The Most Underrated DnD Player Character Resource and How to Fix It

Re-Uploaded due to Audio Issues.
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Mentioned in the Video:
First Law, Book 1: amzn.to/3WwuEFc
First Law, Book 2: amzn.to/3QJCszM
First Law, Book 3: amzn.to/3UXDqdW
Debt, the First 5000 Years: amzn.to/3UVt3Y7
Resources I like and use:
Old School Essentials Player's Tome: tinyurl.com/yc6d9756
Old School Essentials Referee's Tome : tinyurl.com/2mzhybku
The Monster Overhaul: tinyurl.com/yknhbf2m
Worlds Without Number FREE PDF: tinyurl.com/43nxtwna
Worlds Without Number Deluxe PDF/Print: tinyurl.com/4rye49jw
Tome of Adventure Design: tinyurl.com/2p2vbpr7
Mythic GM Emulator 2nd Edition: tinyurl.com/4b7smeur
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#dnd #osr #ttrpg #dungeonsanddragons #gold
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Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statue that might otherwise be infringing.

[@Earthmote]

Re-uploaded due to audio issues on the original. Check out the resources mentioned in the video here: First Law, Book 1: amzn.to/3WwuEFc First Law, Book 2: amzn.to/3QJCszM First Law, Book 3: amzn.to/3UXDqdW Debt, the First 5000 Years: amzn.to/3UVt3Y7

[@WHIT3N1NJA]

i was gonna comment cus i noticed this while listening earlier! glad u caught it

[@CaptCook999]

Playing old school D&D and AD&D, gold had weight. So you could only carry so much out of the dungeon. I can remember many times when players would have their characters drop silver to take more gold or drop gold to take a few more platinum pieces. My thieves always kept track of what treasure was left behind, written on the maps he drew up. And contrary to what one might think, few of our characters were what you could call "Rich".

[@Zr0din]

Gold in Published adventures: StormKing's Thunder if you did ALL the side quests and found EVERYTHING in this adventure, you would have enough to buy your first fortrace (10k gold- I think) by level 6. This stat was in either an MCDM video or one of their books on politics (Stronholds & Followers).

[@BetterMonsters]

Some really good insights here; another issue with gold is that large purchases and investments take time to develop, and the stock resting rules often leave little space for the kind of downtime in which money-spending activities really shine.

[@Earthmote]

Thats true! Depends on how fast or slow you progress your campaign can make these things more/less useful.

[@coil8906]

I’m not sure I get what you mean. Do you mind expanding on that a bit more? Long rests are already shorter than in old school D&D, in what way would the stock resting rules interfere with PCs pursuing money spending downtime activities? And what are some examples of the type of downtime activities that would be affected by the current resting rules?

[@codydrebenstedt7221]

​@@coil8906shorter recovery times, (can fully recover from mostly dead with 8 hours rest) players feel the need to keep constantly on the move and to the next adventure. They don't require downtime inside the safe walls of a town or village. As a result of both of these things, they spend less time actually considering what to do with downtime, assuming they have any at all.

[@shellbackbeau7021]

Roman grade roads or even railroad projects require funding, but they do grant safe, secure, and rapid transportation from the more civilized hexes to those hexes on the frontier.

[@Putoaduh]

I think the reason money is often such an oversight after a certain point is because many campaigns never zoom out from the players. The vast majority of wealth is spent on things that aren't worn or carried, such as housing, hirelings, and projects. I've found money to be more meaningful using extended resting rules, making short rests 8 hours and long rests 7 days. Your lifestyle suddenly matters when you actually lose gold for resting. The main thing will be that money is spent with more than the players in mind.

[@anon-yw4wd]

Don't forget to include how the players large amounts of treasure create rampant inflation in the areas they are doing business.

[@patrickmullen9485]

Another fantastic video. Regardless of whether you’re playing dungeons and dragons or not, this is the most nitty-gritty and informative channel in discussing how to practically conduct sandbox ongoing campaigns. Most other channels out there just talk in terms of generalities. Randall discusses specifics and avoiding pitfalls.

[@Earthmote]

Thank you, That's very kind!

[@Gossamer3592]

Great video!! The examples are super helpful to show this concept in action. DMGs tend to have this kind of advice, but it's focused on the rewards, not the spending. So this is very helpful. Thank you!

[@sumdude4281]

My players are crazy cheap with fake money. I chuckle all the time. Finally, a couple of sessions ago someone got the bright idea to pay some local Gnomes to be retainers for an attack on some Ogres. Finally, found some use for that cash they were carrying around, taking up Eq slots. You're spot on.

