Who Lives in Your City - Follow-up

I have to admit, that at least a part of this concept (from the last post) developed when I was told about an event where only the “old money” of Chicago was invited. Having grown up in Chicago, I did not consider the idea that there was “old money”. Boy was I wrong! The grandchildren and great grandchildren of all those robber barons you once heard about are still not working, but are going around in their own little culture intentionally excluding those who actually worked for their money. I’m not suggesting that every rich person is an honest, hardworking member of the community, but I do have a bias against the children of privilege.

If you are like me, there is a really good chance that you don’t know any folks who were born multi-millionaires and may have forgotten to add them into your game world. The thing is, these are exactly the types who would hire adventuring groups - folks who have more money than sense and an overdeveloped sense of ego. Now to be fair, some of these folks are also philanthropists, but you may not have thought about adding those folks to your world either. Keep it going! These people have wealth and nothing to do. How do they spend that wealth to maintain their luxury? You’re adding servants, service providers, high end restaurants and social gathering places (clubs, opera, casinos?), and the merchants who deliver the high end goods to the city - often using adventurers for guards. Those goods run the gambit, and should be vastly more expensive than most people could hope to purchase (even the adventurers). I’m talking about prize winning horses, silk lace, artworks, rare jewels, and the highest tech available to your fantasy world (things like extremely thin platinum wire for jewelry or magical tools). At this point, whether you’re a role-player or a gold farmer, you must have seen something in here that will add to your world!