I was wondering about this since my campaign doesn't lean heavily into paying for everything we do, or keeping track of rations. Of course, when we make visits to shops to buy magic items, weapon or armor, we obviously pay, but we really don't on the little details, like paying for drinks, or buying more rations (unless of course it provides a roleplay moment). I wanted to know how other parties and other DM's did this, out of curiosity. And especially since adventurers have such an unsteady but large source of income, I guess our group figure paying for the little stuff isn't as necessary. But let me know your thoughts
My campaigns are on the low end. I understand that for some people, keeping track of weight for encumbrance, fresh water and food etc can be fun to manage. For me it's boring, as a player and as a DM. So I tend to brush over that stuff.
I keep track of money of course, but I don't keep track of rations in the games I run.
If a player asks about buying food/water etc, I'll generally give them a price while they're in town, and let them have that. Just because it doesn't interest me doesn't mean it doesn't anterest any of my players so if they're wanting to keep track of what their character has and stock up when they have the opportunity, more power to them, but I"m not going to be keeping an eye on their character sheets to make sure they have rations etc.
My campaigns are on the low end. I understand that for some people, keeping track of weight for encumbrance, fresh water and food etc can be fun to manage. For me it's boring, as a player and as a DM. So I tend to brush over that stuff.
I keep track of money of course, but I don't keep track of rations in the games I run.
If a player asks about buying food/water etc, I'll generally give them a price while they're in town, and let them have that. Just because it doesn't interest me doesn't mean it doesn't anterest any of my players so if they're wanting to keep track of what their character has and stock up when they have the opportunity, more power to them, but I"m not going to be keeping an eye on their character sheets to make sure they have rations etc.
For sure. Yeah I kind of feel that with the crazy amount of money adventurers make (if you think about it), haggling over how much copper we spent on sandwiches last week doesn't really interest me. But it may be different for other groups, which is why I asked :)
My campaigns are on the low end. I understand that for some people, keeping track of weight for encumbrance, fresh water and food etc can be fun to manage. For me it's boring, as a player and as a DM. So I tend to brush over that stuff.
I keep track of money of course, but I don't keep track of rations in the games I run.
If a player asks about buying food/water etc, I'll generally give them a price while they're in town, and let them have that. Just because it doesn't interest me doesn't mean it doesn't anterest any of my players so if they're wanting to keep track of what their character has and stock up when they have the opportunity, more power to them, but I"m not going to be keeping an eye on their character sheets to make sure they have rations etc.
For sure. Yeah I kind of feel that with the crazy amount of money adventurers make (if you think about it), haggling over how much copper we spent on sandwiches last week doesn't really interest me. But it may be different for other groups, which is why I asked :)
Yeah, it's one of those things where there isn't a right or wrong answer, it all comes down to what people at the table like. Especially the DM who has to put in the effort of running the game.
Another question I forgot to ask; how does your DM rule spellcasting components? we basically haven't messed with them to my knowledge, although I've never been in a campaign with super high level spells, so I figure if we got to cast wish or meteor swarm or something he would probably have us get components.
For that I tend to go RAW, but for MOST spells it's not a big deal. Generally if a spell has M components, you're good with your component pouch or focus that you get at character creation, or pick up along the way if you're not a level 1 spellcaster.
Spells that have a set price on components I require people to buy said item once, spells that consume the components I require people to keep in stock. Though I have considered potentially just letting people deduct gold from their inventories instead, I keep this in place largely because of ressurection spells. I tend to keep a leash on how many diamonds for xample the party is able to find or buy so that ressurection doesn't become too trivialized.
Healing potions and diamonds for revivify are things I tend to regulate a bit. A new town they arrive at for example might have some, but but they're not going to have infinite potions in stock and quality diamonds can be harder to find outside of big cities.
