First level characters roll 3d6 * 10 Gold Pieces and buy their starting equipment from the equipment list in Men & Magic. After a few successful expeditions into the underworld the characters lucky enough to survive are very quickly kitted out with everything they might need: the best armour, useful equipment to cover most conceivable situations, horses, perhaps a wagon? A small boat to travel the waterways of the kingdom. But it soon becomes apparent after a handful of levels have been gained that there is much more loot to and not much to actually spend it on! This might influence a character’s motivation to seek out further adventures. So, what else can a character spend their hard earned treasure hoards on?
125 G.P. for a potion that creates a spell effect such as a potion of healing
250 G.P. for a potion that creates a special ability such as a potion of giant strength.
Time-wise we could simply double the time required for a magic-user to craft such an item (2 weeks for a 125 G.P. potion and 2 months for a 250 G.P. potion).
Things to Spend Money on in an OD&D Campaign (Besides Strongholds)
There are a number of services the characters can access in the form of “Specialists”. Underworld & Wilderness Adventures tells us that “There are a number of specialists available to those in positions of power, i.e. with their own strongholds.” This text implies a stronghold must be built before these “Specialists” can be employed but there is one particular contradiction in regards to the engineer. The text for this specialist says “It is mandatory to hire an Engineer to build any major stronghold [...]” So there is atleast one type of specialist that can be employed without a stronghold. One interpretation could be that to hire a specialist on a permanent or longterm basis a stronghold is required to house them but otherwise for short term employment it’s just a matter of locating a specialist. This interpretation offers various interesting means of spending gold. A few of these methods are detailed below.Pay an Alchemist to Make Potions
In order to make a potion an alchemist requires a formula. A sage would be able to provide one, so the adventurers would need to locate a sage first and then the alchemist. Blackmoor tells us that sages “can be found in any town of considerable size, although they are more probably found in those which possess a college or university.” A good resource for determining the availability of a given service is to consult the World Builder’s Guidebook written by Richard Baker and looking at the Citizens & Provinces chapter. The actual cost to hire an alchemist to make a potion is ½ the potions value. There is no definitive values given to potions in the OD&D books but looking at one of Gary Gygax’s Strategic Review #2 OD&D FAQ article he gives some loose guidance on awarding XP for magic items. We can decipher from this and what Men & Magic says about magical research that there are two broad types of potions: types that create spell effects and types that create special abilities. From the examples provided we can deduce that potions creating spell effects should have an experience point value of about 250 xp and cost about 250 gold pieces, plus 1 week to create. Potions that create special abilities should weild around 500 xp and cost about 1,000 gold pieces, plus 4 weeks to create. I think it makes sense that magic items should not be created for profit as this gives players in a campaign access to mass amounts of gold that is potentially economy breaking! I nice solution to this is to have the xp value and sale value the same. This would mean that the cost of an alchemist to make a potion would be:125 G.P. for a potion that creates a spell effect such as a potion of healing
250 G.P. for a potion that creates a special ability such as a potion of giant strength.
Time-wise we could simply double the time required for a magic-user to craft such an item (2 weeks for a 125 G.P. potion and 2 months for a 250 G.P. potion).
Buy a Galley
A small galley will set the party back 10,000 G.P. and a large will cost 30,000 but in order to sail such a vessel a crew is required (as detailed in Underworld & Wilderness Adventures), the party will need rowers, marines and sailors that will cost 10 G.P. per month. The Judges Guild Ready Reference Sheets a third party game aid published in 1978 has some good rules for advertising and hiring various types of specialist, including seamen and sea captains. These types of campaign can cost several thousand gold before success, as weekly advertising costs range from 100 to 1,200 G.P depending on the methods used. With a galley the party can take to the seas for an exciting new type of adventure which will require use of the naval warfare rules in Underworld & Wilderness Adventures!Let me know your ideas about spending in OD&D.
Great article. I agree that there needs to be a balance between the wealth a party collects and spends, and the economy of the game locals. There are obvious DM roleplay scenarios that can take care of things, like attracting attention to wealth leading to thieves and maybe even guilds to have it out with the party. Kings charging "new taxes" after finding out there are successful adventures in the city, or just a requirement to pay homage. Endless!
ReplyDeleteMy one input as a lifelong player, is that the early editions saw magic as something rare. So your payment for potions example (to me) is too low. As you said, you somewhat naturally end up with a lot of money when you survive and gain levels. Magic of all types should be expensive and uncommon.
Also, regarding selling magic for profit. I like the same approach, but with things more randomly determined like you did regarding the engineer to build a keep. If you happen to find someone who can even produce such things as "magic devices", it would be somewhat rare and the item (probably no more than one or two - denoting the pinnacle of the makers work to that time that hasn't also been bought by high level adventurers or the like) random as well. You just won't know what you might find, and you certainly have a better chance of winning the lottery than going to the city deliberately to buy a "Ring of Invisibility"; unless the DM advertised it somewhere as being there. Imagine the cost of such an item. Player characters will have to dream of making enough gold to buy these things unless they do some really SERIOUS party deliberation and agree to spend it all at one time. Does everyone's alignment, backstory, and reaction align with spending their own hard won treasure on that thing the magic user wants?
I also think that discovering a magic shop or alchemist in a far off place helps keep the party going from place to place over time. Gives them a reason to go to the mountain village outside of having a "dungeon entrance" nearby. So even if the rare items found aren't what you want at the time, a growing catalogue of one or two items here and there gives you something to think about as a campaign develops. Who knows, the promise of that +2 short sword the party ran across, quite some time back, may come in handy when trying to recruit the dual weapon wielding thief that replaces another dead party member. She may even join just for the promise of it.