FormerlyHemlock
Hero
Read the thread again. People are surprised at the quantity of both magic AND coin which is given out.
D&D 5E (2014) Treasure Rolls & "a typical campaign"
- Thread starter I'm A Banana
- Start date
Read the thread again. People are surprised at the quantity of both magic AND coin which is given out.
Thats been pretty well known for quite awhile, never seen anyone deny it really...
Still doesn't mean there would be a magic item economy....not to mention 'magic shops'...
CapnZapp
Legend
Sorry what?
That was my point - how actual play showers PCs in gold they can't use (unless the play group is into downtime details).
That they also get way more items that the DMG would suggest is neither here or there.
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
That was my point--that DMs in this thread are equally offput by gold rewards as well as magic items. Your comments suggested that you wanted more of magic items and less of gold, but the thread consensus appears to want less of both.
It's not true BTW that the game gives nothing to spend gold on. Plenty of good spells have expensive material components.
The problem is that people don't think of their characters as people with lives. Think about how much of your income just seems to evaporate, with no real idea where it goes. You eat out, you buy stuff you don't need, you pay rent, you pay taxes, you give gifts, you go to a show. You might get robbed or have an accident or some other calamity that costs you a big chunk.
When we treat PCs like playing pieces and treasure as a score, it certainly can seem like we get tons of treasure with nothing to spend it on. But if characters actually live -- they have houses and other property, loved ones and social lives, wants and needs -- then not only can that treasure get used, but suddenly they have a good motivation to go into that hole and risk life and limb for a little fortune when funds get low. (Incidentally, it also solves the problem of characters levelling from 1 to 20 over the course of a couple game-time months, which always struck me as problematic.)
CapnZapp
Legend
Sorry I'm playing Dungeons & Dragons, not Income & Expenses.
Sorry for the snark, but unless I can buy something truly worthwhile and helpful, I simply can't be arsed to bother with gold.
Just as I have stopped tracking the number of torches used, experience points, or (non-magical) ammunition a long time ago; I don't track small change. And buying a feast in a tavern quickly becomes small change in D&D. (Heck, buying the tavern quickly becomes small change in D&D! But that's not the point...)
Kikuras
First Post
While I appreciate the concept, an Adventurer (in my eyes) tends to live a more nomadic life. Sure there are expenses - room and meals at the inn, taking care of your horse, buying new clothes. Why would we assume the characters have any life other than killing dragons and moving from town to town? Property is hard to come by in feudal nations. Yeah, you can get married, then leave your wife for six months at a time. Odd that your children have green eyes. You can run a shop, but you're likely to lose money if you're not there to manage, so why bother? Unless it's just a constant goblin grind and you're back at home before bedtime.
The only thing I can see spending loot on is making the adventuring lifestyle more luxurious. Hiring cooks, servants, guards, grooms, buying wagons and extra horses, banners and trumpets don't come cheap. Not that it makes sense that anyone should be gallivanting around the known world with their massive treasure hoard in tow, let alone four somebodys.
You are sort of asking to have your cake and eat it too, though. So characters are vagabonds who bounce from inn to inn, looking for caves full of loot? Why then would we assume the adventurer would be able to easily spend that loot? Who is going to take the ancient coinage? Who is going to buy the fist sized emeralds off them? Who is going to convert the ancient golden idol into liquid cash? If the PCs exist outside the regular world's economy, then they have nowhere to spend their loot unless they find collectors and other wealthy folks willing to trade something the PCs value for it. If adventuring is a part of the economy, then all the things I mentioned -- fees and taxes and expenses and lives -- are part of it too because there would be an "adventuring class" of people. You don't tend to see people of one economic class shopping in lower economic zones. In fact, most people with a little bit of economic leeway shop "up" and try and access a couple status symbols of the next higher class.
Again, it sort of comes down to whether people want to think of their characters as actual living people. Imagine what it would be like to spend your entire life hiking through the woods, eating beef jerky and dry bread, sleeping on the ground with just a bedroll and a blanket to warm you. And those are when you are *not* in a dank, monster filled hell hole, rummaging through offal and viscera in search of a few pennies. Every once in a while, you spend one night at an inn, but make sure you buy the cheapest meal and rent the cheapest room. It would not be fun.
I think implementing some decent long term physical and psychological health and wellness rules would go a long way toward helping encourage players to consider those aspects of the game and their characters. Otherwise, you're really just playing Diablo on paper (and my Diablo 3 character doesn't have anything to spend his money on either!) -- which is, of course, a totally valid way to play but I find it terribly boring.
I feel they went low for default cause its easier for individual groups to upscale. A baseline as it were.
My group? We are definately exceeding the curve...but not in a mad crazy way. Party of five, there are 3 +1 style weapons and the PCs are 5 to 7th level.
