The Blogging will Continue Until Morale Improves

Work and other real life issues have kept me from posting anything since the beginning of last week. My hope is that things will ease up some beginning next week and I will have more gaming related posts here then.

It's not like there's anything else happening in the gaming world now, right?

I would also like to get back to the woefully neglected Cult Classic of the Week movie reviews and some of the other series posts I had in mind at the beginning of the year. And I have some ideas for a new blog layout that I need to test.

Link: D&D Mystara Gazetteer series reviews

Lowell at Age of Ravens finished his series of reviews of the classic Mystara Gazetteer series for Basic/Expert D&D last week. I never picked up any of the Gazetteers, and this series helped me discover what I was missing. Each review is an overview of what you will find in the book along with ways to use the material in a campaign, regardless of rules system. Links to each review are here; the wrap-up and final thoughts are here.

Not much has changed since 1981

Following on from my previous post about The Encyclopedia of Military Modeling, I wanted to share a few choice quotes from the book. They could have been written to describe the RPG community today.

First, from the Foreword by Donald Burgess, editor in chief, Campaigns Magazine:

"What emerges is a picture of a hobby in a state of continuing flux, a constantly growing and expanding force. The sweeping changes of the past years are healthy ones, rediscovering and drawing on the past, moving into new areas of expression, provoking new attitudes and approaches -- a hobby that keeps moving forward, bettering itself in many ways, providing impetus for extraordinarily fresh talents on all levels, making stronger demands on all miniaturists, no matter what their area of interest." (p. 6)

The last paragraph of the Introduction by Dennis Knight:

"More and more people are getting bored with watching ball games and banal spoon-fed television entertainment and, with rising fuel costs making travelling a luxury, they will be inclined to adopt hobbies that can be pursued in their homes. We welcome you to the world of Military Modelling." (p. 13)

South London Warlords Wargaming Club

Somewhere around 6th or 7th grade, I got a copy of The Encyclopedia of Military Modeling, published in London by Octopus Books in 1981. It was on a bargain books table at Ayr-Way (which later became Target). Building model kits was a hobby of mine as far back as I can remember -- even if I wasn't very good. Lots of cars, tanks, planes, the USS Enterprise (and the bridge kit, and Mr. Spock firing a phaser at the alien snake creature) and others were hastily assembled at my house in those days.

When I saw The Encyclopedia, then, I was naturally intrigued. This was relevant to my interests, and did it ever deliver. Many a day was spent pouring over the color photos, reading about the histories of model kit and figure manufacturers, and the instructions for creating detailed dioramas.

This was right before I had my first experiences with The Gaming Hobby™, and it's easy to see how this prepared me for it. Step-by-step instructions are given for scratchbuilding models, conversions, creating molds and casting. I studied the two-page spread on model scales when I started to look at what kinds of military model kits I could use for my own Warhammer 40K conversions.

In the introduction, there is some discussion of the wargaming hobby. What really struck with me -- and one of my main memories of the book -- is the photo of an example wargame in progress. I'm not sure if it captures a actual moment of the game -- it strikes me as being posed for the photographer. Even so, what I love about it is the overall feeling it conveys, encapsulating much of what I remember about seeing historical wargamers at conventions around that time. Even better, I wanted to think that there were cool gaming clubs out there where players wore ties, or sweatshirts with club logos.

I had a little story about the photo that I made up in my head early on. I got the sense that the gent in the suit jacket and tie is measuring the distance to move his unit of figures, while the fellow next to him is pointing out a place in the rules that counter-acts what the first is trying to do.

"I'm going to move this unit 15cm forward!"

"Hmmm... according to the rules, that unit can only move 12cm!"

This matched up with what I saw on our own 40K tables at various times.

I also love the "British-ness" of the book, if you will excuse the term. It uses those spelling conventions of course (influential on a young impressionable American lad) and mainly covers the military modeling hobby in England, reinforcing my idea about it being a place where everyone took part in intellectually stimulating hobbies like military modeling and wargaming. The Encyclopedia of Military Modeling, along with Warhammer 40K, White Dwarf Magazine, 2000AD and others ensured that my early days in the hobby were heavily influenced by the British gaming scene.

