"Dear JB" Mailbag #20

 

Dear JB:

So i started playing d&d with three of my friends and it's generaly a great experience but everything goes Bad once money is mentioned. They constantly loot everything, ask how much thing they can carry to sell and last session they ever robbed a gold mine. I need a bit of help with what i should do so they stop gathering random axes and armor peices to sell everywhere. I have tried sending bouty hunters but i didn't help. They are even seducing shopkeepers for discounts

My Friends Have A Bit Of A Problem

Dear DM:

Treasure hunting and the pursuit of loot is one of the main elements of the D&D game; in the older (pre-1989) versions of the game, the acquisition of treasure was hard-wired into the advancement system. If you find it difficult to accept this as a core principle of the game, you might want to look for a different fantasy RPG to run...perhaps something in the superhero genre, which generally use abstract mechanics for modeling financial mechanics.

Now, assuming you can get used to the idea that the PCs are cash-strapped adventurers looking for a score, let's move on to the next iteration of your issue: how to effectively deal with the players' desire to steal everything not nailed down. 

The great thing about greed (in the D&D game) is that it is an excellent motivator for players...give them rumors of a legendary treasure trove or present some other opportunity for a 'big score' and they're off like a shot with single-minded focus and engagement. Which generally helps make for an entertaining D&D session (bored, listless players are the antithesis of a "good time"). But greed can lead to distraction...as seems to be the case in your campaign...and Dungeon Masters have two main tools for combatting the players who would overdo their desire for money: encumbrance and world building.

Encumbrance has always been part of the rules, though in many editions of the game (including Basic versions) it is given as an "optional" rule. However, I will assert that you cannot have a meaningful game without using encumbrance.  There are limits to what the human body (or the horse or the wagon or the boat) can carry, and it is one of the main limitations of dealing with the logistics of moving from Point A to Point B. If you are hand-waving encumbrance (i.e. not bothering with it) the prospect of gathering all the scrap metal scattered about the battlefield becomes much more enticing, as it all represents "free money." This is a video game mentality...point-and-click and the pile of loot goes strait into an extra-dimensional 'inventory' space with no inconvenience whatsoever. 

Don't play D&D like a video game. Use encumbrance.

World building, on the other hand, isn't hard-baked into the rules, but it provides just as good a limitation when thoughtfully done. For example, YES, of course there should be gold mines in your game world (where else does the gold come from?), but such mines tend to be heavily guarded (duh) and in a pseudo-medieval/ancient world (like D&D) are usually guarded by the State (i.e. the local ruler) as regulating the currency of the region falls under their purview. Robbing from the King tends to get PCs branded as hunted outlaws. Which can still make for fun adventures...but it sure makes it tough to spend that ill-gotten wealth. 

Besides which, it's not like gold miners are prying coins out of the tunnel walls; rather, they are extracting dust and fragments that need to be gathered, refined, smelted, and minted into usable currency. Better to rob the local mint unless you have your own coining operation set-up (again: see trouble with the local ruler).

And let's talk about those sultry shop-keepers that need seducing. Sure, such NPCs are human (or, um, close enough) and as such have normal human desires that can be preyed upon by sexy PCs. But they are also business owners, and any business owner that gives a blanket discount to every flirtatious person that comes through their door is going to (quickly) go OUT of business. Besides, that's not usually what happens with seduction. If we're talking a true quid-pro-quo, the PC is going to have to be "putting out" (i.e. have a tryst in some back room) in exchange for goods deemed to be of 'equal value' (which, again, could lead to some interesting "adventure" if you'd welcome your game taking on a bit of soap opera drama). But more usual would be for shopkeepers to try pawning off items that they've had a hard time moving, perhaps at a MINOR discount (that they would have already been considering just to get the thing off their shelf). And maybe not even then. Some people just like to flirt (and be flirted with) and that's just how they interact with (consenting) others.

[if a person likes flirting with non-consenting types, we call this "harassment," just by the way]

And as for gathering up every last scrap of armor or weapon or gear in the bandit camp the PCs just obliterated, it's not like that's an "easy sale." There's no eBay or Craigs List in D&D, so who are they going to sell the stuff to? The local armorer? He's only interested in selling his own wares, not buying your cast-offs. Anyway, who wants to buy a polearm that's worn and pitted and stinks of orc or goblin when they could have a shiny new one from the local arms dealer? Look, a lot of the "stuff" found in the dungeon just isn't worth much as treasure. I've been working on emptying my deceased mother's house the last year plus, removing hundreds of pounds of perfectly good, perfectly useable items and just DONATING the bulk of it to charity...because no one wants to buy it. And I live in a big, modern city where people have lots of disposable income, not some Village of Hommlet.

Have you ever had a yard sale? Did you make so much money you wanted to quit your day job?

Just run the game with a little more thought: treasure is treasure and crap is crap. If the players insist on picking up every last bit of found objects, weigh them down and make them carry it (even bags of holding have limits). Slow them down, make them use up their resources (food, for example). Charge them taxes and tolls as "peddlers" when entering towns and villages with a cart full of discarded gear. Make it damn hard for them to sell the stuff (in terms of time spent for coins earned) and only allow them to do so at a prohibitive discount in price. 

And THEN get them in trouble with the local guilds who don't like them under-cutting their members' prices. The guilders can hire thieves to steal their goods or contract assassins to rough them up or set fire to their warehouse (assuming they are paying for a place to store all these extra swords and whatnot). Make it more convenient (and profitable) for the players to simply move on to the next dungeon rather than playing "merchant" in the city. 

This really shouldn't be an issue...assuming your dungeons have enough loot in them to make it worth the players' time. And if they don't...well, then, that's not the players that are the problem.

Sincerely,

JB