I was wondering about this since my campaign doesn't lean heavily into paying for everything we do, or keeping track of rations. Of course, when we make visits to shops to buy magic items, weapon or armor, we obviously pay, but we really don't on the little details, like paying for drinks, or buying more rations (unless of course it provides a roleplay moment). I wanted to know how other parties and other DM's did this, out of curiosity. And especially since adventurers have such an unsteady but large source of income, I guess our group figure paying for the little stuff isn't as necessary. But let me know your thoughts
Right now, I'm not paying much attention to that stuff. The party is a mix of experienced players and n00bs, and the n00bs already have enough to keep track of. There are reasons for hand-waving things away though -- the sorcerer has the entertainer background and usually earns their keep in inns by performing, and when not in a town they've been in an area where hunting would be fairly easy for the ranger or the warlock with a hunter-y background (plus, there's a rogue with the Chef feat). Keeping track of the little stuff seemed pointless.
They're level 5 now though, and potentially headed to a much more inhospitable part of the map, at which point I will start making food and possibly even water an issue.
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
It actually kind of depends on the type of campaign it is.
If we are talking a gritty exploration campaign where the players are trudging through the Underdark, yeah, we track everything because resources become a major problem if you don't have enough and can really drive the adventure and decisions of the players. I guess I would put this type of campaign into the emergent story style of game, where, I don't really have a narrative story for the game and the goals in the game are player-driven, usually in the form of some sort of hunt for treasure. Games like that players usually have big plans for what they will do with all of their ill-gotten goods, so I don't have to do a whole lot more than give them the setting/area and locations to explore.
But if we are talking like a big epic Lord of the Rings style story than no, typically we are focused on adventuring, storytelling and action, but games like that tend to be bigger than life and collecting treasure is the farthest thing from anyone's mind.
Sometimes the players take the lead on this so I also do it when its kind of expected as well, some players just instinctively say stuff "Hey we need to get rations and water, we will be traveling for 2 weeks and torches, rope etc.. for when we get to X place".. in which case I just kind of go with it. I mean if they want to track it because they feel its important, I make it important just like any other aspect of an RPG.
As for spell components, I have never used them, but I play using older editions of D&D where Magic-Users already have a tough time as it is, so I tend to try to make their lives a bit easier not harder. Than again, sometimes players who run Mages insist on collecting what they perceive as rare components, in which case I will do the usual DM thing and try to find a place for it usually in the form of enhancing spells... For example a player of mine in a game a while back collected the blood of a troll because he was convinced he could research a regenerate spell using it.. so of course... that's what ended up happening.
I definitely feel this. If its survival or horror campaign where every bite of food matters and could be life saving, and where exhaustion is always a threat, I would keep better track of it. I like that you mentioned the troll thing because I'm in a party that just killed a dire troll and we sold its heart on a magic item market as an ingredient. I think if you have a special scenario or something to sell that's worth it, it makes sense.
It's low for the game I DM. Generally at an inn, the players pay a fixed price- that covers their board and food/drinks. When out in the wild, they'd use good berries or scavenge, but I wouldn't actively track resources. Our games are fortnightly, and harping on things like that aren't a priority for me.
I did play in a game where there was more of a survival theme to it, but the resource aspect just wasn't fun for me. It comes down to preference, and I prefer to go with a pacing that doesn't need food and water frequently brought up.
So for me "resource heavy" would mean the characters burn through a lot of resources (usually represented by coin). I guess you're talking about resource management. Resource management can be a part of a game or it can not. If you want to basically, role play a bit, fight some monsters, and cast some spells, you can ignore provisions. I'd say you could even play an exploration game with the presumption that you're in a land of plenty or had really well stocked provisions and not give it a thought. However, if you want to play a game where survival is a challenge the party is supposed to contend with, resource management is something I'd recommend come into play. Yes there's magical work around and survival can be used to determine forraging/hunting results, but sometimes when you're in really barren places, and the gooseberry maker got killed by something that came close to taking out the rest of the party as well, there's only some many grubs that can be had. Like everything it's a play style thing and nothing to be universally insisted or rejected. Sometimes the tool fits.