The South London Warlords are still an active group and run Salute, the largest wargaming convention in the UK (the 40th anniversary show is later this month). You can read a short history of the club, with more great photos, on their blog.

First Edition AD&D reprints delayed until July

It appears that the 1e reprints have been delayed until July 17th. That is OK; I was in for a DMG, and with the delay perhaps I can save my pennies for the other two books.

I'm still curious about how "limited" this edition will be. Did Wizards get more orders from distributors than they expected, sending them back to print more copies?

Flying Swordsmen -- Old-School Role-playing in Mythic China

I meant to post this over a week ago, so you may have already seen it. Lord Gwydion posted his Flying Swordsmen RPG rules at his blog. He uses the base rules from Your Favorite Fantasy Role-Playing Game and incorporates an incredible amount of detail in a wuxia-influenced Mythic China that could-have-been. Imagine if Oriental Adventures had been more focused on China rather than Japan, and you might have had something almost as good as Flying Swordsmen. It's filled with great rules, adventure ideas and period illustrations; a solid presentation of the material. Roll up some characters and shake the pillars of heaven!

John Carter (of Mars): go see it

We finally saw John Carter on Saturday night. It was great fun! To me, it was reminiscent of the Saturday afternoon matinee, "Family Classics" style of film, like Journey to the Center of the Earth or Jason and the Argonauts.

 

It strayed from the storyline of A Princess of Mars, but not terribly so. If you enjoy sci-fi/fantasy adventure movies, I think you'll like this. (we saw the 2D version)

Back From Being Sick (and Star Wars Links)

I lost the last week or so to some pretty serious sinus problems. For a day or two it was almost like having the flu. I'm on the mend now but not back to normal yet. With luck, by next week I'll have the restored brain cells to think about games and movies and important stuff like that again.

 

For now, I'll leave these links here.

 

Machete Order: A New Way to Watch Star Wars

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/02/machete-order-star-wars

 

What if "Star Wars Episode I" was good? (some NSFW language)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgICnbC2-_Y

 

Topher Grace edited the 'Star Wars' prequels into one 85-minute movie and we saw it

http://www.slashfilm.com/topher-grace-edited-star-wars-prequels-85minute-movie

Too Many Kickstarter Projects

There are too many great Kickstarter/IndieGoGo gaming projects in the wild right now. How can I choose?

 

* Monster Stock Art and Stand-Up Minis

* Dwimmermount

* The Monolith from Beyond Space and Time and The God that Crawls

* Mobile Frame Zero, the new edition of Vincent Baker's Lego robot game Mechaton

* Battle Blokx wargaming terrain

* Random Dungeon Generator as a Dungeon Map

* Tectonic Craft Studios laser-cut wargaming terrain

* Mass Transit IV maps

* Story Forge brainstorming cards

* Lions of the North RPG

 

I had already decided to use my March allotment of gaming funds to pre-order Night's Black Agents, and then I see that Skyrim is on sale at Best Buy this week...

Ralph McQuarrie, RIP

My friend K. reflected that, concerning the appeal of Star Wars, Ralph McQuarrie is at least the equal of George Lucas. I have to agree.

Lucas invented the characters and story and hired conceptual artist McQuarrie to create art and designs to show 20th Century Fox. These designs and storyboards convinced skeptical executives to greenlight the project.



My own understanding and visualization of the Star Wars universe is based heavily on three sources: the original film, the Marvel Comics series, and Ralph McQuarrie's art. I never followed his career as closely as I should have, as much as some other favorites. However, I have a strong and distinct memory of seeing those images from his imagination on the pages of Starlog Magazine and others. Some of the designs made it into the films intact, some were changed like the Millennium Falcon design, and others -- such as "Luke Starkiller" and the original Chewbacca design -- were dropped from early drafts. But they all have that great, grand feeling of adventure and they tell stories. You want to know who these people are, where they are from, what the source of conflict is.

Ralph McQuarrie designed concepts for many films and other projects, including Battlestar Galactica and the "Planet of the Titans" Star Trek film project, part of an outstanding visual legacy that will be long remembered.

