Economy

Most TTRPGs make players count every copper, silver, and gold coin they find. Apprentices skips the coin-counting: it turns tedious fast and means nothing at the table. Wealth lives here under Core Rules as fiction-facing Funds, not a ledger.

Wealth is an abstract Funds level: a character's purchasing power for a given month.

The Funds Levels

A character's wealth is represented by their current Funds level:

  • Destitute: You cannot afford anything beyond the scraps on your plate. You live on the streets or rely entirely on Academy charity.
  • Poor (Standard Starting for Low-Born): You can afford basic rations, a shared dorm room, and very cheap mundane tools.
  • Adequate (Standard Starting for Middle-Class): You can afford comfortable living, decent meals, standard mundane weapons, and perhaps one or two cheap alchemical ingredients per month.
  • Affluent (Standard Starting for Nobility): You can afford luxury housing, high-end mundane gear, minor magical items, and bribes for lower-level officials.
  • Wealthy: You can buy expensive spell components, high-grade crystalized Mana, and influence powerful people without blinking.
  • Astronomical: You have tapped into a major magical vault or criminal enterprise. You can buy almost anything that has a price tag.

The Struggle: Living Expenses

Living in the city, especially as an Academy student, is not free.

At the start (Day 1), every character must establish their Living Situation. If a character begins the month at the Poor or Destitute Funds level, they must secure their basic living expenses.

If their Funds are still below Adequate by Day 5 of the month, they suffer a persistent -1 die penalty to all Physical and Mental rolls — malnutrition, lost sleep, crushing stress — until they secure proper lodging and food.

Acquiring Funds

Raising Funds takes Time Slots, whether the goal is expensive gear or a roof over your head.

When a player dedicates a Time Slot to making money (e.g., working a mundane job, brewing and selling alchemical potions, mugging someone in the lower city, or robbing a vault), they make an appropriate attribute roll (e.g., Mental, Social or Physical), or a specific move like Force Your Way or Manipulate and Provoke.

Depending on the danger and difficulty:

  • Standard Work (Safe): Requires 2 dedicated Time Slots and a successful appropriate roll to raise your Funds by 1 level for the duration of the month.
  • Dangerous/Illegal Work (Risky): Requires 1 dedicated Time Slot and a successful, high-difficulty appropriate roll to raise your Funds by 1 level (or potentially 2 levels for massive heists). Failure usually results in severe Hard Moves from the GM (jail time, injury, police tracking).