Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
In fifth-edition D&D, what is gold for?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="BoldItalic" data-source="post: 6979965" data-attributes="member: 6777052"><p>What is D&D for?</p><p></p><p>No, seriously, if you can answer that (and I assume everyone posting here can offer their own answer - it's not meant to be a deep philosophical challenge) then you can answer the gold question. If you say that D&D is for X, then for you, gold represents success at getting X. It's as simple as that.</p><p></p><p>At its simplest level, D&D is about killing monsters and taking their stuff. You get XP for succeeding at the killing bit and GP for succeeding at the taking bit. You don't have to spend the gold, any more than you have to spend the XP. At this level, gold is not for spending, it's for <em>getting</em>. It's for keeping score.</p><p></p><p>Beyond that, it becomes a means to an end, not an end in itself. It becomes a commodity that is interchangeable with the means to attain other personal goals for the player (or, in the fiction, the PC). All the usual ones: power, sex, security, companionship, entertainment, and so on. There's no great mystery about it.</p><p></p><p>To see how important or not gold is in your game, imagine that every new PC starts with a million GP to spend on whatever they like, and they get an automatic million extra every time they level up. Normal prices still apply. Does that (a) ruin the game because there's no incentive to go adventuring or (b) make the game more fun because it removes all those irritating mundane constraints on having a good rip-roaring adventure? Ask around the table, don't prejudge. There's no right answer.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BoldItalic, post: 6979965, member: 6777052"] What is D&D for? No, seriously, if you can answer that (and I assume everyone posting here can offer their own answer - it's not meant to be a deep philosophical challenge) then you can answer the gold question. If you say that D&D is for X, then for you, gold represents success at getting X. It's as simple as that. At its simplest level, D&D is about killing monsters and taking their stuff. You get XP for succeeding at the killing bit and GP for succeeding at the taking bit. You don't have to spend the gold, any more than you have to spend the XP. At this level, gold is not for spending, it's for [i]getting[/i]. It's for keeping score. Beyond that, it becomes a means to an end, not an end in itself. It becomes a commodity that is interchangeable with the means to attain other personal goals for the player (or, in the fiction, the PC). All the usual ones: power, sex, security, companionship, entertainment, and so on. There's no great mystery about it. To see how important or not gold is in your game, imagine that every new PC starts with a million GP to spend on whatever they like, and they get an automatic million extra every time they level up. Normal prices still apply. Does that (a) ruin the game because there's no incentive to go adventuring or (b) make the game more fun because it removes all those irritating mundane constraints on having a good rip-roaring adventure? Ask around the table, don't prejudge. There's no right answer. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
In fifth-edition D&D, what is gold for?
Top