A Bizarre Gaming-related Dream

This is a dream I had on Sunday morning right before I woke up (i.e., before being awakened by cats). I was teaching a college course on the history of role-playing games. The building reminded me of an older mid-century high school building. Two senior faculty members were observing the class. It was a tough crowd of students, not very engaged and not interacting, perhaps a freshman level course. I was talking about Tékumel at the end of the first class (which I wouldn't plan to discuss on the first day of such a course, but hey, it's a dream) when I was interrupted by a student with a question.

"This is all very interesting, but we can't afford to play any of these games."

I told the class, "Not a problem. There are many great RPG products available for free, even complete games. You can enjoy playing them without spending a dime." This changed the tenor of the class. The mood of the room improved completely and they were alert and engaged to the end.

The class was over just a minute later. As I was leaving the classroom, a turtle and a duck jumped out of the trash can. One of the observers -- who looked very much like John Rhys-Davies -- closed the door slowly behind us, saying "Don't worry, we'll take care of it."

I told you it was bizarre.

Friday Photo-palooza

Grading homework assignments has been keeping me busy the past two weeks. In lieu of something original today, here are some images of interest. Identify them all and win a shiny new No-Prize!

 

 

Link: Playing AD&D, then and now

Beedo put up a great post yesterday at Dreams in the Lich House about playing straight out-of-the-book AD&D 1e today. His group's observations about the game are informed by the years of play since 1e and modern retro-clones -- particularly OSRIC -- that have smoothed over many of the bumpy spots. It's worth taking a look at what they discovered, especially with the limited edition 1e reprints on the way. And I love the Gygax quote he found.

GURPS: Conan now available in PDF

You have probably already read the news that Steve Jackson Games is re-releasing the GURPS Conan sourcebook and 4 adventures as PDFs. Perhaps this is a great side-benefit to their licensing for Munchkin Conan, and Mongoose no longer owning the RPG rights.

It's good to have these available again, at least for a short time. The sourcebook is a great starting point for anyone running a Hyborian Age RPG campaign, for use with ZeFRS or any other rules system. The map is as good as those done for Mongoose's Conan RPG. I've never read the adventures, so I'm eager to see them without paying used and rare prices.

Even so, the sourcebook does tend to be L. Sprague de Camp- and pastiche-centric, particularly the story chronology and the bibliography, which was the nature of the Conan Properties license at the time. All the pastiches and re-edited stories were jammed into the timeline as "official". de Camp wrote the sourcebook's introduction. He praises Howard's writing style more here than usual, which is welcome. However, de Camp does include a paragraph of his amateur psychoanalysis concerning issues that have been "deBunked" by Howard scholars in recent years.

It would be great to see the bibliography updated with more recent publications like the Wandering Star/Del Rey series, Mark Finn's excellent Howard biography, and others, and then available on the product webpage.

Check out a preview of the sourcebook PDF here.

Zak's GM Questionnaire

I printed the questions and wrote down answers as they occurred to me over the course of a few days. Maybe I'll come back to some later, as they are all worth further exploration.

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

My film noir/Red Scare 1950s setting notes for a Call of Cthulhu one-shot, "Atomic Noir". I should redo the layout and post it here.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

I ran the Dragon Age quickstart module during the first week of January.

3. When was the last time you played?

Last Friday night.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

Gothic D&D fantasy mashup of Warhammer Fantasy, Ravenloft, and Hammer Horror movies.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

Think about the possible outcomes for whatever things they are doing and planning, and how it will affect later scenes.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

I usually don't [when I am the GM] unless we are taking a break. Sometimes I'll sneak something I can eat quickly, like cookies.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

It can be, especially if I've done many different NPC voices or we've had a big combat to keep track of.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

In our fantasy/steampunk/magical school campaign, my gentleman thief character rescued his apprentice from a deathtrap simulation (for our Death Traps class in school).

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

Not the entire setting. I don't mind, it's all fun. I think making jokes about situations and NPC names is a way to have fun and reduce tension.

10. What do you do with goblins?

In my last long-term campaign (Freeport), we had a half-goblin PC. The player took the lead in realizing the goblin culture of the setting. I also like Pathfinder's goblins.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

The final location in the Freeport campaign was a serpent-people temple on a sunken island based on the Mayan pyramid at Tikal.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

We had quite a few "that's what she said" moments at the Freeport table.

