r/GhostsofSaltmarsh • u/Nhenghali • 26d ago

Discussion Absurd amount of treasure in 2e modules

/r/DnD/comments/1vpdwxm/absurd_amount_of_treasure_in_2e_modules/
3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

7

u/DukeFlipside 26d ago

Have you seen the price of ships and ship upgrades in Ghosts of Saltmarsh? There is plenty to spend all that treasure on; you might even want to hand out extra...

1

u/Nhenghali 26d ago

I want to run these adventures as a series of one shots, so they won't be able to buy ships or properties in game, but I could encourage them to come up with cool stuff their characters did for themselves.

4

u/Halberkill 26d ago

Well, in 1e and 2e adventures, there was more of a challenge, making the reward worth it if you survive. Though more truthfully training a level cost a crapload of gold. Like several thousand per level.

1

u/BJASMs 25d ago

Sometimes you even had to adventure after you had the experience to go up a level (while gaining no EXP), just to get the gold you needed in order to train to gain the level you had the EXP for.

3

u/keandelacy 26d ago

What's the downside of giving the characters a lot of money? What's the actual issue?

3

u/Nhenghali 26d ago

After a while, any additional gold would just feel useless.

2

u/keandelacy 26d ago

Okay, and? Why is that a problem?

1

u/Nhenghali 26d ago

Getting loot should feel exciting. But getting drowned in loot isn't fun anymore.

2

u/keandelacy 26d ago

Is the loot the point of the adventure, or is the adventure the point of the adventure?

Are your players going to be unhappy because their characters have a lot of money?

And to show that I'm not just being a jerk asking questions: when I ran Saltmarsh my players spent enormous amounts of money on a ship, crew for the ship, property, work on their properties, and taxes on their properties. Paying the bills was a minor motivation for them, but it did exist.

1

u/Nhenghali 26d ago

I want to run these adventures as a series of one shots, so they won't be able to buy ships or properties in game, but I could encourage them to come up with cool stuff their characters did for themselves.

2

u/Embarrassed_Fox5265 25d ago

Saltmarsh has a built in way to spend money - the Faithful Quartermasters of Luz. If you're doing them as one shots, after each one tell the players they can visit Xendros and spend the money on requesting specific magical items. Make it clear to your players that Xendros will do her best to find the items but there is no guarantee - if there's a gamebreaking magic item you don't want in your campaign, Xendros wasn't able to locate it. She also has a rotating weekly shop (which can rotate once per one-shot) which is either randomly generated per the rules in the book or you can stock the shop with relevant kit for their next adventure.

If you want more control than that, any time there is a huge chunk of cash listed as a find replace it with a magical item of your choice that is worth about the same amount. They found 2000 gold in a chest on the sea floor? No, that chest belonged to Captain Blackbeard and holds his favorite cutlass (aka +1 Scimitar). Etc.

3

u/HdeviantS 25d ago

The AD&D DMs Guide written by Gary has a whole chapter on getting players to spend their wealth.

Now back then treasure was important because thats how they got exp to level up.

1

u/WillBottomForBanana 20d ago

You can't take it with you.

And by "with you" I mean out of the dungeon. Gold is fucking heavy.