I try and reward my players with different types of rewards (weapons, armor, knowledge, items, scrolls, ...ect. but more often than not an amount of coins is involved. But the way I'm running the campaign at the moment doesn't ask a lot of coin of the players. I ignore materials used for spells as I find they slow down combat and makes some players feel less powerfull. Also, all of them have 10 days of rations and we're not really keeping track of how many they used so they don't really need to stack up on them.
Most of the players own around 350GP to 400 GP but because of the way I run the campaign at the moment it's not really worth anything and it's only growing. They might buy a healing potion evey once in a while and maybe a stay at a local inn. But other than that the uses of GP is very limited. I've been thinking about letting their weapons and armour break during battle, but even those don't cost as much to replace.
So I was wondering what kind of stuff you charge your players for in your campaign? Or doesn't their money count just rise all the time? Should I focus more on daily expenses like rations, food, fees, ...ect? Should I focus more on inventory like stocking up on bolts, arrows, water, ...?
Giving them something to invest in is a good idea. But if I can suggest an alternative... give them a ship instead. A keep is fun if you're playing a campaign set in a fairly small area where they can justify returning to their keep regularly. A ship has a very similar feel... requiring maintenance and requiring the party to hire workers to care for the ship, but the ship becomes something that they can use to solve problems and travel. Even if you don't have a lot of sea-based adventures planned, as long as it's docked it functions largely the same as a Keep, since players can just use it as a home base in those cases. Maybe if the party is planning to spend a long time land-locked they could have the NPC crew doing deliveries and other stuff to make some extra money while they're busy trekking through the Underdark or whatever you've got them doing.
I generally just kinda-sorta worry about stuff like rations and ammunition. But the way I run things is with a specific scale of “value.” I use the same conversions from the book, but I conceptualize it that a cp is roughly equivalent to around 10¢ (US) circa 1960. At that rate, 1 gp is roughly equivalent to just under $900 in today’s currency. How many $1,000 bills have you seen floating around? So gp is very rare in my games, most people use cp or sp. But I also have “Brokers” in my world. They are like magic pawn/consignment shoppes for adventurers. And I use the pricing suggestions from the DMG, so it is possible to buy a Breastplate, +1, but keep in mind a Pole of Collapsing costs 100gp.... That gives them something to save up for.
That way I can place magic items in hoards that I know for a fact they will never use because it increases verisimilitude. I know that will only lead to interesting social encounters and side quest hooks galore. So what can it really hurt if they buy a magic +1 weapon for 500gp? Nothing. But it gives the players personal goals to go along with their characters goals as well.
I also rarely drop many permanent magic items in hoards, maybe only one or two for a regional bandit king, and another 2 between the lieutenants. And, like I said, they might not care about that Boomerang, +1, but those Boots of Elvenkind at the broker’s....
Basically I stole a page from China’s economic policy and engage in currency manipulation. But what the heck, it is my world after all.
Having more and more money is part of the power increase you get as you level up. It’s kind of another measure of how you’ve advanced from just the starting gear and 10gp. If you’re worried about it, it seems like the first thing to do would be to make them start paying for those things they’ve been getting for free. Especially spell components. Getting that diamond dust for greater restoration can be hard, and then when it’s a limited resource, the spell is, too. This makes them decide if they should cast the spell or wait another day to see if the person can end the condition another way. It adds another layer of resource management. If you just hand wave rations, you don’t let the character with survival save the day by finding them food. And you let them spend a month in a dungeon taking long rests. Making them track rations can add a time element to some explorations that makes them more dramatic. As for other money drains, they can start needing to bribe people, maybe the cleric needs to tithe, they can find some poor people they want to help, tolls on roads and ferries, and taxes come to mind.
One fun way to have the party forced to burn through some cash is straight-up corruption of local government officials. Gotta pay a docking fee, gotta pay a entry tax, gotta buy a visitor's visa good for x days; but the town guards also want a different notarized visa for x gp, and every group of guards want their own cut so it's more paperwork; the bard performed at the Inn but didn't have proper guild aproval registration, that's a fine, plus the cost to get registered; a fake or forged document or registration??? Big fine... 5 gp here, 2 sp here, 50 gp fines, it can add up really quick...
eventually at my table the sorcerer just ran for an open city council seat himself (spent hundreds on campaigning and bribery), so is now His Honourable Councilman Sorcerer (and now benefits himself from the corrupt system)
There is no good answer to this game's gold being worthless problem other than allowing shops to sell magic items. Period.