As a rule of thumb, if the adventure is in the local environment, say a two days trek in well mapped areas, I don't bother with it. If they're going into the "unknown" it matters more. I think BG:DitA, RotFM and OotA are losing a lot of potential if the DM doesn't pay attention to the survival aspect of those adventures as well as the resource management end of it. What would you do for a glass of non-styxian water in Hell? Maybe something you'll want a glass of styxian water to forget.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I don’t much care about the small stuff, but in practice most gets tracked anyway. If I mention a price or cost to the players it goes on the books, if I don’t that means it gets waived. In a nutshell: day to day expenses for downtime I ignore, food and lodging during uptime I’ll ballpark a total number (unless it’s something special like a fancy dinner or an expensive bottle of wine to impress a local noble or something), the cost of stuff that gets carried around is tracked (because the stuff that gets carried around is tracked in the first place). It does feel a bit like bean counting sometimes, but it’s not like it takes a lot of time or effort. The players keep their records and I trust them to do it right, a lot of the time I can’t even ballpark how much liquid funds they’re sitting on.
I don’t much care about the small stuff, but in practice most gets tracked anyway. If I mention a price or cost to the players it goes on the books, if I don’t that means it gets waived. In a nutshell: day to day expenses for downtime I ignore, food and lodging during uptime I’ll ballpark a total number (unless it’s something special like a fancy dinner or an expensive bottle of wine to impress a local noble or something), the cost of stuff that gets carried around is tracked (because the stuff that gets carried around is tracked in the first place). It does feel a bit like bean counting sometimes, but it’s not like it takes a lot of time or effort. The players keep their records and I trust them to do it right, a lot of the time I can’t even ballpark how much liquid funds they’re sitting on.
I actually have the legitimate (and often corrupt) and illicit banking systems actually mapped out in my game. But I've also had sessions involving registering fraudulent deed claims. Presently the party actually "banks" with the Thieves guild and are helping helping another client of said bank bail themself out of an exorbitant loan.
Another cool thing about actually having some sort of banking in your game is that it can become a plot device. There are no FDICs in most game worlds so if it's a city is sacked, their accounts may have been taken by the sacker, or the banker high tailed it with the funds ... I think they call the absconding.
But I bring to the game some knowledge of banking regulations as well as money laundering and covert finance to make it interesting. It's more fun playing modern or near future games where I can cite or extrapolate existing statutes and compliance techniques, but the D&D players like the organic behavior of their coin fortunes, and how said wealth affects their character fortunes.
Presently, the party has learned to bank with the Thieves guild groups because the legitimate economy doesn't just let you deposit a large sack of coin you "just found." There's a probate and claimant process, and while some honorarium is sometimes awarded by law or custom, it's not guaranteed. Also putting foreign currency into the market puts suspicion on you and various forms of policing take notice. Banks that can secure treasures like this only exist in cities (a reason to travel for more adventure hooks).
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I don’t much care about the small stuff, but in practice most gets tracked anyway. If I mention a price or cost to the players it goes on the books, if I don’t that means it gets waived. In a nutshell: day to day expenses for downtime I ignore, food and lodging during uptime I’ll ballpark a total number (unless it’s something special like a fancy dinner or an expensive bottle of wine to impress a local noble or something), the cost of stuff that gets carried around is tracked (because the stuff that gets carried around is tracked in the first place). It does feel a bit like bean counting sometimes, but it’s not like it takes a lot of time or effort. The players keep their records and I trust them to do it right, a lot of the time I can’t even ballpark how much liquid funds they’re sitting on.
I actually have the legitimate (and often corrupt) and illicit banking systems actually mapped out in my game. But I've also had sessions involving registering fraudulent deed claims. Presently the party actually "banks" with the Thieves guild and are helping helping another client of said bank bail themself out of an exorbitant loan.
Another cool thing about actually having some sort of banking in your game is that it can become a plot device. There are no FDICs in most game worlds so if it's a city is sacked, their accounts may have been taken by the sacker, or the banker high tailed it with the funds ... I think they call the absconding.
