pming
Legend
Hiya!
Read the article above (ok, "heavily skimmed", probably read 75% of it). And I have to say...I disagree with just about everything he said or claimed as "proof" or "how to fix". The gist of his rant, from what I read, is this: I can't spend money to buy magic items so I can kill stuff better to get more gold to buy more magic items. 5e D&D isn't anything like computer rpg's!
How do I "fix" this problem? I don't because it ISN'T a problem. How often to my player open the PHB to look for stuff to buy? EVERY. SINGLE. SESSION. They look to buy better stuff, more stuff, different stuff, etc. How else do they spend money? Like any other person who has money to spend; on stuff they want. It's not my job as a DM to give players something to spend money on. It's the players job to tell me what they want to obtain. It's then my job to figure out how much, how easy, and how appropriate it is to my campaign (See my note at the bottom regarding how WotC can help DM's do this).
Me(DM): Ok, you all awake in your private rooms after a luxurious night at the Queens Choice Inn. What do you do?
Player: I still have about 30k in GP's! Hmmm...can I buy a better quality warhorse? With barding?
Me: If you can find one, yeah, why not?
Player: Ok. I do that!
Me: Er...how do you do that? Just walk up to the barkeep and say 'hey, where can I buy a high quality warhorse with barding?', or what?
Player: Um...I'll ask around for who sells or might sell warhorses.
Me: Allright then. After asking the barkeep about warhorses, he points you to the nearby town of Signpost. Supposed to be a really good horse breeder and trainer out there.
...POOF! The player is now spending his 30k the way he wants. You don't need a list of magic items. You don't need a list of, well, much of anything. The PHB has enough rough prices for enough things that any DM worth his/her salt will be able to extrapolate costs for anything he/she needs. If not, there are a MULTITUDE of RPG books out there dealing with 'equipment' (from shoes to flying castles).
Bottom line: It's NOT a complete* failing on the DMG's part...it's most likely a complete failing on his DM and/or Players ability to use their imaginations.
NOTE:
*'complete'...meaning WotC needs to stop focusing on more feats, spells, archtypes, races, etc....and at least toss a few crumbs to the DM's out there to help them run/develop their campaigns with rules for building castles, inns, houses, owning/operating a mine, purchasing a title, clearing wilderness, hiring men-at-arms and hirelings, etc.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
Hey there,
we are currently at the very end of the campaign "Princes of the Apocalypse". Our characters are level 13 and we have dozens of thousands of gold, but we don't know on what to spend our money. The treasure system is broken. Prices are even more broken. Gold is worth nothing, if you can't by anything useful for that. The only way to get rid of gold is, if your DM finds a way to "burn it all for some hypocritical reason" like offering you a Castle for an insane, unplausible amount of gold. If you don't believe me, read Angry GM's article.
Read the article above (ok, "heavily skimmed", probably read 75% of it). And I have to say...I disagree with just about everything he said or claimed as "proof" or "how to fix". The gist of his rant, from what I read, is this: I can't spend money to buy magic items so I can kill stuff better to get more gold to buy more magic items. 5e D&D isn't anything like computer rpg's!
How do I "fix" this problem? I don't because it ISN'T a problem. How often to my player open the PHB to look for stuff to buy? EVERY. SINGLE. SESSION. They look to buy better stuff, more stuff, different stuff, etc. How else do they spend money? Like any other person who has money to spend; on stuff they want. It's not my job as a DM to give players something to spend money on. It's the players job to tell me what they want to obtain. It's then my job to figure out how much, how easy, and how appropriate it is to my campaign (See my note at the bottom regarding how WotC can help DM's do this).
Me(DM): Ok, you all awake in your private rooms after a luxurious night at the Queens Choice Inn. What do you do?
Player: I still have about 30k in GP's! Hmmm...can I buy a better quality warhorse? With barding?
Me: If you can find one, yeah, why not?
Player: Ok. I do that!
Me: Er...how do you do that? Just walk up to the barkeep and say 'hey, where can I buy a high quality warhorse with barding?', or what?
Player: Um...I'll ask around for who sells or might sell warhorses.
Me: Allright then. After asking the barkeep about warhorses, he points you to the nearby town of Signpost. Supposed to be a really good horse breeder and trainer out there.
...POOF! The player is now spending his 30k the way he wants. You don't need a list of magic items. You don't need a list of, well, much of anything. The PHB has enough rough prices for enough things that any DM worth his/her salt will be able to extrapolate costs for anything he/she needs. If not, there are a MULTITUDE of RPG books out there dealing with 'equipment' (from shoes to flying castles).
Bottom line: It's NOT a complete* failing on the DMG's part...it's most likely a complete failing on his DM and/or Players ability to use their imaginations.
NOTE:
*'complete'...meaning WotC needs to stop focusing on more feats, spells, archtypes, races, etc....and at least toss a few crumbs to the DM's out there to help them run/develop their campaigns with rules for building castles, inns, houses, owning/operating a mine, purchasing a title, clearing wilderness, hiring men-at-arms and hirelings, etc.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
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