D&D General Using a Variant XP System and Had An Interesting Observation About Treasure

[Seramus]

When I have opportunity to be a player, I frivolously spend my money on land, buildings, shipping lanes, trading consortiums, bribes, employees, art objects, and more. And yeah, the lack of treasure in 5E stings. My coin purse always needs filling!

I'm running a group using a variant xp system called "ale & whores"

What ratio do you use, 10:1? (From the plate armor mention)

 

[bulletmeat]

7 or 8 years ago someone on the C&C forum brought up a similar spend gold for XP idea that I used and it worked fine.
Spending gold on off adventure actions such as; fixing or replacing armor & equipment (didn't have mechanics but used it in story), donating to temple/church/or deity religion somehow, buying spell components (easier for mages to track), carousing in taverns on their exploits, etc.
Sometimes these were played out for fun (escpecialy if it started a side quest), sometimes they were glossed over it quickly to move on. But leveling up was never during an adventure for us, always off.
Could do something similar.

 

[the Jester]

When I have opportunity to be a player, I frivolously spend my money on land, buildings, shipping lanes, trading consortiums, bribes, employees, art objects, and more. And yeah, the lack of treasure in 5E stings. My coin purse always needs filling!


What ratio do you use, 10:1? (From the plate armor mention)

1:1- my assumption is that you can pretty much never sell your (beat up, dented, and blood-stained) gear for full price, and that the pc in question is probably going to get screwed on the deal besides.

 

[overgeeked]

1:1- my assumption is that you can pretty much never sell your (beat up, dented, and blood-stained) gear for full price, and that the pc in question is probably going to get screwed on the deal besides.

Same. 1 XP for 1 gp. At best, the PCs can sell their shiny, like new and never damaged/repaired gear for 1/2 of the listed value. Stuff that's beat to hell or crudely made, most monster gear is a hard pass. And selling magical gear is a prolonged and time-consuming process that just might not be possible outside of the largest cities. But then, I also shoot for unique magic items and let signature stuff level with the PCs so there's less incentive to keep trading up.