But I bring to the game some knowledge of banking regulations as well as money laundering and covert finance to make it interesting. It's more fun playing modern or near future games where I can cite or extrapolate existing statutes and compliance techniques, but the D&D players like the organic behavior of their coin fortunes, and how said wealth affects their character fortunes.
Presently, the party has learned to bank with the Thieves guild groups because the legitimate economy doesn't just let you deposit a large sack of coin you "just found." There's a probate and claimant process, and while some honorarium is sometimes awarded by law or custom, it's not guaranteed. Also putting foreign currency into the market puts suspicion on you and various forms of policing take notice. Banks that can secure treasures like this only exist in cities (a reason to travel for more adventure hooks).
That's great! It's really not the kind of bean counting I meant though. You have money as a plot device, which is awesome because it has an impact on the game, and the small stuff/bean counting I referred to is the inconsequential petty cash transactions, which is not awesome because it has no impact and shouldn't have an impact. Nobody cares that the pear tartlets one of the players' characters buys two of every first day of the week cost 7 copper pieces, for instance. It might be a fun bit of trivia to calculate they spent exactly 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 copper on tartlets over the course of the campaign or something like that, but unless I have the baker's daughter kidnapped by the evil vizier to get back at the tartlet-addicted party for preventing them from becoming caliph instead of the caliph it's completely irrelevant. Moreover, if it would turn out the party couldn't afford, say, a quiver of silvered arrows because their tartlet expenditures exhausted the budget then that's just lame and we can't have that. If on the other hand the party got into hot water with a money lender because the slush fund they'd stashed away in the form of rare rubies disappeared in a bank heist orchestrated by a new gang of savvy operators muscling in on the local thieves' guild the party had come to, if not know and love then at least understand and foster a mutually beneficial relationship with, that's not lame - that's the setup for half a year's worth of D&D sessions.
Presently, the party has learned to bank with the Thieves guild groups because the legitimate economy doesn't just let you deposit a large sack of coin you "just found." There's a probate and claimant process, and while some honorarium is sometimes awarded by law or custom, it's not guaranteed. Also putting foreign currency into the market puts suspicion on you and various forms of policing take notice. Banks that can secure treasures like this only exist in cities (a reason to travel for more adventure hooks).
I've always assumed that just finding hoards of gold in ruined kingdoms was a staple of fantasy economies. That's why when our party sets off a chain of events that leads to the fall of a small nation, we're not being bad guys; we're just investing in the future economic health of the world. Have to break a few omelettes to make an egg, or something.
Yeah. I think that not sweating the small stuff makes banking with the big stuff more fun
For what MidnightPlat said, I do like the idea of money and materials as a plot device. With regards to DnD, I think everyone should do what's best for their campaign and group, but one of the best ways I've seen to just have fun with stuff and get the group interested is to cut more fluff, and involve your players in as much hands on as possible. For example, instead of reading paragraph after paragraph of explanation, involve them in the world let them explore. If you're players enjoy doing math and calculating their spending, that's fine so long as it doesn't detract from the campaign. However, I like to use as many resources from the source books as possible to further the plot and the fun, not just to add detail for details sake.
I don't track rations, but I do have my players pay for drinks and tavern fare. It's not because I think paying ferrymen is going to be a resource constraint, but I want to give them a feel for the local economy and how rich they are. Similarly, my party actually has a bank account, a mortgage, and owes taxes. This is not to create a game economy to control how many plate armors and material components they can buy. It's to give them the understanding that this is a bureacratic capitalist state.
