D&D 5E XP for gold 5th Edition campaign

[CapnZapp]

I needed a palate cleansing short game between campaigns, and I have just decided to do this. It was going to be a comically dark game anyway, and this will set a perfect tone. I kind of want the characters to be uneasy amongst each other, and now there is a concrete mechanic to make it out with more treasure than anyone else, and should lead to some interesting shenanigans.

I'm thinking of a campaign where most people scrape by without hope... always hungry. But once in a while, if only a very long while, a band of battered heroes return from the wilderness with untold riches, or if not untold, at least worth several hundred gold - having taken the first step on the path of becoming powerful, experienced, famous... the dream of getting to leave the drudgery behind.

Then combine this with that thread over at rpg.net (that I can't seem to find right now, regrettably) where band after band of newly grouped wetbacks walk bigeyed down the kobold warrens, into the ettercap forest or seek out troll country.... only to never come back.
(I think that thread had a dozen bands perish and scores of replacements died, until at last everyone levelled up enough to stop dying all the time, and then the thread chronicled those random survivors rise to greatness)


At least they died doing something. At least they got a quick death. At least they didn't get to grow old and useless and rot away with the pig farming or mud hoveling or whatever us peasants do. They died while they still could look themselves in the mirror without pity or contempt. They died with straight backs and smiles on their faces.

The fact that they probably died screaming and crying for mommy, pissing their pants isn't really important. Nobody will ever remember those who were slowly boiled alive in the hag's cauldron, or were paralyzed with carrion crawler poison and drowned in their own vomit.

What is important is that once more a band of young naive bumbling fools have decided to leave their home villages and seek out glory. And gold.

Probably only death. But think of the gold!

Welcome to the short nasty brutish lives of a xp for gold campaign...!

 

[CapnZapp]

Thinking about this, you could even have a bank (or perhaps just the council of village elders) that accept deposits of cash and magic items.

Then, if your character dies, or even more pertinent, if the entire band TPKs, your next character can be a brother's cousin's best friend or whatever, and claim that gold.

This way, once you've left the earliest, most vulnerable levels, you can ensure even a TPK won't completely force you to start from scratch.

Say you're informed your sister has gone missing in the Goblin Hills, and you are next of kin. You gather up your hapless friends and go visit the council of elders / shady moneylender / whatever.

Inside the strongbox you find 1000 gold pieces and a magical dagger. What do you do?

What you do of course is draw lots which two of your four friends get to level up, the three of you carouse away 300 gold each (in secluded prayer, or donations to the poor, or simply on blow and hookers for what I care).

End result: despite the TPK, you can start the next adventure with three PCs at level 2, and you with a magic weapon. That's much better odds than going out there all single-digit hp!

And, if you happen to stumble upon big sis' corpse, not only do you get to revenge her, you will probably be able to pick up all her loot too!

 

[Capn Charlie]

Here's what I have so far, going with the tentative name "Heroes of the Skullthrone". I want a tone kind of like a comically grimdark gallivant. Generic high trope fantasy taken to dark and depressing ends, etc.


The orc king invaded at the head of an army of monsters, and lay final siege to the castle of the good king, who made a heroic stand with the greatest heroes of the land, a powerful wizard, and a band of legendary knights. And that is where they all died.

King Grashnak Bloodletter is the new king, and after a generation of bloody purges, genocidal tyranny, and violent reorganization, the new kingdom of Skullthrone is starting to run a little more smoothly, but is still going through some growing pains.

At the Feast of Gulknaar, a traditional celebration of surviving a brutal winter by stealing food from those who are weaker than you, a royal census is being levied so that the King can know just what manner of subjects live in his land.

Enter the heroes…

As you stand in the town square, the census taker asks you the first of his questions...

Name? Please state ‘Son ofs’ as far back as you are able.
Age? Before we can verify your age, please state if you knowingly carry any elven blood.

Race? Do you swear here, before the Hellscream Knights that you are not a gnome, or of gnomish descent?

How long have you revered the Dark One, bringer of a thousand screaming deaths and conqueror of the light? Was it your entire life, or just since the purgings?

Vocation? If you are a peasant, farmer, miner, or other simple laborer just state “Worthless Grist that feeds the mill of our glorious war machine”.

What did your father do? If your mother was a whore, or you are a war bastard, just state ‘unknown’.

