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 Transporting and effect of large amounts of wealth
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Gareth
Seeker

United Kingdom
55 Posts

Posted - 06 Nov 2016 :  12:09:00  Show Profile Send Gareth a Private Message  Reply with Quote  Delete Topic
Just wondering how other people deal with PC's getting hold of large quanties of wealth and how it works in their games.

For me, if the players want to take that dragonhorde of coin, they need to be able to a) transport it b) protect it

I also pay attention to just how much they are spending, where they are spending it, what effect it has (if you suddenly dump thousands of gold into the economy of a small town it will have an effect!) and who also takes notice.

Obviously, bags of holding and portable holes (if/when they are obtained) help in the transportation of large quantities, but at lower levels, when even 1000 copper pieces is a large quantity that they can find- its a lot of weight to start carrying around.

Cards77
Senior Scribe

USA
745 Posts

Posted - 06 Nov 2016 :  16:36:27  Show Profile Send Cards77 a Private Message  Reply with Quote
In my game we often leave the coppers behind. They simply aren't worth the weight. Also, as a DM I've tried to be more imaginative with my hordes. There should be plenty of gems, art objects, etc which are portable and can account for much wealth.

PCs throwing large amounts of coin around always attract attention in my game. Smash and grab tactics by the local thieves are common. They've learned to not even discuss their wealth unless in a secure place.

I also pay attention to economy of scale. A smaller town or village likely won't have the goods or items worth thousands of gold so effects to the economy are unlikely.

My PCs have learned that transporting large amounts of wealth is perilous. They usually head for the closest large town to find a "many coin services" where they can exchange their coins for more portable wealth and/or deposit their wealth into safe keeping.

You can find a good description of many coin services in "Elminster's Forgotten Realms". My PCs also have been known to create their own trade bars from older or low value coins. All you need is a forge and a mold. Precious metals have very low melting points and trade bars are much easier to transport.

We've also been known to buy several thousand gold worth of pelts in Silverymoon and transport them to Waterdeep (where we stay for the winter). Not only does this convert coin into transportable wealth, you can make a profit by selling them for a higher price in Waterdeep. We've even created our own trade caravan for traveling the Long Road.
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Ayrik
Great Reader

Canada
7966 Posts

Posted - 06 Nov 2016 :  23:15:49  Show Profile Send Ayrik a Private Message  Reply with Quote
You could read about my infamous "Gold Golem" (interspersed in a drawn-out multifaceted discussion on pages 15 16, and 16 of the old Stupid Questions scroll.

I'm all for bleeding PCs of their gold with every trick imaginable. No freebies from NPCs, ever. Every meal, every room, every horse stall, every haggle, every favour, every bribe, it always costs money. I also tracked their gold independently, most of my players were individuals with integrity, but there's always one or two at the table who tend to too-often conveniently "forget" to write these things down on their character sheets (and who tend to too-often "forget" where other convenient things came from). Keep 'em broke! It's a never-ending battle. But PCs with too much money and too many toys are fat and soft and spoiled, they need to be a little hungry and a little desperate to explain why they're even bothering to go adventuring anyways.

The game is so much more fun for them when they actually earn and achieve things (like wealth), a PC takes pride in his hero instead of his hero's huge list of toys. At the other extreme, Monty Hall and Monty Haul players walk around with more magical treasure than even Elminster owns - many of these become truly childish, they'll even throw tantrums, when denied access to their toys or ultimately forced to learn hard lessons about self-sufficiency and detachment from meaningless worldly things, lol.

The trick with PCs who've become too rich is to increase their living expenses. Sell them a castle - cheap! - which requires tons of gold to fix up. And costs tons more gold to fix after being attacked. Fighters wanna buy that killer weapon or armor, it's either a limited-use magic or it's hideously expensive to maintain and repair. Wizards need to acquire something exotic and expensive to research their spell or as a component for casting it (the only copy of a unique tome, a chunk of pituitary gland from a red dragon, a coin made of elemental earth, a bizarre piece of alchemical lab gear, an actual alchemist). Stoneskin and forcewall spells are always popular, but those 100GP pinches of diamond dust really drain the coffers quick, keep track of them! Priests must buy only the most ridiculously expensive decorations for their deity, anything less would be unworthy and impious in the eyes of their gods (or of their superior-ranking clergymen). Paladins are required to be righteous and motivational examples, how can they greedily hoard mere gold and say "no" when mobbed by families of starving crippled beggars, as if "I already paid the required tithes" is enough. And any PC of any class will part with his precious gold if presented with a one-time-only offer for something else (magical item or spell) he desperately wants - figure out what your player really wants and you've figured out the cost of buying off his PC.

PCs only carry golds and plats because lowly coppers are too heavy and worthless? They need to pay 2 coppers to buy an NPC ale or 1 silver for lantern fuel but (not wanting to carry small change) just say "keep the change" on each transaction? It's like buying stuff at a dollar store or McDonald's but just offering a $100 or $500 bills each time you go back to the till - and it attracts a whole lot of interest and attention from everyone around, not always the kinds of attention which are helpful - we have guns and gangs and violent muggers, D&D has daggers and gangs and violent muggers, and PCs tend to get in big trouble after repeatedly killing off the "good townsfolk" with impunity.

Finally, of course, tons of wealth spilling out of the purses of affluent adventurers will draw more adventurers - the competition - who will start seizing their own shares of the loot from the local monster ecology. And it will draw enemies, lower and higher level than the PCs, who are willing to seize the loot more directly. And it will draw an entire underworld "economy" of thieves and pickpockets and muggers and manipulators and informants, some will be cocky little 1st level thieves but some will be vastly competent adversaries. And more monsters, ranging from orc war tribes to greedy blue dragons to Mulmaster's greedy mercenary army, will converge on great wealth, bringing problems of their own.

[/Ayrik]

Edited by - Ayrik on 06 Nov 2016 23:30:34
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Wrigley
Senior Scribe

Czech Republic
605 Posts

Posted - 07 Nov 2016 :  13:53:06  Show Profile  Visit Wrigley's Homepage Send Wrigley a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Do not forget about the rich people in the region. They do not want any competition from those lowly adventurers.

So you found a treasure chest full of gold and gems? That is just wanderful as I have been looking for this for a long time, you are certainly going to be rewarded for this find. What do you mean by it is yours? Where do you think those bandits stole it from? Guards!!

You can also give them a piece of land from local lord to push them into spending those money on his property. That is not evil but only greedy (or economicaly wise descision).

For transportation of large amounts of money the most vailable means is magic. You can easily put that 100 000gp sword in our backpack but same as with art and land those money are harder to transfer back to coins.
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