D&D 5E What do players spend their treasure on?

What would anyone spend the treasure on?

I think many people think of D&D more like a video game and less and an RPG. Generally speaking, I keep treasure on the lower side in my game, so that it means more when they DO hit the big score so to speak. In my current campaign, I started the PCs off at 0-level, and the first adventure was to recover a lost cow. Instead then found an old shrine with a single zombie. They killed the zombie and the treasure was a single gold piece and a brass orb, its surface etched with symbols of an unknown goddess. Prior to that their characters had only ever encountered the occasional wolf and had only ever seen silver pieces. Of course this event set them off on a career adventuring, and although it was a humble beginning, to the PCs, it was a great adventure with an amazing treasure.

Regarding the spending of wealth, just consider the sort of things you would spend money on. Perhaps they purchase a home. Maybe they finance the building of an orphanage? I had one high level rogue who founded a thieves guild that also ran an orphanage. The orphanage provided a steady flow of new guild recruits over the years, many interesting NPCs, and some great adventure hooks. A character might buy a ship to explore distant lands or open a curiosity shop to sell all the strange things they pick up on their adventures.

It doesn't always have to be about "buffing" your character.

Personally, I've long thought that carousing and living it up in the grand old sword & sorcery style should have some positive game effect.

In 5e, maybe it grants you Inspiration? Or grants you temporary Luck points? But only if you squandered a king's ransom during your downtime.

Behold! A Carousing house rule inspired by this thread!

I'm lucky because our campaign involves building up a kingdom, so I have been about to hand out rather large adventuring loots that immediately translated into build points, the currency of kingdom building. It feels like an awesome payout, but it is not game breaking. Also, they can sell magic items to get build points... 1000 gp gets you a build point. I've never played Pathfinder, but we are basically using their kingdom building rules. It worked great with the play test, and it will work with 5th edition. I am rather pleased with how easy it is to use Pathfinder adventures with minimal on the fly tweaking. I would never have been able to pull it off in my 4 edition campaigns.

The players can commission statues of themselves in each of the towns they work out of so the people don't forget how great they are. XD

This is actually somewhat connected to my #1 wishlist item in the DMG: Alternate wealth mechanics.

Counting coins isn't fun for me. Having 1465 sp, 312 gp, 251 cp on my character sheet does nothing for my imagination.

On the other hand I'd like it if my character is described as "wealthy," or "poor," etc. etc. based on some abstracted game mechanics.

Also, art objects. Art objects can be fun, but with a default gp-tracking system players seem to default to "liquidating loot for the gp's." I dunno.

(Sorry, this turned out to be a rant with no direction whatsoever.)

Merch obviously.

beej said:

This is actually somewhat connected to my #1 wishlist item in the DMG: Alternate wealth mechanics.

Counting coins isn't fun for me. Having 1465 sp, 312 gp, 251 cp on my character sheet does nothing for my imagination.

On the other hand I'd like it if my character is described as "wealthy," or "poor," etc. etc. based on some abstracted game mechanics.

Also, art objects. Art objects can be fun, but with a default gp-tracking system players seem to default to "liquidating loot for the gp's." I dunno.

(Sorry, this turned out to be a rant with no direction whatsoever.)

Click to expand...

A wealth and status mechanic would be cool. Perhaps owning art objects and displaying them in your home helps build status. Of course, then keeping them secure in order to maintain your status becomes one use of wealth.

I highly recommend having the characters build a castle or fort. All the money makes more sense when it is plowed into an economy they care about.

beej said:

This is actually somewhat connected to my #1 wishlist item in the DMG: Alternate wealth mechanics.

Counting coins isn't fun for me. Having 1465 sp, 312 gp, 251 cp on my character sheet does nothing for my imagination.

On the other hand I'd like it if my character is described as "wealthy," or "poor," etc. etc. based on some abstracted game mechanics.

Also, art objects. Art objects can be fun, but with a default gp-tracking system players seem to default to "liquidating loot for the gp's." I dunno.

(Sorry, this turned out to be a rant with no direction whatsoever.)

Click to expand...

I have to disagree with your last note. This strikes at the heart of the question. What can the player characters do with that wealth that the players will care about. All those coins on the character sheet, precious jewels, objects of art, etc. - are they meaningful to the player? The character can blow it all on a good time (or several good times), but the player gets nothing from those good times.

If we have a group of players, at one extreme, that only care about growing character power, does the gold become pointless to them? They can't spend it to become more powerful (absent the ability to purchase magic items).

This is the reverse of the old problem, that the characters have enough wealth to live 10 lavish lifetimes, but they plow it back into weapon and armor upgrades and head back out, rather than retire and live in relative safety in the lap of luxury. If all the treasure means is bigger numbers on the character sheet (and hassles keeping it safe, dealing with encumbrance, etc.), how is it adding to the fun?