Wealth (Resources) and Mages

[KieranMullen]

Dearest Fellows,

How do you handle the resource merit in your mage games from both a player and game master? For when dealing with individuals that can simply conjure up what they need from thin air, foretell a future financial boon, or any number of tool/wealth creation tricks the merit itself seems lackluster except for roll playing reasons and back story. This mind you is a very good reason to have the merit! However, compared to other things to spend your experience on it seems lack luster compared to say having a magically bound spirit or knowing a magical martial art.

The "sanctity of merits" has already been raised, so that resources purchased with game mechanics are more stable than those obtained by exerting magical abilities.

Now, why does that make sense? Well, how would BlackSpleen, the evil NPC mage who was manipulating the stock market, react when her portfolio is ruined due to the PC's magical actions? The use of powers to generate wealth might have consequences that imperil that wealth or the PC. Wealth obtained by purchasing the merit should be stable (or at worst fungible).

[Michael]

Something else I do that I can't really remember if it's technically correct or not (or maybe a previous version of the merit) is to treat the merit as more purely as a mechanic. So if you have Resources, that means you have money you can actively use in the game. Without it, the character might still have money more broadly, they just aren't able to use it constructively for the game for whatever reason.

To give an example, one of my players had their mage lack any Resources, but their situations implied they'd have at least some money (they had a full-time job and they'd moved back in with their mother). The explanation we came up with was that he more or less frittered his wages away on random tat that didn't really impact the game. The player purchasing the Resource 1 dot kinda represented them becoming more responsible.

[Heavy Arms]

There's a really really important reason why mages still bother with Resources:

Wisdom.

Mages that opt to solve all their creature comforts with magic are on the fast track to low Wisdom, and all the complications therein.

A huge point of the game is the struggle to use massive power responsibly, which means not doing things like solving all your basic needs with magic.

[mcgonigle]

Mages are terrifyingly versatile but at least they are consistently so (there are generally plots and challenges you can't do in mage because of the power of mage. Like Mages can pretty much work out a murder by looking at a body, making rent isn't a sensible worry for mages,)

Arcanum at 2 can sub in for merit dots within their field
Arcanum at 3 can increase attributes or skills within their field (I think this is mostly Mind/Life)
Arcanum at 4 can grant skills within their field

Yes, you can replicate resources with Fate/Forces (possibly others) but you can replicate a Familar with Spirit/Death etc. If you have the right Arcana pretty much everything else on the character sheet can be made redundant, but not all at the same time, with the cost being that you have limited spells, anything you replicate with magic is one less way you can defy reality on demand. (t

Theoretically you have Sanctity of Merits Principal (and generally I tend to interpret this that merit connections should also be targeted less than similar that haven't been brought with exp. However fundamentally if the Mage is creating it with magic, it's not really feasible to target (and I would be shocked if any player party it was these tricks that feel

That being said possibly giving increased merit dots at character gen but a pool only for mundane ones, might help.

Another part is to say yes to things more off mundane merits than magically generated ones, Resources 4 is going to give some level of connections and access that my inactive credit card being read as Resources 4 isn't, (and considering the general power creep of Merits over the editions, I suspect Resources may be a little under-powered compared to say Mystery Cult.) See Social Merits as how you define your place in society and react to that as well as just the RAW what the merit gives you.

[Michael]

I take it that that's what the merit already represents. A regular amount of money that you don't need to think about.

I dunno, there may be hundreds of ways to make money, but if your players don't pursue them, then they don't have any.

[proindrakenzol]

Many magical means of wealth generation are either fraud or theft, and not all PCs are going to want to be involved with that. Further, even those that are might end up getting sloppy, generating mundane problems or cluing in Hunters or even hostile Mages to their whereabouts and activities.

Even if the money is "clean," using magically gotten wealth for your non-Mage life crosses the Shadow Name barrier, now your Nimbus is going to start affecting Sleeper family and friends with all the attendant consequences.