Why do you seek to become an adventurer? (To the escape the soulcrushing despair of slavery, To see the world kill people and bring back treasure for the glory of Skullthrone)

On pain of torture, dismemberment, death and the defiling of your remains, as well as the lives of all of your kin, would you ever consider betraying your rightful king Grashnak Bloodletter, long may he reign?

Have you considered enrollment in the Dark Army of Destruction? If you survive three battles in the screaming suicide vanguard you qualify for the right to carry a weapon and wear armor.

 

[the Jester]

I've long described basically this system as my "ales and whores xp system"; I've never actually used it but have been talking about doing so for years now.

I think it would work great, if the group has the right playstyle. Personally, I think it would be awesome fun.

 

[Uller]

My campaign finished up PotA a month or so ago. They're 12th level. My player have no desire to do another big AP but I have them all so we are switching over to a sandbox/episodic campaign where I cull the best bits from the APs and present them as stand-alone adventures. First up is Castle Ravenloft.

We've been using milestone leveling up to this point. We don't play often enough to support straight XP and my players seem unsure of what to do with gold so far. The wizard PC happily spends his on new spells and spare spell books. The Paladin is saving his pennies to reclaim his family estate in Thundertree (I decided it will cost him 15,000 gp). The other PCs are just at a loss. I've let them purchase a few magic items along the way but they have found plenty of these so even that seems unappealing to them.

So we're going to try exhanging gold for XP. You can use it for purchasing magic items or other direct improvements to your character or you can spend it on downtime activities and that translates to XP. They have around 6000 gp each so that will translate to (at most) about a third of their advancement toward 13th level. I think the one caveat I'll make is limit the gp->xp exchange to be no more than XP earned through adventuring....that way if they come across some ridiculous windfall they can't just buy a level or three.

 

[CapnZapp]

Now with the announcement of Yawning Portal, I think I have my next campaign.

All that's needed now is to place the seven dungeons on a map, and I'll have my sandbox. (That is, assuming Yawning doesn't attempt its own solution: I'm assuming it simply presents its dungeons as unconnected scenarios).

The main advantage is in having a closed setting.

If you use a chunk of the Realms, my players have a tendency to fly/teleport over to Waterdeep or other major cities in the hopes there they'll find unlimited magic shoppes and other resources.

Also, plopping down these seven dungeons all over Forgotten Realms probably means it will be too hard to come up with an overarching theme connecting them all (as well as avoiding distractions), though the Rod of Seven Parts is a good one.

Finally, I'm not sure the xp for gold holds water if used in an established setting. Since this will be my first such campaign, I'd prefer my own "pocket dimension" where civilizations outside the map area are inferred and mentioned, but actually not detailed.

 

[CapnZapp]

As for how xp for gold will affect the setting:

I imagine there will be at least one larger city apart from "starter town". Characters can come from this town or (preferably) from surrounding villages and farms. They're leaving their old (hopeless) life behind; perhaps they have several older brothers or sisters so no chance of inheriting, or they're just tired of bad harvests and a lot of grueling work for very little in return.

"Starter Town" will have all basic amenities, as well as quest hooks for several overland scenario vignettes (much like the boxed starter set) and perhaps the first two dungeons. The first (=lowest-levelled) one (Sunless Citadel I believe) is sufficiently easy that I'm making it partly explored. It will be the main source of legends and tales of riches and success.

If I use the Rod of Seven Parts, the first part will already have been looted from the Citadel and now hangs proudly behind the bar disk of the adventurer that built the town's inn for precisely the gains from that dungeon.

A partial list of needed starter town locations:
- inn, tavern, brothel
- at least three established churches: lawful, neutral and chaotic
- several "starter projects" made by NPC adventurers (spending their downtime per gp for xp rules): cults (turning into churches if successful), guilds (anything from goldsmiths to thieves to adventurers), other community efforts (orphanages, soup kitchens, almshouses etc)

There will probably not be a need for specialized adventuring gear outlets, such as magic shoppes, in the starter town: the three big churches is probably sufficient.

On the overland map there will be three established city-based regional guilds: probably knight's chapter (lawful), adventurer's guild (neutral) and assassin's guild (chaotic). There might be other power centers on the edges of the maps such as an druid's circle, an elf village (perhaps bringing in exotic goods via forested river) and a dwarf outpost (perhaps a mine or citadel).

At least one road leads out from "starter town" connecting it to a larger city. Since this road is routinely patrolled it will be significantly safer than roadless encounters a similar distance from town. It might feature bandits and highwaymen, but these are more likely to rob you blind than to kill and eat you.

