D&D 5E Microtransactions During the Adventuring Day

[Fanaelialae]

I actually had a DM who would allow a character to come back from the dead (without Constitution loss) for a pizza.

 

[Lanefan]

Someone's probably described it already but the Inverse Player Pettiness Law might be a good name for it: the lower the amount of money at stake, the pettier the party's behavior.

A long time back, a PC in my game decided for some now-forgotten reason that she didn't want to pay her bill at the hotel where the party had been staying during some training-and-treasury downtime. So, she tried casting some spell or other on herself - Invisibility, probably - in order to get out without paying. But magic in that setting was unstable - the caster, as with all casters, knew this very well - and due to an unlucky dice roll something went wrong with the casting.

Lots more dice rolling, each more extreme than the last, led to:

Major wild magic surge. Big boom. Half the hotel gone. Caster dead. Rest of party on the hook for a mighty repair bill, plus reparations to families of dead innocent bystanders.....

And all to save just a few g.p., a trivial amount in comparison to that PC's wealth.

 

[Malmuria]

For those who don't know, microtransactions are small, often cheap purchases players can make when playing video games. For example, someone playing Fortnite might purchase a custom skin. Someone playing Candy Crushers might purchase extra lives. Often these transactions cost less than a dollar. Overall they are pretty annoying.

That being said, what if you brought Microtransactions... into D&D???

It's a common complaint that 5e Characters have very little to spend their gold on. What would be some things you could entice the characters with at the cost of gold?

100 gp - +1 to an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check.
200 gp - gain resistance against a single attack.
500 gp - turn a successful attack roll into a critical hit.
1,000 gp - your target automatically fails their Saving Throw.

I can just see it now...

Paladin: I swing in with my longsword, striking at the vampire's head! I rolled a... 15.
DM: Oh no, you needed a 16 to hit. You know, for 100 gold, you could add one to that roll.
Paladin: Oh yeah, that seems worth it. Um... yeah, I have more than enough for that.
DM: Okay, you strike the vampire! How much damage?
Paladin: Um... (rolls) 11 slashing damage. Oh, I'm going to use my Divine Strike as well. Let's see, that's... oh man, low roll. Just 6 more damage.
DM: You know, for 500 gold, you could turn that hit into a critical...
Paladin: Do I have enough? Um, wizard, could you lend me 150 gold pieces?
Wizard: No way, I'm saving up to make the vampire fail a Saving Throw!

What are some other Microtransactions you could put into D&D?

(PS: This is a firmly tongue-in-cheek thread.)

well, you've found a use for gold in dnd

 

[Charlaquin]

You jest, but I’ve seen D&D streams where people in the chat can donate money to give the players various benefits like healing potions or re-rolls.

 

[ReshiIRE]

If EA ever gets their hands on a D&D license and make a FUT like mode I'm blaming this thread for being their inspiration.

 

[BookTenTiger]

If EA ever gets their hands on a D&D license and make a FUT like mode I'm blaming this thread for being their inspiration.

Ha ha ha

 

[embee]

Buying the pizza for this week's session may or may not be worth an Inspiration. Only one way to find out really.

That raises more questions than it answers.

Do you get 1 +1 per pie? Or 12 +1s? Does extra cheese stack, giving a +2? What about stuffed crust? Does parmesan cheese give any bonus?

This is a highly problematic system. I can see a rules lawyer giving the DM a large white pizza with extra cheese and a side of mozz sticks and arguing that there's +12 for the individual slices, +12 on that for the ricotta, and another +12 for the extra cheese, with +8 for the order of mozzarella sticks. And then, on top of that, arguing for at least another +1 bonus for cheesing the system.

In theory, you could one shot a tarrasque with this system.

 

[embee]

Better yet, use the "loot crate" business model to make money as a pro DM. The game itself is free to play in. But for $1 players get a roll on Magic Item Table A. For $10 they get a roll on Magic Item Table B. Magic Item Table I is a grand, and if you end up with the +1 scale mail your outta luck. But hey, your paladin REALLY wants that holy avenger, doesn't he?

Loot crates were invented by someone who looked at a claw game and said "I can do better."

 

[Stalker0]

Though this is meant for comedy, frankly if you did make a magic item Ala a luck stone that was fueled by gold…I think you could very reasonably incorporate this into a game

 

[J.Quondam]

That raises more questions than it answers.

Do you get 1 +1 per pie? Or 12 +1s? Does extra cheese stack, giving a +2? What about stuffed crust? Does parmesan cheese give any bonus?

This is a highly problematic system. I can see a rules lawyer giving the DM a large white pizza with extra cheese and a side of mozz sticks and arguing that there's +12 for the individual slices, +12 on that for the ricotta, and another +12 for the extra cheese, with +8 for the order of mozzarella sticks. And then, on top of that, arguing for at least another +1 bonus for cheesing the system.

In theory, you could one shot a tarrasque with this system.

"Roquefort falls, everyone dies."