[@bigbiggoblin2873]

NOICE. My players having been sitting on gold in our 5e campaign and I've been thinking of ways for them to use it beyond the inventory list.

[@josephperez2004]

It's not specifically priced in the book, but mounts can be a great investment. A single Warhorse with Barding can cost up to 6,400 gold if you go with Full Plate Barding. Thats a 39 HP combat ally with AC 18 that can carry you and your gear so long as you aren't too heavily loaded. And if you invest in the Mounted Combat Feat, that mount is going to last you awhile.

[@Ajmes]

Great video as always, commenting for visibility =)

[@crimfan]

1E had a LOT of ways to spend gold. Check out the 1E DMG. I agree about using it as a plot device. I do that in my very sandbox oriented planar campaign-still running using old house ruled 2E since 1999! Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser and Conan could blow entire fortunes on debauchery and bad ideas.

[@Earthmote]

I have 1e DMG, but I haven't had a chance to read through it yet. I'll check it out!

[@crimfan]

@@Earthmote Fair warning: It's a deliciously sprawling mess. It was made from a bunch of Dragon articles that got edited (in theory) into a book. Some parts are basically worthless but others are really useful.

[@HeraldofHelios]

This is brilliant. I have been pondering excess gold for my players for awhile now. Thank you!

[@Earthmote]

Glad you found it useful! Cheers

[@artistpoet5253]

I hadn't tracked gold since the old days of b/x and maybe my last play through of a Lone Wolf adventure book.

[@Earthmote]

I'm playing OSE (b/x clone), so I do think about it a lot I guess!

[@ToonedMinecraft]

I feel like gold is often thought of as a bank account, and not something physical they have to carry around. I get that many people don't want to deal with encumbrance rules, but making the gold something physical they have to carry around might help so much with them realising it's there (and if it's heavy, how to get rid of it)

[@Earthmote]

I play OSE, so I use and think about encumberance a lot more. Since Gold = XP after all. But yes, it does tend to get hand waived in more modern editions where gold is less of a focus. But I think it is still useful in either style of play/edition as a resource!

[@kingjames3192]

another banger

[@RedRaggedFiend]

Interesting approach, I tend to do the opposite in my games. Currency is hard to find and hard to spend outside of cities. PC gold is used to pay "low power" NPCs like commoners and artisans for labor/goods, while "high power" NPCs and factions aren't easily swayed by money. Like in your first example, these powerful entities want favors and leverage over up-and-coming adventurers. Easy to spin this off into a multitude of side quests and put PCs in predicaments where they may need to decide to do something against their principles to get what they want.

[@justinblocker730]

Double upload? Well other tips; Have hirelings, lessen carrying capacity (coin weight maybe), and make magic more costly, all quick and easy fixes... If not go back to using coins for level up or to gain other abilities.

[@Earthmote]

Re-uploaded due to some audio issues with the original for headphone users.

[@Jak00Z]

Thanks

[@hackthedungeon]

In older versions we used cash a lot. It seems like we don't since we started playing 5e. I don't know if that is a system issue or an issue with the way we play now verse how we played before.

[@Earthmote]

Could be a bit of both. I do think a lot of 5e games tend to ignore the bookkeeping a lot more than old editions (encumbrance, gold, rations, etc.) But it is a system designed to do super heroic fantasy. So it makes sense Thor wouldn't want to bother with rations. As a result gold is much less integral than we see in older systems where 1 XP = 1 GP recovered.

[@JimBook]

What is the back ground video from?

[@Earthmote]

Amazon Prime had a show called Hernán. Its only available in Spanish, but that's where I took the clips from.

[@leonelegender]

This is just a sign of poorly design system such as it's 5e

[@VisableVetetable]

oh no, not the people who participated in human sacrifice 😢😢

[@anon-yw4wd]

Right? What many don't realize is Cortez military force was largely bolstered by the surrounding natives whom hated the Aztecs. They helped him destroy a vicious and authoritarian empire. Cortez actually treated these natives fairly . They are largely the people who are the current population of Mexico.

[@nevisysbryd7450]

​​@@anon-yw4wd Cortez also repeatedly turned down politically expedient offers of alliances by refusing to accommodate their demands to continue human sacrifice, so his choice of target cannot be entirely explained by political or economic gain. The massacre at Tenochitlan was not perpetrated by him, either, but by the native army splintering into a mob in direct _violation_ of his orders.