Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
EN Publishing
Zeitgeist 5e and Stipends and Magic Items
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Bercilak" data-source="post: 9055089" data-attributes="member: 68314"><p>Hi folks,</p><p>I'm two sessions in to a Zeitgeist campaign, and the players have just finished dealing with the Coaltongue incident. The players have loved the first part of the adventure, and they are getting ready to have their meeting with Delft and getting their first stipends. They are already asking questions about getting more gear, and so I was revisiting the Player's Guide sections on stipends and magic items, and I got rather confused. Here are some of my concerns/questions, and I'd love to hear some thoughts about these things--particularly about how other folks have handled this part of the campaign. (I've looked at some of the other threads about this, but most of them are about PF or 4e.) </p><p></p><p><strong>My thoughts about stipends:</strong></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I've seen some DMs say that they treat the stipends as loans--that the players get X gp and can use it to buy equipment (sometimes just mundane, sometimes including magic items), and when they return the equipment at the end of the adventure, they get their money back. So, more like a voucher system than actual pay.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Player's Guide says the constables are granted a stipend to buy mundane items. But the amount they are given, relatively early on in adventures 2 and 3, is about 8k gp. That makes them overwhelmingly wealthy at 4-5th level. One player could buy a suit of plate armor and all the gun enhancements in the Player's Guide for about that much money. After adventure 3, what would be the point of future stipends?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The amount of money also seems out of line with some of the (admittedly vague and scarce) guidelines for wealth in the DMG. (The section in the DMG on "Starting at Higher Level" has a 5th level character starting with 500-750gp. The stipends would have awarded roughly 10x that amount by 5th level.</li> </ul><p></p><p><strong>My Questions about stipends:</strong></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What was the design intention behind stipends? I'm guessing it was originally to accommodate the ever-increasing gear demands of 4e? Maybe the 5e rules are just kind of a relic? (I read the post [USER=63]@RangerWickett[/USER] made <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/requisitioning-gear-in-a-potential-5e-conversion-for-zeitgeist.485267/" target="_blank">here</a> about the requisition system, but that doesn't seem like what made it into the 5e ZPG, and I'm curious what happened.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Am I missing some big use for money in the campaign? Maybe some plot thing I didn't notice?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Do DMs treat these stipends as cash payouts? Scrip tradable at the RHC armory?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In the RAW in the Player's Guide, this money cannot be spent on magic items, so the only ways to acquire magic items are to (1) use them when they are found in an adventure, (2) be given the items by the RHC to "field test", or (3) to requisition them with Prestige, right?</li> </ul><p></p><p><strong>My Thoughts/Questions about Magic-Item Requisitions:</strong></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I like the limits on magic items, and they seem very in-line with what I think of as the amount of magic items a group should have over their adventuring careers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I'm curious about whether DMs curate a list of possible choices, or just let players requisition what they want?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I'm a little confused on how the Prestige rules work in relation to magic items. Under "Requisitioning Equipment" in the ZPG, it says that constables can get the following items with "a few weeks' downtime between missions." So, the players need to requisition items before they necessarily know their missions?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">How do the charts under "Requisitioning Equipment" jive with the charts under "Using Prestige"? How am I supposed to parse the section that says "Use the Favor levels listed below as a guideline to determine how long it would take to receive the item?" What's the boundary on the level of magic item that can be requested? (My read would be that a character with Prestige 4 could requisition a Legendary magic item and have it delivered in a month--or in a week if they make a Persuasion check (DC 22).) And by the end of Adventure 5 (8th level), the PCs could have Prestige 5 and be requesting Legendary items (Staff of the Magi, Vorpal sword, etc.) to be delivered in one day? I feel like I'm missing something here.