A Most Unfortunate 3

[scottanderson]

You roll up your six stats and so far so good. Then you roll for money and the dice all come up 1! Holy cats! What happens when you roll a 3 for starting money and your hapless sod gets 30 gold to buy his starting kit?

[captaincrumbcake]

Money Lenders!

It was common for at least 1 of our group to do something like this. So our DM had loan sharks in town willing to  lend us a reasonable sum for some modest armor (never enough for Plate, and we played 1E) and the minimal of gear to get through a week. The interest was usually 100 to 500 %, so we did not mess about doing this kind of stuff. 

[Admin Pete]

An excellent question and as I think about it, in well over 1000 characters over the years I don't remember starting cash ever being less than 50 GP. Tough if you are a fighting-man or cleric, not too bad though if you are a magic-user.

[mormonyoyoman]

This is where stealing TnT's TARO (Triples Add & Roll Over) rule is justified.

[scottanderson]

Money lenders! What a great idea! Especially outside or near a megadungeon.

[ripx187]

What is starting gold, and where did it come from? I think that that is an interesting question which rarely, if ever, gets asked. I'm not sure why? The answer is probably pretty easy.

For years all of our games started out in a tavern, but I refuse to do that anymore. There are other options, even if it is just asking the players how they know each other. My longest game, nobody knew each other, but they were all summoned to a house. We ignored the starting money, everyone got one weapon, and the rest was spent traveling to the house. The players started broke, which is how I like it anyway.

Jens D. I believe, wrote up a cool first game scenario, starting the game in a poor rural village that couldn't afford anything and wanted better. The village council had everyone pool their resources together and chose a party of local youths to invest in with the understanding that these young people would bring wealth back and save their hometown. This is just such a fantastic idea! One that has stayed with me, and that I can't wait to use when we decide to start a new campaign.

As a DM, at low levels, I have all the control. I think that this was done on purpose, in the beginning money is the natural motivation for the players. They want to improve their characters, so I will set limits and count coins during prep. I try to keep this power of "Want" for as long as possible. Once that need for more money goes away, hopefully, we have found better motivations to keep playing.

As a player, I don't ever really remember this sense of competition. We always tended to pool our money together and work as a team. I notice that the players still play this way, regardless of new faces. There are discussions during the game that goes along the lines of needing to get so-and-so better armor before they get killed, then we can get you a better sword, just make due with the one you have right now.

Starting the game with 30gp? Luxury. Hell, I wish that I had 30gp!

You kids have it too easy, back in my day, the only weapon I had was a dirty old chicken bone, and I was grateful! It took six, nine-hour sessions to beat a goblin to death with it, and do you think that I ever complained? NEVER! Why my drunk DM would have beat me with a leather strap for trying to cheat, and I loved him for it.

[mao]

For about 25 years starting equipment was one armor, one shield, one weapon, 1 misc. item and 1 gold peice

[Admin Pete]

Sept 12, 2017 14:11:38 GMT -5 mao said:

For about 25 years starting equipment was one armor, one shield, one weapon, 1 misc. item and 1 gold peice

?? Why?? What was the reason for that limit? No food, no water skin?

[mao]

I was nasty beyond all belief, frequent deaths, doing dangerous work for a ball of rice.A fantastic treasure would be a single potion for half the party. Honestly ,looking back on how I used to be I find it difficult to believe I had that many players (8-12 0n any given day)

I was very influenced by the Thieves World books and ran a gritty street level game in a horrible city. That was Mysantia for quite a few years.

[Deleted]

Borrow money from another PC. Magic users, even at first level, frequently have gold to spare. And it's in their own best interest as well, since if you're a fighter or cleric you're helping keep them alive.

[Admin Pete]

Sept 12, 2017 16:06:40 GMT -5 @gronanofsimmerya said:

Borrow money from another PC. Magic users, even at first level, frequently have gold to spare. And it's in their own best interest as well, since if you're a fighter or cleric you're helping keep them alive.

Absolutely!

[sixdemonbag]

The starting gold is just that IMC. You get 30-180 GP (and XP!) just for existing past childhood. Equipment can be chosen at will with no restrictions other than what you could physically carry and what makes sense for your character.

Water, food, toilet paper, toothbrushes, and all that other nonsense is assumed since we are talking about adventurous humans (and demi-humans lol) with brains that have been eating, drinking, and wiping their arses (to steal a Gronanesque Britishism) their whole lives. Buckets of GP are just around the corner so the starting amount is beyond trivial.

[scottanderson]

I did a whole series on what a roll of 3 means in each stat. They are the most popular posts on my little blog. Money was just the last of them.