So I'm about to DM my second campaign, and by and large the thing I struggled with the most the first time around was managing the in game economy. I was TERRIBLE about actually giving my players loot and coin to spend, and since I was using milestone leveling, that took away a lot of their agency in shaping what resources their characters might have access to. Since that first campaign I've discovered the loot table in the dungeon masters guide, which is already groundbreaking for my tiny pea brain. If anyone wanted to share some of their tips on how to manage finances as a dm, I'd be more than appreciative.

agree with lyxen....for the first couple levels i'm cheap on rewards so they're counting coppers...but after that there's not much point...if they want to care about it, they do...if not, they don't and not that much a DM can do about it as you'll drive yourself crazy trying to track player gold....unless they're trying to buy a ship or castle.  As long as they're not trying to arbitrage, its not worth the brain damage, imo.

Man... I want to play in y'all's campaigns.  Our DM is very miserly and even at Level 10 we count gold coins.  Even if we had money there are no magic items to be had and we make do with the items that can occasionally be found in our adventures.  

In my campaigns, I tend to be the opposite and may have too much going out.  As for magic items, that is why attunement is important.  Sure, they can have more magic items than they need, but the most powerful ones require attunement so they have to choose what to use ahead of time and that balances itself.  I'm also not a fan of starving groups for healing potions, because I hate living that life in the other side of ours... lol... 

Another way to look at how much to give is to look up the Adventure League rules on the matter.  You don't have to track it all, you just award it based on time played and it allows for upgrades and some basic things.  It's a good rule of thumb.  But I enjoy the loot tables too much to go with a rule of thumb most days.

Economies are easily broken.

first ask yourself what you want out of the economy. Actual mechanic? RP flavor? Give them a keep eventually to see how they customize it? Are they evil or good after all once they acquire wealth morality campaign?

money is rarely an issue in D&D.

In home games I don't use the monetary system at all. Everything is abstracted out to a Resources system similar to Onyx Path's games. I hate counting coins. 

Yes, my issue with treasure/loot is that I don't like that D&D as written kind of has two states: scrimping and saving in low levels and then just swimming around in your useless gold pit like Scrooge McDuck in high levels. I don't like that. I want loot to matter later on as well.

But I haven't found a good answer yet, so I have done the barter economy thing BunniRabbi mentions in conjunction with crafting. But crafting just ballooned out into so much work that I don't want to do that anymore either. I got Matt Coleville's Strongholds and Followers book a while back and I'm looking at using the Strongholds mechanic to provide a meaningful gold sink in later levels. I think it can be fun to invest in a base of operations and get bonuses out of it.

Quote from Vince_Snetterton >>

My suggestion: Very very low magic in the game, until at least 6th or 7th level, and equally, very little cash. And lastly, no way can players head to a "magic supermarket" and buy what they want. That will be a good start in keeping the local economy and players under some control.

By level 5 sorcerers can be twinning Haste, by level 7 Polymorph. Artificers start creating infusions at level 2, wizards have familiars at level 1. How low is "very very low" in that context? The DMG puts the PCs at "heroes of the realm" from level 5 on and they can start getting rare items at that level, meaning they're likely to have gotten uncommon ones at levels 3-4. Basic magical blades like moon-touched swords are common items.

You can certainly tone things down more than what the core books suggest, nothing wrong with that, but in my experience the economy and player equipment are just fine following those official guidelines.

Quote from scatterbraind >>

...so I have done the barter economy thing BunniRabbi mentions ...

 Well, that's not exactly what I mean. I give everything a resources rating, which is a combination of cost and rarity. Players are assumed to be able to purchase/steal/make anything at Resources equal to their tier (as in the tiers presented in the DMG) or lower. To buy anything higher they need to do something extra, with something extra being deliberately vague and generally meaning they have to give something up or take some in-game action that will take up part of a session. Technically you can buy unlimited items at your tier, but buying a lot of them will count as a higher rating purchase. Note that 'a lot of them' is also vague. The idea is to keep the players focused on activities that matter in the story and aren't banal, not on ledgers and hording. As a guideline imagine you're watching a tv show, if the character producing a bunch of stuff would prompt the question 'Where did all this come from?' then that needs to be addressed, but if they pull a common item out of their pocket, such that a viewer might just shrug off any concern for where it came from, then players can just assume they have it. If it's on the fence as to weather or not they would have access to it, they can try to justify it with references to their class/race/background or backstory. 

What Lyxen says. 

