So I've just started on AL a few weeks ago, really. We're on Curse of Strahd, and our DM has made the rewards very sparse as one does. Because we also have a number of sticky fingers in our group, we had elected to appoint a group banker who sort of held a chest with a portion of the gold winnings in case of emergencies, while each of us kept a decent share. I had a thing where I wanted to give the party's rogue 20 gold to steal something from another party member (He had bought a bunch of drugs that were making him ineffective in combat), so I gave him the gold, and only found out after the fact you can't technically trade gold between players. You can just pay for services they need.
Is there a particular reason for this? Is it so that no one person can have too much gold at a time, and thus can't purchase too many things in a single go? But if by the same principle a person can pay for some, or part of, a good or service on your behalf, it doesn't really inhibit the spending power of the player character at all. It just means the gold is arbitrarily constrained in place for some reason. So if you could help me understand it a bit, I'd be very thankful!
I'm assuming it's so that you can't bring all your non-D&D buddies to an Adventurer's League game, have them play a module for you, then give you all the gold rewards before their characters slink off to be potato farmers somewhere and you hand each of them twenty bucks for helping you out.
Simply remember that AL is explicitly designed to limit and constrain your fun as much as humanly possible while still technically being a game you can play, and it will make a great deal more sense for you.
Way I see it, you can just lie about a session if you're going to be that dishonest, and I imagine some people do.
The gold piece upper limit already handles being able to spend too much in one sitting if you're at the wrong tier. Beyond that there's not really much of anything you can do.
With no character gold trading, an AL judge can know how much gold it's possible for you to have at any one time. if you're level 4, you can only have [X] value of gold+equipment; anything else is impossible by the rules for you to possess, even if the game might otherwise have allowed you to have them (i.e. the unfortunate demise of your friend's ranger).
Again - Adventurer's League is explicitly designed to eliminate as much variance as humanly possible, which includes any level of variance which may introduce 'fun' into a game. A level 4 cleric at one table needs to be exactly and perfectly identical to any other level 4 cleric at any other table, period, and for that to be the case gold totals have to be very tightly controlled. Parties trading funds inamongst themselves, however much sense it might make in the game world, breaks this requirement and thus is disallowed.
It's a bizarre little quirk, innit, as aforementioned mechanic of the express gold limit at your tier (Tier 2 characters can only hold 240 GP at a time) already handles someone from being -too- rich.
I get the notion that AL is designed for maximum portability, though I don't think the defeat of fun is really the priority, more making it so you can just hop on over to an adventure without totally breaking a game by having too much of something. Though thanks for the response, seems like something that's counter-productive in my mind.
AL is designed for play across multiple tables and geographical areas. The idea behind the gold limits is that some folks abused them because there is some content that used to give out immense amounts of gold. If you played that content, you had lots of gold and could buy 200 healing potions for your bag of holding while someone else who did not was unable to do this.
In addition, a player who played such content, could hand out thousands of gold to their friends, who in turn could buy full plate armor, scrolls of raise dead and other utility spells as well as paying for resurrection or large numbers of healing potions. Folks without the gold couldn't do that.
However, you then go to play your character with another group of people, perhaps at another venue or convention. One character sits down with 10,000 gold and all sorts of loot because a DM where they played ran the right module while another character of the same level sits down with 200gp and their starting armor because they weren't so lucky with the content that was run where they played. You can get all sorts of these sorts of things happening. They still happen in season 9. However, they decided to try out gold/level limits to try to make those consumable potions/scrolls/non-magical armor and other things you have to buy mean something.
In tier 1, you can earn 80 gp/level so 240 gp to level 4 total. In tier 2 it is 240gp/level ... (with a recommended rate of 120gp/4 hours) though it may depend on how much loot you actually find since the 120/240 are intended to be a cap. Anyway, that is another 1400+gp you can add on in tier 2. The rates for tier 3 and tier 4 levels are higher.
As far as I know, that is more or less the story behind why there are gold caps and why you can't give away gold or items between players. You can loan items for a play session, even magic ones, but you can't give them away. However, you can trade magic items with other players if they have the same rarity.
Anyway, Yurei tends to have a negative view of AL while mine is mostly positive. Whether a particular module or game plays well is more a factor of the DM than the AL rules in my experience.
Idle wondering, couldn't you just impose a physical limit on how many gold you can carry in a moment? Physical gold is probably bulky, in real life travelers carried about 20 golden eagle coins on the American west. That was their whole livelihood. Could honestly ground things to be a bit more travel oriented, making those coins an actual physical presence and maybe just adjusting the prices of things to be a bit more reasonable. Hammer out the details of currency and the utility of such things. The gold cap is honestly very reasonable, but once you've got that cap established, trading the gold from there should be easily possible.