</li> </ul><p></p><p>And yes, I get that the DM can make limitations in whatever way they choose, but before I start house-ruling things, I'm trying to understand the intention of the rules. My sense is that they are still a holdover from 4e that got a few tweaks. But the base idea seems rather powerful. And I'm not sure if the game's power level is supposed to ramp up so quickly? Should characters routinely have access to a legendary magic item by level 10? (Loot tables in the DMG suggest that a player couldn't even afford plate armor until nearly 8th level...) </p><p></p><p>For those of you that have played the 5e version of Zeitgeist beyond adventure 4-5, how is the money and the magic items in RAW working out? Am I needlessly worrying? </p><p></p><p>Thanks for your collective wisdom. </p><p>--Bercilak</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bercilak, post: 9055089, member: 68314"] Hi folks, I'm two sessions in to a Zeitgeist campaign, and the players have just finished dealing with the Coaltongue incident. The players have loved the first part of the adventure, and they are getting ready to have their meeting with Delft and getting their first stipends. They are already asking questions about getting more gear, and so I was revisiting the Player's Guide sections on stipends and magic items, and I got rather confused. Here are some of my concerns/questions, and I'd love to hear some thoughts about these things--particularly about how other folks have handled this part of the campaign. (I've looked at some of the other threads about this, but most of them are about PF or 4e.) [B]My thoughts about stipends:[/B] [LIST] [*]I've seen some DMs say that they treat the stipends as loans--that the players get X gp and can use it to buy equipment (sometimes just mundane, sometimes including magic items), and when they return the equipment at the end of the adventure, they get their money back. So, more like a voucher system than actual pay. [*]The Player's Guide says the constables are granted a stipend to buy mundane items. But the amount they are given, relatively early on in adventures 2 and 3, is about 8k gp. That makes them overwhelmingly wealthy at 4-5th level. One player could buy a suit of plate armor and all the gun enhancements in the Player's Guide for about that much money. After adventure 3, what would be the point of future stipends? [*]The amount of money also seems out of line with some of the (admittedly vague and scarce) guidelines for wealth in the DMG. (The section in the DMG on "Starting at Higher Level" has a 5th level character starting with 500-750gp. The stipends would have awarded roughly 10x that amount by 5th level. [/LIST] [B]My Questions about stipends:[/B] [LIST] [*]What was the design intention behind stipends? I'm guessing it was originally to accommodate the ever-increasing gear demands of 4e? Maybe the 5e rules are just kind of a relic? (I read the post [USER=63]@RangerWickett[/USER] made [URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/requisitioning-gear-in-a-potential-5e-conversion-for-zeitgeist.485267/']here[/URL] about the requisition system, but that doesn't seem like what made it into the 5e ZPG, and I'm curious what happened.) [*]Am I missing some big use for money in the campaign? Maybe some plot thing I didn't notice? [*]Do DMs treat these stipends as cash payouts? Scrip tradable at the RHC armory? [*]In the RAW in the Player's Guide, this money cannot be spent on magic items, so the only ways to acquire magic items are to (1) use them when they are found in an adventure, (2) be given the items by the RHC to "field test", or (3) to requisition them with Prestige, right? [/LIST] [B]My Thoughts/Questions about Magic-Item Requisitions:[/B] [LIST] [*]I like the limits on magic items, and they seem very in-line with what I think of as the amount of magic items a group should have over their adventuring careers. [*]I'm curious about whether DMs curate a list of possible choices, or just let players requisition what they want? [*]I'm a little confused on how the Prestige rules work in relation to magic items. Under "Requisitioning Equipment" in the ZPG, it says that constables can get the following items with "a few weeks' downtime between missions." So, the players need to requisition items before they necessarily know their missions? [*]How do the charts under "Requisitioning Equipment" jive with the charts under "Using Prestige"? How am I supposed to parse the section that says "Use the Favor levels listed below as a guideline to determine how long it would take to receive the item?" What's the boundary on the level of magic item that can be requested? (My read would be that a character with Prestige 4 could requisition a Legendary magic item and have it delivered in a month--or in a week if they make a Persuasion check (DC 22).) And by the end of Adventure 5 (8th level), the PCs could have Prestige 5 and be requesting Legendary items (Staff of the Magi, Vorpal sword, etc.) to be delivered in one day? I feel like I'm missing something here. [/LIST] And yes, I get that the DM can make limitations in whatever way they choose, but before I start house-ruling things, I'm trying to understand the intention of the rules. My sense is that they are still a holdover from 4e that got a few tweaks. But the base idea seems rather powerful. And I'm not sure if the game's power level is supposed to ramp up so quickly? Should characters routinely have access to a legendary magic item by level 10? (Loot tables in the DMG suggest that a player couldn't even afford plate armor until nearly 8th level...) For those of you that have played the 5e version of Zeitgeist beyond adventure 4-5, how is the money and the magic items in RAW working out? Am I needlessly worrying? Thanks for your collective wisdom. --Bercilak [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
EN Publishing
Zeitgeist 5e and Stipends and Magic Items
Top