D&D 5E No good deed goes unpunished

Derren · Nov 11, 2017

Fanaelialae said:
Sure, but were you suggesting that the OP is running a fairy tale world where nothing bad ever happens? You weren't speaking about just the OP and neither was I.

it's not just about doing this or that every time. In the real world, things are rarely entirely good or bad.

It's much more likely that some good and some bad comes out of anything significant (in varying proportions of course).

That he plans to have this donation to have bad consequences shows that he is not running a fairy tale world or plans to stop doing it.
That comment was more directed at those people commenting who think you should not do that ever.

The Old Crow · Nov 11, 2017

cthulhu42 said:
And then there's Edran.

I don't think punishing the entire party for Edran exercising his best quality will have the effect you want, if the idea is to teach about consequences. The lesson here seems to be that good deeds have bad consequences, and bad deeds don't matter. Also, having good come from doing a good deed is showing consequences, just good consequences.

cthulhu42 · Nov 11, 2017

The point of the exercise is to demonstrate that life goes on without the PC's; that NPC's don't live in a vacuum, and that the players actions have lasting, ripple effects. Yes, I've elected to take it in a negative direction this time because I think it will be more entertaining, and because for the most part I have their good deeds have positive results. I'm a great believer in having the players feel like heroes and one of the ways I encourage playing good alignments is to try to give them a sense of satisfaction from seeing the results of their benevolence.

But the world isn't always black and white and sometimes you gotta throw them a curve ball just to keep them on their toes. This is one of those curve balls.

Ancalagon · Nov 11, 2017

cthulhu42 said:
These are peasants, suddenly with more gold on hand than they could ever expect to see in their lives.

Do the math.

There are 70 peasants. Let's say they are poor, but not miserable. Living expenses are 2 sp/person/day, and let's assume that their income and expenses are roughly equal. 0.2X70X365= 5110 gp/year. 1200 GP is about 1/4 of the village's yearly income/expense. So sure, it's a nice infusion of cash, especially all at once. But it's not *that* much.

cthulhu42 · Nov 11, 2017

I'm glad you're so clued in to the economy of the world I'm running.

jodyjohnson · Nov 12, 2017

cthulhu42 said:
I'm glad you're so clued in to the economy of the world I'm running.

So clue us in.

By the book it isn't very much. Unskilled at 2sp per day. Skilled at 1-2gp. Entertainers at 4gp.

We have folks running anything between real world $10 to $1000 per gold piece. And $100 is very common.

cthulhu said:
These are peasants, suddenly with more gold on hand than they could ever expect to see in their lives.

I've never seen a $10,000 in cash but I have endorsed a $150,000 check and passed it from one bank to another.

Dannyalcatraz · Nov 12, 2017

Ancalagon said:
Do the math.

There are 70 peasants. Let's say they are poor, but not miserable. Living expenses are 2 sp/person/day, and let's assume that their income and expenses are roughly equal. 0.2X70X365= 5110 gp/year. 1200 GP is about 1/4 of the village's yearly income/expense. So sure, it's a nice infusion of cash, especially all at once. But it's not *that* much.

Pick any city of any size in the world, during any time period. You drop 25% of their village’s aggregate annual GDP into the economy on a single day, there will be distortive effects on the economy and behavior.

Dannyalcatraz · Nov 12, 2017

jodyjohnson said:
I've never seen a $10,000 in cash but I have endorsed a $150,000 check and passed it from one bank to another.

If you’re money savvy, you’re money savvy, regardless of actual income. But, on average, the higher up the economic ladder you are, the better you are at handling money overall.

I can tell you from studying the behavior of lottery winners* (and knowing a few personally) in an academic setting, that most people are not. More often than not, windfalls tend to warp how people spend money.

* meaning actual lotteries, windfalls awarded in courts, sports & entertainment contracts, treasure finds and inheritance

Ancalagon · Nov 12, 2017

Dannyalcatraz said:
Pick any city of any size in the world, during any time period. You drop 25% of their village’s aggregate annual GDP into the economy on a single day, there will be distortive effects on the economy and behavior.

Oh, of course it's going to have an impact... but not necessarily an enormous one. Say you have a large warehouse where there are 70 employees. This isn't a great paying job, and they are being paid 35 000$ per year (on average). They take part in a weekly lottery, and one day they win! They divide the pot and... each employee wins 8 220$ ((1200/5110)*35 000)

Is this a good thing for them? Could it affect their lives? Of course. But it's not *that* big. No one is going to quit their job or murder each other etc over that kind of money.

If you use the lottery analogy as I did, it's not even that much money.

Ancalagon · Nov 12, 2017

cthulhu42 said:
I'm glad you're so clued in to the economy of the world I'm running.

You told us 1200 gp, without any context. I therefore have to assume that your D&D economy is roughly standard. I did quick, easy calculations using the defaults values.

If it *isn't* standard, then your 1200 gp value is meaningless to the average reader. You might as well have said 3000 flurbos.