What did you do with your loot?

[Olaf the Stout]

I wanted to answer ale and whores but that would be lying. In reality I think I used it to buy equipment at first (including a few magical items - the availablity of magical items for sale was much less compared to 3E and 4E though).

By that stage I had gotten some followers and we had taken over a run-down castle. So I spent quite a bit of money outfitting my followers and rebuilding/upgrading the castle. Later on the campaign shifted to Planescape where I then owned an inn and a gem shop (I was a halfling theif so both businesses fit it rather well with my character! ). Buying and running those took up a fair bit of my disposable income (I thought these things were meant to make money! ).

It's good to see that so many of us were in to buiding castles and forging out our own empires back in those days.

Olaf the Stout

 

[The Shaman]

It's good to see that so many of us were in to buiding castles and forging out our own empires back in those days.

I still am.

 

[diaglo]

I still am.

[ghost quote] ditto. tell her ditto. [/ghost quote]

 

[Haltherrion]

What do we do with loot?

Certainly many campaigns, we or my players spent it on developing their holdings.

Last campaign, the referee gave us all a unique ancestral relic that was relevant to the particular figure we used. Advancing those items proved to be a very good gold sink; we never really spent money on anything else. But that was also a fairly linear campaign with not a lot of time for anything else.

In our upcoming campaign, magic has been "sundered" by a world event which makes magic items take damage and eventually fail. Characters can find people who create magic to repair their items so my co-ref and I expect this (and training costs) to prove a nice gold sink but we'll see.

 

[Lanefan]

Big money:

At low levels: training, equipment/spell upgrades
At mid levels: training, equipment/spell upgrades, restorative magics, divination magics, long-range transport
At high levels: training, equipment/spell upgrades, restorative magics, individual stronghold-temple-laboratory, group endeavours e.g. a party castle-laboratory-library-home base

Small money:

At all levels: ale, fine inns, fancy clothes, pranks on other characters, small gifts, etc.

And mules.

Lan-"in my case, it all went into magic longswords"-efan

 

[haakon1]

During the first couple of levels, I think most people would be upgrading their mundane equipment. But after you have your platemail and warhorse (say, by 3rd level)

Nod, gold was very useful until you scraped your first few thousand together.

In my experience, few Players bothered with mercenaries; few built home bases; and few bought anything. I saw several character sheets from other campaigns that had thousands and thousands of gp worth of treasure written down. (They also often had many magic items written down -- six +1 swords, two +1 shields, an extra ring of fire protection, etc.)

Nod, I still have some old character sheets that look like that.

So, did you spend your treasure on something, or did it just get stashed somewhere and left?

Ah, the mentality that caused the Great Recession -- money is only for spending!

By contrast, my characters and those of my friends believed money was for hording and investing, after our characters retired. After all, the only old adventurers are those whose player's retire the character sheet before it gets shredded! Think of it as the professional athletes who DON'T blow it all on ale and whores. We used to discuss the businesses our characters would start are retirement -- dealing weapons, transporting wealth by dragon, that sort of thing.

Even now when I DM, I do ask players who depart for whatever reason what their PC does in retirement, and have them as NPCs thereafter. Gives a campaign that lived in, Gygaxian feel!

 

[Hussar]

Bullgrit - as usual, my experience lines up pretty well with yours. After about 3rd level, gold was pretty much just a number on the character sheet. Kind of like a pinball score, didn't really do anything, just kept score.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Well, right now, it's being stashed, spent on hirelings and such, sometimes food, drink and lodgings, and some no doubt will go towards whatever travel costs and fortification/holdings/troops/students/business interests (etc.) appeal at, well, later levels (we're not much past starting out at the moment.) But yeah, that's how it is, and probably the plans. Pretty 'mundane', in a sense. Or, rooted in the world they live in, is another way of thinking of it, I suppose.

 

[Mark Chance]

My main OD&D/1E/2E character spent much of his loot. He built three keeps in the eastern Yeomanry, maintained a small army and a thieves' guild, ensured his henchmen were well-equipped, and acted as a patron of the arts and of low-level adventurers. He also bought shares in several mining ventures.

When he went adventuring, he would pick choice equipment items from his large collection, depending on the role he sought to fill. For example, if he were going to be used mainly for his thief skills, he'd stock up on thiefly items. On adventurers where it was more important he be a fighter, he'd stash the leather armor in favor of plate.

He also would head out an adventurers with just a few gold and silver pieces in his pouch. Any high-level fighter/thief worth his salt didn't need to worry about spending money.