Proposal: Time Gold

[covaithe]

Balth, who I approved for level 2 yesterday, is in the same boat. I imagine JNC is aware of this, though, and has appropriate plans for dealing with it...

I'm really ambivalent on this point. If we do (allow retroactive time gold), some DMs will have to tweak their treasure plans. If we don't, other DMs... will have to tweak their treasure plans. It's a wash.

On the margin, I'm tentatively inclined to disallow retroactive time gold. If we fix the problem going forward, and have individual players remind their DMs that they're feeling kind of poor, I think things will come into line soon enough.

On the other hand, if we do give RTG, then some DMs will need to slow down a bit on their treasure-giving. Which I'd kind of like to avoid, since under-awarding treasure is what got us into this mess in the first place.

 

[Phoenix8008]

So currently, the proposal puts the monetary gp and the value of the magic items together, so a DM doing an adventure of 10 encounters to raise the party one level only has to hand out the standard 10 parcels for that level and then he/she is done, correct?

 

[Lord Sessadore]

That's the intent, Phoenix, yes. The DM will only have to award treasure for the XP they give out, and don't have to award treasure for time XP.
[edit]Though it's important to note that with time XP, your group will probably be level 2 about halfway through an adventure whose encounters give enough XP to get the party to level 2. So, you will probably have to give 5 level 1 parcels and 5 level 2 parcels. Or something like that.[/edit]

Back to retroactive time gold ... I think having a chat with your DM is probably the best place to start for those feeling poor. I guess I should have been more explicit when I tossed out the idea for proposals to bring characters up to their expected wealth - I was thinking it would be a thing you do when you're not on an adventure. That way it doesn't mess with your DMs plans to bring you up to speed

In any case, we have to decide on a 'cut off point' for time gold to begin. For example, I don't think we really want to give out time gold for, say, the Ebon Mirror, but do ukingsken and Joe's new adventures get time gold? How recent does an adventure have to be in order to get time gold? I think I'd like to say only those adventures that started quite recently ... off the top of my head, nothing before Fire and Ice. Maybe the rest of our friendly neighborhood DMs can come in and share their thoughts?

 

[JoeNotCharles]

I agree that time gold shouldn't be given for time XP already awarded. That would be confusing. The next DM to take on characters feeling short-changed can take care of it. I think he goal here is to make it so adjusting the loot is something DM's don't have to worry about as a general thing, not to prevent it from happening ever.

Generally time XP is listed by the DM and certified by the judge at the end of the adventure, so for the questionable ones like the ones that just started, the DM can choose whether to list time gold next to the XP or to skip it (in which case they should be increasing their adventure loot, and they should note in the summary that there's no time gold).

In fact, it's worth noting that as a general thing DM's may want to roll time gold into the adventure loot - for example, if you defeat a dragon and find the horde, you can make it seem even more impressive by including the time gold in it, or you might just have a setup where the players find lots of unique artworks as valuables and you want to explicitly list what kind of art the time gold is. In my view, "time gold" is just a measure showing how much money DM's should be giving out on top of the treasure packets, and its up to them whether to include this much money in their adventure or just give it out in an abstract manner at the end.

 

[elecgraystone]

If we fix the problem going forward, and have individual players remind their DMs that they're feeling kind of poor, I think things will come into line soon enough.

The only issue I see with this is the fact that the character has to know they are kind of poor. Unless you are checking out every sheet of people your level, that's hard to do. I don't think I'm poor, but I haven't been checking out what's in everyone else's pockets either...

 

[covaithe]

Ok, that's starting to sound like a consensus. With that understanding, I'll vote YES.

 

[garyh]

I'm hoping there's also a consensus that XP gained through DM credit spending is accompanied by the appropriate amount of gold.

 

[Lord Sessadore]

Well, I did go back and edit my proposal post to include that particular clause after your vote, garyh, so I assume cov's vote includes that

 

[garyh]

Exxxxxxxxxxxcellent...

 

[covaithe]

Yeah, I'm okay with that amendment, though the proposal as written only covers future DM point expenditures, not garyh's from last week.