Assets - Rewards Beyond Money and Magic

Personally, I've always been the kind of player who could never be satisfied with Experience Points, Gold Pieces, and Magic Items. A large part of the charm to systems like World of Darkness is that it allows you to spend points for things beyond super-powers: influence, allies, access to information - whatever they lack in exoticism they make up for in sheer utility. Even more critically, they are incentives for characters to be immersed or invested in the game world beyond wherever they happen to be standing at the time. I got my first taste of this in d20 game hording boons and favors from Living Greyhawk modules and the introduction of Icons in the 13th Age game setting and Factions in the Fifth Edition of Dungeons and Dragons revisited the idea. So in Byzantine Age, I really wanted to bring all these different kinds of rewards together into a general category called Assets.

Below are my Asset Types, and yes the number ten was completely arbitrary. There's no pressing need to even bother quantifying this stuff in many games, but some categories and examples helps reassure my players that are otherwise worried about overreaching. These kind of things are meant to be a bit wibbly-wobbly, but useful.

Magical Resources: Permanent Magic Items, Supernatural Abilities, Divine Boons
Vehicles: Warhorse, Carriage, Pirate Ship, Pegasus
Wealth: Access to Adventuring Gear, Lifestyle Expenses, Fungible Investments
Real Estate: Workshop, Farm, Tower, Manor
Servants: Slaves, Employees, Lackeys, Minions
Contacts: Access to information, people, markets, etc. if you make it worth their while
Allies: Go out of their way to provide aid, though the resources and dedication will vary
Favors: Boons, Debts, Blackmail
Glory: A relative measure of personal fame (or infamy)
Station: Earl, Archbishop, Guild Officer, General

I've also fallen into the habit of sticking some sort of a number value on these things - less of a price-tag and more a squishy scale of relative "bigness." Some categories need more than one number; Allies, Contacts, and Favors are usually dealt with individually (each alliance or favor rated by itself), while wealth is just a single lump of everything you have available (coins, art objects, etc.). Some categories are easier to peg than others. Take Station, for example. Here's a scale of station for our Byzantine Age game. While a character might have one rating relative to the Empire, it doesn't mean the same thing on the Germanic side of the Danube or in the sands of Persia.

-4: Proscribed: Exile
-3: Hunted: Wanted Criminal
-2: Outsider: Barbarian
-1: Bondage: Slave
 0: Servitude: Serf
 1: Citizenship: Commoner
 2: Taxpayer: Artisan, Yeoman
 3: Privileged: Soldier, Steward, Man-at-Arms, Priest, Mayor, Guild Member
 4: Peer: Landless Nobility, Knight Errant, Military or Guild Officer
 5: Minor Lord: Baron, Lieutenant, Guildmaster, Bishop
 6: Lord: Earl / Count, Commander, Patrician, Archbishop
 7: Major Lord: Duke, General, Doge, Cardinal
 8: Sovereign: King, Warlord, Consul, High Priest
 9: Overlord: Emperor

I actively encourage these kinds of assets to bleed over into various categories and interact with one another. A simple example would be starting a self-sustaining business. One would typically convert some Wealth into the purchase of some Real Estate (in this case a tavern) and put in the effort of finding a reliable sort of Servant to manage the establishment. Once the business is up and running it should provide the owning character with a fair bit of income as well as be a source of information, contacts, and fame.

It also provides the Dungeon Master with a variety of potential encounters and hooks. Do the PCs put in the effort to find the right person for the job? That could be a side-quest unto itself. If they don't put in the effort, they may have to deal with issues of mismanagement like incompetence or embezzlement. Have the PCs created enemies or rivalries that could come home to roost? Such events should be doorways to opportunity though, rather than turn their assets into a poisoned prize. That defeats the entire purpose of the exercise.

Interviewer: Well, can you... blow up the world?
The Tick: Egad. I hope not. That's where I keep all my stuff.