It would be cool to have three trails from town as well, leading to three powerful spellcasters for additional quest generation. I don't know, the white wizard Selator, the red wizard Poomchukker and the black wizard Grimslade. Each wizard can provide quests and information on the various dungeons, but they demand a given character works only with them and not the other two wizards (so different party members have different patrons).

 

[CapnZapp]

One drastic variant is to say you can only long rest in town (or comparable) to encourage a playing style where "should we press on or return to base before we get too weak to survive wandering monsters on the way back" becomes more prominent.

Default 5E would otherwise mean a party sticks around to defeat each dungeon in one "go" (over a short number of days), I'm afraid.

Of course, with xp for gold, the assumption is players will want to avoid wandering monsters like the plague - after all they have little to no treasure and therefore are useless for levelling up!

Also, since you gain as much XP if you trick or circumvent the goblins (rather than kill them) as long as you get their gold, the intention is to get more use out of the dungeons. A straightforward hacknslash assault is often successful (at least in 5E) and often the quickest way to finish off a scenario. We'll see if I can make my players change their play style...

I have considered granting perhaps 10% of the nominal xp amounts for monster kills, since an unusually long string of wandering monsters might otherwise come across as overly disppiriting and frustrating.

That is, there will be a trader in town (or more likely Poomchukker the Wizard) who gladly buys select body parts of the various critters of the land. For instance, a regular Goblin is listed at 50 XP in the Monster Manual. Each goblin ear will thus sell for 5 gold (which gives 5 XP, 10% of the regular XP award). A troll's tooth will sell for 180 gold. A wolf's pelt 5 gold. The eye of a Giant Spider 20 gp. And so on.

(Happily ignoring the question "doesn't a goblin have two ears?" Perhaps it's only left ears that will do, I don't know and I don't care. My players will hopefully realize that any abuse will only mean more complicated rules: "from now on, each goblin ear only fetches 25 silver"... )

Also fully planning to leave exactly what body part to collect up the players. Instead of answering the question (flipping through the MM at random) "so now we've felled three Gnolls, what do we collect?" I'll ask them in return "What do you think". Whether it's the tail or a tusk or even a set of balls, doesn't really matter. Purpose is to award 10% xp for kills, just in case the party is deadlocked on all current quests and too unimaginative to come up with anything new.

 

[CapnZapp]

Moving back to the issue of long rests. Default rules will - as I said - probably be too generous and make the map and its overland dangers too unimportant.

Do y'all think there needs to be a "makeshift camp" rule?

Partly because some dungeons might otherwise be too large and too dangerous, partly because otherwise some spells (rope trick et al) becomes wholly worthless.

Have there been any discussions on rules for "partial long rests"? That is, camping out in the wild, or in a cleared passage of the dungeon (or even in a Leomund's Tiny Hut) can provide SOME restoration, but not so much as to remove the reasons for going back to town?

Or is "level-up" enough reason? (Since you can only carouse back in town, I mean).

Perhaps the simplest suggestion at this stage is to say that outdoors resting provides "half" of a normal long rest: either fully restored hit points OR half your character level's worth of Hit Dice, and "every other" spell slot (instead of a completely drained Wiz3 regaining four 1st level slots and two 2nd level slots, that PC regains two 1st level slots and one 2nd level slot).

 

[CapnZapp]

Back-in-town resting (and carousing etc) is assumed to consume more time than merely a single night.

I haven't yet decided on whether to make this campaign feature the passage of time. If so, I might make each back-in-town visit advance time one season: spring, summer, fall, winter. This helps with making high level heroes realistically aged, and provides me with an opportunity to vary the landscape (which would otherwise quickly become routine, at least the parts close to town).

Regardless of whether a back-in-town takes a week or two months, I will probably allow it to provide "full" healing (not only half your HD but all of them, etc).

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Questions to others with experience of similar campaigns: do you need Town Portal spells, or will Word of Recall (teleport etc) be sufficiently useful? (I imagine the overland trek will eventually overstay its attractiveness when the party is high enough level that its random encounters will be considered only a waste of time)

Perhaps WotC will make sure to add teleportation circles to the dungeons (since they play a larger role in 5E than with previous editions featuring more generous fast travel)?

Perhaps I should even consider adding "mana fonts" to provide one-off insta-rests for the larger dunegons?