Edit: This also means you can get pretty rich in a module, bump your character up to a richer lifestyle between adventures, keep everything you've properly earned, etc etc, and can just say that when you come into an adventure you've brought with you a portion of the wealth you've built up over time because you can't physically carry anymore. If you're bringing a tier 4 character with a tier 4 gold limit into a game, chances are you're gonna need to be spending money on tier 4 items!
(Tier 2 characters can only hold 240 GP at a time)
That is not true.
There are limits on gold per hour played (real time). That (240 GP for Tier 2) is a limit for how much gold can be earned at a particular Level. (Level up, and the limit resets.)
You can still stockpile more gold from previous modules. For example, Tier 1 has an 80 GP/level limit. So if that character did not purchase anything, they could reach level 5 holding 320 GP.
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Beegred Thornpost - Lvl 8 Halfling Ranger - Out of the Abyss by Kerrec Drusk - Lvl 8 Half-Orc Life Cleric - The Long Road: Dragon Heist by Mingofaust (player & current DM) Hunferho Aelorothi - Lvl 5 Half-Elf Bard/Rogue - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy) DM - Frontier City of Nunkreet (ended)
(Tier 2 characters can only hold 240 GP at a time)
That is not true.
There are limits on gold per hour played (real time). That (240 GP for Tier 2) is a limit for how much gold can be earned at a particular Level. (Level up, and the limit resets.)
You can still stockpile more gold from previous modules. For example, Tier 1 has an 80 GP/level limit. So if that character did not purchase anything, they could reach level 5 holding 320 GP.
No way..... the limit of gold carried per adventure/campaign is THE ENOUGH you can carry before you become encumbered with heavy weight.
D&D should apply here the rule to let the players carry chests and/or charriots filled with the loot and coins.... or else let the players get a ¿¿ Bank account ??
Simply remember that AL is explicitly designed to limit and constrain your fun as much as humanly possible while still technically being a game you can play, and it will make a great deal more sense for you.
or its designed in the attempt to limit huge player imbalances you find in groups that completely change their composition week/week and don't know each other. Without the rule, you'll have some players who've found almost unlimited funds, and others who sold their boots to get a grappling hook....and when you have a group like that, the bootless characters pretty quickly notice the imbalance and don't come back the next week. even with that rule, that happens a lot imo...they've got to balance disparate players of the same tier somehow or the whole idea of AL goes out the window.
Just pointing out, that while PCs cannot trade gold amongst each other, they can pool gold together to pay for a service, such as resurrection or revivify! The Blumpking has spoken. 420 blaze it.
The restriction on directly trading gold between characters in Adventurers League helps maintain a balanced economy, prevents exploitation, and encourages roleplaying and decision-making within the game. It ensures a consistent and fair experience for all players, focusing on the adventure itself rather than amassing wealth through trading.
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So I've just started on AL a few weeks ago, really. We're on Curse of Strahd, and our DM has made the rewards very sparse as one does. Because we also have a number of sticky fingers in our group, we had elected to appoint a group banker who sort of held a chest with a portion of the gold winnings in case of emergencies, while each of us kept a decent share. I had a thing where I wanted to give the party's rogue 20 gold to steal something from another party member (He had bought a bunch of drugs that were making him ineffective in combat), so I gave him the gold, and only found out after the fact you can't technically trade gold between players. You can just pay for services they need.
Is there a particular reason for this? Is it so that no one person can have too much gold at a time, and thus can't purchase too many things in a single go? But if by the same principle a person can pay for some, or part of, a good or service on your behalf, it doesn't really inhibit the spending power of the player character at all. It just means the gold is arbitrarily constrained in place for some reason. So if you could help me understand it a bit, I'd be very thankful!
I'm assuming it's so that you can't bring all your non-D&D buddies to an Adventurer's League game, have them play a module for you, then give you all the gold rewards before their characters slink off to be potato farmers somewhere and you hand each of them twenty bucks for helping you out.
Simply remember that AL is explicitly designed to limit and constrain your fun as much as humanly possible while still technically being a game you can play, and it will make a great deal more sense for you.
Please do not contact or message me.
Way I see it, you can just lie about a session if you're going to be that dishonest, and I imagine some people do.
The gold piece upper limit already handles being able to spend too much in one sitting if you're at the wrong tier. Beyond that there's not really much of anything you can do.
With no character gold trading, an AL judge can know how much gold it's possible for you to have at any one time. if you're level 4, you can only have [X] value of gold+equipment; anything else is impossible by the rules for you to possess, even if the game might otherwise have allowed you to have them (i.e. the unfortunate demise of your friend's ranger).
Again - Adventurer's League is explicitly designed to eliminate as much variance as humanly possible, which includes any level of variance which may introduce 'fun' into a game. A level 4 cleric at one table needs to be exactly and perfectly identical to any other level 4 cleric at any other table, period, and for that to be the case gold totals have to be very tightly controlled. Parties trading funds inamongst themselves, however much sense it might make in the game world, breaks this requirement and thus is disallowed.
