The Tenth Decennial Census

Cash: Not necessarily carried on the person. The Keeper may ask where it is being kept. For example, if the investigator is traveling abroad, are they keeping it in a money belt or is there someone back home who can wire money to them when requested. This will have an impact if the investigator is robbed or loses their gear.

Spending Level: This is an arbitrary amount below which, for ease of play, no record keeping is required. A character can spend up to his or her spending level with no expenditure of cash. In theory an investigator could spend an amount just below their spending level every day, but in practice it should be used only occasionally—if the Keeper feels a player is exploiting this financial abstraction, a use of assets may be called for. The spending levels exist purely to ease the flow of the game; no one wants to track every penny.

Assets: Assets are the things that your investigator owns at the start of play and the dollar amount on the chart is the total value of those things. The player should note down the dollar amount and decide the form it takes, usually property or investments, or perhaps shares in a business. The standard list of possessions is included within the various brackets of living standards. If your living standard includes a house and car, those things

Equipment

The final step is to write down any important items, weapons or equipment your investigator possesses. There’s no need to write a detailed list of everything your character owns—just list the notable items. In many cases, starting investigators don’t really have anything exceptional or worth writing down in the way of equipment—that’s fine as you’ll soon be uncovering all manner of strange and remarkable items during the game. Items that fit the profile of your investigator’s living standard simply own those.

Even if your investigator takes no weapons, he or she may still use them. Perhaps your investigator served in a war, or gained some familiarity with knives or guns while growing up on a farm. Few people in any era are expert with weapons, though often they have passing acquaintance with them. Except for a few occupations like Soldier, additional skill points for Fighting and Firearms normally come out of personal interest skill points.

Half and Fifth Characteristic Values