D&D 5E If you aren't buying magic items, where will you spend your gold?

[The M'hael]

I usually either have a diskworld-type magic item shop, where you never know where it is going to show up or what it will have, or a huge ginormus baghdad/constantinople type city somewhere where you can buy anything, including magic items. Now I really want to play a campain in diskworld. Oooo! Also, on the topic of what to buy, you can always buy a bunch of Olifants (200 gp each) and Parade yourself all over the place. No bandits will atack you. Ha! But high level spell componants are REALLY expensive, so that is a big concern. As [MENTION=13009]Paraxis[/MENTION] said, stock up on diamonds!
I'm done now.

 

[SkidAce]

Clearly there exists some way to MAKE magic items, so people with this skill would not market it? Of course they would.

This is the part that changes everything.

Suppose a DnD campaign where no one knows the secrets of creating anything other than scrolls, potions, and masterwork items.

Then all the other "supply demand etc " goes out the window.

Sure, logically there would be a demand, but it cant be filled. (secondary market not withstanding)

In a campaign where the premise is that items are creatable, then I agree with you. But since 1st edition, that has not always been the case for all DMs.

 

[mcbobbo]

Want to have magic armor, you need hide from X and scales from Y. Want a magic staff, gotta find a rare tree A and get beholder eye B and silver blessed by C.

The problem with making monster parts treasure is that the party will start collecting parts off of all the monsters. It gets a bit dark when they start lobbying for darkvision goggles made from Drow eyes, for example.

This is also why you never put magic items in monster stomachs - and yes, I'm looking at you, X1.

 

[SkidAce]

The best magic item analogy I've heard is the high-end art market. Even Bill Gates can't just walk into a store and buy a Picasso. He first has to find someone who owns a Picasso and is willing to sell it. Since magic items are hand-crafted by incredibly rare masters of their craft, the analogy seems apt enough.

This is how we roll.

 

[SkidAce]

This is the part that changes everything.

Suppose a DnD campaign where no one knows the secrets of creating anything other than scrolls, potions, and masterwork items.

Then all the other "supply demand etc " goes out the window.

Sure, logically there would be a demand, but it cant be filled. (secondary market not withstanding)

In a campaign where the premise is that items are creatable, then I agree with you. But since 1st edition, that has not always been the case for all DMs.

A thought, the above scenario would create a situation like the Sotheby's etc. And the "broker" concept some posters mentioned. Can't get new Picasso's after all. Gotta find a seller.

Or sponsor adventurers (tm)!

 

[Ahrimon]

One thing I think people miss is not that characters want to just buy a generic magic sword. They want sword X from page Y of book Z. To use the Ferrari example: Sure, you may be able to go into Albany and find a used Ferrari, but the player wanted the blue 89 convertible ferrari with the red trim and bucket seats.

So you give a little and include some item shops. Next thing you know the players are upset because the stores don't have item X and the DM is being unfair/mean/rat-bastardly because the stores don't have what they want.

I like the broker approach and that's how I ran my 4e games. The players had some contacts with several merchants. We didn't role play through it, but they could pay book price and had a 75% chance of getting the item in say 4d6 days, fully refundable if they don't. Pay +20% and have a 85% chance in 2d6 days, the 20% being non-refundable greasing of palms, bribes, etc. I had a scale so the players could choose how much they wanted the item and how fast. Everything was technically available, but there wasn't instant gratification.

 

[mcbobbo]

I also like the broker approach, but could also see elite shops in very large cities. Though I picture them as invitation only type galleries.

I also think investing in a community or shipping company is a good way to go about a general money sink.

Not sure about rules for any of that, though.

 

[GlassJaw]

We've all but eliminated tracking monetary treasure in our campaign. Wulf (our DM) has an awesome loot system where we get an actual physical coin when we find treasure. When the party acquires enough coins, we can pool our resources and trade them in for something. Wulf made a deck of treasure cards so in our case, we can trade our coins in for another draw from the deck.

The system is still a WIP but that's the short version. Removing tracking coinage alone has been worth it.

 

[Joe Liker]

Monetary treasure really is overrated. I don't like it as a player or DM.

Except in the case of dragons, it doesn't even make sense most of the time, and even when it does, it's not terribly heroic to obsess about it as much as players do. (And to be fair, I think a lot of them obsess about it because they think it will be a means to gaining mechanical benefits.)

I only use money as a plot device, if possible. I make it clear to the players that money will not buy them magic items or other combat perks. If they can come up with other reasons why their players need coin, then I'm happy to provide ways for them to earn that coin. Otherwise, we're all happier not worrying about it.

 

[KarinsDad]

We've all but eliminated tracking monetary treasure in our campaign. Wulf (our DM) has an awesome loot system where we get an actual physical coin when we find treasure. When the party acquires enough coins, we can pool our resources and trade them in for something. Wulf made a deck of treasure cards so in our case, we can trade our coins in for another draw from the deck.

The system is still a WIP but that's the short version. Removing tracking coinage alone has been worth it.

I have a more detailed system. Colored washers.

Small gold washer (GP)
Large gold washer (10 GP)
Small silver washer (PP)
Large silver washer (10 PP)
Gems (various colors and denominations).

Each player has a coin bag at the table. There is also a party bag. As ex-DM, I hand out coins (i.e. I take washers of various denominations, count them out, hand them to players or throw into the party bag) so that the DM does not have to stop the game to do this. She just tells me how much.


If we go shopping in town, we often sell stuff first. So, instead of handing out coins, we tend to spend all of the money that we got selling stuff on a sheet of paper first so that it's not a chaotic mess. If we run out of money on paper, then players throw coins into the fund in order to finish up. Or, if a given player is buying a big ticket item, that player hands over coins.