Cash? Prizes? Awarding loot in 5th Edition.

[Raphite1]

I've just started GMing a 5th Edition game, but am already uncertain how to make the characters feel that they're getting meaningful loot. I gave them around 20gp each before they even hit level 2, and had a rich NPC promise them more gold as a quest reward, but quickly realized that I had to be careful about getting ahead of the intended curve.

According to the WBL table on p. 38 of the DMG, even a level 10 character who is quite wealthy will have less than a thousand gold and maaaaybe one magic item. It seems that money is intended to mostly be spent on living expenses.

Adventuring for the sake of advancing the plot is great, but everyone likes loot. What are you giving your players instead of the cash and prizes of previous editions? Is xp, plot, and character advancement enough in this edition?:

[E’Tallitnics]

I've just started GMing a 5th Edition game, but am already uncertain how to make the characters feel that they're getting meaningful loot. I gave them around 20gp each before they even hit level 2, and had a rich NPC promise them more gold as a quest reward, but quickly realized that I had to be careful about getting ahead of the intended curve.

According to the WBL table on p. 38 of the DMG, even a level 10 character who is quite wealthy will have less than a thousand gold and maaaaybe one magic item. It seems that money is intended to mostly be spent on living expenses.

Adventuring for the sake of advancing the plot is great, but everyone likes loot. What are you giving your players instead of the cash and prizes of previous editions? Is xp, plot, and character advancement enough in this edition?:

I quite like the treasure tables in the DMG! I'm also big on making mundane treasure make sense. If the defeated creature doesn't wear clothes then they're not going to have 'pocket change'. If the adventurers want to find that creatures treasure they'll have to find that creatures home. (This can lead to some great RP opportunities…)

On the flip side I'm not big on granting permanent magic items from a characters Wish List. Consumable items are a lot of fun with no lasting repercussions, but true magic items are always off a random list.

Just make sure you're rolling on the right table! I once generated treasure for an encounter and the first item was "Luck Blade". Which I thought sounded cool, which in fact was very cool as it's a unique, Legendary item!

So that being said give them Gold, art objects and gems. Art objects can be run RP as well. Just make sure that they have something to spend the gold on.

Is the party looking for clues/certain people? Make a merchant/employee can be bribed. A Street Urchin knows a great many things but will seldom part with that information for free! Never, ever, underestimate the ability for a party to clear out a haunted keep, setup a base of operations, go adventuring for a while and then have the land owner come looking to collect taxes.

[Raphite1]

I quite like the treasure tables in the DMG! I'm also big on making mundane treasure make sense. If the defeated creature doesn't wear clothes then they're not going to have 'pocket change'. If the adventurers want to find that creatures treasure they'll have to find that creatures home. (This can lead to some great RP opportunities…)

On the flip side I'm not big on granting permanent magic items from a characters Wish List. Consumable items are a lot of fun with no lasting repercussions, but true magic items are always off a random list.

Just make sure you're rolling on the right table! I once generated treasure for an encounter and the first item was "Luck Blade". Which I thought sounded cool, which in fact was very cool as it's a unique, Legendary item!

So that being said give them Gold, art objects and gems. Art objects can be run RP as well. Just make sure that they have something to spend the gold on.

Is the party looking for clues/certain people? Make a merchant/employee can be bribed. A Street Urchin knows a great many things but will seldom part with that information for free! Never, ever, underestimate the ability for a party to clear out a haunted keep, setup a base of operations, go adventuring for a while and then have the land owner come looking to collect taxes.

Consumables are a great idea!

I think I'm going to let the group get a single magic item from a particular location they may or may not decide to search this weekend; I think I'll let them roll on tables A-C for it. Maybe a small chance to rolling on D. Most items in those look either consumable or have some minor utility purpose.

[tzar1990]

Provide stuff that's awesome and nice to have, but not actually useful for adventuring. Having their own keep isn't going to effect the difficulty of adventuring elsewhere, but it will sure feel like an upgrade from renting rooms at the ****fart Inn every night. Being granted Knighthood doesn't make you stronger at killin' things, but it means they'll get respect from the nobility instead of being treated like wandering murderhobos. Having the king comission sculptures of their victory over the horrible [MONSTER] won't make them tougher, but it will mean people will consider them heroes, name kids after them, **** like that. Hell, if you don't do wilderness adventures, give them an airship! Bitches love airships, and it lets them travel in style without bypassing much beyond the occasional random encounter,

And if worse comes to worse, remember that once they have the best mundane armor and weapons, wealth doesn't significantly increase their power beyond a certain point, since the magic item shop isn't a thing any more. Yeah, they can hire minions, but minions are minions - they're not gonna contribute to anything terribly important, just let the players skip what they consider the "boring" parts of an adventure.

[Ninja_Prawn]

I quite like the treasure tables in the DMG!

Me too! My favourite part of dungeon design is rolling the treasure hoards, then figuring out where they should be hidden (and how many mimics I can get away with...)

I also use the tables for generating the inventories of 'adventuring shops' whose business model is to buy up adventuring loot wholesale, then sell it piecemeal at a profit. So they'd have a bunch of gear like backpacks, shovels and rope, then a random selection of loot.

Information is also a good prize, especially if the players have to unravel some kind of mystery. In a campaign I'm building at the moment, a lot of the villains have letters in their pockets / desks / drawers that provide clues as to where the party should go next, or where they might find interesting sidequests. Or in some cases they'll know where they have to go, but they'll need to figure out who knows the secret pass phrase before it's worth going there, etc. So the main part of each pile of loot is a bunch of clues.

[Knaight]

Coming from a non-D&D background, I generally don't focus on loot all that much. With that said, there are certain classes of loot that frequently end up significant to a particular genre or subgenre. Big gems are just a think in swords and sorcery. Games which feature lots of water travel are going to have boats and ships, and vehicles are an amazing money sink. More localized campaigns frequently have property of some sort.