Investor Players and Investments as Rewards

Investing in Organizations Within Your Game

Couldn't find artist, will update if that changes.

In all my time playing RPGs, one question has bothered me a lot longer than others:

How can players play rich, wealthy, affluent characters…

…without it unbalancing the game.

Now, some of the more abstract RPGs out there have no problem with this. But if the gear is a major factor in the character’s advancement, then how wealthy they are becomes a major factor in-game balance.

That becomes even more true in science fiction games that have starships. If the players can simply sell a starship, they could then just gear themselves to the max and blow that balance out of the game.

Every game handles this balance differently. Most games, however, strictly limit the wealth available to the player in addition to any other method they use. Restricted wealth means that accurately portraying a wealthy character can become problematic.

That leads me to today’s discussion. How can I let a player become the wealthy, affluent character they want to play…  and how can I do that without upsetting any previously existing game balance?

I’ve struggled with those questions for a long time. It wasn’t until I started playing the Starfinder Roleplaying Game that I was inspired to the answer. You see, Starfinder solved the issue of starships being sold to gear up the party by completely divorcing them from the energy credit economy players use and spend. Players don’t spend money on their starships. Instead, acquisition, maintenance, and even modification of them get handled in-game through roleplaying. You get a starship because that’s where the story took you. You get rid of the salvaged starship you towed to port by making a deal with someone who can use it. And you modify a starship by rearranging how you spent points on it… because it gets a certain number of points each level, so the starship will always be advancing with the party, but no money is actually spent on it.

When the game released, that decision was pretty controversial. In fact, it was so controversial that on some forums, even asking about how many credits a starship is worth can enrage some of the old-timers. They got sooooo tired of seeing that debate dominate their platforms. But that system is where I got my inspiration. 

If there is one truism about wealthy people, it is that they don’t leave their money sitting; they put it to work generating more of it. They invest. So if a player wants to be a wealthy, affluent character, they don’t need money; they need investments. Once I realized that I instantly realized that the way Starfinder handled starships was EXACTLY how to handle investments too: utterly divorce them from the player money economy.

I could then give out an “Investment” as part of the treasure/reward after an adventure, and the players could leverage that investment to get perks and advantages within the organization they invest in.

That was the easy part. It was working out how that took a while longer.

Here is what I decided:

Each investment would have a tier between 1 and 3 based on its nature. That tier would determine the types of perks it could earn from the company you invest it in.

That meant each organization would also need three tiers of rewards. Then each tier would need some form of advancement so the more of that tier you invest in, the more you get from your growing investments.

Lastly, each company would have different aspects you could invest in, which would provide different kinds of perks.

Tiers of Investment

 In my opinion the best way to divide the tiers up was by a combination of how significant it is and how much effort the company you are investing in has to go through to make use of it.

With that in mind, the first tier is “Opportunities” or “Leads.” You’ve found some new revenue stream the organization can take advantage of, but they are going to have to do all the work to do so.

The second, middle tier is “Sums.” These are some volume of cash or product put directly into their control. A donation essentially. While valuable, and takes little effort to take advantage of, when you are talking about star-spanning megacorps, no lump sum is actually going to be significant to the whole organization. This is also the tier I have salvaged starships at. They take some effort to repair, but are quite valuable to an interstellar organization.

The last tier is “Territory” or “Control” of something. Acquiring exclusive trading rights in a region of space is more valuable than any lump sum donation could ever be. Claiming a planet and providing it for the organization’s use is also the sort of investment in that organization that will catapult you into the ranks of its most valuable members. Turning a local government into figureheads for the board of directors is another example. You aren’t just donating monetary value; you are donating power and reach.

The loot rewards you give that include investments can have different values within its tier even. A 3-point tier 1 investment is simply the equivalent of 3 tier 1 investments.

Investment Rewards

Okay, so that covers the types of investments, but what can you invest in?

I divided each company into three broad categories: Social, Materials, and R&D. The investor chooses which of those areas of the organization to invest in. From there, each of those areas is divided into three tiers, matching the three investment tiers. Investing a tier 1 investment in materials will always go to tier 1 under Materials for that company.

