To be honest... in 5e I haven't found this to be a big deal. My current party would be fine without most of their items (barring critters that have resistance to non-magic weapons, anyway).
How to handle adventuring loot outside of a strong economy?
To be honest... in 5e I haven't found this to be a big deal. My current party would be fine without most of their items (barring critters that have resistance to non-magic weapons, anyway).
zarionofarabel
Hero
I lack any knowledge of 5e as I don't D&D anymore, but if what you say is true then it should be a non-issue. Simply don't hand out oodles of magic items! A few here and there and of they really want to rid themselves of one, have a ship in port that has some peeps on board that will trade for them.
Lackofname
Explorer
I disagree, for the same reason you said that I don't need to know the exact amount of GP for a fur pelt.
The worth of a pound of cocoa beans doesn't matter. The cost is quite far down the road when cocoa beans haven't been discovered yet. The process of "discover, plant, grow, harvest, box, ship" is quite a long one before the actual value even enters the equation.
The point is, "we desire to harvest as much resources from the place as possible." The PCs won't be encountering the price of goods, or be involved in the collection of those goods. It's purely the motivation that is pushing expansion, the tenor of relations, and the source of friction.
Similar to how, if the PCs are the crew on a merchant vessel, the cargo in the hold doesn't have much of an impact on the story if the point is to have the PCs become shipwrecked. Or hit by pirates (as pirates don't know what you're hauling till they raid your hold).
Then replace technology with magic or whatever word represents "potential for success in physical conflicts". The natives ain't up to a fight.
It's not normal economic function, it's D&D economic function. It's that there's no in-game use for gold past 10gp except buying magic items.
Forcing in ways to buy/sell magical items is vexing (especially since I personally hate the idea of buying/selling magic). Not forcing ways means I need an exact Christmas list the PCs want, and they just Conveniently discover that precise thing in the next place they look. Which feels quite contrived.
Every option is annoying. And that's all it is. Not a problem, just a choice I don't like.
Ultimately I've decided what I'm going to do: no buying and selling, ask for item suggestions, players get what they get have to live with it. Now all that's left is simply replying to comments in the thread.
No, absolutely not. Interaction with the natives is half the fun to me. The culture and interaction and so on. Hell, the story won't even matter without the natives.
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Lackofname
Explorer
Believe me when I say I'd give a tooth for a group who'd play Dresden Files or FAE or DREAD or some other loosey goosey story game. I have spent maybe 15 years off-and-on looking for people willing to play non-D&D and I cannot find one group.
I was miserable playing 3e and looked for alternatives then. 4e came out and I was so happy. When 5e released I went back to looking for non-D&D players because 5e is just a 3e rehash as far as I'm concerned.
Finally I've surrendered. D&D and PF are the only games people actually play. So I've dusted off my old 4e books. It's 4e or I burn my dice at this point.
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zarionofarabel
Hero
It makes me so sad when I hear peeps say this, and you are not the first. So many times in my life I have met peeps that insist that D&D is the "one true TTRPG" and it can be used to play any kind of campaign. The sad truth is it can't, unless you mod it so much it's no longer D&D. Sorry nice person, I wish I could make it so you could find peeps that were willing to play something else with you. You have my sympathies.
Eltab
Lord of the Hidden Layer
What are each of the colonies / outposts doing for a living?
If you don't want to sweat the details, say the traders will swap expensive things (like a canoe load of furs or a magic item or 1000GP jewelry) one-for-one. You spend time waiting until the next boat arrives instead of pulling your hair out balancing prices for goods. As long as the PCs do not want to adapt Traveller merchant rules and get their own ship, you are good to resume adventuring.
- Get rich quick! (Virginia) Not much here until they do strike gold / tobacco / whatever.
- Farm for food (Pennsylvania) Nothing special here but prices are usually low and quality excellent.
- Farm a cash crop (Maryland) One thing (sugar, cocoa, silkworms) is abundant and cheap, everything else has to be ordered from outside or made by hand.
- Get away from other people (Plymouth) All the basic gear, a safe place to rest, normal trade goods
- Conquer a personal empire (Cortez) Lots of top-end military gear but iron rations to eat
- Plundarr! (Pirates) Roll randomly, may be useful stuff or not.
- Trade outpost (New Netherland). THIS is where the magic items come from, but it takes a while for your order to be placed with our home office and be shipped back to our store. They will be happy to trade that native masterwork +1 sword you found for a +1 whip of tripping made by top craftsmen overseas; our agents have connections everywhere!
