Those Midnight Sovereigns

The Gygaxian Gold Sink As A New Game Mechanic

Your party comes out of a dungeon, surprisingly with all members still alive. That raid on the Naga lair netted quite a haul this time: 2,300 GP, 11,450 SP, a large pouch full of gems, a magical sword, and an ornate tapestry depicting what looks very much like someone’s crazy uncle being sacrificed to the Snake Mother (no one sane will want that, but there are always eccentric collectors who treasure these things).

Treasure is divided, everyone gets their share, taxes and tithes are paid, and that weird wizard in the tower bought the tapestry for… well, the Duke’s tax collector might be reading this, so let’s not say it out loud.

No one is near the point of having to visit a trainer to learn new valuable skills in their respective classes.

What are you going to do with your share of the loot?

Gygaxian AD&D provides many avenues to relieve the PCs of their treasure. Compound that with the mechanic that treasure brings XP when it is spent… and now we see a major aspect of the game: it’s better to spend that loot in order to advance than mowing down monsters and placing yourself at risk.

We’ve all had PCs who accumulated just too much loot because the DM didn’t take steps to extract it from them, and that virtually unchecked wealth can cause problems for the campaign if not dealt with as efficiently as possible.

Case in point: you’re in a frontier town… let’s say Oakhaven deep in the Shrouded Weald in Wydyr. We bring in massive amounts of treasure that’s really always been there but no one had the balls to go get it until you bunch wandered in.

Most people in Oakhaven don’t have a lot of money. They don’t need it. Their material needs are mostly met by their surrounding environment, and whatever outside goods they do need can be obtained through passing traders or through barter.

Now here you are wandering in with hundreds, if not thousands of coins… spending them like water. You don’t stop it at the tavern either… you can weaponize your wealth: hiring the idle farm hands to form a private militia, monopolizing the local blacksmith to make weapons and armor for your militia, maybe setting yourself up in the local ruins to be the de facto lords and ladies because we all know the powers of Caer Wydyr will let that happen.

Bam goes all the hard work the DM did to set up this campaign area.

But let’s be honest: the scenario I painted above isn’t likely to happen; few players are that enterprising. Your adventuring party is a collection of heavily armed and traumatized tomb robbers, and such people rarely invest wisely.

So let’s move on to another game mechanic that drains material wealth in order to generate some danger and fun and earn some XP in the process. Let’s call it the Gygaxian Gold Sink.

With the GGS, you can journey down the mechanic of GP=XP and advance your PC through out-of-dungeon play. Just because you’re not burning torches or listening at doors doesn’t mean you can’t face danger;

After all, Fayn is a dangerous place.

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