Depends on the campaign. but I would say about Middle distance between Heavy and Light. There are not a lot resource sinks in 5e. So it is a little harder to go too heavy without inflating prices or scarcity
In my Newest Monday campaign (A Pirate/Freebooter with an animesque bent... sue me; I recently started my 6th rewatch of One Piece and the players requested it) I purposely built in a few resource sinks to help drive the plots. Things like making the Captain an NPC with a very boisterous and fun loving personality with a penchant for Bar Brawls and Swindling individuals with more political clout or just out right power than her (so bail and the odd job or perhaps a jail break or two may be required). The ship operates under a Privateers Writ and has a large crew of npcs. So the crown will take its 50% of all treasure the Captain gets her 10%, the party as officers will get their 10% (split among them), 10% for the ships operating costs, and the remainder to the rest of the crew as equal shares (suddenly that hoard does'nt look as huge as it first did) . Food stores on board ship will be tracked by me, etc...
I am doing something similar on my Thursday campaign; except the players are now the movers and shakers in the politics of a mid-sized city. One of the players did refer to it as bit more Accountants & Actuaries than Dungeons & Dragons; but everyone says I am keeping a good balance between the two given the direction the players chose to take the story.
Another question I forgot to ask; how does your DM rule spellcasting components? we basically haven't messed with them to my knowledge, although I've never been in a campaign with super high level spells, so I figure if we got to cast wish or meteor swarm or something he would probably have us get components.
Again, lmk your thoughts!
I homebrewed up a simple system to cover it. Component pouches that sell for roughly 50 gp. Each pouch holds 25 Component Points. For any spell that consumes components costing less than 50gp it costs 1 Component point per level of the spell (yes up casting will use more Component Points). For spells that use more costly items; the player needs to RP (it can be as simple as saying I shop for "specific component xyz") obtaining it for the first time. There after the player expends the Component Points as normal and an amount of gp equal to the cost of said component. (not enough gold on your person for the cost? then the player is short on that expensive item and cannot cast said spell).
BTW this system can still work even with a Spell Focus (since it only replaces the 50gp or less components).
For spell components, you have to enforce the higher-cost material components, or you will unbalance the game. If I don't have to pay for agates, I can cast Awaken every day for 30 days and attack the BBEG with an army of Awakened Trees like MacDuff with Birnam Wood.
The most lenient I think you could be is not to require them to shop for material components ahead of time, but to allow them just to pay the gold cost on the spot when they cast the spell.
For no-cost material components, that's what spellcasting foci are for. But even if a player wanted to use a component pouch for flavor, I don't think I'd make them shop. Unless I wanted to create a low-magic campaign by limiting access to rare spell components.
I have mixed feelings on components. I like them in concept. I agree with pavilionaire that some spells need limiters, and costly components can increase resource cost and scarcity. Also, just in terms of flavour, some of the required materials are actually pretty funny. Tongues requires a clay model of a ziggurat (seems to be a Tower of Babel reference). Phantasmal Force requires a bit of fleece (fleece also being a verb for trickery and deception).
If it were a solo game, actually having to hunt for ingredients or find suppliers might actually be fun. As a group game, trying to figure out where to get some of them while in remote locations without decent access to shops or a direct source seems annoying. And being cut off from spells feels like it puts a significant limitation on casters. The spell focus and component pouch let you sort of mechanically gloss over that limitation. I'm grateful, but as a matter of personal taste, that sort of substitution leaves me unsatisfied in a magical system.
As it stands, I don't feel much need to change or modify the system though. I hate spells with consumable priced components because I hate the idea of managing that resource. But I like that they exist because the fact that I ignore them becomes part of my character and the choices they make. Sometimes the spells I refuse to use are as much a part of RP as those I choose to use.
