D&D 5E Too Much Money

[cooperjer]

Mike Merals released an Unearthed Arcana on downtime to help address this concern. In the announcements of Tomb of Annihilation it sounds like they put those downtime rules in the book.

Others in this thread list some great ideas. I would add that I've allowed magic items to be purchased. I used the magic item selling table as guidance, except I use the inverse of the multiplier.

I've played through some of the book adventures and found they can justify some NPCS not having money. I've also seen very few hoards in the books. When I converted Red Hand of Doom I found I was using the hoard tables. I think the amount of money a party has is dependent on the type of story being told.

For myself, I'm not too worried about the amount of money the PCs have. I didn't want to give the game an option to be directed down a path of money management. The players worked together to establish a kingdom. One player spends his money on magic swords and uncommon magic stuff that does not require attunement. One player spends her wealth on socializing with her military. One player hoards his money and enjoys having a big number next to the gp on his sheet. I'm more concerned with the story being interesting and the players feeling like their character is growing and advancing beyond just the XP gain.

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[Libramarian]

you only get that XP if you spend it.

This is an OSR house rule, not an actual old D&D rule.

Actually IIRC it was used in Dave Arneson's campaign back in the day but it never made it into any of the official D&D books.

I tried it briefly but didn't like it much. Felt more like meta-game money laundering than "living it up".

 

[TheNoremac42]

Great post.

If they invest in a business however, say running a tavern, they can earn on average about 9GP per day (see DMG running a business) - assuming they stick around to run the business themselves. Meaning they can easily offset their costs and live between comfortably and wealthy.

Of course they might have to brush off their adventuring gear to go and fight any cataclysmic event that effects business.

Adventuring of course is far more profitable. Our group made about 350gp per person per day during Tyranny of Dragons.

Getting any money out of investing in property also requires quite a bit of downtime. I remember one campaign my wizard decided to invest in some rental property. He put down a "sack" of platinum coins. However, that campaign had virtually zero downtime. We went from level 3 to mid-teens in about a month of game time. Just one thing after another... back to back. So he barely made any money at all compared to trash drops from the dungeons.

 

[schnee]

This is an OSR house rule, not an actual old D&D rule.

Actually IIRC it was used in Dave Arneson's campaign back in the day but it never made it into any of the official D&D books.

I tried it briefly but didn't like it much. Felt more like meta-game money laundering than "living it up".

THX, noted.

I think the reason I want to try something like that is the *real* way it would be done - taxes, tithes, levies, etc. - is boring. I even get annoyed with specific lodging fees and such after a certain level.

I want some kind of Shadowrun-like 'monthly living costs', and some easy way of incentivizing people doing something interesting and in-character with their money.

This is totally my 'old school' bias, though. I miss the stuff that Name-level characters got in AD&D, like followers, keeps, and monasteries. It felt a lot more alive and 'in' the world, whereas the cinematic flavor of the new editions feel like it all got hand-waved away.

 

[discosoc]

TL;DR does anyone have a method for de-inflating the value of money in 5E? I want adventurer to be a profitable job, but not to the point that we'd be talking enough to invest and be set for life from a few dungeons. Especially since they've got quite a few in their future.

Thanks!

I've tried different things, from extra crafting and item repair rules (getting crit damages your armor, for example) that act as money sinks to encouraging downtime activities. Ultimately, 5e just isn't well-designed in this regard and all the options felt like bad hacks.

The solution I've settled on is to get political, and have the characters understand that if they choose to simply hoard all the treasure they find then they'll simply become prime targets for their enemies. And unlike adventure encounters that are intended to have some balance in their design, encounters that happen because you have 30,000 gp in your bag of holding will be generally lopsided -- and not in the player's favor. Think about it: if word gets out that a 5 adventurers just killed a dragon in its lair, that's basically open season in the merc world. You'd have bandit gangs combining forces to swarm the party, ancient liches looking to reclaim something they lost, local Lords claiming the treasure by right of it being on his land, etc..

It would almost be like a horrifically dark ages version of winning the lottery and having every friend, family member, etc, all suddenly wanting a piece of it.

 

[TheNoremac42]

Another good thing to do is probably limit a merchant's stock, have them sell items for greater than the RAW price, and buy items for half (or even less!) than the RAW value. The merchants have to make money, too! Maybe, if the adventurers turn out to be regular customers for certain merchants, their stocks will grow and expand over time.

 

[Fanaelialae]

The solution I've settled on is to get political, and have the characters understand that if they choose to simply hoard all the treasure they find then they'll simply become prime targets for their enemies. And unlike adventure encounters that are intended to have some balance in their design, encounters that happen because you have 30,000 gp in your bag of holding will be generally lopsided -- and not in the player's favor. Think about it: if word gets out that a 5 adventurers just killed a dragon in its lair, that's basically open season in the merc world. You'd have bandit gangs combining forces to swarm the party, ancient liches looking to reclaim something they lost, local Lords claiming the treasure by right of it being on his land, etc..

It would almost be like a horrifically dark ages version of winning the lottery and having every friend, family member, etc, all suddenly wanting a piece of it.

It seems to me like this would only work once or twice before the players grew wise. After that, they'd simply be exceptionally secretive about their activities.

 

[discosoc]

It seems to me like this would only work once or twice before the players grew wise. After that, they'd simply be exceptionally secretive about their activities.

It's not about tricking them or anything. It's all spelled out and up to them decide what to do, as is the knowledge that very few locations of any significance are going to truly isolated, unwatched, or unheard of. If they *really* want to have all the gold and treasure they find (and aren't concerned about following local laws of the land regarding property ownership or whatever), then it must mean they have a very good reason in mind for its use. Either way, problem solved.

 

[Shasarak]

This is an OSR house rule, not an actual old D&D rule.

Actually IIRC it was used in Dave Arneson's campaign back in the day but it never made it into any of the official D&D books.

I tried it briefly but didn't like it much. Felt more like meta-game money laundering than "living it up".

If everyone in the party sets up a different business then you could set up a Goldbergesk perpetual XP generating system.

The potential for gaming that system is huge.

 

[Fanaelialae]

If everyone in the party sets up a different business then you could set up a Goldbergesk perpetual XP generating system.

The potential for gaming that system is huge.

Reasonably certain it only applied to gold acquired via adventuring, rather than mercantilism.