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

A friend let me read his hardcover copy of Graham Walmsley's Stealing Cthulhu. Good stuff...I need to get my own copy.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

Someone who's work evokes the ideas behind the setting. The illustrations give the reader a sense of the place, and inspire adventures or at least cool things to include in the game.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

Horror is difficult to do. I'm still working on it.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

It's been quite a while since I ran an published adventure straight though as is. Mostly I mine them for ideas. That Dragon Age module was a lot of fun.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

A well-lit office meeting room, with a large table, comfortable chairs, whiteboards, a projector, sound system... but honestly I like the comfort of my house or those of friends. Or this.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

It took me some time looking over my shelves to make a decision. Ultimately, I went with these two items that were sitting right next to each other: Suppressed Transmission 1 and 2, and 10 Million Ways to Die.

The Suppressed Transmission books are collections of Ken Hite's alternate history columns from Steve Jackson Games' Pyramid Magazine. Each book is stat-free and has a metric ton of inspiring ideas from history usable for any RPG.

At the other end of the spectrum, 10 Million Ways to Die is six pages of universal combat system based on Rolemaster, followed by 100 pages of detailed attack, fumble and critical strike tables with conversions for a dozen different RPGs.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

The classic random-table, DIY ethic of the OSR, combined with the "Yes, but..." shared-narrative-control of indie story games.

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

Someone who is understanding that things don't always go as planned; is willing to suspend disbelief; plays well with others, that is, someone who works to include everyone in the fun.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

In some way or another, all my experiences have informed my play styles. I can't think of a specific experience I incorporated directly.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

Customizable plastic miniatures available in bulk using a 3D printer. Design it, print it, done.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

I usually only talk about RPGs with other people who have played. When someone asks about what I do for fun, I mention "gaming", usually explained as "tabletop games, board games, video games", then I wait for the social cues from them if they are interested in knowing more. I want to be a better gaming ambassador. I could probably do better at that.

Conan: Queen of the Black Coast Issue 1 now available

Yesterday I picked up Dark Horse Comics' Conan the Barbarian #1: Queen of the Black Coast Part One and gave it a quick read late last night. This is the first of a planned 24 issue run adapting the events of the story and filling in adventures only hinted at therein.

 

I can't do any better at describing it than Aaron Duran's review at Newsarama. I wasn't sure what to expect from the creative team of Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. I've mentioned before that I know Wood's previous work, and Cloonan was new to me. I wasn't disappointed -- mostly. For two pages near the end, I thought to myself, "Huh? What does that mean?" Overall, however, I think it's off to a good start. I'm eager to see what they do next, particularly "unseen" scenes from the story such as burning the Stygian port of Khemi.

Monster Stock Art & Minis project on Kickstarter

I'm sorry to see the Monster Stand-Ins project at Kickstarter has been cancelled. However, the new project might have a better chance of being funded.

 

Monster Stock Art & Minis is a library of stock art covering the most common creatures from the 3.5 SRD. Backers can get a PDF of the art designed for printing as paper miniatures, and laminated cardstock miniatures are available at another level. The creators hope to include more SRD monsters depending on the funds pledged.

 

This project is close to the funding threshold and appears more likely to succeed. Best of luck to the project designers!

Link: More about Money in RPGs

Marshall Smith talks more about money and its function in RPGs, with examples from Spycraft and FantasyCraft, over at his game blog Division Nihil.

Money in RPGs, Part 2

Last Friday, I looked at a couple of ways in which money is used by characters in RPGs. This time, three more examples.

GURPS by Steve Jackson Games has a bit of a reputation to some role-players. I can't speak to 4th Edition; I do have the core books but I haven't played. However, I do like 3rd. Edition. It's very simulationist, and you can add on any number of extra rules, following down the rabbit hole as far as you wish. At it's heart, though, it's just 3d6 versus a target number. The sourcebooks are my favorite part of GURPS, by far. They can't be beat for detailed campaign background information suitable for any system.