Yeah I don't enjoy trying to manage component resources. It can be a time waster, but like it's been said, some spells need restrictions. I feel like the spellcaster classes are limited enough without having to spend extra time and money (this goes especially for wizards) to hunt down the stuff they need to cast their spells. Sure, fighters and martial classes need to buy weapons and ammo, but that's nowhere near as expensive and time consuming. Thought in a special case like casting an ultra powerful spell of casting one spell over and over for several days, I would have some kind of requirement
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Updog
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I was wondering about this since my campaign doesn't lean heavily into paying for everything we do, or keeping track of rations. Of course, when we make visits to shops to buy magic items, weapon or armor, we obviously pay, but we really don't on the little details, like paying for drinks, or buying more rations (unless of course it provides a roleplay moment). I wanted to know how other parties and other DM's did this, out of curiosity. And especially since adventurers have such an unsteady but large source of income, I guess our group figure paying for the little stuff isn't as necessary. But let me know your thoughts
Updog
My campaigns are on the low end. I understand that for some people, keeping track of weight for encumbrance, fresh water and food etc can be fun to manage. For me it's boring, as a player and as a DM. So I tend to brush over that stuff.
I keep track of money of course, but I don't keep track of rations in the games I run.
If a player asks about buying food/water etc, I'll generally give them a price while they're in town, and let them have that. Just because it doesn't interest me doesn't mean it doesn't anterest any of my players so if they're wanting to keep track of what their character has and stock up when they have the opportunity, more power to them, but I"m not going to be keeping an eye on their character sheets to make sure they have rations etc.
For sure. Yeah I kind of feel that with the crazy amount of money adventurers make (if you think about it), haggling over how much copper we spent on sandwiches last week doesn't really interest me. But it may be different for other groups, which is why I asked :)
Updog
Yeah, it's one of those things where there isn't a right or wrong answer, it all comes down to what people at the table like. Especially the DM who has to put in the effort of running the game.
Another question I forgot to ask; how does your DM rule spellcasting components? we basically haven't messed with them to my knowledge, although I've never been in a campaign with super high level spells, so I figure if we got to cast wish or meteor swarm or something he would probably have us get components.
Again, lmk your thoughts!
Updog
For that I tend to go RAW, but for MOST spells it's not a big deal. Generally if a spell has M components, you're good with your component pouch or focus that you get at character creation, or pick up along the way if you're not a level 1 spellcaster.
Spells that have a set price on components I require people to buy said item once, spells that consume the components I require people to keep in stock. Though I have considered potentially just letting people deduct gold from their inventories instead, I keep this in place largely because of ressurection spells. I tend to keep a leash on how many diamonds for xample the party is able to find or buy so that ressurection doesn't become too trivialized.
Healing potions and diamonds for revivify are things I tend to regulate a bit. A new town they arrive at for example might have some, but but they're not going to have infinite potions in stock and quality diamonds can be harder to find outside of big cities.
Right now, I'm not paying much attention to that stuff. The party is a mix of experienced players and n00bs, and the n00bs already have enough to keep track of. There are reasons for hand-waving things away though -- the sorcerer has the entertainer background and usually earns their keep in inns by performing, and when not in a town they've been in an area where hunting would be fairly easy for the ranger or the warlock with a hunter-y background (plus, there's a rogue with the Chef feat). Keeping track of the little stuff seemed pointless.
They're level 5 now though, and potentially headed to a much more inhospitable part of the map, at which point I will start making food and possibly even water an issue.
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I definitely feel this. If its survival or horror campaign where every bite of food matters and could be life saving, and where exhaustion is always a threat, I would keep better track of it. I like that you mentioned the troll thing because I'm in a party that just killed a dire troll and we sold its heart on a magic item market as an ingredient. I think if you have a special scenario or something to sell that's worth it, it makes sense.
Updog
It's low for the game I DM. Generally at an inn, the players pay a fixed price- that covers their board and food/drinks. When out in the wild, they'd use good berries or scavenge, but I wouldn't actively track resources. Our games are fortnightly, and harping on things like that aren't a priority for me.
I did play in a game where there was more of a survival theme to it, but the resource aspect just wasn't fun for me. It comes down to preference, and I prefer to go with a pacing that doesn't need food and water frequently brought up.
