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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
 Posted - 27 Jan 2003 : 17:45:06
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My players think that i'm a litlle bit cheap (is it the good word for someone that gives things not often?)
So, what's your players' equipement (especially the magic ones) and how much gold do they own?
As far as i'm concerned, i think the starting gold described in the players' handbook is too important...
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Mumadar Ibn Huzal
Master of Realmslore
1338 Posts |
Posted - 27 Jan 2003 : 18:39:26
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Hmm... it depends, I can be generous at times, though in the current campaigns I haven't doled out too much magic and money. In Twilight Dawn the most expensive magical item is Cali****e Banded Mail. Basically +1 Banded Mail with a resistance to heat function. (equivalent of +2 armor...) I have hardly provided them with monetary funds other then what they have received from their 'employer(s)'. No big treasure chests or whatsoever...
I guess it mostly depends on what motivates the characters. If it is treasure and money... then I'll provide that, if there are other motivators, I'll provide those (but will dole out some treasure) |
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kellinjar
Acolyte
Canada
23 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jan 2003 : 02:07:04
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Well, as for myself I'm a pure 'random' DM. I usually set up a new campaign about 3-4 nights of playing in advance...after that I wing it... My players have always enjoyed it. When you do it this way though you h ave to think fast on your feet. When it comes to treasure and such, I always went by the treasure tables and their random results. Which occassionally would lead to odd or perhaps a bit to powerful items..but unless something was ridiculously powerful..oh look.. I happend to roll just right and the goblin was carrying the rod of amazing kill everything with 75 miles no saves allowed +10 of smite anything that moves.
This also meant all their random travelling encounters were completely random..and boy..did my people like to get dragons ;) I think ifyou go by the treasure tables for appropriate monster types and give them a modest amount of gold for the jobs they do, I mean work it out correctly.
If you get an NPC to hire them to investigate some goblins and wants to pay them 75 gp each to go do the job and it turns into an epic campaign against evil (while still being employed by this person) He should in turn offer them more gold, or they can walk away. If you feel players are garnering too much gold from employment then find good hooks to get them to fight the evil on their own, a monsters lair rumoured to have alot of treasure in it. That will get them started..then you can bait them withsomething else so it feels like they're doing something for more then gold
ah well thats just my opinion
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Echon
Senior Scribe
Denmark
422 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jan 2003 : 10:22:45
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In my first campaign I gave away far too many permanent magical items so now I have changed that. In the current campaign the players have all reach 4th level and have only found a few potions of healing and a couple of scrolls so far.
They have been quite poor so far but have just completed a quest which left them with 2-3000 gold pieces each which I think is quite a lot but those money probably will not last long anyway.
-Echon |
"If others had not been foolish, we should be so."
-William Blake |
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AraznBlair
Learned Scribe
USA
114 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jan 2003 : 15:45:44
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| I'm currently running a campaign where I did feel that I gave the characters to much. It is a party of four, a Druid/ Earth Elementalist, a Fighter/ Theif, and two fighters. They had odds and ends magical items that when they used them properly they were powerfull. I had decided that it was making it to easy for them and so came up with a way to take the items from them. I put the players into another plane where each magical item had to make a save or be lost forever. (Don't really know if there is such a plane but it was fun to watch the players. That is another story in and of itself and rather funny.) There was only two items that made their save. A Luck Blade Scimitar and an Everlasting Decanter of Pure Water. They had to work from there on out to gain the items that they now have. I even started to use the random tables and gave them cursed items if it came up. Now I believe the game play has gone back to role-playing vice roll-playing. It is much more fun then it was before. More of a challenge I think. |
Arazn Blair
Fightermage Extrodinare |
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Arion Elenim
Senior Scribe
933 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jan 2003 : 16:57:47
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I am of the opinion that there is NOTHING you can give a player that could throw your campaign too far off course. There is no amount of gold that you can give them that if abused cannot be stolen in the night or be found to be counterfeit or a hundred other possibilities. A first level character who discovers the staff of the magi is STILL a first level character...he just MAY have to contend with the fact that a lich necromancer may want the staff more than he does....
I personally give weapons and armor out like candy....it makes the game more fun....of course, you can go overboard...but this just cheapens the other items...(i.e.- "Oh crap! ANOTHER suit of +4 mithril plate armor!? Come on! Alright....put it over there in the pile. What? A +3 short sword? I wouldn't scratch my butt with this!!!") |
My latest Realms-based short story, about a bard, a paladin of Lathander and the letter of the law, Debts Repaid. It takes place before the "shattering" and gives the bard Arion a last gasp before he plunges into the present.http://candlekeep.com/campaign/logs/log-debts.htm |
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kahonen
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
358 Posts |
Posted - 01 Feb 2003 : 00:27:05
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quote:
Originally posted by ArionElenim
... "ANOTHER suit of +4 mithril plate armor!? Come on! Alright....put it over there in the pile. What? A +3 short sword? I wouldn't scratch my butt with this!!!"
I realised I'd given too much away in one of my first campaigns when the party went into Myth Drannor. They left in a hurry and left behind a portable hole with all their SPARE magic kit in it. I've not repeated the mistake since. |
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Creataceous
Acolyte
New Zealand
14 Posts |
Posted - 16 Feb 2003 : 09:54:40
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What the DM giveth, the DM can taketh away again.
I have found difficulty keeping magic possessions to a sensible level within some parties. Given that other adventuring parties will on average match the party for gear, everytime they defeat a group of foes the party's sum of gear could double. I have found it necessary to create turnover of magical stuff to avoid PC hoarders (i.e. a dozen magical swords that the party no longer use in their closets), through the use of thieves, gifting, henchmen, tithes, taxes, etc. The players enjoyed it more and valued their magic again when there was less around.
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Creature
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Age does not always progenate experience, which does not always birth wisdom.
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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
Posted - 16 Feb 2003 : 13:57:09
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| If you use the thieves, taxes, ... solution to regulate magic items, your players could also think that it's impossible for them to keep much of their magical objects. |
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Gold/Magic items