The GURPS 3rd. Edition Basic Set, Revised, has several passages in the main text and sidebars about money use in a campaign. Because it is meant to encompass any genre and time period, these are vague; however, several passages apply to the money characters might carry on them in a standard fantasy game.

Starting Wealth

"Starting wealth" covers both money and property. Start with the amount of money your "wealth level" entitles you for your world....Realistically, characters with a "settled" lifestyle should put 80% of their starting wealth into home, clothing, etc., leaving only 20% for "adventuring" gear....

Standard starting wealth depends on the game world....Some suggestions:

Fantasy/medieval worlds: $1000 (that is, 1,000 copper farthings). (p.16)

Economics

In a low-tech world, rings and jewelry are also money. They may not have a set value imprinted on them -- but they are small and portable, and are easily traded for coins or bartered directly for needed goods. In fact, many societies exist largely by barter -- which can be a test of the players' ingenuity. (p.189)

Bankrolls and Possessions

The money a character has on his person should be listed on the front of his Character Sheet, just like his other possessions. If a lot of transactions are taking place, this can be recorded on a separate sheet of paper to avoid erasing a hole in the Character Sheet! (p.190)

This section of the rulebook also has details on historical coinage and its possible weight and volume, noting that in a 14th-century English economy, the "dollar" value listed as standard in GURPS would be treated as a farthing, a copper coin equivalent in size to the U.S. quarter. A character could conceivably carry $20,000 in a backpack. There are also some guidelines for possible ways to "relieve" characters of their wealth, and ways that treasure might not be portable, recognizable, dangerous or illegal. Clearly, coinage is meant to be kept track of in detail under the standard GURPS rules.

Conan: The Roleplaying Game from Mongoose uses a derivative of the OGL/d20 rules as its main system with some changes such as Base Parry Bonus. As such, coinage is assumed to be used:

Starting Equipment and Money

Each character begins the game with a very small budget with which to buy equipment. This is usually just sufficient to buy a weapon or two and cheap, light armour for those who need it. Starting equipment budget is dependent on character class....Note that this budget is not the same as starting money. If the budget is not used, the character does not get to keep the money. The budget represents items he has managed to acquire and keep for himself over the years prior to the game beginning, not actual money. Any player can choose to have a starting equipment package for his character instead of a starting equipment budget. These are similar in value to the appropriate budgets.

Starting Money

In addition to his starting equipment, each character has 2d6-2 silver coins at the start of the game. At the Games Master’s discretion, this may be reduced to zero, if he wishes to start a campaign in which the characters begin desperately short of money, rather than just very short!

However, Conan reinforces the ideas found in many sword-and-sorcery stories, where money isn't the ultimate goal of characters. It isn't even that important to game play, as illustrated by passages right at the beginning of the Equipment section:

Acquiring wealth and objects of value is a central theme in many adventures. However, spending it is a good deal less interesting....The only times money should be especially useful to your characters are when their weapons or armour are lost or destroyed and when it could be useful to them to buy influence or power, usually in the form of followers. Certainly there should be no need to have players keep track of every last silver piece in their purses. Either they have enough money to get by, or else it is time to go adventuring again.

High Living

It is in the nature of adventurers to spend money like water whenever they have it. Folk who regularly risk their lives in the hope of gaining unimaginable wealth live for today, spending their gains on gambling, good company, expensive food, fine wines and spirits in enormous quantity and even more frivolous pursuits. The Games Master should feel free to enforce the High Living rule whenever characters have a large quantity of cash and no definite plans for spending it:

Every week, all characters will spend a minimum of 50% of their current wealth on high living, if that wealth is currently over 50 silver pieces.

This expenditure includes all ordinary living costs such as food and accommodation. The Games Master should also consider granting circumstance bonuses to Gather Information checks made by adventurers who are spending particularly large amounts of cash.

Finally, I want to take a look at Green Ronin's universal OGL system, True20. Among other changes, including the use a Toughness save instead of hit points, True20 has the Wealth Score. This number is equal to 5 plus Charisma (ability scores in True20 range from -5 to +5). The Wealthy feat adds a +4 bonus. It's meant to be abstract, although there is a table in the rules that gives general guidelines -- +5 to +10 is considered middle-class, for example.

