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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SiderisAnon" data-source="post: 5132890" data-attributes="member: 44949">I'll address the specific question first.  Your question really has three answers in my mind.Taxes aren't about punishing the PCs or about trying to get them to become criminals (in most cases), they're just a part of the game world and how things would work.  While a local lord whose lands and wealth were about to be destroyed by a rampaging band of ogres might look the other way on treasure brought in out of gratitude for the party saving his future finances, a city is financed by its taxes and tariffs.  The local lord/council/whatever is going to want their share.  Even if they wouldn't press for it, there are other people in the administration who probably would.  That's human nature.  Saying those taxes are a punishment is like saying that merchants will not pay full market value for a stack of used swords is punishment.  (It's not.  The merchant has to make a profit from the sale, has to factor his costs for cleaning up the weapons and storing them, and there's the opportunity cost of that money he pays the party not being available for other things until the swords sell.  It's just simplified economics.)In addition, I see taxes and the like as part of how the world's story builds around the party.  If a party picks a single city as a home base, they pay tons of taxes there over time.  (Face it, adventurers are filthy, stinking rich if they survive.)  That city will have more funds for building roads and walls and docks and a bigger house for the local lord.  This may cause the city to grow or attract crime or bring in new trade or any number of other things.  Additionally, the people in power and in the bureaucracy will know who the PCs are and will end up spreading the word.  Face it, when a group of nobodies brings in a chest full of jewelry and gold, people talk about it.  Over time, this provide great fodder for drawing the PCs into society events, or having someone try to scam/rob them, or letting the local church look for donations for a project, or simply just spreading the PCs name around for when someone needs to hire adventurers for something.Finally, taxes can be used as a great plot hook.  The local lord suddenly announces a one-time tax on all owned magic items.  Is he trying to build up funds for a war that's coming?  Is he hoping to round up a few of those magic items from people without ready cash to pay?  Is there something evil going on?  Investigating these changes can create a whole series of adventures.  (And the taxes don't have to be on the PCs.  Why is the kingdom next door jacking up its taxes?)Taxes can also create good roleplaying.  PCs have to negotiate with local lords about the goods they pulled out of the dungeon on the lord's lands.  But what if they have a writ from the king?  (Like one that lets you ignore tolls in the kingdom when traveling.)  Who did they have to help/bribe/kill to get that writ?  Can the writ be improved over time?  If they don't have the writ, how much taxes do they pay to their home city vs. the king vs. the lord whose lands it is.Okay, there's a fourth answer.  I AM old school.  Sometimes, taxes are a great way of removing some wealth from the PCs.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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