The rewards I use in Starfinder for each tier under each area are as follows: 

Social

Social rewards take the form of the company bestowing prestige upon the investor. The more you invest, the more you’ll be rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful.

1.   Reactions-members of the company have a default attitude of friendly towards the investor. They probably don’t recognize you on sight, but once you show your credentials, the company will be more than happy to help it’s investors any way they can.

2.   Networking-members of the company are willing to introduce the investor to their strategic partners. You’ve earned the trust of the organization; they are willing to put their reputation on the line to back you when they introduce you to their strategic partners. (A strategic partner is a non-competing entity that provides and benefits from mutual help in business matters)

3.   Reputation-the investor becomes recognized on-site, gain a celebrity status within the company, and other companies WILL try to lure them away. You’ve changed the face of the game board, redrawn lines on the map, and done so to raise the organization above others. Even it’s enemies will know who you are.

Material

Material rewards take the form of a strategic partnership. The organization will begin backing your operations because your operations are helping them grow. Essentially, they are investing back into you when you invest in them, causing mutual growth.

1.   Facilities-the investor is given access to use company facilities for crafting and other things. The shop knows your face and knows what you’ve done for them. They’ll make time to help you out because they know their bottom line will be better for it.

2.   Equipment-The investor is given the ability to requisition company equipment for a mission. (your game’s normal item level restrictions would still apply). The organization is willing to back you with supplies and equipment because they are certain they will get more back from your exploits than it’ll cost them.

3.   Personnel-The company will loan the investor the services of its personnel for the duration of a mission, free of charge. The company is willing to be fully part of your operations. You scratch their back, and they scratch yours.

R&D (Research and Development)

R&D rewards are all about benefiting from the company’s research and development. They will keep your gear on the cutting edge of technology and magic.

1.   Organization Signature Gear-the company will apply that company’s signature manufacturer modification to the investor’s equipment free of charge any time it’s needed. You might even include a whole new weapon in this reward, if their current weapon is in serious need of upgrade, give them the closest tier of weapon in the same line as theirs, that doesn't go above their item level. For example, investing in AbadarCorp would result in upgrading your generic ranged weapons to AbadarCorp’s Defender line of ranged weapons. And if their weapon was an Azimuth Laser Pistol, but they are level 10, the company might give them a Defender-line Aphelion Laser Pistol to replace it.

2.   Customization Services-the company will provide and install one weapon accessory, fusion, or armor upgrade that that organization manufactures; and install it for each investor free of charge. (your game’s normal item level restrictions would still apply)

3.   Spell Chip Subscription-the company will allow the investor to join its spell chip subscription. Most major companies maintain one for its most valuable members. A Spell Chip Subscription is a curated list of spells the company maintains, coupled with the ability to plug spell chips into the list. They get refilled regularly with the spells on the list. I’ll go more into this topic in a future post.

Note: You might question whether giving gear or upgrades as gifts for your investments. As the GM, consider that you are giving the investments as quest/mission rewards. So it’s no different than giving those items as rewards, but with some extra steps and some specific flavoring.

Advancement

Your first rewards will only be at the local level. Eventually, as word gets around and you become known for a thing, your rewards will expand to a regional area. Once it hits the regional area, the rate at which you get recognized (and your reward applied) will expand even further until eventually you are known throughout the organization.

The rate it expands through the organization is what determines how fast your advance within the tier. And how fast that happens is determined by how big the organization is. The larger the organization, the longer it will take to advance.

My rule of thumb is to go by quarters. When you are still at the local level, putting a number of investments into the company equal to a quarter of the local branches will be enough that word about you has spread throughout the region. So you advance to the regional level. Once there, any future investments at that tier go by region, and putting a number equal to the number of regions will indicate that word has spread about you throughout the whole company/organization.

And that’s it, that’s my plan to let players become wealthy and affluent without unbalancing the credit economy. You can track investments in each company separately. I hope it’s useful to you all. Another time I’ll discuss how you can use this system to build up smaller organizations.

Another time I will discuss how you can use these investments to chart the growth of an organization, create plot hooks, and even start an organization

Sometimes your investments pay off big. Image is Anubis Mothership from Stargate SG-1

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