Maximum Coin Carry capacity?

[Lupine]

My players have a lot of money, and by a lot, I mean a LOT (They killed something that they should've been able to kill for a least another two levels, RNjesus was on their side). Should I put in a maximum carry amount for how much money they can carry (leading to possible theft of their money, which they could get back).
If not, what are some ways I can lessen their funds other than just "It disappears magically!"

Thanks ahead of time

[Lunali]

50 coins to a pound, use the normal encumbrance rules.

[kraitmarais]

Tracking money weight seems like a rather annoying and un-fun thing to spend gaming time on.

Instead, consider having thieves (or even a young dragon!) ambush them, attracted by all the wealth they’re hauling around. That should motivate them to start spending or investing their money somehow, which should lead to far more fun than just re-calculating weight every time they pick up a few coppers.

[Kane0]

50 coins to a pound, use the normal encumbrance rules.

This'll do it.

[Unoriginal]

My players have a lot of money, and by a lot, I mean a LOT (They killed something that they should've been able to kill for a least another two levels, RNjesus was on their side). Should I put in a maximum carry amount for how much money they can carry (leading to possible theft of their money, which they could get back).

As others have said, use the carrying capacity rules. Also keep in mind they need bagsor other containers/ways to keep the riches together.

Note than precious gems and the like are easier to carry than coins.




Tis a shame it is only an illusion, but I do think we can address some of that at a later date.”

what



If not, what are some ways I can lessen their funds other than just "It disappears magically!"

No offense meant, but this is starting to sound more like "my players won what I wanted them to lose, how do I **** them over without getting called out for it?" than "any ideas to make something interesting out of this?"

[Ivor_The_Mad]

Just have it stolen and they can just buy a ton of bags of holding to store loot but I have to agree with kraitmarais tracking the coin weight seems like a nuisance to track. An example is during me and Brazenburns Arrival at Ravnica Campaign review we came across a Glabrezu hosting a game show to bargain for our souls. We had to give him 10,000 gp per soul.

[Lunali]

This is why people that actually have that kind of wealth and want to spend it can either pay for things with their name or with the name of an institution (bank, guild, kingdom) that is generally trusted.

[Malifice]

50 coins to a lb.

That's not particularly difficult to figure out.

[DarkKnightJin]

If they haven't already looted everything.. consider making a lootpile, especially for a dragon, be so large that it's simply impossible for them to haul it all back.
They get a certain amount of that wealth, and the rest is gone by the time they return for a second haul. Other people came across the unguarded hoard, and made off with it.

As for when they have already gotten the loot..
You could introduce the idea of them investing in a keep, or another kind of HQ.
I'm personally a fan of getting an airship to use as a base, because.. it's awesome. And should run them about 100k+ to simply purchase the dang thing, along with a crew to man it, keep it in working order, and guard it while they're out adventuring.

[JoeJ]

Tracking money weight seems like a rather annoying and un-fun thing to spend gaming time on.

Resource tracking is a major part of D&D, so I don't see how choosing what to take and what to leave behind should be a problem. I'd certainly rather do that than have the DM arbitrarily decide what I get to keep. That should be my decision.

[Magzimum]

Tracking money weight seems like a rather annoying and un-fun thing to spend gaming time on.

This. I fully agree, and I allow my players to carry far more than they could realistically carry according to the actual rules, because I fully agree that it's annoying to set up some system to track weight.

However, there comes a time when every DM says it's too much. My players came across an actual dragon's loot. There was no way they could carry it all. I described the loot as measured in cubic meters of shiny metal, rather than its estimated monetary value, which helped them to immediately understand that it wouldn't fit in a pocket or a backpack.

[Malifice]

This. I fully agree, and I allow my players to carry far more than they could realistically carry according to the actual rules, because I fully agree that it's annoying to set up some system to track weight.

You don't have to set one up. One already exists.

Here is your encumbrance (determined by Strength). Do the math; keep it under this level.

If I audit your character sheet, and you're over this limit, your character loses all his gear in an unfortunate accident.

[Mordaedil]

If I audit your character sheet, and you're over this limit, your character loses all his gear in an unfortunate accident.

What an odd meta punishment to something that can be solved by getting the players a donkey.

[Cwyll]

It's the reason people tank their Str score (we don't do encumbrance); same as their Int (I just hit stuff) or their Cha (I just growl at people while drinking a bowl of blood).
Use a simple inventory sheet; 1 box per 5 lbs weight. Players add stuff to the sheet and you just have to audit it once every few sessions to confirm accuracy.
They can get a donkey for sure, but that might not go everywhere and there's always hungry rocs around...

It's either this, or just make sure you're better at bartering in places where they'll try to buy up the whole shop...

[Glorthindel]

What an odd meta punishment to something that can be solved by getting the players a donkey.

So you urge them to get a donkey. But donkeys need to be secured/protected to avoid them being stolen, wandering off, or just straight eaten by the local wildlife. Which means hirelings, which need to be capable and trustworthy, or they could get killed, or just run off with the loot themselves.

I feel some people just knee-jerk on admin tasks (encumberance, light, rations, spell components) as being unfun without actually trying it. It certainly will be true for some people, but there are also plenty of people who find these things fun, and enjoy going into the minutiae of dungeoneering logistics. Don't necessarily just disgard this stuff without being sure your players wont enjoy it.

