GlassEye
Adventurer
This is sort of a half-thought out idea that I've been toying with as I prepared the next phase of the adventure I'm running here but I figured I'd go ahead and post it and see what you all think of it.
For me, the most tedious part of preparing an adventure for DMing is detailing out every gold piece of gear that NPCs have in their possession. And it is a wee bit frustrating to put all that work into allocating NPC resources only to have players say 'Nothing there I want; we sell it all so I can buy this other nice, new shiny,' once the NPC/monster has been defeated.
Likewise, I find it rather tedious to try to decide what minor bits of gear my characters carry around.
Proposal: Allow DMs to make use of a 'Treasure Pool', an allotment of gold that the NPC can use to 'spend' on equipment should it be needed during the course of their encounters with the PCs. Major items would still need to be detailed but minor items could be drawn from the pool. For example, NPC A has been fighting with PCs but manages to get a brief respite from combat. Spending 50 gold from his pool A reaches into his pouch and withdraws a potion of CLW and drinks it.
I can already hear the outcry, 'But that's not fair if the NPC always has exactly what he needs when he needs it!' but the reverse is also true. Once the PCs defeat A, they get his treasure pool added to their own. Later if they come to a cliff they have to climb but haven't detailed carrying rope on their character sheet, they could spend some of their treasure pool with the explanation that A had some rope.
Obviously this would have ramifications for encumbrance and magics such as bags of holding, etc. that we would have to figure out but I think this would make my life as a DM much easier. I want to hear what you all think of the idea and if something like this or something similar would be feasible for LPF.
For me, the most tedious part of preparing an adventure for DMing is detailing out every gold piece of gear that NPCs have in their possession. And it is a wee bit frustrating to put all that work into allocating NPC resources only to have players say 'Nothing there I want; we sell it all so I can buy this other nice, new shiny,' once the NPC/monster has been defeated.
Likewise, I find it rather tedious to try to decide what minor bits of gear my characters carry around.
Proposal: Allow DMs to make use of a 'Treasure Pool', an allotment of gold that the NPC can use to 'spend' on equipment should it be needed during the course of their encounters with the PCs. Major items would still need to be detailed but minor items could be drawn from the pool. For example, NPC A has been fighting with PCs but manages to get a brief respite from combat. Spending 50 gold from his pool A reaches into his pouch and withdraws a potion of CLW and drinks it.
I can already hear the outcry, 'But that's not fair if the NPC always has exactly what he needs when he needs it!' but the reverse is also true. Once the PCs defeat A, they get his treasure pool added to their own. Later if they come to a cliff they have to climb but haven't detailed carrying rope on their character sheet, they could spend some of their treasure pool with the explanation that A had some rope.
Obviously this would have ramifications for encumbrance and magics such as bags of holding, etc. that we would have to figure out but I think this would make my life as a DM much easier. I want to hear what you all think of the idea and if something like this or something similar would be feasible for LPF.
