Wealth
Coins and Cash - UV
Coins and cash are a very simple measurement of your overall wealth. They are your liquid assets - in today's world it would be what is in your bank account along with what is in your wallet.
In Legends, cash is measured by a universal unit called the Unit of Value, or UV for short. This is an arbitrary measurement of value that allows the appraisal of goods to be consistent with variable currencies.
One uV equals the wages of one peasant's day's work. This is assuming an eight-hour day. Thus a uV can be split up into eight units each representing an hour of work. Splitting them up further than this is not possible, though one might be able to make two spoons, for example, in a single hour.
Influence
Of course, as we all know, you can be rich without having a lot of cash. Influence is a combined measure of your wealth in non-monetary units. This represents resources you control, land you own, favors you are owed, and so on.
There are two sources of Influence. The first is one-time events where you gain a certain amount, and the second are sources that create a constant stream of influence.
Persons or groups can have influence. If you are known as a group, you may have group influence which you must agree to spend as well as personal influence.
One-time Rewards
If you save the king's life, defend a town from bandits, or win a battle for the empire, you will gain some Influence. Depending on what you accomplish and who you accomplish it for, you will get more or less influence. Doing something very important for a king might get you 10 or even 20 influence, whereas no matter what you do for a poor village they can't give you more than one.
You can theoretically buy influence, via bribes or investing in business endeavors, but this is highly risky.
You can also offer to do a favor for someone in return for a favor in the future from them - or vice versa.
Sources
Holding political office, being nobility, or owning land will constantly generate influence. At the absolute best you might gain one influence per month - most are slower than that.
Below is a table of general sources of influence.
| Source | Points Gained |
|---|---|
| Farmand (per acre) | 1/10 years |
| Manor | 1/5 years |
| Minor political office | 1/2 years |
| Minor nobility | 1/2 years |
| Major nobility | 1/6 months |
| Blackmailing Prince | 1/3 months |
The fees for people farming or managing your land and holdings are taken out of the influence gained.
Using Influence
Influence is primarily used to call in favors. Because of this, it is a good idea to keep track of where all of your influence comes from. If you have gained influence from a king, you can ask for almost any favor you want, but if it has been gained from a town of poor villagers, their options of paying you back are more limited. If you have gained it from a specialist, such as a crime lord or a prominent merchant, you might be able to get very good deals on specific uses of influence - in this case cheap hired muscle or free transport on a cargo ship.
Influence gained from sources is even more specific. If you own a town or a manor, labor would be easier to gain. If you own an iron mine, metal weapons might come very cheap. If you gain it from being nobility, political favors are essentially your only option.
The bigger the favor, the more influence must be spent to earn it.
| Favor | Influence Spent |
|---|---|
| 1d6+2 day laborers for a month | 1 |
| Good deal on supplies (3/4 to 1/2 price) | 1 or 2 |
| Assassinate major public figure | 20 |
Influence can usually be converted to UV at a rate of 100 UV for each point of influence. When the GM is granting influence he or she should keep this in mind.
The GM has last say about spending influence, and there are many cases where it cannot be used. In general if you are separated from the source of the influence you cannot use it.
