D&D 5E No Magic Shops!

[Maxperson]

Which would involve the players acting surprised, right?

;-)

Depends on the player. Some players act things out, others just describe their PCs.

 

[Xetheral]

If you hand out money in D&D according to the rules, the PCs end up with a huge surplus and money sinks are necessary. If you house rule the game and provide less money, then they aren't necessary.

First, I don't think it requires a house rule to choose the amount of treasure to provide. The DMG treasure rules are guidelines and suggestions. Second, I still disagree: if the characters have useful things to spend money on, money sinks aren't necessary.

It's never really been an issue in my games. The players find all kinds of ways to spend the money of their PCs. One decided to build and fund orphanages in a major city for example.

That sounds like a way to spend money that was useful to the character, rather than a money sink. Did you purposefully inflate the cost to reduce the amount of currency the character had?

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

.... then you shouldn't be DMing.

Ah, I wondered when this would show up.

 

[MechaPilot]

Considering how much people bitch about how fast leveling is, it's really a wonder when you have other people insisting that you have no downtime and must adventure every single second of your character's life or you are wasting time.

It can be very frustrating, whether you're a DM or a player, when you want some downtime and the group is really gung ho to keep going.

And, as far as modules go, if you are incapable of adjusting a module to fit with your play style, then you shouldn't be DMing.

To be fair, it's almost never a matter of "can't." It's usually a matter of "is running this module worth the amount of effort it would take to adapt it."

 

[Maxperson]

To be fair, it's almost never a matter of "can't." It's usually a matter of "is running this module worth the amount of effort it would take to adapt it."

That's why I almost never run a module. It takes me more work to adapt a module than it does to create an adventure from scratch.

 

[MechaPilot]

That's why I almost never run a module. It takes me more work to adapt a module than it does to create an adventure from scratch.

It certainly can. It depends on the module and what you have to adapt it to. I'm currently adapting the published adventures (currently, Tales From The Yawning Portal) to one of my homebrew settings that has no kobolds, orcs, hobgoblins, ogres or giants. That's a lot of creature substitution and rewriting I have to do.

 

[Coroc]

Methinks we partially discuss about the right way to play the game here and not about a mechanical extra which has eventually to be compensated.

As stated earlier imho the decision yes or no to magic shops if i run the game is heavily dependant on context aka campaign world.

I can enjoy both as a player or DM. I rather see the opportunities that come with magic shops, most important that monetary treasure gets a totally different value, and you need micromanaging tactics both Player and DM.

I know some of you say it is dungeons and dragons and not merchants and bankers, of course you are in the right to have a purist point of view, but thats not the only variant. But interestingly enough these guys suggest to buy castles and virtual lifestyle luxuries etc. and do not see that i could call that out as it is dungeons and Dragons and not playboys and estate agents.

I tend to play realistic encumbrance, not so much in absolute numbers but in volume. No golfbag of maic swords in my campaign unless your pack horse fits into the dungeon. (If it does it will be killed and eaten by the first available Monster of course)
So even if there are no magic shops, if the Players want to sell some old equipment they eventually would get something nicer than some gold by bartering e.g. some oneshot items scrolls etc.

 

[delericho]

I tend to play realistic encumbrance, not so much in absolute numbers but in volume. No golfbag of maic swords in my campaign unless your pack horse fits into the dungeon.

You realise, of course, that in a world with both realistic encumbrance and also lots of magic (enough for people to need a "golf bag" for their magic swords) some bright spark would have created some sort of "scabbard of holding" to get around the problem?

 

[Coroc]

[MENTION=22424]delericho[/MENTION] you mean those worlds where portable holes sometimes find their way into bags of holding and the resulting interdimensional rip forces the dungeonmaster with the heavy plight to decide on which layer of the infinite abyss the party therefore ends up next? (Big evil grin)

And unfortunately all the contents of the bag of holding is strewn out over the multiverse, so the Party is forced to reequip themselves with some overpriced green steel items they can barter of a yugoloth for the diamonds they brought in the case a raise dead might benecessary.

I mean nothing against green steel they will hurt demons perfectly good and despite that they have that lawful evil touch from Baator on them, sounds cool if ah ... ahm your Party actually also is lawful evil...

 

[CapnZapp]

I disagree entirely. Because in a TTRPG the DM has direct control over how much currency is introduced, there is no inherent need for money sinks to control the amount of currency in play. Money sinks are only really necessary in computer games where the developers may not have direct control over how much time the players put into generating currency, and thus require a (non-linear) money sink to control the money supply. Also, the flexibility provided by having a DM in TTRPGs means money doesn't need to just flow uselessly into money sinks, but can instead be used as a valuable resource for overcoming obstacles.

I'm frankly shocked that you consider money sinks a common feature of TTRPG play. If you find yourself needing to rely on them, why not just give the characters less currency in the first place?

In theory this post reads as very reasonable.

In practice, however, it completely ignores the vast amounts of gold showered upon heroes in every edition of Dungeons & Dragons, both in offical treasure loot distribution and in (most) official adventure supplements.

If you haven't checked up on the numerous bloggers and forumists that have analyzed how much gold a level 10 character (say) will have if you follow the DMG treasure guidelines, or if you play in (say) Storm King's Thunder, I strongly recommend you do so before posting.