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<blockquote data-quote="Edgar Ironpelt" data-source="post: 9335617" data-attributes="member: 32075">The problem is coming up with helpful ways to spend gold beyond the obvious improvements to the survival and success of the character. If the temples, patents of nobility, expensive parties, fancy houses etc. are meaningless bling, then that's Not Helpful. So the GM has to run a game where gold-fueled social interactions are fun for the players, and where the adventure survival imperatives of the characters and the adventure fun imperatives of the players don't push players into spending nearly all their gold on (magical) adventuring gear. The second means that gold can't be used as the limiting factor on the amount and quality of that gear. Or at least the issue has to be finessed. Trying to control magic gear by making it ruinously expensive will backfire by giving players incentives to become fanatic misers grubbing every last copper and then spending that last copper on more gear. Instead magical adventuring gear has to be cheap enough that PCs will have plenty of gold left over after loading up with all the gear they care to take with them on an adventure. In econospeak terms, magic adventuring gear has to have a declining marginal utility. (Yes, D&amp;D economics are crazy. But that means a GM needs to think like a crazy economist. &quot;Economists are often accused of believing that everything - health, happiness, life itself - can be measured in money. What we actually believe is even odder. We believe that everything can be measured in anything.&quot;)As a half-baked idea: Maybe go back to old-school &quot;xp for gold&quot; - but only if the gold is spent on those social-interaction luxuries. Maybe there is an in-world reason why successful adventurers spend freely on riotous living, generous donations to charity, and extravagant displays of wealth when they return from an adventure with heaps of treasure.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Edgar Ironpelt, post: 9335617, member: 32075"] The problem is coming up with [I]helpful[/I] ways to spend gold beyond the obvious improvements to the survival and success of the character. If the temples, patents of nobility, expensive parties, fancy houses etc. are meaningless bling, then that's Not Helpful. So the GM has to run a game where gold-fueled social interactions are fun for the players, and where the adventure survival imperatives of the characters and the adventure fun imperatives of the players don't push players into spending nearly all their gold on (magical) adventuring gear. The second means that gold can't be used as the limiting factor on the amount and quality of that gear. Or at least the issue has to be finessed. Trying to control magic gear by making it ruinously expensive will backfire by giving players incentives to become fanatic misers grubbing every last copper and then spending that last copper on more gear. Instead magical adventuring gear has to be cheap enough that PCs will have plenty of gold left over after loading up with all the gear they care to take with them on an adventure. In econospeak terms, magic adventuring gear has to have a declining marginal utility. (Yes, D&D economics are crazy. But that means a GM needs to think like a crazy economist. "Economists are often accused of believing that everything - health, happiness, life itself - can be measured in money. What we actually believe is even odder. We believe that everything can be measured in anything.") As a half-baked idea: Maybe go back to old-school "xp for gold" - but only if the gold is spent on those social-interaction luxuries. Maybe there is an in-world reason why successful adventurers spend freely on riotous living, generous donations to charity, and extravagant displays of wealth when they return from an adventure with heaps of treasure. [/QUOTE]

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