D&D General Games Economies

[TheAlkaizer]

I guess my point is that in most fiction, acquiring money is not the primary reason for sustaining a storyline because once it's gotten, the storyline is over. If you want a long running campaign, the economy is probably best left as an incidental thing.

I would agree, but paradoxically the games that offer debt as a main motivator (Traveller, Into the Odd) have let to campaigns with incredible momentum. Since trying it, I've started quite a few campaigns in other systems with debt.

 

[TiQuinn]

I would agree, but paradoxically the games that offer debt as a main motivator (Traveller, Into the Odd) have let to campaigns with incredible momentum. Since trying it, I've started quite a few campaigns in other systems with debt.

Now there's a great idea. Especially just coming off of watching Alien: Earth.

 

[MGibster]

In my Greyhawk campaign, this last month I told my players.i wasn’t going to bother with gold or other treasures aside from magic items or important items. At 8th level, they had more gold than they knew what to do with.

D&D has a common feedback loop when it comes to adventuring.

1. Go adventuring.
2. Get loot.
3. But better gear and training.
4. Use better gear and training to go adventuring.

It’s been decades since gold was used for training. And by 4th or 5th level gold isnlt something players need concern themselves with. But I feel D$D is still written with the assumption we’re all on the adventure’s treadmill.

 

[thirdkingdom]

I think the main disconnect with D&D-style games is when people don't transition to large parties --> domain play. I absolutely agree that if you play D&D as a dungeon crawl from levels 1-14/1-36/1-20 (whatever your preferred version uses as a level range) it doesn't make sense, and you quickly run out of stuff to spend money on. However, having run and played in a fair number of domain-style games, the trajectory of play usually goes like this.

*Level 1. Poor as dirt, barely able to afford armor.
*Levels 2-4. Crazy rich, start hiring retainers to spread out the risk.
*Level 4ish. Man, these retainers eat up a bunch of gold, and we've explored all the nearby dungeons. Time to transition to wilderness exploration so we can continue to pay our retainers.
*Levels 5-8. Crazy rich, let's start hiring mercenaries/buying ships/running caravans/commissioning wizards to make us magical items.
*Levels 8ish. Man, all these mercenaries/ship's captains/caravan masters each up a bunch of gold. You know how you really get rich, off the backs of the peasantry. Time to found a domain.
*Levels 9+. Crazy rich, but the neighboring kingdom/invading undead/Tarrasque is threatening the kingdom and we need to raise an army to defend ourselves.
*Rinse and repeat.

With this style of play, characters have constant expenses that drain the coffers and push them towards exploring, whether personally or by using retainers. Otherwise, as suggested, I don't see a problem with dropping gold rewards. I get the sense that 5th edition has done a pretty good job with this.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

It seems like the real issue isn’t that RPG economies are “broken,” but that they’re serving very different purposes depending on the type of game being run.

In most versions of D&D (and many OSR-inspired systems), treasure is deliberately inflated. That’s because gold is meant to function less like an economic simulator and more like a pacing mechanism. You clear a dungeon, you haul out a hoard, and that sudden surge of wealth is the proof of success. The loop is treasure → more dangerous adventures → more treasure.

The challenge comes when players ask, “what do we do with all this money?” Since the best rewards in these games are usually earned in play (magic weapons, relics, rare items from the dungeon), spending coin rarely feels as satisfying. That’s why piles of gold tend to accumulate without a clear use, unless the DM introduces sinks—stronghold rules, hirelings, lifestyle expenses, or house systems that treat money as a resource with weight.

This is why it can feel like apples and oranges when comparing with grittier, street-level play. In those campaigns, money really is survival: it covers debts, upkeep, food, lodging, or bribes, and scarcity is part of the drama. But that’s a different tone from the default “kick in the door and grab the loot” model most D&D material is structured around.

So rather than asking “how do we fix the economy,” maybe the better question is: “what role do we want money to play in this campaign?” If it’s meant to be a motivator and a limiter, you build systems to make every coin matter. If it’s meant to be a scoreboard, then it doesn’t need fixing—it’s already doing the job it was designed to do.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

They keep going to adventures because they suffer danger-adiction. It happens with mercenaries from the real life.

The economy for magic item is using "residium" instead gold or money.

 

[Clint_L]

When I got into the OSR, I had a similar issue where things were not that pricy and after one dungeon the players would find a hoard worth 40,000 GP. You have no reason to keep adventuring.

I too prefer more of a street level game. Even so, I have never found treasure to be that much of an incentive to most players. Uusually they are trying to help a loved one, deal with a threat, get revenge, etc. In my experience "get more gold" is a minor incentive that can be useful to help direct players towards options, before the plot becomes more meaningful.

Usually my players are saving up for a magic item, so that takes care of their cash.

 

[Koloth]

I would agree, but paradoxically the games that offer debt as a main motivator (Traveller, Into the Odd) have let to campaigns with incredible momentum. Since trying it, I've started quite a few campaigns in other systems with debt.

One problem with massive debt, aka owning a Traveller ship, is while the characters may seem cash poor, there is usually enough cash flow to cover most small items a traveller might want. When the mortgage on a small ship is $10+ million credits, siphoning enough off a monthly payment to cover a top of the line rifle, armor, and other gear is rather trivial. Generally you have to do something to the ship or have a speculative trade go very bad to make a significant fiscal dent. At some point the players will get tired of Yet Another Pirate Attack damaging the ship. And there is the risk the players might capture the pirate ship and claim the prize money.

I have played enough Accountants in Space Traveller games to not really want to do that anymore. If you want to get CPAs to play RPGs, a trading Traveller game might be the gateway game of choice.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

When I think about it, it's:

• Making sure that money matters
• Keep a sense of scale between what you earn, what things cost that makes sense
• Avoiding a huge inflationary pattern where we're dealing with hundreds of thousands of gold pieces

I'm not sure what my question is, I'm mostly interested to see what others think about it, if you also have this issue, if you think some games did it well, if maybe you were trying to fix this for years than waved it off, etc.

Your bullet points here are a great summary of what I strive for. I put near-zero effort into the overall world economy making sense, but I do want money to matter and make sense for the players.

I find that the main solution that works well is lowering the amount of money given out, and reducing the prices on magic items, particularly in terms of how prices scale at high levels. When magic items are cheaper, players actually spend more money on items because one single purchase doesn't set them back their entire life savings. For evidence of this model working well, see Baldur's Gate 3

To prevent overpowered items getting into PC hands "too early" in a campaign, I adjust the item rarity available for purchase by the party's level, and the items available to craft by the CR of monsters harvested

 

[Minigiant]

The issue isn't making money.

It's keeping it.

In fantasy worlds, the rich and powerful are targets.

If you make a big score in a dungeon, you are either (1) blowing it all away in a big trade to another powerful being or

(2) investing a chunk of it into protection. Protection that is unreliable because of the quickness you got it.
Is your bodyguard you just hired on the up and up?
Is the locksmith for your vault easily bribed?
Will your food taster get a vice from your big upfront payment to pull them away from the local lord?
Will the dragons send his minion to you guards, EAT them, them take your loot?

So some take options
(3) tithe to an organization that has the structure to handle the loot and call/pray for favors later
Or
(4) carry it with you as magic items and run the dungeon treadmill until you are powerful enough to adequately protect your winning

And 4 is the game. The sweet spot of levels 3-13 are the levels where you are strong enough to be powerful but too weak to hide out.