So what's gold gonna be for?

[Jefe Bergenstein]

To blow on ale and whores!

Thats some pretty retarded expensive ale and whores at upper levels.

I think its a bad design decision if you cant spend gold on magic items. Not everyone wants to fart around with army building (or we'd be playing Warhammer or some other wargame). You need to be able to spend gold to improve your character, otherwise treasure loses a lot of appeal for many people. Only a certain type of player really gets excited about describing the types of gold inlay buckles they have on their 8th set of fancy boots.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

As an aside, I remember looking on a character sheet of one of my high-level characters in 2E, and realizing that I had almost 100,000 gp just sitting in a bag of holding. To this day I still think of Scrooge McDuck swimming in his money vault whenever I think of gold and bags of holding. Is that weird?

No. Gold was worthless in 2nd edition. In 1st at least you were expected to equip and cart around a ton of mooks to set off traps. As D&D got away from a wargame model, that fell by the wayside. With nothing practical to spend it on, gold sat unused for the most part.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Ask Iron Heroes players.

And use it for maintenance (food, inns, potions), fun (bling up your armour... and get a big gem for your wizard's staff, get better clothes), built your own empire (stronghold, hirelings, whatever).

Cheers, LT.

 

[Gloombunny]

Thats some pretty retarded expensive ale and whores at upper levels.

And use it for maintenance (food, inns, potions), fun (bling up your armour... and get a big gem for your wizard's staff, get better clothes), built your own empire (stronghold, hirelings, whatever).

So high-level adventurers are like medieval celebrities, strung out on expensive drugs, wearing absurd amounts of bling, followed by sycophantic entourages...

I like it!

 

[WhatGravitas]

So high-level adventurers are like medieval celebrities, strung out on expensive drugs, wearing absurd amounts of bling, followed by sycophantic entourages...

I like it!

Yes.

Ah, don't forget, that bling *is* social power. Medieval kings and the church knew to utilize the power of bling.

Ah, and I forgot an important thing: Bribes.

EDIT: To expand on that: Gold (i.e money) is a very real measurement of power. It's social and economic influence solidified. You can use money to influence the social, economic, and political environment. Ask the Medici about that! This means high-level adventures can *really* play in the league of nobles, lords, and kings - because they have the financial back-up for such a scale, not only personal prowess.

Cheers, LT.

 

[reanjr]

For starters, we can start having a world where an adventurer's socio-economic status doesn't determine their power. You can have a poor 15th level mercenary who can slay a dragon, or a wealthy 1st level nobleman "slumming" with a local group of ne'er-do-wells.

On top of that, wealth accumulation can be used for more entertaining things like influence and objet d'art. And you can finally get away from the loot-every-body style of adventuring if it's inappropriate for your character.

I remember the good old pre-3e days when people used to role-play their wealth. I hope to get back to that.

 

[Nifft]

In my ideal game, a windfall benefits all PCs -- albeit temporarily.

New swords? Great! You can now afford a masterwork sword, dagger, and armor! They'll be great until they wear out and/or are broken in combat. Because that's what happens to equipment.

New spell components? Great! You can now afford to cast slightly more often, or more effectively. Until they run out.

Rogue got bling? Great! You can now afford bigger bribes (bonuses on social skills), or a few magic items, which will eventually wear out (because they're equipment). You wouldn't say no to a masterwork blade, either.

Cheers, -- N

 

[SpiderMonkey]

In my ideal game, a windfall benefits all PCs -- albeit temporarily.

New swords? Great! You can now afford a masterwork sword, dagger, and armor! They'll be great until they wear out and/or are broken in combat. Because that's what happens to equipment.

New spell components? Great! You can now afford to cast slightly more often, or more effectively. Until they run out.

Rogue got bling? Great! You can now afford bigger bribes (bonuses on social skills), or a few magic items, which will eventually wear out (because they're equipment). You wouldn't say no to a masterwork blade, either.

Cheers, -- N

Hmm...I like a lot of what you've got here. I wonder if it would be a matter of DM fiat to determine whether equipment wears out, or if the rules would cover that (if it's not some flat mainenance cost, no thanks). I'd also like to make a (very simple) way of incorporating wealth into social situations. Not just bribe, but bling as well. I dunno. I think that, and then I remember how lazy I am.

 

[Rechan]

I am a person who hates book keeping. I'd hate to have to go buy things with it. Or have to constantly do upkeep. Or budget a fortress. Ugh. When I DM, I don't make my characters follow how many rations they have or if they have one or five arrows in their quiver, unless that's part of the plot.

In my head, my character is all ready awesome looking. I don't need bling. I don't need to write 'Staff with ruby on end' on my character sheet. And just buying one to put on there is... worthless to me.

I'd much rather your gold have a mechanical benefit, like in 3e.

I feel the "Christmas Tree" effect comes from having Too Many magical items, especially because you NEED those stat boosters/save boosters/AC boosters. I'd much rather have several small magical items that let me do a few cute things (think: James Bond's equipment), or one or two multi-purpose items that all have magical abilities that are unrelated to my to-hit or AC.

Sacrificing gold so my magical weapon gains new powers, or whatever, is just fine with me.

 

[Bloosquig]

Just because you don't HAVE to have a ton of magical items doesn't mean you can't spend all your extra cash on random magical items that you enjoy for the hell of it.

Or any of the other great ideas here. (strongholds, beer, girls/boys, whatever. )