Please do not contact or message me.
It's a bizarre little quirk, innit, as aforementioned mechanic of the express gold limit at your tier (Tier 2 characters can only hold 240 GP at a time) already handles someone from being -too- rich.
I get the notion that AL is designed for maximum portability, though I don't think the defeat of fun is really the priority, more making it so you can just hop on over to an adventure without totally breaking a game by having too much of something. Though thanks for the response, seems like something that's counter-productive in my mind.
AL is designed for play across multiple tables and geographical areas. The idea behind the gold limits is that some folks abused them because there is some content that used to give out immense amounts of gold. If you played that content, you had lots of gold and could buy 200 healing potions for your bag of holding while someone else who did not was unable to do this.
In addition, a player who played such content, could hand out thousands of gold to their friends, who in turn could buy full plate armor, scrolls of raise dead and other utility spells as well as paying for resurrection or large numbers of healing potions. Folks without the gold couldn't do that.
However, you then go to play your character with another group of people, perhaps at another venue or convention. One character sits down with 10,000 gold and all sorts of loot because a DM where they played ran the right module while another character of the same level sits down with 200gp and their starting armor because they weren't so lucky with the content that was run where they played. You can get all sorts of these sorts of things happening. They still happen in season 9. However, they decided to try out gold/level limits to try to make those consumable potions/scrolls/non-magical armor and other things you have to buy mean something.
In tier 1, you can earn 80 gp/level so 240 gp to level 4 total. In tier 2 it is 240gp/level ... (with a recommended rate of 120gp/4 hours) though it may depend on how much loot you actually find since the 120/240 are intended to be a cap. Anyway, that is another 1400+gp you can add on in tier 2. The rates for tier 3 and tier 4 levels are higher.
As far as I know, that is more or less the story behind why there are gold caps and why you can't give away gold or items between players. You can loan items for a play session, even magic ones, but you can't give them away. However, you can trade magic items with other players if they have the same rarity.
Anyway, Yurei tends to have a negative view of AL while mine is mostly positive. Whether a particular module or game plays well is more a factor of the DM than the AL rules in my experience.
Idle wondering, couldn't you just impose a physical limit on how many gold you can carry in a moment? Physical gold is probably bulky, in real life travelers carried about 20 golden eagle coins on the American west. That was their whole livelihood. Could honestly ground things to be a bit more travel oriented, making those coins an actual physical presence and maybe just adjusting the prices of things to be a bit more reasonable. Hammer out the details of currency and the utility of such things. The gold cap is honestly very reasonable, but once you've got that cap established, trading the gold from there should be easily possible.
Edit: This also means you can get pretty rich in a module, bump your character up to a richer lifestyle between adventures, keep everything you've properly earned, etc etc, and can just say that when you come into an adventure you've brought with you a portion of the wealth you've built up over time because you can't physically carry anymore. If you're bringing a tier 4 character with a tier 4 gold limit into a game, chances are you're gonna need to be spending money on tier 4 items!
That is not true.
There are limits on gold per hour played (real time). That (240 GP for Tier 2) is a limit for how much gold can be earned at a particular Level. (Level up, and the limit resets.)
You can still stockpile more gold from previous modules. For example, Tier 1 has an 80 GP/level limit. So if that character did not purchase anything, they could reach level 5 holding 320 GP.
Beegred Thornpost - Lvl 8 Halfling Ranger - Out of the Abyss by Kerrec
Drusk - Lvl 8 Half-Orc Life Cleric - The Long Road: Dragon Heist by Mingofaust (player & current DM)
Hunferho Aelorothi - Lvl 5 Half-Elf Bard/Rogue - Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus (by Pokepaladdy)
DM - Frontier City of Nunkreet (ended)
No way..... the limit of gold carried per adventure/campaign is THE ENOUGH you can carry before you become encumbered with heavy weight.
D&D should apply here the rule to let the players carry chests and/or charriots filled with the loot and coins.... or else let the players get a ¿¿ Bank account ??
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
or its designed in the attempt to limit huge player imbalances you find in groups that completely change their composition week/week and don't know each other. Without the rule, you'll have some players who've found almost unlimited funds, and others who sold their boots to get a grappling hook....and when you have a group like that, the bootless characters pretty quickly notice the imbalance and don't come back the next week. even with that rule, that happens a lot imo...they've got to balance disparate players of the same tier somehow or the whole idea of AL goes out the window.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
Just pointing out, that while PCs cannot trade gold amongst each other, they can pool gold together to pay for a service, such as resurrection or revivify! The Blumpking has spoken. 420 blaze it.
The restriction on directly trading gold between characters in Adventurers League helps maintain a balanced economy, prevents exploitation, and encourages roleplaying and decision-making within the game. It ensures a consistent and fair experience for all players, focusing on the adventure itself rather than amassing wealth through trading.