Suitable monetry rewards for ridding of monsters

[Long Shadow]

I'm running a Heros-Fantasy game that revolves around a medium trade-town that is menanced by a Flying Horror (with a few suprises instore). The premise is that heroes and mercenaries have been attracted to the town with the promise of a reward for ridding the town of this menace. Now the first half the reward will not be large enough for mercenary groups to take seriously but juicy enough for indivduals or small groups. Later when political powers start to jockey for supremacy in the town, the mayor will raise the reward enough that the merc groups that have been sniffing around will take it seriously (the merc groups are 30 men strong).

At the moment I'm just stumped for what would be a suitable initial and final level of monetry reward for the person(s) who rids the town of the menace. Anyone want to suggest what I should use?

[Long Shadow]

OK though there are spoilers for my PCs should they read (you know who you are!)

My Godslayer games are a blend between Palladium Fantasy and Heroes Unlimited. It revolves around a great war between demons and mankind 5000 years past and the legacies that have survived to the present day.

Spoiler:

In the adventure, the town was an independant trading town (medium sized) before the militant arm of a regious movement known as the Cult of Gaia forcefully took control of the town. They persecuted any other worship and set the town council answerable to the church. Seven years later, a monster (a Flying Horror) has appeared in the region from nowhere and its first act upon entering the region was to raze the main church and all chapels associated with the Cult of Gaia. The attack took out the leader of the local church and the small military force that the Cult of Gaia had stationed there. The beast has then gone on to raid livestock in outlying areas but has not menaced the town.
With the Cult of Gaia's influence in the town in disarray, the coucillors are eager to have non-Gaian affiliated adventurer to rid the town of the monster. They are casting whispers that the Gaian church was responsible for the attacks and if an adventurer group that has no ties to the church can eliminate the monster problem, then the council will be in a stronger position to rally the townsfolk to denounce the church.
THe council has put out a reward for any group who rids the town of the moster. When the Gaian support arrives, the council will bump up the reward to encourage non-affiliated adventurers. So far the initial reward has attracted a monster-hunter group (think big game hunters), a trio of mystic breeders who want the monster for their breeding stock, and two knights anf their retuine. A mercenary group, The Bleeding Sons, are hanging around, knowing the reward will go up when the council becomes desparate.

So that's the gist of it, and the adventure is more indepth than just a monster hunt. So I'm just looking for a good figure for the initial reward and the bumped up reward.

[Killer Cyborg]

It kind of depends on how you want your world economy to be, and how wealthy you want your PCs to be in that context.
Do you want them to have little to no financial difficulty during the game?
Or to struggle and work in order to slowly thrive?

The economics of PFRPG are not well thought-out enough to be realistic, so my suggestion is that you start from scratch.

[CyCo]

It really depends on how the is run. Like KC said, do you want them to be scraping money together just to get by, break even, or start raking in the cash?

If the characters are materialistic, which a lot of games tend to run, give them enough cash to maintain their weapons/ammo/equipment as well as any healing they may need to do after or during the adventure. Then tack on an additional amount so they can 'live large' is they so desire, living in expensive hotels and fine dining. Or so they can afford to upgrade their weapons/equipment a notch or two.

Of course, you could run it like I used to run Cyberpunk back in the day. Give them a huge reward, let them spend it (or not!), and then take it away. What's that? a character upgraded his chosen 'toy' (armour, weapon, vehicle, etc) with some funky new 'bling'? Someone else may just want that and take it away when they're not watching. Or if they keep it solvent, steal it back!!

The GM giveth, the GM taketh away!! Bruhahahaha....!

8]

[Long Shadow]

I like Smashed's idea as it would the way the council would think, and a ran a couple of numbers that a mercenary group would charge with pay, upcost, officier pay and company profit. So I'll work with these.

As for leveling to what the characters deserve, this is more of a story tool than a playing reward. They need money, the other hunters are also wanting it but how they act is dependant on how much they want it and how much it is.


I appreciate the input....