Lifestyle
Lifestyles provide you with a simple way to account for the cost of living in the world of Steel Horizons. They cover your accommodations, food and drink, and all your other necessities. Furthermore, expenses cover the cost of maintaining your equipment so you can be ready when the city next calls.
Your lifestyle choice can have consequences. Maintaining a wealthy lifestyle might help you make contacts with the rich and powerful, though you run the risk of attracting thieves. Likewise, living frugally might help you avoid criminals, but you are unlikely to make powerful connections. Different Edges offer different lifestyles and you may choose to improve (or decline) your lifestyle during the length of your character. While Sprawlrunners starts at the equivalent of Poor, anything at Comfortable and Below is the starting point for Steel Horizons. Wealthy requires the Rich Edge and Aristocratic requires the Filthy Rich Edge. Should you take the Poverty Hindrance, you begin play at the Squalid or Poor Lifestyle.
In our chronicle, Lifestyle lets you buy up to your limit on any common everyday incidental expenses that are not game/mechanical in nature. Examples of this would be things like batteries for equipment, the water bill, bus passes, and other such “fiddly bits” that aren’t bonus-granted equipment like tools or gear and ammunition. Additionally, this is a good rule of thumb for things like eating out, taking a taxi, or otherwise paying for ‘large city life’ incidentals.
If you are attempting to purchase something above the cost of your Lifestyle, then you should work with your storyteller to come up with a way to earn the credits. You may not use accounting or magic tricks to earn money outside of your limit.
Buy the Rich (and potentially the Filthy Rich) Edge at character creation
Take the Poverty Hindrance at character creation
Use the Benefits & Rewards system to increase your Lifestyle via the Rich and Filthy Rich Edges
Note that while not explicitly a matter of Lifestyle, you can spend Hindrances at character creation to increase starting credits per book - for one Hindrance point you can gain additional starting funds equal to twice the normal starting amount (1500 instead of 750). Sometimes, your lifestyle can be changed through a personal plot, either as a reward or a challenge. Work with your Storyteller to let them know that this is something you'd be interested in.
You live in inhumane conditions, like the Wilds, deep in the Outer Octants, or in the slums of Hades. With no place to call home, you shelter wherever you can, sneaking into barns, huddling in old crates, and relying on the good graces of people better off than you. A wretched lifestyle presents abundant dangers. Violence, disease, and hunger follow you wherever you go. Other wretched people covet your armor, weapons, and adventuring gear, which represent a fortune by their standards. You are beneath the notice of most people. A Wretched lifestyle gives you no money for regular expenses and gives a d4 - 1 wealth die. Squalid (Requires the Poverty Hindrance)
You live in a leaky stable, a mud-floored hut in one of the Barren areas between boroughs, or a vermin-infested boarding house in the worst part of town. You have shelter from the elements, but you live in a desperate and often violent environment, in places rife with disease, hunger, and misfortune. You are beneath the notice of most people, and you have few legal protections. Most people at this lifestyle level have suffered some terrible setback. They might be disturbed, marked as exiles, or suffer from disease. A Squalid lifestyle gives you 20 credits for incidental expenses per month and gives a d4 wealth die. Poor
A poor lifestyle means going without the comforts available in a stable community. Simple food and lodgings, threadbare clothing, and unpredictable conditions result in a sufficient, though probably unpleasant, experience. Your accommodations might be a room in a flophouse or in the common room in a communal house on an outer borough. You benefit from some legal protections, but you still have to contend with violence, crime, and disease. People at this lifestyle level tend to be unskilled laborers, costermongers, peddlers, thieves, mercenaries, and other disreputable types. A Poor lifestyle gives you 40 credits for incidental expenses per month and gives a d4 wealth die. Modest (Requires a Real ID or a Fake ID of Level 3+)
A modest lifestyle keeps you out of the slums and ensures that you can maintain your equipment. You live in one of the Boroughs, renting a room in a boarding house, apartment, or community house. You don’t go hungry or thirsty, and your living conditions are clean, if simple. Ordinary people living modest lifestyles include the average, everyday, working Olympian. A Modest lifestyle gives you 60 credits for incidental expenses per month and gives a d6 wealth die. Comfortable (Requires a Real ID or a Fake ID of Level 4+)
Choosing a comfortable lifestyle means that you can afford nicer clothing and can easily maintain your equipment. You live in one of the rare residential buildings in the Hub or a nicer Octant or possibly own a home in one of the Boroughs. You tend to spend your time with skilled tradespeople, business owners, and other professionals as well as the occasional politician in Zeus of one of the Gatewardens or Oracles. A Comfortable lifestyle gives you 80 credits for incidental expenses per month and gives a d6 wealth die. Wealthy (Requires the Rich Edge, as well as a Real ID or Fake ID of Level 5+)
Choosing a wealthy lifestyle means living a life of luxury, likely in Aphrodite or one of the other high class Octants - or perhaps in Cloud 9 itself. You likely own a penthouse apartment that is decorated to the nines and may even be someone famous for work in the Olympean government, on the radio, or television. You have a staff of people that assist you, cook your meals, and do the menial chores you don’t want to. A Wealthy lifestyle gives you 100 credits for incidental expenses per month and gives a d8 wealth die. Aristocratic (Requires the Filthy Rich Edge, as well as a Real ID or a Fake ID of Level 6)
You live a life of plenty and comfort. You move in circles populated by the most powerful people in the community. If your wealthy counterparts own a penthouse, you own the building itself. You dine at the best restaurants, retain the most skilled and fashionable tailor, and have servants attending to your every need. You receive invitations to the social gatherings of the rich and powerful, and spend evenings in the company of politicians, television stars, Gatewardens, and other such fabulously wealthy or influential people. You must also contend with the highest levels of deceit and treachery. The wealthier you are, the greater the chance you will be drawn into political intrigue as a pawn or participant. An Aristocratic lifestyle gives you an unlimited number of credits for incidental expenses per month and gives a d10 wealth die.
