According to the MP rules on p. 14, "All characters start with a d4 Wealth roll (representing an average annual income of about $40,000)."
Ok, great. But what does this actually mean in terms of playing your MP superhero? Well, if your character is fairly normal, say someone like Peter Parker, then at the very least he or she is going to need a place to stay. According to the chart (courtesy of Stephanie O'Connel) to the left, someone making $40k a year and living in NYC would have to have roommates. He'd have his own room, but that's about it.
Having roommates opens up lots of role-playing opportunities. Who are these roommates: do they work for Intercime, are they cursed, is your character romantically interested in a roommate, etc, etc.
So you get all the stuff on the chart for your basic income of $40k a year. What does the d4 Wealth roll give you? Well, according to the rules on p. 147, you get "one major purchase attempt per week" and "it isn't necessary to roll for any purchases where the target number is less than half the character's maximum Wealth roll."
What this means (for characters with a d4 Wealth roll) is you don't have to roll for any item or service with a target number of 1: fast food, fleabag motel room, casual clothing, cab fare, video rentals, etc. However, If multiple ‘automatic’ purchases are made in the same week, and the total of their target numbers exceeds ½ of the character’s maximum Wealth roll, then the character's weekly purchase roll is used up."
Anything with a Target Number of 2 or higher and you'll have to make a Wealth roll, and that'll be it for one full week. So use those rolls wisely!
In this day and age almost everyone has a cellphone and it is included on the chart at $75 a month. As long as you use it in your secret ID, you don't have to pay CPs for it (see what Jeff says about this at the bottom). But if for some reason you want to use it in your hero guise, then here is a suggested version of how it is built using the Communicators rules:
So you get all the stuff on the chart for your basic income of $40k a year. What does the d4 Wealth roll give you? Well, according to the rules on p. 147, you get "one major purchase attempt per week" and "it isn't necessary to roll for any purchases where the target number is less than half the character's maximum Wealth roll."
What this means (for characters with a d4 Wealth roll) is you don't have to roll for any item or service with a target number of 1: fast food, fleabag motel room, casual clothing, cab fare, video rentals, etc. However, If multiple ‘automatic’ purchases are made in the same week, and the total of their target numbers exceeds ½ of the character’s maximum Wealth roll, then the character's weekly purchase roll is used up."
In this day and age almost everyone has a cellphone and it is included on the chart at $75 a month. As long as you use it in your secret ID, you don't have to pay CPs for it (see what Jeff says about this at the bottom). But if for some reason you want to use it in your hero guise, then here is a suggested version of how it is built using the Communicators rules:
MP Cellphone: Communicators: 5 Base Cost,1 0 mile range, GPS (2.5), Internet (2.5), Color Video (5), Recording (2.5), Texting (2.5), Single (-5), Requires Cell Towers (-5), 6 one-hour Charges (-5); Total Cost = 5 CPs
Note that the 10 mile range refers to the cell phone tower, not the overall range of the cell phone. As long as it can reach a cell tower it can communicate with other cell phones. Also note that the 6 one-hour charges refers to the actual time spent talking or using the phone. "Standby time" would be longer, possibly 1 to 3 days, before the phone needs recharging.
Note that the 10 mile range refers to the cell phone tower, not the overall range of the cell phone. As long as it can reach a cell tower it can communicate with other cell phones. Also note that the 6 one-hour charges refers to the actual time spent talking or using the phone. "Standby time" would be longer, possibly 1 to 3 days, before the phone needs recharging.
An excellent way to map game mechanics to real world and back. It's a nice thing about _MP_ Wealth that at the default level, it allows players to mostly ignore "cost of living" as a background thing.
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