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Pennies from Heaven Technique
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Bureaucracy 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Dramatic Action) Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Frugal Merchant Method, Insightful Buyer Technique
The Lawgivers are beyond mundane worries about the acquisition of wealth, being able to build a vast fortune from the humblest of beginnings. The Solar sets out with whatever money he has on hand, or simply the clothes on his back, and makes a ([Intelligence or Wits] + Bureaucracy) roll, adding the his Essence in additional successes. The difficulty of this roll is equal to your target (Resources) rating, raised by 4 for every time you have used this charm in the same economy this season, and by 2 for every time you have previously used this charm in the same economy this year.
The Lawgiver's dramatic action takes a week's worth of effort over the period of a season, which is spent engaging in various economic activities ranging from raising capital to buying and selling commodities. Once the work is done, however, the character has increased his Resources background by one dot or gained a single dot in the background if he started with literally nothing. If used irresponsibly, the Solar can easily destroy an economy with this charm. In addition, the wealth gathered by this charm doesn't come from nowhere. Overuse can rapidly result in "the economy" and "the lawgiver" being the same thing.
The above rules assume the Solar is using this charm in a mature, healthy economy like that of Nexus or the Imperial City and that there are no adverse economic conditions affecting the character's efforts. Both conditions impose an external penalty, which varies depending on the situation. The penalty imposed by an economic condition is quite variable, and left to the Storyteller, but the penalty imposed by a less robust economy is easy to benchmark. A small village economy like Nulam is worth a -5, a large Kingdom like Nechara or one of the Fortress Cities imposes a -3 and a large vital city like Great Forks or Chiaroscuro is only -1.
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