Vraille Darkfang
First Post
Steel_Wind said:
Why I have a fighter who rides a war rhino into battle (MMII). Cheaper than buying a mount after every encounter.
Help controlling player wealth
Why I have a fighter who rides a war rhino into battle (MMII). Cheaper than buying a mount after every encounter.
Whimsical
Explorer
Before you try to fix this problem, please consider if this is a problem in the first place.
1: find out how much fun the players are having when their characters receive "too much" swag from your game.
2: determine why you run RPGs in the first place.
I think you will find that getting too much treasure is about as unfun as having a PC that can kill a dragon with their bare hands or a magic word. There are some players who don't enjoy this, but I bet there are more players that do.
If you are concerned about being Monty Haul, then just check yourself. How many deadly encounters has their characters gone through before now? Have they or have they not earned the treasure that they receive?
If you are concerned about realism, then realize that there are people in our own world that have made more up to now than we would make if we are doing what we are doing for the next 10,000 years. A singer scrapes along doing gigs for cheap, then becomes a superstar. A business owner struggles along for a few years, then things come together for him and he profits a million dollars. But it doesn't stop. The next year he makes two million. Five years later he makes 10 million. Ten years later he makes 100 million. Once you learn what it takes to make money, the money just keeps coming in.
Please don't use Mordenkinen's Funkiller. Keep that crazy uncle locked up in the celler. Unless the PCs use it first, that is.
You can always give them new things to do with their money. What if they actually defeat the evil overlord? What if they decide to adopt the evil empire and transform it into a funtionally good society? That's going to take a lot of money. Money they just happen to have.
A good character can come to the realization that they could do a lot of good with thier million GP. They could relieve suffering on a wide scale and transform the world to a better place.
Think of ways to positively drain away their resources instead of negativly drain by having them receive new benefits for their loss of cash. Find out what they want in life, then find out how to make them pay for what they want.
Be the DM that rewards success, instead of punishing it.
1: find out how much fun the players are having when their characters receive "too much" swag from your game.
2: determine why you run RPGs in the first place.
I think you will find that getting too much treasure is about as unfun as having a PC that can kill a dragon with their bare hands or a magic word. There are some players who don't enjoy this, but I bet there are more players that do.
If you are concerned about being Monty Haul, then just check yourself. How many deadly encounters has their characters gone through before now? Have they or have they not earned the treasure that they receive?
If you are concerned about realism, then realize that there are people in our own world that have made more up to now than we would make if we are doing what we are doing for the next 10,000 years. A singer scrapes along doing gigs for cheap, then becomes a superstar. A business owner struggles along for a few years, then things come together for him and he profits a million dollars. But it doesn't stop. The next year he makes two million. Five years later he makes 10 million. Ten years later he makes 100 million. Once you learn what it takes to make money, the money just keeps coming in.
Please don't use Mordenkinen's Funkiller. Keep that crazy uncle locked up in the celler. Unless the PCs use it first, that is.
You can always give them new things to do with their money. What if they actually defeat the evil overlord? What if they decide to adopt the evil empire and transform it into a funtionally good society? That's going to take a lot of money. Money they just happen to have.
A good character can come to the realization that they could do a lot of good with thier million GP. They could relieve suffering on a wide scale and transform the world to a better place.
Think of ways to positively drain away their resources instead of negativly drain by having them receive new benefits for their loss of cash. Find out what they want in life, then find out how to make them pay for what they want.
Be the DM that rewards success, instead of punishing it.
Last edited:
Thanee
First Post
New characters start without gear - or the wealth of fallen comrades goes to their families.
Ok, both not very practically useful, so, yeah, just give less treasure out.
Make a list tallying up the wealth of every character and then keep that in mind when generating new treasure (or choosing monsters, some monsters, that do not necessarily have to run around with treasure can really help there). It's ok, if it is over the mark for a while, but eventually you should slow the accumulation of wealth down.
It's also a good idea to give out treasure, that is not custom tailored to the PCs (not the opposite either, useable, but not optimal), so they "have to" sell it (for 50% market price), thus lowering their actual gain.
Bye
Thanee
Ok, both not very practically useful, so, yeah, just give less treasure out.
Make a list tallying up the wealth of every character and then keep that in mind when generating new treasure (or choosing monsters, some monsters, that do not necessarily have to run around with treasure can really help there). It's ok, if it is over the mark for a while, but eventually you should slow the accumulation of wealth down.
It's also a good idea to give out treasure, that is not custom tailored to the PCs (not the opposite either, useable, but not optimal), so they "have to" sell it (for 50% market price), thus lowering their actual gain.
Bye
Thanee
New PC's in my campaign get only 2/3's of the suggested wealth. I do this for two reasons. First, most of the PC's are using items that they have found, and thus their equipment is not optimized in the same way that it could be if they were starting from scratch. Second, it helps to ameliorate the exact situation mentioned here. I also tend to give out slightly less than recommended wealth levels, or give out items of high GP value but low immediate tactical value (example, a Dragonbane spear when dragons have not been seen for thousands of years, although they will reappear later in the campaign). Taken together, these have the net effect of keeping the PC's roughly balanced with what the core rules expect.
One thing I've found to limit the players wealth is the High Living Rule from Conan d20.
your characters pretty much lose 10-15% of their wealth each month. For characters who arent the sort to spend money or ale and.. companionship... I say that it goes to stuff like room and board, fixing gear, taxes payed, membership fees, ect...
It realy helps limit their coin supply, and means that they dont have to keep track of every night spent at the in.
your characters pretty much lose 10-15% of their wealth each month. For characters who arent the sort to spend money or ale and.. companionship... I say that it goes to stuff like room and board, fixing gear, taxes payed, membership fees, ect...
It realy helps limit their coin supply, and means that they dont have to keep track of every night spent at the in.
ThirdWizard
First Post
reanjr said:
Yep, in my campaign fallen adventurers are always buried with their most prized posessions. Why do you think there are so many tombs to go plundering?
deltadave
First Post
How about monthly upkeep costs? Justify it by saying that they need to pay for general upkeep rather than paying as they go. The more money you have the more you tend to spend on frivolous stuff, high quality food and clothing. If they are out in the wild and don't want to keep spending the money, have stuff start breaking... saddle frames, cinch straps, bit and bridle leathers, armor bindings, weapon sheathes. Even magical stuff needs to be buffed up and cleaned or it starts looking dingy and battered. It would suck to be racing away from a bunch of trolls that want to rip your arms out of their sockets when a stirrup breaks and you either have to ride at walk or fall off of the horse if you fail your ride check...
LondonReign
First Post
Mark said:It would seem that simple, wouldn't it?
Simple is my middle name.
I start new PCs with NPC-level gear, this is plenty IMO to be going on with. Then I use the PC wealth by level chart as a guide for the maximum amount PCs should have, after a few adventures they roughly approximate to it, but rarely exceed it by much. I don't tend to load 'mook' NPCs down with loads of magic, which helps, nor do monsters automatically generate treasure.
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