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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scurvy_Platypus" data-source="post: 4822621" data-attributes="member: 43283">One of the reasons I was so happy to get Ptolus is because it's an awful lot like what you're talking about here. A ton of different things going on in the setting that the players can get involved in as they go around leveling up. It cuts a huge amount of work out of the GM prep.The whole Adventure Path thing... I've heard people going on for years now about how awesome they are. The past couple of months I've been playing in one and I've got to say I personally am glad I never spent the money on them. It's nothing more than a series of linked railroads featuring "screw you" encounters. Nothing new.For way too many years now, fantasy gaming has been focused on the Lord of the Rings model with some chump hoofing it across the continent to do Great Things. And of course Star Wars.An awful lot of fiction though (like some of the aforementioned S&S/Pulp stories) feature the whole location based thing and feature characters that really don't change that much in terms of capability. For some reason though, this to gamers seems to be like Holy Water to vampires.It's nice to see some folks are starting to change their minds.The big problem is, what's the point of treasure? Through history (and fiction) there's been a thread of whether or not money is a means to an end or if it should be an end in and of itself. Many religions (and others) feel that money should be a means to an end. An awful lot of S&S / Pulp fiction treat it as a means to an end as well.Gaming treats money as an end in and of itself.Fafhard & Grey Mosuer were always looking for a/the big score. But it wasn't so much for the money itself as what that money would get 'em. Women, wine, maybe some power. and of course, whatever interesting things happened to them in the course of pulling off their latest scheme.I'm fine with characters starting adventures broke except for whatever special tools of the trade they've got (key to their character/character concept). The thing is though, you're probably going to need to do something to encourage that sort of buy-in from your players.Most gaming has taught people to acquire as much stuff for their character as they can and never give it up. Back in the day, the GM was always taking your crap away from you in one fashion ("Make a save for your equipment as the fireball goes off...") or another ("I know... ok, all the characters wake up in jail with nothing and have to escape...").I'd say either abstract out wealth (so money just isn't a big thing) or give some specific bonuses that encourage players to dump treasure/items. The trick is, you've got to encourage it. Some GMs try and do this, but they don't _really_ want to give a bonus so they screw around and then act all confused when players skip the option. You have to actually make it attractive.Either that or...Just say, "Look guys, I want to try and do something a bit different..." And then simply say that characters can get X kinds/amounts of equipment and mundane stuff (food, bags, etc) is "as much as the character needs". The treasure/item score at the end of the adventure just goes to pay off whatever random thing the character spends their off-time doing: maintaining a house, a business, gambling, whatever.Of course, I don't know a thing about 4E, so it might be a bit more difficult to pull off.  *shrug* But at least up through 3.x it's not especially difficult.</blockquote>

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