So for me "resource heavy" would mean the characters burn through a lot of resources (usually represented by coin). I guess you're talking about resource management. Resource management can be a part of a game or it can not. If you want to basically, role play a bit, fight some monsters, and cast some spells, you can ignore provisions. I'd say you could even play an exploration game with the presumption that you're in a land of plenty or had really well stocked provisions and not give it a thought. However, if you want to play a game where survival is a challenge the party is supposed to contend with, resource management is something I'd recommend come into play. Yes there's magical work around and survival can be used to determine forraging/hunting results, but sometimes when you're in really barren places, and the gooseberry maker got killed by something that came close to taking out the rest of the party as well, there's only some many grubs that can be had. Like everything it's a play style thing and nothing to be universally insisted or rejected. Sometimes the tool fits.
As a rule of thumb, if the adventure is in the local environment, say a two days trek in well mapped areas, I don't bother with it. If they're going into the "unknown" it matters more. I think BG:DitA, RotFM and OotA are losing a lot of potential if the DM doesn't pay attention to the survival aspect of those adventures as well as the resource management end of it. What would you do for a glass of non-styxian water in Hell? Maybe something you'll want a glass of styxian water to forget.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I don’t much care about the small stuff, but in practice most gets tracked anyway. If I mention a price or cost to the players it goes on the books, if I don’t that means it gets waived. In a nutshell: day to day expenses for downtime I ignore, food and lodging during uptime I’ll ballpark a total number (unless it’s something special like a fancy dinner or an expensive bottle of wine to impress a local noble or something), the cost of stuff that gets carried around is tracked (because the stuff that gets carried around is tracked in the first place). It does feel a bit like bean counting sometimes, but it’s not like it takes a lot of time or effort. The players keep their records and I trust them to do it right, a lot of the time I can’t even ballpark how much liquid funds they’re sitting on.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I actually have the legitimate (and often corrupt) and illicit banking systems actually mapped out in my game. But I've also had sessions involving registering fraudulent deed claims. Presently the party actually "banks" with the Thieves guild and are helping helping another client of said bank bail themself out of an exorbitant loan.
Another cool thing about actually having some sort of banking in your game is that it can become a plot device. There are no FDICs in most game worlds so if it's a city is sacked, their accounts may have been taken by the sacker, or the banker high tailed it with the funds ... I think they call the absconding.
But I bring to the game some knowledge of banking regulations as well as money laundering and covert finance to make it interesting. It's more fun playing modern or near future games where I can cite or extrapolate existing statutes and compliance techniques, but the D&D players like the organic behavior of their coin fortunes, and how said wealth affects their character fortunes.
Presently, the party has learned to bank with the Thieves guild groups because the legitimate economy doesn't just let you deposit a large sack of coin you "just found." There's a probate and claimant process, and while some honorarium is sometimes awarded by law or custom, it's not guaranteed. Also putting foreign currency into the market puts suspicion on you and various forms of policing take notice. Banks that can secure treasures like this only exist in cities (a reason to travel for more adventure hooks).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
That's great! It's really not the kind of bean counting I meant though. You have money as a plot device, which is awesome because it has an impact on the game, and the small stuff/bean counting I referred to is the inconsequential petty cash transactions, which is not awesome because it has no impact and shouldn't have an impact. Nobody cares that the pear tartlets one of the players' characters buys two of every first day of the week cost 7 copper pieces, for instance. It might be a fun bit of trivia to calculate they spent exactly 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 copper on tartlets over the course of the campaign or something like that, but unless I have the baker's daughter kidnapped by the evil vizier to get back at the tartlet-addicted party for preventing them from becoming caliph instead of the caliph it's completely irrelevant. Moreover, if it would turn out the party couldn't afford, say, a quiver of silvered arrows because their tartlet expenditures exhausted the budget then that's just lame and we can't have that. If on the other hand the party got into hot water with a money lender because the slush fund they'd stashed away in the form of rare rubies disappeared in a bank heist orchestrated by a new gang of savvy operators muscling in on the local thieves' guild the party had come to, if not know and love then at least understand and foster a mutually beneficial relationship with, that's not lame - that's the setup for half a year's worth of D&D sessions.
