What is the stash, in your games? Do the PCs interact with it at all, or is it a pure abstraction? Do your PCs actually stash away coin or do they pretty much spend it as they get it?
What is the stash, in your games?
What is the stash, in your games?
We run it pretty abstractly, although my group’s Whisper and Leech have realized finally that it’s your in-character “win condition” of sorts and have taken measures to start bumping that up.
My crew is at Tier 0 (but with firm hold)… meaning they use every coin for character and/or crew advancement and dont have stash, yet.
It’s not completely abstract in my games, but since it is often intangible, it sure feels that way. I spend a little bit of fiction time giving it some character, but that’s about it. That is, I start with very abstract, and usually just say “investments: usually land and business ownership, entrepreneurial stuff” and if they want more I might describe something they bought for the purpose of avoiding being robbed. However, I let them know it was just an investment, and selling early will cost them. This tiny fictional element seems to soften the blow of the news that the game prescribes a 2:1 liquidation rate for stash.
My PCs don’t interact with stash at all (other than to pile more in of course); they only spent the recently acquired coin and sometimes not even that.
At the end of the campaign (or when a long time player leaves), I give them a narration which depicts the exit game scenario (recently I have heard it called “a love letter”). I use stash as prescribed, and if that means them being awash in vice and misery (the 0-10 stash ending), then I talk about their specific vice based on what fiction I remember. It’s worth noting as well that these love letters seemed to make my players very happy.
PS: It might interest you as well to know how I use it in other playsets: in Runners in the Shadows, stash is the money stored in secure datavaults which move the money to stock and investment portfolios. The fictional justification for why 4 nuyen is too much is to prevent them from being the likely target of a banking or commlink hack.
In Final Frontier, coin is requisition, and stash is retirement. I am guessing you can tell how that works fictionally.
And in Legacy of the New World (fantasy sci-fi post-apoc mashup), it is valuable shinies from tombs and dungeons, spent on investments into the fictional world that will translate to a better end: personal riches, community riches (like new research and education), or creating and bolstering connections to family/friends
In my Copperhead County (modern hack) game, my PCs are just starting to put anything in it too. They leaned hard into making money from the start, and got two money-making Claims early on; but they’ve also been tier 0, generating a ton of heat, and at war, so they haven’t been rolling in money yet. They’re about to tier up and I’m interested to see how that affects them financially, personally and with the crew, since we haven’t played above 0 before.
I call it Bank, and its also supposed to represent money laundering, legitimate wealth, etc. The only mechanical change associated with it is that I have them roll Bank quality for Vice rolls, the idea being that, as their lifestyle increases, so does their ability to indulge themselves in the American marketplace. I also want to incentivize them to put money away, and to think about their Bank level and how their lifestyle improves as their riches increase, so that it has a bit more heft before retirement.
oh, anyone have a player reach 11 or more stash? I had 1 PC achieve this (barely, and with the “+2 stash per downtime phase” ability), but everyone else’s characters are on track for the life awash in vice and misery.
I have one player who hit the teens (with the Slide ability) and one who just hit it without, using their crew advancement coin bonus.
Could an enemy faction endanger a PC’s stash? E.g., instead of going after your lair or claims, the Unseen get wind of how rich the team’s Spider is, so they try to rob her stash somehow. Or does this fall under “not giving them what they’ve earned?”
Absolutely. It falls under “Telegraph trouble before it strikes” and “Follow through and hit them hard.” Even if the PCs fail to protect the Stash and get their money took, that sounds like an exciting opportunity for revenge.
Will Scott I feel like stash’s nature is to be the only “safe” place for it. It’s presumably not even accessible by you in its current state, so I’d say it is off limits unless the fiction or that consequence really says otherwise; instead I recommend hitting their claims one by one, and the lair last
Possible exceptions: perhaps a custom entanglement involving their stash feels right because of a conscious risk and suffered consequence. Or maybe it happens as a result of a devil’s bargain
Will Scott I’d say that’s a trick you can only pull once. Ideally when the characters have a lot of Stash built up and you’re looking for a good climax for your campaign. If you don’t save it for a “series finale” type moment then the stash will stop being a “final game score” and start being just a tax on saving coin.