Consequential Rewards
Sometimes there may be cases when an in-character decision will cause your character to miss out on Credits or other rewards that you should otherwise normally receive as reward from plot. In situations like these, it is up to Storyteller choice to allow your character to receive an appropriate windfall at a later date that would equal the amount given up.Changing Lifestyle
A player is allowed to increase (or decrease!) their lifestyle over the course of the game. To change your lifestyle, you may:Note that while not explicitly a matter of Lifestyle, you can spend Hindrances at character creation to increase starting credits per book - for one Hindrance point you can gain additional starting funds equal to twice the normal starting amount (1500 instead of 750). Sometimes, your lifestyle can be changed through a personal plot, either as a reward or a challenge. Work with your Storyteller to let them know that this is something you'd be interested in.
Lifestyle Costs
Remember that Lifestyle tends to cover things like rent and such. It's considered the ‘extra money’ akin to Credits put aside for special occasions. Someone in a Squalid lifestyle could afford fast food at a quickstop restaurant in the Hub perhaps once or twice a month, while a Modest lifestyle can do so repeatedly - yet only afford a nice dinner out at one of Aphrodite’s restaurants on a rare, occasional basis. This is mechanically represented by a die roll, according to “Buying Things”, on page 145 of the SWADE book.Lifestyle Types
Wretched (Requires the Poverty Hindrance)You live in inhumane conditions, like the Wilds, deep in the Outer Octants, or in the slums of Hades. With no place to call home, you shelter wherever you can, sneaking into barns, huddling in old crates, and relying on the good graces of people better off than you. A wretched lifestyle presents abundant dangers. Violence, disease, and hunger follow you wherever you go. Other wretched people covet your armor, weapons, and adventuring gear, which represent a fortune by their standards. You are beneath the notice of most people. A Wretched lifestyle gives you no money for regular expenses and gives a d4 - 1 wealth die. Squalid (Requires the Poverty Hindrance)
You live in a leaky stable, a mud-floored hut in one of the Barren areas between boroughs, or a vermin-infested boarding house in the worst part of town. You have shelter from the elements, but you live in a desperate and often violent environment, in places rife with disease, hunger, and misfortune. You are beneath the notice of most people, and you have few legal protections. Most people at this lifestyle level have suffered some terrible setback. They might be disturbed, marked as exiles, or suffer from disease. A Squalid lifestyle gives you 20 credits for incidental expenses per month and gives a d4 wealth die. Poor
A poor lifestyle means going without the comforts available in a stable community. Simple food and lodgings, threadbare clothing, and unpredictable conditions result in a sufficient, though probably unpleasant, experience. Your accommodations might be a room in a flophouse or in the common room in a communal house on an outer borough. You benefit from some legal protections, but you still have to contend with violence, crime, and disease. People at this lifestyle level tend to be unskilled laborers, costermongers, peddlers, thieves, mercenaries, and other disreputable types. A Poor lifestyle gives you 40 credits for incidental expenses per month and gives a d4 wealth die. Modest (Requires a Real ID or a Fake ID of Level 3+)
A modest lifestyle keeps you out of the slums and ensures that you can maintain your equipment. You live in one of the Boroughs, renting a room in a boarding house, apartment, or community house. You don’t go hungry or thirsty, and your living conditions are clean, if simple. Ordinary people living modest lifestyles include the average, everyday, working Olympian. A Modest lifestyle gives you 60 credits for incidental expenses per month and gives a d6 wealth die. Comfortable (Requires a Real ID or a Fake ID of Level 4+)
Choosing a comfortable lifestyle means that you can afford nicer clothing and can easily maintain your equipment. You live in one of the rare residential buildings in the Hub or a nicer Octant or possibly own a home in one of the Boroughs. You tend to spend your time with skilled tradespeople, business owners, and other professionals as well as the occasional politician in Zeus of one of the Gatewardens or Oracles. A Comfortable lifestyle gives you 80 credits for incidental expenses per month and gives a d6 wealth die. Wealthy (Requires the Rich Edge, as well as a Real ID or Fake ID of Level 5+)
Choosing a wealthy lifestyle means living a life of luxury, likely in Aphrodite or one of the other high class Octants - or perhaps in Cloud 9 itself. You likely own a penthouse apartment that is decorated to the nines and may even be someone famous for work in the Olympean government, on the radio, or television. You have a staff of people that assist you, cook your meals, and do the menial chores you don’t want to. A Wealthy lifestyle gives you 100 credits for incidental expenses per month and gives a d8 wealth die. Aristocratic (Requires the Filthy Rich Edge, as well as a Real ID or a Fake ID of Level 6)
You live a life of plenty and comfort. You move in circles populated by the most powerful people in the community. If your wealthy counterparts own a penthouse, you own the building itself. You dine at the best restaurants, retain the most skilled and fashionable tailor, and have servants attending to your every need. You receive invitations to the social gatherings of the rich and powerful, and spend evenings in the company of politicians, television stars, Gatewardens, and other such fabulously wealthy or influential people. You must also contend with the highest levels of deceit and treachery. The wealthier you are, the greater the chance you will be drawn into political intrigue as a pawn or participant. An Aristocratic lifestyle gives you an unlimited number of credits for incidental expenses per month and gives a d10 wealth die.