If you don't want to sweat the details, say the traders will swap expensive things (like a canoe load of furs or a magic item or 1000GP jewelry) one-for-one. You spend time waiting until the next boat arrives instead of pulling your hair out balancing prices for goods. As long as the PCs do not want to adapt Traveller merchant rules and get their own ship, you are good to resume adventuring.
Lackofname
Explorer
While that is certainly a thing, IME it's less an issue of stubborn people, and more that D&D is the thing everyone has played, or if they have never played before, know what it is. People know what it is. You put up an ad for "Dogs in the Vinyard" or ask a stranger at a game store to play it, and 19 out of 20 will just say "I've never heard of that, I don't know what that is" and move on. Meanwhile you can roll into a gaming store or look on Meetups.com and find 3 D&D games every week.
Indie games seem to be the sort of thing you need an established group, one you can say "Hey guys wanna play x?" and they say "Never heard of it, but sure".
That's my problem, I've never had a stable group. Just in the last eleven years I've moved 6 times between 4 different states. And when it comes to indie games, even if I found players, I'd need to run it instead of play myself, and running a system you've never played is scary--I want to say, play FATE before I run it, and that goes back to "finding a game"... Online is possible--it's how I'm running 4e now--and I have tried to advertise for indie games online and gotten no response (granted, it was for a horror game so those interested is very, very low...)
That said, I have played indie games. Always at conventions. Conventions are great, people are far more willing to commit to a 3 hour game no matter what. But a man cannot live on 1 or 2 single-session pick-up games a year.
Lackofname
Explorer
The PCs are literally the first to set foot on the new world. So there isn't even one colony until they build it. They're the trial balloon, to see if the place is wall-to-wall hellfire and raging dragons.
(Now, a second country will definitely try to get a piece once they find out about it, but that's not going to happen right away...)
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This is aside from the economic discussion but, I am genuinely curious. Why not?
There was some issue in the past with... urban development and arcane magic, it sounds like? So... why aren't the natives the most potent druid/barbarian culture on the planet?
And, as I said... having a bunch of immigrants come and lord over powerless, underdeveloped natives... isn't such a good look.
So... just two sessions ago, my group of PCs was in a village that was under threat. And, we worked out that we had sufficient wealth on our persons to evacuate the town. Provide food and water, transport for same, significant levels of equipment for the trip, for several days journey to the nearest haven, for 600+ people, to keep them safe while we dealt with the issues. It would only take about a quarter of the cash resources we had on hand, that we don't have any plans for anyway.
There's plenty of opportunity for PCs to throw money at problems. Most of us just don't stop to think of it.
Okay, so... why should the PCs interact with them? These people have no power. They are not interested in what the PCs may have to trade. You say you don't like the idea of them asking the PCs to do favors for them. What incentive do the PCs have to spend time with these people?
Lackofname
Explorer
The Starter Area (The place where they land) that is currently walled off from the rest of the continent, is peaceful. The tribes there have a compact, are united in a sense of maintaining a vigilant watch on the wall separating them from the interior. For the most part the only real threat are your crocodiles in the river, your undead boogeyman that steals the breath of those that wander off the path--lone predators that you should be able to avoid if you are cautious. The local Nature Spirits (spirit of a big river, etc) are de-facto feudal lords that trade worship for tangible benefits, and part of that includes Encouraging those nasties to stay out of the spirit's territory. All that, plus a lot of "don't do this, don't do that" taboos keeps everyone safe from all that bad stuff buried out there.
In short, if you don't have any reason to fight you don't have much need for awesome barbarians and super druids. When you're safe if you stay in your lane, the status quo becomes stagnant but balanced, and it's been like that a while.
Which is ripe for some foreigners who don't know any better to stumble right through and smash that stability.
With all of that said, the wall separating the Starter Zone from the rest of the continent is about 30 miles from the coast. Things on the other side are night and day; large numbers of war-like humanoids, nasty spellcasters, possibly even cities, etc. Had the foreigners landed in the middle of that, events would have been brutal. It's only the Starter Zone, left in isolation, was allowed to become peaceful and stagnant, which lets the colony have time to get a solid foothold.
That way there's an obvious "Here be dangerous higher level threats" while having a strong in-game reason for a relatively benign low-level zone.
Yes, it's supposed to not look good. The situation is intentionally exploitative. The PCs are allied with an organization that is going to put the locals at a disadvantage--but not in an overtly mustache-twirling evil way. That's not a nice thing. What are the PCs going to do about it?
The foreigners (especially the PCs) are going around stirring up ancient evil despite the locals' warnings. That doesn't look good either.
I'm starting to feel like you're intentionally trying to poke holes in my campaign.
Motivating the PCs to interact with the locals isn't a worry I have.
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