I have my encounters generated in a MS Access database I created and i use the suggested loot tables for the monsters and auto generate loot.

As Lyxen says, loot only seems important the first few levels, then they start selling stuff they cannot use. 

But you should very lean handing out magic items for the first several levels or they may begin to depend on it.  

Remember there are two parts of the economics that have to be managed by the DM.

The first part is how much money you give them (and magic items).  It can be a delicate thing to go from miserly to making them crazy rich, but the DMG often sends you into crazy rich land.

But the second part is managing what they can buy with all that money.  If they can't buy all the magic items they pick out of the DMG then they will feel upset.  So this is the other side of managing the economics of a campaign.  I don't have the answer.  I guess you just learn what the balance is.

Quote from MusicScout >>

It can be a delicate thing to go from miserly to making them crazy rich, but the DMG often sends you into crazy rich land.

 I don't think that's necessarily true. The DMG has guidelines for loot that will likely result in a lot of wealth for the players, sure, but it also presupposes that past lvl 10 they're movers and shakers in the world. They're guild owners or landed nobles or mages with a magical tower and a lot of recurring expenses from wanting exotic spell components. Not everything they need or want has to be a prize won from a quest. It's perfectly ok to have them just throw a lot of money at a problem occasionally. There will always be other problems for them to deal with they can't buy their way out of too.

 If they can't buy all the magic items they pick out of the DMG then they will feel upset.  

If the DM wants to run it like this -- that you can buy all the magic items you pick out of the DMG - that is the DM's prerogative, but I absolutely do not run it that way, and I would tell my players they have no right to feel upset that they can't buy what's listed in the DMG.

In the first place, what are they doing looking through the DMG? That book is for DMs, not players. I would argue that reading up on magic items to figure out what you want is tantamount to cheating. You're not supposed to know that a potion of X color is a Potion of Mystical Uberness before you taste it, test it, use it, or cast Identify on it. (BTW, this is why I use my own custom color system and NOT the one in DMG).

In the second place, there is zero guarantee that all the items mentioned in the DMG are available in a given campaign world. If it's FR, sure (maybe). But what if the DMG is describing an item sacred to some god that doesn't even exist in your world? Should the players "feel upset" that they can't by the Shield of Tyr (I made it up because I don't feel like looking for a RAW example right now) in a universe where Tyr doesn't exist?

In the third place, it is not up to the players, but the DM, to determine what items are available for purchase, discovery, and use. If a Portable Hole has characteristics that will break my campaign, the players aren't going to find it, I don't care how much they want what they read in the DMG and how upset they might feel at not finding it. Not breaking the game trumps "I want this cool item and I want it now."

I submit that, unless there was a session zero agreement that every item listed in the DMG was (a) in your world, and (b) available for purchase, the players have no call to "feel upset" that they can't just buy whatever they want as soon as they have the money for it.

One of my players, incidentally, did use the DMG as a shopping list. He told me, one day, that he was "almost done going through" the magic item list, making a wish-list for his Sorcerer character. This player thinks sorcerers are underpowered and "don't get enough spells and spell slots" and so surprise, surprise, all the items he picked out were things like Rings of Spell storing and other items that let him cast more spells because even though we have housruled him to have more than RAW, he still wants more... and more. This player sent me a wish list of all the magic items "his character" wants.

This is 100% metagaming -- his character has no idea these items exist. He even said, "This is what my character will want when he finds out these things exist." My first question was, who said any of these things exist in my homebrew world? So far, I have used very few items straight from the DMG -- I copy them over to Homebrew and then rename then, write a new description, and tweak their abilities. For instance, the Ranger in my game joined a group of beastmasters called The Green Company, and they gave her a cloak of theirs. I copied it from the Cloak of Elvenkind but also gave it +1 AC. There is no Cloak of Elvenkind in my world -- there is the Cloak of the Green Company instead. This is true for most magic items.

Now, on the one hand I don't mind the "wish list" because knowing what the player wants, it may give me some ideas of what to (eventually) put into dungeon treasures for him to find. On the other hand, all the items he picked out are based on a premise that I do not share with him (he is convinced and has been convinced since level 1 that his character is "underpowered" and all his requests for rules changes, house rules, magic items, homebrew subclasses, and the like stem from this conviction). So when he hands me a list of "magic items that will make my character less underpowered" (not his term, but mine), and I don't think his character is underpowered -- just how enthusiastic do you think I'm gonna be about giving him these items?

