"A reward beyond your wildest dreams!"

[gizmo33]

How do you keep players grounded and reasonable when haggling out a reward for a mission?

Why?
I don't stop them from sticking their heads into the mouths of dragons, so why should I worry about how they haggle?
I suspect that you're trying to motivate the PCs to go on an adventure with a reward. The first thing to wonder is whether or not you and the players are metagaming this - the players are using knowledge of your desperation as a DM to demand higher rewards.

Non-metagame considerations for rewards would be the ones you would expect:
1. how much money does the employer have
2. how important is the mission to the employer
3. what other options exist for the employer to accomplish the mission (eg. if pressed can he send his private army, or hire other adventures)

So, for example, if the mission is to save the kingdom and the PCs are the only ones that can do it then I'd expect the PCs to ask for all the wealth of the kingdom? Why not? That's life (though it may not be lawful good - but it certainly would happen IRL)

However - the first step is to play your NPCs according to their interests (saving the kingdom) and not yours (having the PCs go through your adventure)

 

[Dracomeander]

I ran into this problem as a player recently. We were a party of 8 3rd level characters, and my character was tasked with negotiating the reward/price for our group to take on an adventure.

I knew the group wouldn't like the initial price offered so I managed to negotiate up to 1275 gp each plus whatever we find besides the object we were retrieving for us to take the job. That's 13000 gp being offered to a relatively unknown party trying to build up a reputation, and the group told me when I brought it back to them that I hadn't asked for nearly enough for a simple retrieval assignment.

I think the way party wealth is discussed and codified in 3.x leads to player expectations beyond the reasonable for this type of adventure hook to be a viable standard anymore.

 

[wocky]

In the Living Greyhawk campaign, players of 1-3 level only get promised around 100 gp per mission... at least one of the assignments involved the players getting on a ship and travelling for almost a month. They usually get some favour as well, or access to special items they can buy with their hard earned coin.

As you can imagine, I've heard my share of complaints from players who think 100 gp is too little... I wish they'd metagame a little bit more, and then they'd realize that there's no way to overcome the "gp per adventure" cap in Living Greyhawk.

 

[toberane]

In RL, I've had to work and study hard for about the last 10 years to get a moderate house that I'm in debt up to my eyeballs in and an entry level job that makes barely enough to cover house payment, groceries, utilities, car payments, cable, phone, and expenses for the kids. When I want a new D&D book, I often have to put it off for months before I feel that we have the extra $40 to cover it.

So when I play D&D for one night a week, I like to escape and be an adventurer with a noble title, stronghold, powerful magic items, political influence, etc. This is Fantasy, and heroes out of fantasy often find themselves with gobs of money, nice equipment, and kings and queens listening to what they have to say. It is one of the perks that comes with risking your life time and time again to save the world, kingdom, province, or whatever.

As long as the DM can continue to make the adventure challenging and fun for the PCs, I don't see a problem with rewards. However, if my character has to work hard and barely eek out a living, I don't find that to be fun. And I play D&D to have fun.

As a DM, I like to keep this perspective in mind. Fame and fortune are fun things for characters to have, and it keeps the players wanting to come back to my world. It also gives hooks for other adventures, since having fame and fortune makes characters that much more of a target.

 

[Oryan77]

Why?
I don't stop them from sticking their heads into the mouths of dragons, so why should I worry about how they haggle?

So, for example, if the mission is to save the kingdom and the PCs are the only ones that can do it then I'd expect the PCs to ask for all the wealth of the kingdom? Why not? That's life (though it may not be lawful good - but it certainly would happen IRL)

Asking for a lot isn't what I'm referring to. The best example I can think of right now based on your example is, as a logical person and a DM, what is your reaction when those PC's tell the ruler of that kingdom that they don't want all of the kingdoms wealth, they want to own the entire planet as their reward?

I think some of you guys are missing my point. Of course a DM should be handing out rewards that are pricey and worth the mission. I never critisized how high of a reward an NPC "shoulda/woulda/coulda" handed out. Though I wasn't referring to that, I will comment about it....I'll give PC's a large reward everytime the mission is worth that amount. But I'm not a munchkin DM who's going to hand out 100 trillion dollars for rescuing a cat from a tree. It almost sounds like some of you are saying you DM like that

My point is, instead of being reasonable and logical when deal making, lots of players are unreasonable, illogical, and greedy in their deal making. I guess my reasons for posting was to see how often others deal with this also. I figured it was pretty common. Although I wasn't really looking for answers to deal with it because it's pretty easy to deal with, I did get some good suggestions like "over qualified" and rival adventuring parties undercutting the PC's

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Along the "overqualified" line, it'd be tempting to say, "You want the mace, eh? Not for this trivial job, but if you think you can handle it, I've got this other job for you to do...."

