D&D General Getting The Gold Out of the Dungeon

[Reynard]

This came up off topic in another thread and thought it might be fin to talk about it on its own.

Note that I don't think it is particularly productive to talk about the use of gold in 5E or any other edition. That's a fine topic but I think would be distracting from the purpose of this conversation.

So: The PCs manage to find a massive but completely inconvenient source of gold piece value in the dungeon. It isn't just a pile of coins that they can shove into bags of holding or whatever. Maybe it a diamond the size of a house. Maybe it is a 20 ton gold statue. Maybe the dragon's hoard turned out to be thousands of delicate faberge eggs. Whatever the case, the treasure will definitely level up the PCs, let them build their HQs, maybe purchase that noble title, etc... They need to get it out of the dungeon intact and actually convert it to liquid cash before any of that can happen.

How?

How would you, as GM, make that fun? As a player, would that sort of challenge be interesting to you? Have you ever done this before in a game, as player or GM?

 

[AnotherGuy]

Interviewing a viable group of contractors to transport the goods or the acquisition of the necessary equipment/pack mules?
Terrain/Environmental challenges?
Dealing with appraisers / tax collectors / moneylenders?
Opportunistic bandits seeking to make a quick score?
Legal/illegal claimants of the hoard or possibly land on which the dungeon exists? Legal ramifications
Encountering subterranean threats now that the dragon has been vanquished?

It could be fun...

 

[MarkB]

Genie pact warlock can be fun here, since anything you can physically lift off the ground, even in altered form, you can stash in your genie vessel once per day.

Where it could get fun is if you have to maintain the illusion that the dungeon is still occupied and functioning until you've finished removing the loot, so that the PCs wind up impersonating the BBEG and their minions.

 

[Reynard]

I like the idea of running a adventure to kill a dragon and acquire its hoard, but then end up having to deal with the endless stream of people trying to come and get a piece, from bandits to "nobles fallen on hard times" and so on. Not like The Hobbit where it may count as having belonged to someone else, just the kind fo people that would come out of the woodwork to get in on a massive hoard like that.

 

[SteveC]

Many years ago, we were running an adventure based on the Rod of Seven Parts. There was a tomb there that had a water trap and the walls in the tomb were mithril, so teleport or other magic couldn't get you out of it.

After we had dealt with the trap, we started to think about just how much mithril was there, and how it would be almost impossible to get it out of there. We eventually contacted the dwarven kingdom and made a deal with them to get the mithril out. They brought in a digging team, and had diving suits to work underwater. It changed the course of the entire campaign. I think we did go back to assembling the Rod at some point, but with the wealth of a kingdom (even after giving the dwarves most of the money!) it was a different experience.

 

[James Gasik]

This came up off topic in another thread and thought it might be fin to talk about it on its own.

Note that I don't think it is particularly productive to talk about the use of gold in 5E or any other edition. That's a fine topic but I think would be distracting from the purpose of this conversation.

So: The PCs manage to find a massive but completely inconvenient source of gold piece value in the dungeon. It isn't just a pile of coins that they can shove into bags of holding or whatever. Maybe it a diamond the size of a house. Maybe it is a 20 ton gold statue. Maybe the dragon's hoard turned out to be thousands of delicate faberge eggs. Whatever the case, the treasure will definitely level up the PCs, let them build their HQs, maybe purchase that noble title, etc... They need to get it out of the dungeon intact and actually convert it to liquid cash before any of that can happen.

How?

How would you, as GM, make that fun? As a player, would that sort of challenge be interesting to you? Have you ever done this before in a game, as player or GM?

I would have other questions. Like why is there a 20 ton gold statue in a dungeon, and how did it get there?

 

[MarkB]

Many years ago, we were running an adventure based on the Rod of Seven Parts. There was a tomb there that had a water trap and the walls in the tomb were mithril, so teleport or other magic couldn't get you out of it.

After we had dealt with the trap, we started to think about just how much mithril was there, and how it would be almost impossible to get it out of there. We eventually contacted the dwarven kingdom and made a deal with them to get the mithril out. They brought in a digging team, and had diving suits to work underwater. It changed the course of the entire campaign. I think we did go back to assembling the Rod at some point, but with the wealth of a kingdom (even after giving the dwarves most of the money!) it was a different experience.

In that vein, there was the introductory adventure for Eberron 3.5e, which featured a forge in the depths of Sharn whose doors were stated to be made of adamantine. That made them by far the most valuable thing in there, and many a game was derailed into attempts to get them back up to more civilised levels.

 

[Charlaquin]

I’m generally not a huge fan of this sort of challenge. It’s tolerable maybe once in a campaign, but even then it’s just kind of a weird logistics puzzle, like the famous one with the fox, boat, and chickens. Not really the sort of challenge I’m looking for out of D&D.

How would I try to make such a puzzle interesting? Don’t make it about the logistics. Provide a way to transport the item(s), but make the route to wherever you need to take it to sell it dangerous, then it becomes a “protect the goods in transit” challenge. Run it like trying to stop a train robbery in a Western.

 

[Reynard]

I would have other questions. Like why is there a 20 ton gold statue in a dungeon, and how did it get there?

That dungeon is 1000 years old and has been occupied by at least a dozen weird cults, alien monsters, and would be god kings. It would be weird if there WASN'T a 20 ton gold statue in there.

 

[Reynard]

I’m generally not a huge fan of this sort of challenge. It’s tolerable maybe once in a campaign, but even then it’s just kind of a weird logistics puzzle, like the famous one with the fox, boat, and chickens. Not really the sort of challenge I’m looking for out of D&D.

How would I try to make such a puzzle interesting? Don’t make it about the logistics. Provide a way to transport the item(s), but make the route to wherever you need to take it to sell it dangerous, then it becomes a “protect the goods in transit” challenge. Run it like trying to stop a train robbery in a Western.

Interesting things need to happen for the game to be interesting. yes. Merely figuring out how to get the giant statue out is, indeed, only part of the challenge. Even if you have a system, will the denizens of the dungeon let you? If you had to hire some help, did one of them sell you out? Is that the king's tax collector standing on the dungeon stoop?