Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8362324" data-attributes="member: 6801228">So, a few days ago I was watching a video about Dragon Hoards, and I had a thought. Gold is consistently a problem in DnD economies, particularly in terms of beings who have a lot of it. Gold is also fairly worthless. To an extent, all money is. This is why the Nine Hells and Mammon have always struck me as a bit odd. Here is this being that has existed for thousands of years, hoarding gold. He has to have literally more gold than could ever be spent. And part of why I think Yugoloths are silly is this idea that they are working for gold. What does immortal evil want with gold? After so many years, it becomes pointless. Ten Million gold is the same as one gold when you have hundreds of trillions of gold.So, what if the precious metals, heck what if all metals, had a different purpose. Part of the inspiration from this came from another little factoid I'd been told about Dragon Hoards. I think the lore came from 3.5 but there was this idea that when a Dragon died of old age, their hoard acted as a magical focus. It allowed them to create a "safe space" for their eggs, and otherwise affect the world. A dragon's hoard was magical. The other part of this came from a few games where they've stated that the coins in the game are made from a specific metal alloy, because that balance of alloys in that amount are perfect for alchemy. Essentially, the coins are standard because only that standard is useful in and of itself. So, what if we combined these ideas? What if Copper, Silver, Gold and Platinum are solidified magic? We already have the concept that gemstones are used as magical foci, so this has precedence. Why does a Dragon want to hoard precious metals? They are building a collection of magic, either to fuel some aspect of their life or prepare some aspect of their death. Why would an immortal devil care about getting paid in gold? That is literal power you are handing them. Not in terms of "wealth is power" but they can use that gold to perform magical rituals, to fuel infernal engines. Heck, it could literally be that you use the gold to power spells, giving them a "cost" without having the weirdness of "why does this item have to have an objective value for the universe to give me a heroes feast"But.... here comes the tricky part. Where does it come from? Another aspect of DnD gold in general is that there is simply too much of it. There is vast reservoirs of gold that are actually bordering on unrealistic. And if the gold and silver are being consumed to fuel magic, then they have to be replaced, otherwise the world would run out. Especially as dragons are hoarding and using it too. I definitely think that copper, silver, gold, platinum exchange still makes sense.  I was wondering, since Dragons are intensely magical beings, who warp the world around them already, what if they "sweat" gold, or otherwise produce it? Dragon's Blood could be literally gold. And then as they get older, and produce more gold, their hoard increases. I sort of like this. But then what about copper and silver? Where would it make sense for those to come from. Silver has many "anti-evil" properties. So maybe from celestials? Silver could be a divine metal, coming straight from the heavens. A second issue, is mining. Mining should still be a thing, but would it work to have gold, silver, and copper, or maybe just one of those, to be "naturally growing" for people to mine? I can see it for gems, but I'm not sure about all metals. And it would be weird to have Dragon's Blood and a Divine Metal also just... randomly appear in the ground. I know this is a high magic concept, and a lot of people won't like it, but any thoughts on how to make this work? Where would copper come from? How would you try and explain precious metals being literal magic. Do you have any thoughts on uses for it or how it may effect things in the game?</blockquote>

Verification