require more capital could be out of the question for a poor captain.

Finally this will need some playtesting before committing to it. Changes are due based on game results.
Even though I could use tokens/write down the number of purchase attempts per time period, for starters I won't be doing it, and instead just follow those rough guidelines.

Examples:
Luca has 2D+1 in Knowledge and 3D in Perception. He takes the highest of the two for a 3D in Funds. He also has 1D in Value, which adds one pip for a Funds total of 3D+1.
Roy has 3D+2 in Funds. He wants to purchase a DL-18 blaster pistol. The pistol costs 500 credits and has an availability of 1. It’s an outer rim system so I decide that it just requires a Fee. Adding up, Roy requires 1+2+1=4 successes to purchase the blaster pistol. If he makes a successful Bureaucracy roll he can reduce the price by 1. Alternatively he could turn to the black market with Streetwise for the same result. If he fails, he can attempt 2 more times in the same month.
Luca plans a 3 week hyperspace trip to Prine. He needs to make a successful Moderate Funds roll to restock the Red Rancor to do it. If he fails he can try 2 more times in the same week. This is interpreted as looking to get a side mission to pay for fuel, transporting cargo and selling it at the new destination, etc.