In the end, it is the DM, not the players, who decides what treasure and magic items you find or can buy. Any player who is "upset" that the DM didn't put exactly what they want in exactly the place the wanted is, IMO, gonna be disappointed, at least in my game.

BTW, I have given the sorcerer some cool items he never asked for. His human can now see in the dark (Goggles of the Night) which up to 5th level had been a perpetual issue for him. His sorcerer also has a Wand of Juno that while holding it gives him +1 to his spell attack roll. Things he never asked for but has used to good effect. So maybe instead of trying to demand your DM let you buy the items they want, the players could let the DM come up with cool items the players wouldn't think of but actually turn out to enjoy.

Cody from Taking20 has a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0FiO5b3PPI&t=819s) about how he decided to create a magic shop chain where the players could buy literally everything. He had his misgivings as well but wanted to try it because in other campaigns he'd seen (Critical Role) shopping episodes were just fun for everyone, and it turned out just fine. I'm sure it's not for everyone, but personally I haven't had any issues with relatively easy access to magical gear for the players. In official modules there usually are limitations, either explicitly or implicitly, and for my homebrew campaigns I like creating unique items that are intrinsic to the challenges anyway (weapons that are especially potent only against the BBEG, items needed for the magical ritual needed to end the evil influence, etc). I understand the metagaming argument, certainly, but it's not like characters can't research items with qualities they're looking for or describe what they want to crafters. My players typically don't look for any specific items beyond the rare category (which shouldn't be overly difficult for the characters to research or find) either, maybe I'm just lucky in that regard.

Quote from Lyxen >>

The problem is that some magic items are really, really underpriced and overpowered for their rarity, for example the Broom of Flying. If and when I allow for limited shopping, I make sure to use things like the 5e sane magic item prices, which gives really good recommendations.

 I use that list as well. This is an issue with a number of specific items though, not really with the magic item market in general.

Quote from Lyxen >>

There are things wrong about both, I agree with you that the problem is mostly with a number of specific items, but in general allowing characters to always have access to the items that are the best adapted to their characters is really a way to promote even more min-maxing. I prefer items that tell a story, or remind players of their own story, or items which open possibilities and promote inventivity rather than items that give technical bonuses or, worse, items that make it too easy to remedy a flaw in character design, which should be roleplayed about.

For example, Darkvision is a really powerful benefit of some races. People make other choices because they want a feat, but if it's too easy to get Goggles of Night, then it flattens out the benefits and promotes minmaxing rather than playing races for the sake of roleplaying them with their advantages and drawbacks.

 If you price them according to the sane prices list they're 1500 gp. Even with regular DMG prices you could put them in the 400-500 gp range. A 4th-5th level character might be able to afford that, but probably only if they absolutely prioritize it. Personally I think that's enough of a tradeoff vs the racial ability, but your mileage may vary. I mean, natural armor is easily replaced with armour too, innate spells can be emulated with items, and so on.

Sure. I'm just saying, even if they are available in sufficient numbers the opportunity cost can - by the official guidelines - be meaningful enough at least until levels 6+. That's good enough for me.

I have heard many a DM's story about how their game became derailed with too many magical items available, either to be sold, purchased, or found. I have heard of ZERO cases where a game is derailed because of too low magic.

This is an excellent point.

I want to also point out that although I have been similarly stingy with magic items so far with my now-6th level party, they have not once faced anything close to a TPK. In fact, only one of them has ever had to make a death saving throw yet, and that was at level 1, when a single hit can put a character down. Sometimes they will all be single-digits in hit points, but they have enough spells, special abilities, and common/weak magic items, as well as enough tactical sense, to find ways to survive. So it's not like they actually need any more magic than they already have had. They've had a few tough boss fights, yes (mostly against custom-made legendary bosses), but mostly they have had what I would call "moderate" challenges, both in combat and out. A few surprises... a few broken bones or bloody noses, yes. But nothing fatal, nothing they simply couldn't surmount. So really, what would they need magic items for? To make the game go from moderately challenging to a cake walk?

But the main problem with "magic item supermarkets" and the ability to just buy whatever special/rare item they want, is that it is not a special item anymore. Does anyone consider a smartphone special these days? No... because you can get them anywhere, heck you can buy them for pocket change and the ones of today that are this cheap, are better than the Cadillac ones from 5 years ago. They can be bought in any electronics store, even in non-specialty stores like Target or Wal-Mart. This makes them easy to come by, and thus not special.  People buy a new one every couple of years even though the old one still works fine.

Is that really what people want to turn magic items into? Something you just buy at a shop in any town, and everyone can have?