After the PCs experience a humiliating TPK at the hands of the vastly too-powerful enemy they're sent up against, they might think twice about overreaching in the future

Daniel

This is sheer brilliance.

My PC's don't tend to want big rewards, but they do expect to get everything for free while "in town". Sure we'll kill that dragon that's terrorizing the outlands, but we're going to need free healing, room & board, etc. It's hard to say no to that (but I do it anyways).

 

[ThirdWizard]

My PCs don't usually haggle.

The last time the party was offered a job was by a noble who was looking for someone to procure a gift for a retiring captain in order to gain favor. The noble sent an errand boy to find the PC that he had heard of and after all was said and done, the PC was too scared to haggle with the noble for fear of insulting him and being tossed out before getting the mission. Nobles are fairly haughty after all what with the being nobility and all. He gladly accepted the thousand gold per person (at level 7) to retrieve the item. He knows when all is said and done the noble he is helping will be grateful to them for their service, which is more important than the gold reward.

One time this happened, the captain from above asked them to help get rid of some lizard-men who were encroaching, along with a bunch of other adventurers. They got paid somwehere around 100 gp for their services (around level 4 then). Later, when they needed help fighting some undead, he remembered their aid, and since it was in the interest of the city, he gave them each some magical equipment that would help kill undead.

So, I've trained them to look at things differently, I suppose. The gold reward is secondary, and they know it. It does help that most of my players didn't have much RPG experience before playing under me, so their playstyle is heavily influenced by mine, leaving us on the same page. Training monty haul players to think of gold as a secondary reward is something that might take years to teach...

 

[Saeviomagy]

A players 5th lvl PC asks an invisible but obviously powerful person to give him an 82,000gp magical mace to risk his life on a mission. Now granted, the mission might sound insane, but the guy wouldn't ask the PC to do something suicidal...

Why not? If the guy dies, it's not like he's lost anything.

See - if a mission sounds suicidal, the PC's will ask for a huge amount of recompense. Because to them, it's a suicidal mission. That's really all they've got to go on.

 

[Oryan77]

Why not? If the guy dies, it's not like he's lost anything.

See - if a mission sounds suicidal, the PC's will ask for a huge amount of recompense. Because to them, it's a suicidal mission. That's really all they've got to go on.

Think about that. If you needed to hire someone to perform a task for you, are you going to waste your time and hire someone that most likely can't survive the mission...then when they fail, you have to hire someone else, and keep hiring people until one of the poor shmucks gets lucky and survives the mission? Then if they do survive and complete the mission, you're stuck paying them more than what it was worth just because it was dangerous for them.

Or, are you going to save yourself the time & trouble and hire someone competent enough for the job who will take a resonable amount because it isn't completely suicidal for him?

If players ask for huge rewards because it's "suicidal", then my NPC questions their ability as adventurers, "Oh I'm sorry, I came to you because I thought you were brave enough to handle this mission. I guess I will have to look elsewhere for more professional people. I can afford to pay what the mission is worth, which is a lot, but I can't afford to compensate for the extra risk involved simply because you aren't skilled enough".

 

[S'mon]

I've never really had this problem as GM. For a kill or rescue mission most players will settle for "freedom of the city plus all the loot you recover", maybe 100-2000gp each on top depending on PC level (roughly 50 to 100gp per level). For a McGuffin-recovery usually I'll set the patron's opening offer, what they expect to pay, and the maximum they're prepared to pay. Obviously if the PCs won't accept the maximum offer, no deal. I think Archduke Ulfius initially offered 100,000 for the Harmonic Armour and settled on 400,000, he would have gone up to ca 800,000gp at a pinch. Of course the less the PCs demand, the more favourably disposed he'll be towards them in future.

I forgot to mention, the Harmonic Armour also gives Spell Turning. The Fighter PC really wanted to keep it, but the rest of the party wanted their money.