In my games I have: The blacksmith, who buys and sells all weapons in the PHB and has 2 random magic weapons for sale that rotate each session. The armorer, buying and selling all armor while having two magic suits on rotation. The jeweler, who buys and sells gems and art objects while having 2 magic rings on rotation. The mage's shop, who buys and sells scrolls and spell components while having a magic staff and wand on rotation. The alchemists, who buys potions and sells level appropriate healing potion grades along with 2 specialty potions on rotation. And finally the oddity shop, who buys and sells anything on the trinket list (or any other unusual item) while having 2 wondrous magic items on rotation.
I sprinkle 1-3 of these shops into every town/city, depending on its size. Rarity of the magic items on sale scales with party level.
I find a really good way to keep your players spending and not hoarding money, (though theres nothing wrong with a serial saver) is only limited to your imagination. Please consider some of the following options:
Magic Item Shops. With items ranging anywhere from 500gp-5000gp.
Consumables and perishables tracked strictly, and even enforced that players have to remember to stock up before they leave.
Extortion, gambling, thievery, or otherwise just bad luck for your players. They aren't the only thieves or cheats in town I'm sure.
Arrest them! Every group has a murderhobo phase or maybe even something along those lines. Maybe you could have them arrested, and their money just 'was donated' to proceeds, or a lunch fund for the guards or something.
Otherwise, real estate, bail funds, or anything else that could be put infront of them as a chance to make friendships or even increase their standing in certain towns or settlements. :) Hope this was helpful.
finding a Manual of Golems is something worth saving up tens of thousands of gp to eventually use
If this DM is taking out the coins on all his/her campaigns, then explain me how you gonna earn 65K gp to buy the Golem manual ?? Or else, explain me how you gonna cast some spells that requires gold pieces as a material component ??
(( Mental note: I have to take notes of this to later don't join any campaign owned by this evil DM, hehehehe ))
finding a Manual of Golems is something worth saving up tens of thousands of gp to eventually use
If this DM is taking out the coins on all his/her campaigns, then explain me how you gonna earn 65K gp to buy the Golem manual ?? Or else, explain me how you gonna cast some spells that requires gold pieces as a material component ??
(( Mental note: I have to take notes of this to later don't join any campaign owned by this evil DM, hehehehe ))
I actually am the DM who allowed the party to find a manual of golems. For context I was a fairly newer DM at the time, and had made the (common?) mistake of having treasure hordes with too much gp where suddenly all party members had thousands of gp each with not much outlet to spend it. Eventually I decided it was a good idea to have one shopping trip at markup (I very much like SireSamuel's suggestions further above on an earlier post, by the way), but there's only so much the party can buy... later something like buying a ship (or paying it's maintenance) helps to deflate too much saved gp to make things more sensible again. Sorry, sidetracking, back to the Manual: a year and a half later the party still has the manual and finally of a level to read it without taking psychic damage, now there's a choice between 1) saving colectively among the party longer to save up 65k gp to eventually make a golem (cool idea), 2) paying to upgrade their ship to be better equipped to take-on sea monsters, 3) paying to build shrines for the Cleric, 4) other heavy expenses (greasing political wheels).... eliminating gold period is one way to avoid players getting too much gold to make it pointless to have, but that needs to start on day 1 of the adventure; most people expect to find treasure hordes and piles of gold; I made a decision to learn from my mistake of too much good, and instead fine expensive ways to whittle down that bank account and have options (= player agency) on how they choose to spend that money on memorable, meaningful, big ticket items that makes more sense at levels 12-20
I'm having a similar problem with a group of new players on the Dragon of the Icepeak module. They're getting 25-100 GP per quest but there is nothing interesting to buy.
I also don't track small expenses as it's a bit of a pain, I usually make players to pay a week of staying on the inn with food in advance to don't bother each in-game day. They are too low level yet to worry about prices of components.
1) Have a "living expenses" cost. There is a lifestyle cost in the PHB I think. Charge the players a weekly rate to cover lodging/food/basic supplies/equipment maintenance. It could range from 10 to 50+gp/week depending on the lifestyle and things the characters like to do. This will at least cause a modest regular drain on funds and limit how long they can sit doing nothing.
2) Offer up some things at very expensive prices. 5e generally doesn't have a market for magic items which is described as being because they are so rare and fabulously valuable that they aren't available for sale. You could have a couple of specific magic items available for very expensive prices which would allow for a coin sink.
