Is Your Money Worthless in DnD?

00:00:00 - Intro and Unmet Need
00:57 - Solving Problem 1: Nothing to Buy
02:34 - Solving Problem 2: No Prices
03:42 - Solving Problem 3: Boring to Track
06:13 - Conclusion
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Bluesky: @[e-mail]
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#dnd #ttrpg #dnd5e #dnd #dnd5e #roleplayinggames #dungeonsanddragons #dungeonmaster #dungeonmastertips #dungeonmasteradvice #dungeonmasters #ttrpg #ttrpgs
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"Epic Unease"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Knee Deep Oceans Theme and Idle Animation by agoracowboy, used with permission. All rights reserved.
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This video uses these sounds from freesound:
"chimeshortstrike01" by gamebalance ( freesound.org/s/422062/ ) licensed under CCBYNC 4.0
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[@dylansutcliff7816]

great analysis and advice here! I've found having a dedicated buying phase at the beginning each session reminds players what they can do with their growing pocket cash. also making sure they have access to an updated list of what is currently available to them

[@kneedeepoceans]

That's a fantastic idea. I can really see it shining in a game like a westmarches style or old school style game where players are starting almost every session in town.

[@MemphiStig]

In one of Gygax's non-D&D games, he recommended using a currency equivalent to whatever modern system you use, so that you can easily estimate prices of most things. The Base Unit of Currency, he calls it, the BUC, is the same as whatever modern unit you use, like dollars. And things like swords and horses and wagons and whatever would be priced like modern equivalents, a gun, motorcycle, car, etc. So a sword might be $500 and a horse $5000, depending on quality and other factors. Of course, the way prices are these days...

[@JabesMcJabesface]

Some pretty good ideas for how to add value back to it, thank you.

[@kneedeepoceans]

Glad it was helpful! Curious to hear if you thought of anything else that is an issue with gold -- or any other solutions?

[@AtticusKarpenter]

Yeah! I guessed, if you will bring idea from Blades, and i guessed right :) This is really a nice golden middle between abstracting money into oblivion like World of Darkness do, and bookkeeping every penny as D&D do. Single unit of money must be either equal to most common purchase from a team (like food, drink and rent of a room for all for one day in a decent inn), or to most common acquisition of it (like, content of smaller loot chest, or maybe bounty for mildly dangerous monster set by local duke). Sometime DM will be like "hey, i think you used up all your food and other daily stuff already, so you spend one [coin/sack of gold/whatever unit of money called in your game] to replenish" and you forget about this for another, like, long time, and manage gold only to things that actually interesting to spend gold on. And yes, bribe a single common soldier also must be one "Coin", not that this poor village guys saw such a pile of money in their lives. And capital purchases like castles, ships (maybe flying ones and armed), full armor of best quality - are charged in dozens of such units, not freaking hundreds of thousands like people come to TTRPG to touch such numbers anyway lol.

[@kneedeepoceans]

Very insightful, thank you. Especially the idea that you must abstract a single unit of money as something the PCs can reference. You sound like you have a lot of experience abstracting gold.

[@jpnuar1]

0:45 You left out your cat’s name!

[@kneedeepoceans]

Haha, i have to protect the children's identities :P

[@monosyllable7171]

We play 1E so this might've been in the DM guide instead of an innovation but setting a decently high monthly cost for cost of living really helps money feel useful even if you end up getting great armor fast (that's fine at 2nd level you'll die easy in anything)

[@kneedeepoceans]

Oh yeah, I definitely agree that in older versions of the game, gold is definitely a suitable reward. Like you're saying, a cost of living but the 5e game masters screen has costs of living on it, but as far as I know most 5e DMs don't use it.

[@user-mm5nd9sk2k]

or....the best use for money: requiring them to eat gold daily to appease a demon.

[@skywindow6764]

nice song, what was it?

[@kneedeepoceans]

My friend, Adam, made it! He calls it "idle animation"

[@Marcus-ki1en]

An old 1E player here, (since '79). 1) Switch to a silver based economy. 2) There are easy to find online resources for historic prices in late Medieval Western European Society. 3) Your coin conversion rate is a good start, but the Gold should only be worth $20.00 or $50.00) IMO. 4) Keeping track is a burden? Really?! Take a separate piece of paper and have a running tally. Use columns to track different coin types. Kind of tired of hearing: Oh tracking coins is a burden, get rid of them; tracking inventory is a burden, get rid of it; tracking experience is a burden, use milestones. Please folks, if it is too hard, go play diablo or skyrim. It will track it all automatically for you.

[@kneedeepoceans]

This video is about modern gaming (5e) culture, which could have been better described in the title. For what it's worth, I think you're opinion fits well with the old school way of thinking about money and gold.

[@loumona76]

It's really nice but you really don't have to use AI... Like, this is just ugly. And if you can't pay an artist, I'm sure you can find some nice free to use pictures that will suit your subjects. But the AI... I just honestly don't want to watch anymore, it's a very bad first impression... Lots of people who DnD are artistic peoples, who draw their characters and are overall creative........ So........ People who have a better chance of hating AI. Wrong move...

[@kneedeepoceans]

Thanks for your feedback and appreciate the perspective. I'll redo the thumbnail and abstain from using AI in the future. I also don't like AI.

[@kneedeepoceans]

Update: thumbnail art is changed.

[@dallasturner4592]

....... huge L take. This whole "being against ai" fad is honestly one of the most depressing things to witness. NOBODY, i mean NOBODY, is ACTUALLY against AI generated images, just low quality/bad content. Put a bit more effort into the ai generation, use matting to clip what you REALLY want. The AI TOOLS are just that TOOLS. if the results are noice people like it. period. look at it this way. Being against fucking power tools and trying to do carpentry professionally isn't viable. That's be called LARPing. Embrace new tech or join the amish.