[DeadMech]

If they beat the encounter legitimately and got full XP they should get the full treasure. Though making them carry it sounds entirely reasonable to me. 5e default encumbrance is pretty forgiving. If they can't carry it all themselves back to market then they really should have planned ahead and bought a mule ahead of time. Depending how much effort they go through hiding the remainder of the treasure, it may or may not be waiting for them when they come back for it. Though this is the sort of minutia that I enjoy.

If at all possible get a hold of your players BEFORE the next session and tell them to add up their encumbrance. Keeping track of weight and encumbrance isn't that hard during play if you had been keeping a relatively accurate count up to that point. But counting it all up from scratch would probably be pretty time consuming. This will also give them time to get their plan together. Particularly wise PC's might deserve a reminder that some equipment is quite heavy but quite inexpensive so might be easily discarded and left behind instead of valuable coin or art.

The tent. Worth 2 gold. Weighs 20lbs. The trip back to town might be wet, cold and uncomfortable but that frees up room to carry 1000 coins. Even if it's all copper pieces that's a 8 gold profit.

Cooking pot 2 gold 10lbs. 500 more coins in your pack if you ditch it. Again still a 3 gold profit even if they're all copper.

Hempen rope 1gold 10lbs. You get the idea.

An issue might be the size of the containers they have available. Backpacks carry 30lbs internally. Sacks another 30lbs. Pouches 6lbs. A chest 300lbs working together they might be able to carry it around.

If they brought a shovel they could carry some of the extra loot out of where ever it is now and bury it outside nearby. Preferably in some sort of container like a chest so when they dig it up they know they'll have it all instead of worrying about loose coins going missing.

I don't recommend being too punishing as a DM if this is the first time you are asking them to track encumbrance. Though a default rule, no one likes getting nerfed just when they think things are going their way.

[Mordaedil]

So you urge them to get a donkey. But donkeys need to be secured/protected to avoid them being stolen, wandering off, or just straight eaten by the local wildlife. Which means hirelings, which need to be capable and trustworthy, or they could get killed, or just run off with the loot themselves.

I feel some people just knee-jerk on admin tasks (encumberance, light, rations, spell components) as being unfun without actually trying it. It certainly will be true for some people, but there are also plenty of people who find these things fun, and enjoy going into the minutiae of dungeoneering logistics. Don't necessarily just disgard this stuff without being sure your players wont enjoy it.
I urge them to get a donkey over a character carrying more than 5x his strength modifier finding that all his gear is consumed by a black hole, yes. And if you need to protect a donkey from being stolen, killed or wandering off, then yes, that is kinda part of the idea? I mainly play 3rd edition, so encumbrance doesn't really scare me or anything. Even there you have a lot of options for dealing with it, from items to increase your strength, to magical containers and chests that hide away on the ethereal plane.

It's so often a non-issue and 5th edition only applies a speed reduction, and only has it as a variant rule.

[Unoriginal]

This is basically why Bilbo and the Dwarves didn't drag the trolls' gold through the rest of the journey.

First step is prioritizing the things that are worth a lot compared to their weight/size: gems, small works of art, and the like.

Then you hide what you can't transport yet.

And then you come back with a wagon.

[Knaight]

I feel some people just knee-jerk on admin tasks (encumberance, light, rations, spell components) as being unfun without actually trying it. It certainly will be true for some people, but there are also plenty of people who find these things fun, and enjoy going into the minutiae of dungeoneering logistics. Don't necessarily just disgard this stuff without being sure your players wont enjoy it.

I suspect the reaction might be to character sheet auditing more than anything else, particularly given that the exact phrase got used.

[Malifice]

What an odd meta punishment to something that can be solved by getting the players a donkey.

Well don't dump Strength and buy yourself a donkey then. Or real estate or something.

Encumbrance exists in my games. 50 coins to a lb isn't hard to remember.

[Malifice]

I suspect the reaction might be to character sheet auditing more than anything else, particularly given that the exact phrase got used.

Im up front with surprise auditing character sheets from time to time.

Players have one character sheet to look after. DMs have the rest of the world. Im devoting several hours during the week to prep for the upcoming session, it's not too hard to ask my players to have neat, legible character sheets, and to track what they are carrying.

I don't want it to the last cp necessarily, but I don't want to do a quick count and clearly see a Strength 8 PC is lugging around 300lbs.

Weapons + armor + explorers pack (those things weigh a lot) + treasure weight, takes all of 30 seconds to calculate.

Buy a bag of holding or something if it's getting tight.

[napoleon_in_rag]

I would use the encumbrance system. I am sure they will come up with a solution to the problem. Solutions could include:
-Banks
-Government Bonds
-Investing in a merchant guild
-Gemstones - 1 diamond weighing <1 lb could be worth as much as their entire fortune.

I would also point out to the players that walking around with a large sack that jingles whenever you move is a great way to attract thieves.

[Slipperychicken]

You could also let them trade in for bigger denominations like gems, other pretty rocks, increasingly-shiny coins, or even paper if you're feeling really crazy.

If you want to enforce encumbrance, then allow a grace-period or mulligan to resolve their outstanding issues fairly. Let them get pack animals, vehicles, retainers, bigger denominations of currency, shed some equipment, whatever they think the best solution is. The key is to maintain trust and avoid screwing them out of their loot until after they've adjusted to the new encumbrance regime.

I'd go for an OSR encumbrance myself if I was really worried about it. I got hooked on it after I GM'd ACKS; I like dealing in item size-categories rather than precise measurements of weight which don't account for portability or volume.