So what's gold gonna be for?

[A'koss]

In your campaign, anyway. In mine they didn't bother with all that. They were too busy looking for bigger fish to fry. However, the common element between our two campaigns was the dungeon -> killing -> loot equation.

Hunh... back in those days the prevelent attitude in my games was - once you could afford to buy a keep, you did. Because then you "made it", you were somebody now. Lord somebody in fact.

When Test of the Warlords came out we still played it with 2e rules, but that solidfied the breakpoint -15th level- where everyone starting looking at where to build their castle (Dragon Mag had several cool designs in one ish.), tower (modeled after the High Clerist tower, of course), or exotic fortress (built into a cliffside, tree-town, desert monolith, etc.). Except the theives of course, who would half the time start their own guilds, the other half mooch off the PCs who did drop the cash on the castle.

The PCs still went out and adventured, but there would be bigger jumps in time between them. I think a lot of the attraction was having your own "home base", the grander the better as well as having your own "home town", just the way you like it (and tax it ). From there (remembering that castles were just a means to an end, not an end in itself), outside of the usual adventuring, PCs would usually push on with their "dreams" - the long-term goal stuff I talked about before.

 

[Umbran]

And you're a pretentious ass. If I were a mod I'd find a nice way to say that and then really make my point by giving you a timeout from the thread. But I'm not a mod, so I'll just call it like I see it.

...and get yourself booted from the thread for your trouble. Don't post in here again.

Next person who cannot control his or her more base impulses in here gets a ban. If, for some reason, you cannot understand why, please feel free to e-mail me or another mod to discuss it.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Thanks, I'm not quite sure what you mean by superlative but it has the word super in it so I'll take it as a complement.

It means "to the MAXX!!!"

(BTW, your sig is hilarious. I'm still laughing about the "half-hearted explanations to a parrot" thing. That's brilliant. )

Go read the webcomic I stole it from.

 

[Piratecat]

You are ignorant of the origins and early days of the game.

And let's not tell people they're ignorant because they don't agree with you, eh? There are better ways to get a point across, and they don't involve being rude.

 

[Nifft]

So, how 'bout that gold. It's shiny and we like it. In real life, we'd use it to indulge in pleasures of the flesh, but D&D has consistently failed to deliver any reasonable simulation of THAT, so let's think of other stuff we could buy.

- Expensive material components: Sure, you can cast greater restoration at will. Cash up front please.

- Tolls, tariffs & taxes: "Material components" for mundane transport.

- Alchemical goodies: more mundane "material components".

- Bribes, tithes & tribute: what I've been calling "plot hacks" -- using in-game rewards to purchase narrative control.

Cheers, -- N

 

[FireLance]

So, how 'bout that gold... let's think of other stuff we could buy.

"Setting control" - fund a crusade or a evangelical drive that makes your church the leading religious power in the barony/kingdom/world, win the hand of the princess, raise troops to carve out a kingdom in the wilderness/overthrow a despot/conquer the world, etc.

 

[ruleslawyer]

In your campaign, anyway. In mine they didn't bother with all that. They were too busy looking for bigger fish to fry. However, the common element between our two campaigns was the dungeon -> killing -> loot equation.

Which is great! However, it is worth noting (and maybe the point that JDJBlatherings was intending to express) that the "core" rules for 1e do have "name" level (9th-11th depending on class) characters automatically gaining access to a stronghold and followers. This does hardwire a certain playstyle CHOICE, at least, into the game.

 

[Imp]

So, how 'bout that gold. It's shiny and we like it. In real life, we'd use it to indulge in pleasures of the flesh, but D&D has consistently failed to deliver any reasonable simulation of THAT, so let's think of other stuff we could buy.

I did like the suggestion earlier (in this thread? I lose track) of being able to spend it on various pleasures or sacrifices or donations, whatever is in character, and having that translate into morale bonuses or, I don't know, maybe something more limited, action points or sub-action-points, something you can spread out when you need it.

Like... say 100 gp spent at whatever in-character activity - buying a statue for your temple, getting a new house, les pleasures of the flesh, lab equipment - translates into 1 point of damage, which you can add to any attack roll, possibly up to a certain maximum per hit if things are looking unbalancey. Something like that. Things that don't translate into game-world power, but provide the character satisfaction.

 

[ptolemy18]

Ditto. If the plan is indeed to have a new DMG every year, then there should be plenty of room to include stronghold and territory rules for high-level characters.

This would be nice.... assuming they're willing to support the idea of strongholds and fortresses and stuff like that, since I recall they also have talked about "lowering the power of extremely high-level PCs". Statements like how the characters "are too weak at low-level and too strong at high-level."

At any rate, I, too, don't understand exactly what the point of gold will be in a game where you can't buy magic items as freely. It could be good for role-playing, or it could sort of invalidate the point of treasure altogether. I assume they're too smart to do the latter, hopefully, so I guess I'll wait and see.

The one thing I hope they DON'T do? Go back to making gold = XP, like in some older editions. BLEARGGH!

 

[Lanefan]

This is the DM's fault for not pausing after the first adventure and stating, "Six months later ..."

This doesn't happen IME. Why? Because in my case that would be exactly as far as I would get into that sentence before at least one player would interrupt with a variant on: "Hey! If we just had 6 months off I won't have been doing nothing...I'll go off on my own adventure while everyone else stays put, unless they wanted to come along...." at which point the wheels come off.

The only ways to get parties to put in some downtime is by training, or by having them somehow get themselves involved in a non-adventuring project that eats up time...building a party stronghold, helping with the local harvest, preparing for a particular celebration or event, etc.

Lanefan