3) Set up a home base. Buy land or a keep, construct a mansion or other place for the party to stay in town. Fix up and run a tavern or inn. These can be decent places to both store and invest excess funds.
5e doesn't have that many coin sinks built in ... the DM needs to create them for their specific campaign.
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I try and reward my players with different types of rewards (weapons, armor, knowledge, items, scrolls, ...ect. but more often than not an amount of coins is involved. But the way I'm running the campaign at the moment doesn't ask a lot of coin of the players. I ignore materials used for spells as I find they slow down combat and makes some players feel less powerfull. Also, all of them have 10 days of rations and we're not really keeping track of how many they used so they don't really need to stack up on them.
Most of the players own around 350GP to 400 GP but because of the way I run the campaign at the moment it's not really worth anything and it's only growing. They might buy a healing potion evey once in a while and maybe a stay at a local inn. But other than that the uses of GP is very limited. I've been thinking about letting their weapons and armour break during battle, but even those don't cost as much to replace.
So I was wondering what kind of stuff you charge your players for in your campaign? Or doesn't their money count just rise all the time? Should I focus more on daily expenses like rations, food, fees, ...ect? Should I focus more on inventory like stocking up on bolts, arrows, water, ...?
Offer them a Keep to build, that would take them to pile their gold together to build one.
Giving them something to invest in is a good idea. But if I can suggest an alternative... give them a ship instead. A keep is fun if you're playing a campaign set in a fairly small area where they can justify returning to their keep regularly. A ship has a very similar feel... requiring maintenance and requiring the party to hire workers to care for the ship, but the ship becomes something that they can use to solve problems and travel. Even if you don't have a lot of sea-based adventures planned, as long as it's docked it functions largely the same as a Keep, since players can just use it as a home base in those cases. Maybe if the party is planning to spend a long time land-locked they could have the NPC crew doing deliveries and other stuff to make some extra money while they're busy trekking through the Underdark or whatever you've got them doing.
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I generally just kinda-sorta worry about stuff like rations and ammunition. But the way I run things is with a specific scale of “value.” I use the same conversions from the book, but I conceptualize it that a cp is roughly equivalent to around 10¢ (US) circa 1960. At that rate, 1 gp is roughly equivalent to just under $900 in today’s currency. How many $1,000 bills have you seen floating around? So gp is very rare in my games, most people use cp or sp. But I also have “Brokers” in my world. They are like magic pawn/consignment shoppes for adventurers. And I use the pricing suggestions from the DMG, so it is possible to buy a Breastplate, +1, but keep in mind a Pole of Collapsing costs 100gp.... That gives them something to save up for.
That way I can place magic items in hoards that I know for a fact they will never use because it increases verisimilitude. I know that will only lead to interesting social encounters and side quest hooks galore. So what can it really hurt if they buy a magic +1 weapon for 500gp? Nothing. But it gives the players personal goals to go along with their characters goals as well.
I also rarely drop many permanent magic items in hoards, maybe only one or two for a regional bandit king, and another 2 between the lieutenants. And, like I said, they might not care about that Boomerang, +1, but those Boots of Elvenkind at the broker’s....
Basically I stole a page from China’s economic policy and engage in currency manipulation. But what the heck, it is my world after all.
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Content Troubleshooting
Having more and more money is part of the power increase you get as you level up. It’s kind of another measure of how you’ve advanced from just the starting gear and 10gp.
If you’re worried about it, it seems like the first thing to do would be to make them start paying for those things they’ve been getting for free. Especially spell components. Getting that diamond dust for greater restoration can be hard, and then when it’s a limited resource, the spell is, too. This makes them decide if they should cast the spell or wait another day to see if the person can end the condition another way. It adds another layer of resource management.
If you just hand wave rations, you don’t let the character with survival save the day by finding them food. And you let them spend a month in a dungeon taking long rests. Making them track rations can add a time element to some explorations that makes them more dramatic.
As for other money drains, they can start needing to bribe people, maybe the cleric needs to tithe, they can find some poor people they want to help, tolls on roads and ferries, and taxes come to mind.
