The resources trait abstract the economic details of a game by managing a character’s general spending power with their income, excess funds, debts, and lifestyle habits. Players spend resource boxes in place of their character’s purchases throughout a game. The bottom of this page details the costs in boxes of various items and services in game.
With the start of a game, the GM will set the a standard income level for all players, representing the general wealth the player characters possess and maintains through jobs and other cash inflows. It also represents how much debt a character can maintain without getting into trouble. Players can then further increase this amount with the Fluffed Resources merit, or decrease it with the Poor flaw. Unspent income boxes are marked with the letter ‘i’, which is erased when spent.
Income, alongside lifestyle, affects how many resources boxes are refilled at the end of each month.
When a player does not have enough resources to cover the cost of a purchase, they may attempt to take on debt. The player rolls either Negotiation or Connections to attempt pushing the cost to a later time or other party. With a Hit the debtor will cover only the remaining cost. With a Glance the debtor will require 1 additional box to the remaining cost. With a Fail the PC is unable to find a debtor willing to cover the cost. Boxes spent by taking Debt are marked with a ‘D’.
A player can only have as much debt as their income level. If they exceed this amount the additional box(s) is marked with a “t” and represent trouble. These boxes can only be recovered by resolving the trouble in story with the debtor.
When a player gains additional resources (as a reward or found in the game), they either;
1) For each point gained they may either recover a spent portion of their income, marking a box with ‘i’ or pay off a debt, removing a box marked with a ‘D.’
2) Mark an empty box with ‘e’ denoting it as an excess resource
Lifestyle represents a character’s regular lifestyle expenses, including food, rent/mortgage, clothes, and other comfort monthly expenses. Lifestyles allow players to avoid spending resources for general levels of comfort, meaning a rich player will likely spend less on clothing and food than a poor player. However, lifestyle acts in opposite of income, reducing the number of resource boxes refilled at the end of each month.
The resource Recover Rate determines how many resource boxes can recover or spend at the end of the month. It is simply equal to Income – Lifestyle.
If a PC lives within their means and has a positive Recover Rate, then at the end of the month they may restore a number of Resource boxes equal to that number. This can erase debt ‘D’ or regain income boxes by marking them with ‘i,’ but may not be used to gain more income than the player’s income value.
If a PC lives above their means and has a negative Recover Rate, then at the end of the month they must spend resources equal to the value. If they are unable to spend resources or find a debtor, they automatically gain a ‘t’ in boxes to make up the difference, though this can be avoided if the player chooses to sell their home and move down one level of lifestyle.
Resource Income Levels
| Level | Income |
| 1 | Poor. You have no stable income and are always looking for a way to make money to pay for necessities. You might make minimal wage or have commission based income in a low demand market. |
| 2 | Low Salary You work the lowest income jobs and have barely any employee benefits to speak of. Factory workers, teachers, and jobs that are easily replaced. You’ve got a career in a low paying industry, but a career nonetheless. |
| 3 | Comfortable Salary You’ve got a solid career to pay for yourself and some additional comforts for the family. Your in the upper middle class, at least income wise. |
| 4 | Wealthy Mid-high level managers, corporate sales leads, mom-bosses. You’re making enough for several people to be well off, but it’s good with you. |
Monthly Expenses
At the end of the month, everyone needs to start paying up. Rent, food, utilities. Life costs money. Of course, there are benefits to comfort and consistency. If you are unable to maintain your lifestyle, you may be forced to change, or you might need to make a deal to postpone or otherwise pay on your debts.
Resource levels line up well with lifestyle costs, but they do not need to. A character with low resources might make enough money in game to briefly expense a higher lifestyle, and a character with high resources might be exceptionally frugal and live in a low income household.
A character’s lifestyle covers general living expenses. When a character purchases food or other general living goods (clothes, cleaning supplies, etc) that are at or below their lifestyle expectations they do not need to spend any money.
Monthly Expenses
| Lifestyle | level | Perks |
| Homeless | Free | It’s free and you don’t need to worry about sweeping. However, even the cheapest clothing and restaurant food cost 1 resource for you, as you manage to get by mostly off of instant ramen and whatever else you come across. |
| Poverty | 1 | You have a shelter with a mostly working shower, and maybe some slow unstable internet access. There’s no real privacy in the small thin walled room, It’s small, the area is not the safest, and you’re on your own if anything starts to break or go wrong. At least you have somewhere to sleep and store things.
You can afford fast food, cheap clothing, and to stay at a trodden motel when traveling, but you don’t dine out often and your wardrobe is mostly secondhand. |
| Low-income housing | 2 | Your apartment is fairly serviceable, with a living room, kitchen, and bedroom all distinct from each other. You might even have a spare room to use as an office or for storage. The area feels pretty safe too, as long as you keep the doors and windows locked and don’t take midnight strolls. It’s definitely a bit crowded with the family though.
You don’t need to worry about paying for cheap clothing, groceries, or fast food, but you still consider anything over $20 fancy, costing 1 resource to get “nicer” food and clothing. |
| Middle-class | 3 | The life of comfort and complacency. Your home or apartment has plenty of extra space and a few spare rooms. The local area feels safe and might even have a neighborhood watch. Some fenced in neighborhoods even higher security to watch the gate. You eat regular healthy meals that taste good too. You own your own transportation.
You get the local groceries that you want and can eat out at nicer restaurants occasionally. Only a few pieces of clothing are more than 4 years old and most of it is work-place presentable, or at least nice enough that people aren’t concerned. You only need to spend resources on lifestyle expenses when at a high-end restaurant or when buying a suit. |
| High Life | 4 | Good food, safety, and enough space to have guest or family inside without ever running into them. Housekeeping does the chores and you don’t worry about the cost of utilities and have the highest internet speeds available. The local police and hired security both regularly patrol the area to keep anything from going amiss. You have a nice car that you keep well maintained.
You don’t ever need to spend resources on lifestyle expenses, but are often balancing excess funds with excess debts. |
Resource Costs
Lifestyle:
Note: Lifestyle costs only matter to PCs attempting to pay for something above their lifestyle. To determine the cost, subtract your lifestyle from the cost of listed below:
| Cost | Items |
| 1 | Fast food, Motel lodging, Second-hand clothing. |
| 2 | Franchise Dining (Olive Garden, Chilis, etc), Bed and Breakfast lodging, Cheap brief-lasting clothing. |
| 3 | Cheap, used vehicles. High Quality Hotels, Fine Dining, Fashionable clothing. |
| 4 | New Vehicles, Hotel Suite packages, VIP Dining, Custom casual clothing, Household staffing. |
Gear:
| Cost | Items |
| 0 | Cheap, easy to acquire, individual items under ~$10 Makeshift armor |
| 1 | Poor quality melee weapons, Bulk goods, Non-lethal guns, Shields, leather armor, |
| 2 | Low Quality (low ammo) guns Tickets to an expensive event. Kevlar armor, Gambeson |
| 3 | Highest quality weapons, Automatic Guns (guns capable of Auto-fire) Riot Gear, Plate armor, chainmail |
General Price Adjustments
| Adjustment | Items |
| -1 | Broken, Chance of misfire, Some inherent risk in owning. |
| +1 | Illegal/Black-market goods Custom work involved One use magical effect |
| +2 | Rare, hard to acquire commodity Constant, light magical effect. |
| +3 | Unique, one of a kind, Constant, powerful magical effect Exceptionally dangerous |