Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 5631771" data-attributes="member: 54707">I can tell ya several things that would be very  valuable in the real world and possibly a fantasy one in lieu of coin. To  reiterate some of what the others said and to add a few.    Animals, land, tools, certain professions and  their labor (blacksmiths), certain goods (paper), valuable but hard to come by  goods and commodities, slaves (in certain settings), indentured servants,  heirlooms and legacies, raw materials, food, water, survival stuffs, even  appealing but basically useless items like beads (if they appealed to the  natives or players because they were rare or exotic).   But my suggestion is this. You might be  overlooking the player's creativity in exploiting the environment they are  exploring if you're thinking about pre-conceived treasure handed out by the DM  as the only possibility to their advancement and real fortune.   If it were me, and I was exploring land, and could  get my government to support me giving away a few basic but useful or even  useless exotic goods in exchange for buying raw materials from the natives then  I'd start a business or enterprise.    I'd buy trees, lumber, mines, water rights,  settlements, land, animals, etc. and pay trusted associates (I shipped in) local  peoples who were good at business (and that I had trained) to run  the enterprises for me. Then I'd ship the goods back home and take the money.  With the money I'd furnish and equip my own future expeditions, the raw goods  and profits from my business ventures and enterprises being my treasure (and my  growing treasury). And being reinvested in future and expanded enterprises.     As my business ventures expanded I'd introduce  into the areas I was exploring new goods, like paper, refined metals, decorative  wares, etc and use these goods to purchase or stake more of the lands and  materials I explored. Then your income stream would flow in both directions and  would be immensely profitable. (I've done this before as a player to finance  player expeditions, to build Keeps and libraries - for my Wizard, to fund public  works, to buy political influence, to build churches and guilds, to equip myself  and my party, to do charity and philanthropy, and to gain an enhanced PC and  player reputation. Also once I bought and equipped a ship and formed a small  private militia as a Frontier's Guard. I being the Lord of the Guard after the  local King made me a Knight and eventually a Duke.)   Then I'd pay off my initial investors or  government and be entirely self-financing. At the same time I'd establish good  relations with the locals and build them up politically and militarily and  establish my own Realm (semi-independent, entirely independent, or at least  operated by a generous charter). My point is don't let your money sit idle and  encourage the players to look at their treasure not as a static thing, but as an  active, living thing that can be employed in all kinds of profitable  ways.    In this way you could establish your own kingdom  on the basis of your previous trading and business enterprises (while taking  profit and building a self-sustaining financial base) or at least make a deal to  form your own Frontier Buffer Zone which you could probably run as you wished  (that is mostly independently). My one word of warning, whoever gets good at  this will attract the attention of good men who want to join your success, but  also mere hangers-on, and will cause envy in those who will want to take by  force what you have built by craft. But that's a good player storyline too.  Having to defend against schemers your hard won Realm.   Now your players might not think all of this out  at first, but I wouldn't necessarily assume they couldn't, and if you encourage  them, then they might just play this out on their own, or a very similar  scenario. In that way you don't need to give them treasure so much as allow the  opportunities for them to develop their own methods of independent Wealth  Generation.   Good luck with it, but in my opinion, just supply  them with the raw goods and opportunities and then sit back and let them see how  they will actually exploit their opportunities. If they're smart they can build  their own Realms, and start their own ventures and enterprises and capitalize on  their own industry and imagination.</blockquote>

Verification