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Yeah. I think that not sweating the small stuff makes banking with the big stuff more fun
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For what MidnightPlat said, I do like the idea of money and materials as a plot device. With regards to DnD, I think everyone should do what's best for their campaign and group, but one of the best ways I've seen to just have fun with stuff and get the group interested is to cut more fluff, and involve your players in as much hands on as possible. For example, instead of reading paragraph after paragraph of explanation, involve them in the world let them explore. If you're players enjoy doing math and calculating their spending, that's fine so long as it doesn't detract from the campaign. However, I like to use as many resources from the source books as possible to further the plot and the fun, not just to add detail for details sake.
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I don't track rations, but I do have my players pay for drinks and tavern fare. It's not because I think paying ferrymen is going to be a resource constraint, but I want to give them a feel for the local economy and how rich they are. Similarly, my party actually has a bank account, a mortgage, and owes taxes. This is not to create a game economy to control how many plate armors and material components they can buy. It's to give them the understanding that this is a bureacratic capitalist state.
Depends on the campaign.
but I would say about Middle distance between Heavy and Light.
There are not a lot resource sinks in 5e. So it is a little harder to go too heavy without inflating prices or scarcity
In my Newest Monday campaign (A Pirate/Freebooter with an animesque bent... sue me; I recently started my 6th rewatch of One Piece and the players requested it) I purposely built in a few resource sinks to help drive the plots. Things like making the Captain an NPC with a very boisterous and fun loving personality with a penchant for Bar Brawls and Swindling individuals with more political clout or just out right power than her (so bail and the odd job or perhaps a jail break or two may be required). The ship operates under a Privateers Writ and has a large crew of npcs. So the crown will take its 50% of all treasure the Captain gets her 10%, the party as officers will get their 10% (split among them), 10% for the ships operating costs, and the remainder to the rest of the crew as equal shares (suddenly that hoard does'nt look as huge as it first did) . Food stores on board ship will be tracked by me, etc...
I am doing something similar on my Thursday campaign; except the players are now the movers and shakers in the politics of a mid-sized city. One of the players did refer to it as bit more Accountants & Actuaries than Dungeons & Dragons; but everyone says I am keeping a good balance between the two given the direction the players chose to take the story.
I homebrewed up a simple system to cover it.
Component pouches that sell for roughly 50 gp.
Each pouch holds 25 Component Points.
For any spell that consumes components costing less than 50gp it costs 1 Component point per level of the spell (yes up casting will use more Component Points).
For spells that use more costly items; the player needs to RP (it can be as simple as saying I shop for "specific component xyz") obtaining it for the first time.
There after the player expends the Component Points as normal and an amount of gp equal to the cost of said component. (not enough gold on your person for the cost? then the player is short on that expensive item and cannot cast said spell).
BTW this system can still work even with a Spell Focus (since it only replaces the 50gp or less components).
For spell components, you have to enforce the higher-cost material components, or you will unbalance the game. If I don't have to pay for agates, I can cast Awaken every day for 30 days and attack the BBEG with an army of Awakened Trees like MacDuff with Birnam Wood.
The most lenient I think you could be is not to require them to shop for material components ahead of time, but to allow them just to pay the gold cost on the spot when they cast the spell.
For no-cost material components, that's what spellcasting foci are for. But even if a player wanted to use a component pouch for flavor, I don't think I'd make them shop. Unless I wanted to create a low-magic campaign by limiting access to rare spell components.
Yeah I don't enjoy trying to manage component resources. It can be a time waster, but like it's been said, some spells need restrictions. I feel like the spellcaster classes are limited enough without having to spend extra time and money (this goes especially for wizards) to hunt down the stuff they need to cast their spells. Sure, fighters and martial classes need to buy weapons and ammo, but that's nowhere near as expensive and time consuming. Thought in a special case like casting an ultra powerful spell of casting one spell over and over for several days, I would have some kind of requirement
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