This score includes all cash on hand, credit, and regular income. Instead of making purchases with money, the player makes a check by rolling a d20 plus the Wealth Score versus a difficulty number. The normal price of an item of equipment is labeled Cost, and this is the usual difficulty number for the check: a battleaxe is Cost 9, a sword is 11.

The Wealth Score is fluid:

If you successfully purchase an item with a purchase Difficulty higher than your current Wealth bonus, your Wealth bonus decreases by 1 point for every 5 points the purchase Difficulty is higher than your current Wealth bonus (1 point for 1–5 points higher, 2 points for 6–10 points higher, etc.). (p.74)

When I ran a True20 Freeport campaign, I didn't use the Wealth Score rules. Instead, we used coinage as given in the system-neutral Pirate's Guide to Freeport.

I'm uncertain on the idea of how to handle money in RPGs. There were good comments on the previous post concerning the idea of abstract money or recording individual amounts, especially where it makes sense to use abstract monetary values in modern games. Pulp fantasy heroes regularly chase after extraordinary treasures, but rarely have two silver pieces in their purse.

I would want to use whatever method make sense for the campaign at hand. My priorities would be 1) what is "in character" for the campaign world and the genre, and 2) what is easy for the players to keep track of, and doesn't lead to excessive paperwork.  

Money in RPGs: Counting Coppers, or Just Wing It?

“Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money.”

I'm not necessarily talking about found treasure and loot, but the cash an adventurer carries on hand. For a bog standard, D&D-style fantasy game, keeping track of money seems like the right thing to do. It fits the model of adventurers who need to scrape together the coin necessary to buy a new sword, spell components, or bundles of crossbow bolts. It also fits the sword-and-sorcery genre, which I'll discuss later.

The strange thing about keeping track of coinage on hand is the problem of large amounts. Thousands of coins can be converted to gems and other high-priced baubles, but then you might run into the issue of paying for smaller daily expenses. Not many taverns would be able (or willing) to make change for that opal you just found in the lich's tomb.

Call of Cthulhu was the first RPG with an abstract money system that I remember. Although equipment and weapons are listed with prices in dollars, money really wasn't an issue -- most likely because treasure hunting wasn't an objective of the game. Unless the characters were going on an expedition or they needed an outlay of cash at that level for some reason, it isn't necessary to keep track of how many dollar bills are in your pocket. At least that's the way we always played.

Additionally, characters have a skill called Credit Rating. This is a measure not of cash and credit reserves, but social status and influence, and the ability to raise cash through loans or even panhandling.

From the 4th. edition (1989):

Money

The players' investigators -- the journalists, authors, professors, and so on -- will need money for their investigations. Their cash can come from (1) wages, royalties, and remittances; (2) from previous savings; and (3) grants, gifts, and loans from various non-governmental sources (government is no granter of largesse in the 1920s).

Money is only a problem if the investigators must perform extended investigations. Incidental investigations can be assumed to take place on weekends, or evenings, or days off.    (p. 14)

From the 5th. edition (1992):

Investigator Income

Income may or may not be important to your play. Take dollar signs with a grain of salt. Many Keepers never mention money or personal property, and rarely do published scenarios raise the subject. Only in campaigns does earning and spending hold much interest or significance; campaigns, however, can be quite detailed. Learn the Keeper's intent. (p. 24)

Savage Worlds has a similar approach to money, at least for starting characters. In the 1st edition rulebook, we find the following at the end of the character creation section:

Gear

Next you need to purchase equipment. Some settings may provide your hero with all the gear he needs. In others, you may be assigned a certain amount of money with which to purchase your starting gear. A list of some common gear and weapons can be found in Chapter Two.

Unless your setting book or GM says otherwise, the standard starting amount is $500. (p. 18)

The only other real mention of money is at the beginning of Chapter Two: Gear.

Cost: Equipment prices are relative both to the starting funds of $500 and to their tech level, so a Springfield musket doesn't really cost $250 in 1862. That's just the "worth" of the weapon relative to the tech level and the typical setting it's intended for. (p. 43)

Monday: Three other approaches.