D&D 5E What could 5E do to make wealth worthwhile?

[Osgood]

My answer here is to make what's available at any given time completely random, determined on a table* weighted toward common items. They get to a town and ask if there's any items for sale, I quickly roll to get a general idea of how much happens to be available right now vs what one might expect in a place this size, then generate that many items and there's yer shopping list.

* - note: unless you really like dice-rolling you'll want to use a spreadsheet for this, and the spreadsheet is also immensely faster. Inputting all the data, however, takes ages; you've been warned.

I've tried that, spreadsheet and all (my excel skills are quite good), but it still takes up so much table time it's crazy. I have two or three players that are so into this part of the game it's ridiculous--they weigh every item, thinking about how they can maximize it long term, then beg and cry for just one more roll, then spend a really long time haggling price over items they don't even really care about... all while the other players get really bored and annoyed by the whole exercise.

I'm inclined to say something like only a handful of scrolls, potions, and other consumable will ever be available to purchase... but there's a hard limit on magic items in the campaign (that only I know), so for every item you purchase, that's one less you'll find through adventuring. Think hard before buying that potion of healing, you may rob yourself of a magic sword later!

 

[dave2008]

I recall there being mention or rules like this in the Revised AD&D books, maybe the PHB? Didn't clerics and/or paladins have to tithe?

IDK, we didn't do that in AD&D or 4e. There may have been rules, but we didn't use them if there were! We didn't start the tradition of spending gold and time to level until 5e introduced downtime rules.

 

[dave2008]

I've never experienced money not mattering in 5E. I don't give out a lot, and in many cases I don't give it out at all. I don't really care to take the time during prep to add it to treasure, my players don't really care about it, and no one on either side of screen wants to do the bookkeeping. We justify it like this, they are adventurers, as they increase in level, so should their wealth. So, we assume that they can afford whatever they need when dealing with mundane items, a few golds for information or to buy the taproom a few rounds of drinks. If there's a case where they need a large amount of money or need to procure an extremely valuable or rare item, we deal with it on an individual basis. We don't use downtime, training either, and keeps are a waste of time for us. In our case we don't need to make money matter because we rarely use it, it is substituted with other rewards.

Yep, that is basically the same for my group. We develop rules for spending gold and training, research to level during downtime. However, we aren't interested in tracking and book keeping wealth. So we just handwave the costs of things like you mention and RP the downtime activities just like any other part of the game.

 

[R_J_K75]

We didn't start the tradition of spending gold and time to level until 5e introduced downtime rules.

I haven't read the rules in XGtE or TCoE for downtime or training. I browsed them but just figured they weren't anything my players or I as the DM were interested in. Are the pretty straightforward or fiddly with dice rolls and time tracking?

 

[Micah Sweet]

DCC carousing tables are glorious for this- if you use XP, players can even get XP for their hard-won and easily-lost gold during carousing table rolls. Or features, other short-term benefits, etc.

ACKS II does something similar.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I always thought it would be interesting to "gate" a campaign world off by character wealth. The characters start in the outer reaches of the kingdom. To access locations with better opportunities and items, they have to have gathered a certain amount of gold. Then the next location with even more opportunities for wealth is closed off until they gather even more gold.

In the fiction of the campaign world, the gold could buy titles or acceptance into a class structure that "unlocks" areas of the world. The characters might have to host lavish parties or hire artists or songwriters to spread word of their deeds.

Better magic items and opportunities for adventures could be gated within the new zones, encouraging characters to make and spend money!

 

[Micah Sweet]

"buying" titles is usually a free bonus for your quests.

if someone gives me a choice to buy a +1 sword or some (useless)title, I'll take the sword. you can always count on a better sword.

It's not useless if the setting makes it mean something, and the player takes it as seriously as their PC would.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Ah, the old "let's attack and then block a poster that calls out my strawman" trope. Haven't been a while since we last saw that.

Pathetic.

 

[dave2008]

I haven't read the rules in XGtE or TCoE for downtime or training. I browsed them but just figured they weren't anything my players or I as the DM were interested in. Are the pretty straightforward or fiddly with dice rolls and time tracking?

The downtime rules are actually in the DMG (and expanded in XGtE - not sure about TCoE). However, it was just the concept that inspired us to make it a bigger part of our game, we took the idea and made our own guide. We basically have adventure mode and downtime mode now when we play. We always have a downtime session at level up because we require training, research, etc. to level up. However, we cover lots of other things during downtime too. It basically shorthand for roleplay session. We can also throw in "downtime" activities at other times too.

 

[Distracted DM]

The downtime rules are actually in the DMG (and expanded in XGtE - not sure about TCoE). However, it was just the concept that inspired us to make it a bigger part of our game, we took the idea and made our own guide. We basically have adventure mode and downtime mode now when we play. We always have a downtime session at level up because we require training, research, etc. to level up. However, we cover lots of other things during downtime too. It basically shorthand for roleplay session. We can also throw in "downtime" activities at other times too.

I thoroughly read through the DMG at some point in the 2010s, I really wish that I had processed and absorbed the Downtime section- I completely forgot that it existed.

Look at this friggin' thing! I specifically read it BECAUSE in a Dragon Talk ?Chris Perkins? said "it's full of great stuff, it should get read!" or something like thatm and yet I failed to retain this. Man I am disappointed- at least now I feel justified that I started offering <50gp for some magic items my players try to sell in shops n' markets; even the game says the people can't afford it!