In the several BitD campaigns I’ve run coin has always been the carrot on the stick, and the crews have always had just enough to pay off their downtime activities and fictional requirements, with maybe a little extra to put into stash.
Until now. My current crew is a Bravos gang who decided to concentrate on amassing territory (turf and claims). Over the course of nearly thirty sessions they have managed to collect (among other non-coin generating claims/turf) a card room, a drug den and a fighting pit. They are Tier III at this point, so now, during downtime, they are rolling 3d for each of those claims and collecting that much coin (minus Heat, which they are careful to get rid of as much as possible). After their last score they rolled a six for each claim, and with no Heat they ended up with a whopping 18 coin! They actually managed a second score during the same session, and the second downtime gave them an additional 15 coin.
Of course they are paying off the Hive three coin every downtime to let them do business, but this is still a LOT of coin.
It hasn’t been a true problem, per se, but it does put them in the weird position of actually earning far more coin from their holdings than they make from scores, which doesn’t exactly motivate them to accept scores, except to make it to the next cash cow downtime.
Given their Tier and history and the two rather large cohort gangs they have to maintain to guard these holdings, they have quite a few expenses. But still, they find themselves with a surplus of coin most time. I think one of them has actually filled all of his stash bars.
I know that Blades isn’t really built to deal with gangs at these levels, and to me, this is an indication that we’re almost ready to retire this crew and start a new one. But they still have some story lines we’d like to see wrapped up, so we’ll continue to play through for a bit. Also, they are enjoying the feel of becoming true mob bosses. But it’s coming dangerously close to, if not breaking the game, at least straining it a little. Also, I worry that they’ll want to do the same thing with their next crew now that they realize how lucrative the coin generating claims are.
Has anyone else had this experience? Am I missing a rule that would head this off a bit? Are there other ways I could be draining their funds (without penalizing them for using the system)?
And just to be clear, there doesn’t seem to be a specific time when the rolls for these claims should be made during downtime, so I’ve been allowing them to clear Heat and then make the rolls. The easiest solution seems to impliment a house rule that demands the rolls before Heat is cleared, but again, that seems a bit of a harsh penalization, and I try not to make too many house rules since Blades doesn’t really need them, and I don’t like to nerf unless absolutly necessary.