One fun way to have the party forced to burn through some cash is straight-up corruption of local government officials. Gotta pay a docking fee, gotta pay a entry tax, gotta buy a visitor's visa good for x days; but the town guards also want a different notarized visa for x gp, and every group of guards want their own cut so it's more paperwork; the bard performed at the Inn but didn't have proper guild aproval registration, that's a fine, plus the cost to get registered; a fake or forged document or registration??? Big fine... 5 gp here, 2 sp here, 50 gp fines, it can add up really quick...
eventually at my table the sorcerer just ran for an open city council seat himself (spent hundreds on campaigning and bribery), so is now His Honourable Councilman Sorcerer (and now benefits himself from the corrupt system)
Boldly go
There is no good answer to this game's gold being worthless problem other than allowing shops to sell magic items. Period.
In my games I have: The blacksmith, who buys and sells all weapons in the PHB and has 2 random magic weapons for sale that rotate each session. The armorer, buying and selling all armor while having two magic suits on rotation. The jeweler, who buys and sells gems and art objects while having 2 magic rings on rotation. The mage's shop, who buys and sells scrolls and spell components while having a magic staff and wand on rotation. The alchemists, who buys potions and sells level appropriate healing potion grades along with 2 specialty potions on rotation. And finally the oddity shop, who buys and sells anything on the trinket list (or any other unusual item) while having 2 wondrous magic items on rotation.
I sprinkle 1-3 of these shops into every town/city, depending on its size. Rarity of the magic items on sale scales with party level.
I find a really good way to keep your players spending and not hoarding money, (though theres nothing wrong with a serial saver) is only limited to your imagination. Please consider some of the following options:
Otherwise, real estate, bail funds, or anything else that could be put infront of them as a chance to make friendships or even increase their standing in certain towns or settlements. :) Hope this was helpful.
Make your own shops to suit their needs. Or your needs if needed.
Legend of Zelda is the best
finding a Manual of Golems is something worth saving up tens of thousands of gp to eventually use
Boldly go
If this DM is taking out the coins on all his/her campaigns, then explain me how you gonna earn 65K gp to buy the Golem manual ?? Or else, explain me how you gonna cast some spells that requires gold pieces as a material component ??
(( Mental note: I have to take notes of this to later don't join any campaign owned by this evil DM, hehehehe ))
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
I actually am the DM who allowed the party to find a manual of golems. For context I was a fairly newer DM at the time, and had made the (common?) mistake of having treasure hordes with too much gp where suddenly all party members had thousands of gp each with not much outlet to spend it. Eventually I decided it was a good idea to have one shopping trip at markup (I very much like SireSamuel's suggestions further above on an earlier post, by the way), but there's only so much the party can buy... later something like buying a ship (or paying it's maintenance) helps to deflate too much saved gp to make things more sensible again. Sorry, sidetracking, back to the Manual: a year and a half later the party still has the manual and finally of a level to read it without taking psychic damage, now there's a choice between 1) saving colectively among the party longer to save up 65k gp to eventually make a golem (cool idea), 2) paying to upgrade their ship to be better equipped to take-on sea monsters, 3) paying to build shrines for the Cleric, 4) other heavy expenses (greasing political wheels).... eliminating gold period is one way to avoid players getting too much gold to make it pointless to have, but that needs to start on day 1 of the adventure; most people expect to find treasure hordes and piles of gold; I made a decision to learn from my mistake of too much good, and instead fine expensive ways to whittle down that bank account and have options (= player agency) on how they choose to spend that money on memorable, meaningful, big ticket items that makes more sense at levels 12-20
Boldly go
I'm having a similar problem with a group of new players on the Dragon of the Icepeak module. They're getting 25-100 GP per quest but there is nothing interesting to buy.
I also don't track small expenses as it's a bit of a pain, I usually make players to pay a week of staying on the inn with food in advance to don't bother each in-game day. They are too low level yet to worry about prices of components.
There are a couple of ways to deal with it.
1) Have a "living expenses" cost. There is a lifestyle cost in the PHB I think. Charge the players a weekly rate to cover lodging/food/basic supplies/equipment maintenance. It could range from 10 to 50+gp/week depending on the lifestyle and things the characters like to do. This will at least cause a modest regular drain on funds and limit how long they can sit doing nothing.
2) Offer up some things at very expensive prices. 5e generally doesn't have a market for magic items which is described as being because they are so rare and fabulously valuable that they aren't available for sale. You could have a couple of specific magic items available for very expensive prices which would allow for a coin sink.
3) Set up a home base. Buy land or a keep, construct a mansion or other place for the party to stay in town. Fix up and run a tavern or inn. These can be decent places to both store and invest excess funds.
5e doesn't have that many coin sinks built in ... the DM needs to create them for their specific campaign.