D&D 5E If you aren't buying magic items, where will you spend your gold?

[77IM]

How is raiding dungeons not role-playing?

And how do you draw that conclusion from that article?

Role-playing means making decisions according to the role you are playing.

Dungeon raiding is fun, but if the character has no reason to do it, then I can see why it would be hard to figure out what that character would do in other situations, such as deciding what to spend gold on.

From the article:

Similarly, people who play RPGs don't want to just play DOOM. The most hard-core fan of melee combat still wants to fight opponents that are meaningful and wants his or her character to act in a way proscribed by the archetypes of the genre or property being simulated.

 

[KarinsDad]

Role-playing means making decisions according to the role you are playing.

Dungeon raiding is fun, but if the character has no reason to do it, then I can see why it would be hard to figure out what that character would do in other situations, such as deciding what to spend gold on.

The character always has in character reasons to do it. He's an adventurer. If I wanted to roleplay a merchant in a town and never raid dungeons, I wouldn't be playing the game.

 

[77IM]

The character always has in character reasons to do it. He's an adventurer. If I wanted to roleplay a merchant in a town and never raid dungeons, I wouldn't be playing the game.

Right, and so what are the in-character reasons? They'll spend gold according to those same reasons.

If the player doesn't know the reasons, then they won't know how the character would spend gold either.

Idea! Random gold spending table!

1d10: How does your character spend all the gold they earn raiding dungeons?
1. A lavish mansion.
2. Buy a title and domain.
3. Start raising an army.
4. Donate everything to the temple.
5. Establish a new guild.
6. Drunken revelry!
7. Hire a lot of specialist retainers.
8. Investigate rumors of further treasure opportunities.
9. Invest.
10. It all goes to your ex-wife.

 

[KarinsDad]

Right, and so what are the in-character reasons? They'll spend gold according to those same reasons.

If the player doesn't know the reasons, then they won't know how the character would spend gold either.

Idea! Random gold spending table!

1d10: How does your character spend all the gold they earn raiding dungeons?
1. A lavish mansion.
2. Buy a title and domain.
3. Start raising an army.
4. Donate everything to the temple.
5. Establish a new guild.
6. Drunken revelry!
7. Hire a lot of specialist retainers.
8. Investigate rumors of further treasure opportunities.
9. Invest.
10. It all goes to your ex-wife.

11. Buy better equipment in order to raid more dungeons.

 

[CapnZapp]

So many good example of ways to spend gold. But they all have one underlying theme in common, a campaign. For the beer and pretzel style of game where people get together, raid a dungeon, spend their gold outside of the game, then get together for the next game there is no real outlet for that gold. Yes you could say that you've bought a castle, but it really doesn't matter to the game at all. That style of game is something that 5e doesn't support out of the gate (from what we've seen so far). It's not my cup of tea, but it's a totally valid way to play the game.

Thank you.

I expected much from 5E, including removing the Christmas tree syndrome.

What I didn't expect however was that 5E would
1) remove support for one of the most used styles of play
and
2) that the denial of / willingness to gloss over this would be so strong among ENWorlders

Official modules still hand out gold. But with no official way to spend it while still on that adventure track (with no overarching campaign behind it)...

...well, that surprises me.

 

[CapnZapp]

I think it bears repeating: why is your character raiding dungeons -- an extremely dangerous and oft-unpleasant undertaking -- and then spending the loot on gear to get better at raiding dungeons? Seriously, why?

Once you understand that goal, spend money in pursuit of it. E.g. if you're raiding dungeons because you want to wipe out the monsters who live there, raise an army and launch a crusade against the underdark.

Sorry but now you are trying to invalidate a perfectly good way to play D&D.

Why?

Because it is fun.

No further justification is needed. Stop trying to tell others how to have fun, okay?

 

[CapnZapp]

Studies show that role-playing games tend to be more fun if you role-play. (Source: http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/gaming/BreakdownOfRPGPlayers.html)

Please. Drop it. Don't tell others how to enjoy D&D.

 

[Geeknamese]

It's funny though. People complained that 4e was MMO D&D and now you have 5e but you want to play it like an MMO. Clear raid dungeon, find loots, sell loots to upgrade gear to look for another dungeon to loots lol. Honestly, a game like that would be extremely boring for me as a DM. But hey, everyone play's differently. Whatever floats your boat.

 

[77IM]

Sorry but now you are trying to invalidate a perfectly good way to play D&D.

Why?

Because it is fun.

No further justification is needed. Stop trying to tell others how to have fun, okay?

Sorry if I sound antagonistic, but I'm trying to illustrate why this "because it is fun" approach leads to confusion.

It's almost a non-statement. "Why do you guys wrap your PHBs in orange peels and drop them off the parking garage?" "Because it is fun!"

You can't move logically from "I do X because it is fun" to "Therefore, the game should support Y because it makes X more fun." There's an intermediate step of explaining how Y makes X more fun.

If what you really enjoy is raiding dungeons, then raid dungeons.

If what you really enjoy is shopping for magic items, well, that's not the same as raiding dungeons, that's a shopping mini-game. People say "If I wanted to be a noble/merchant/guildmaster/etc. I'd have stayed in town." Well I counter with, "If you want to go shopping, play a shopping mini-game."

Can D&D be all things to all people? They have to draw the line somewhere. I think domain-management rules would be sweet, but when I see modules for data-mining or project-management or animal-husbandry -- yeah I'll skip those. I'm OK with skipping the shopping mini-game too.

If D&D can't be all things to all people, I think it should be a role-playing game first. I've no doubt the shopping mini-game can be tacked on later for people who want it.

 

[KarinsDad]

It's funny though. People complained that 4e was MMO D&D and now you have 5e but you want to play it like an MMO. Clear raid dungeon, find loots, sell loots to upgrade gear to look for another dungeon to loots lol. Honestly, a game like that would be extremely boring for me as a DM. But hey, everyone play's differently. Whatever floats your boat.

I think 4E leaned heavily in some ways in the direction of an MMO to the point that many players disliked aspects of it because of it. With no gold piece value for magic items, 5E appears to be reacting (or overreacting) to that and hearkening to the days of 2E and avoiding the fact that cost was part of 1E, 3E, and 4E. I am a bit surprised that WotC would do this considering that if a given DM doesn't want magic item costs, he can ignore them. But if a given DM prefers the cost concept that has been around for 3 editions out of 4, he has nowhere to go except to do the work himself and set up his own costs. That just seems like a bad design decision considering that many DMs might expect that to be part of D&D.

I suspect that I will be using a lot of influence from 1E and 3E costs (although even there, one has to take into account that a +5 3E ring is probably the same as a +3 5E ring, etc.), but I shouldn't have to. IMO.


I'm kind of hoping that WotC puts up an online document for specific magic item costs in the future.