(whimsical music)
- Loot in D&D should be fun but a lot of the time, it just ends up being annoying instead. It's like, Dungeons & Dragons? More like Debts & Disbursements. It's a game where we all play accountants and it's really boring. (bells twinkling) (upbeat music)
D&D YouTube has talked loot to death. We've talked about why
the gold system is screwy, how higher level players
build up masses of gold with nothing to spend it on, why D&D's economy is broken
and doesn't make sense, how 3.5 did it better. That's right, I said it
before you could say it in the comments, got 'em. We've talked about how tons of loot doesn't actually make sense, like monsters having gold on them. We've talked about how magic
items quickly get boring or overpowered when there are too many, and if you wanna hear
more about that stuff, just search D&D loot and
you'll see a lot of people with really good thoughts on this. But you know me, I'm not really running
a mechanics channel. So what I wanna talk
about is how to make loot more than just a mechanic. How do we weave loot and
player rewards into the story we're telling and make it exciting and part of the narrative, instead of just an accounting obligation? Sounds like you need some advice. Who, me? Oh, I don't have any advice. I've never had any advice in my life. (coin jingling)
Oh, that advice. Earning gold is only fun when there's something
worth spending it on. If you use the treasure
tables in the DM's guide, your players are likely going
to end up with a lot of gold. So in order for that
gold to be interesting and useful for players,
you have to make sure they have opportunities
to spend it meaningfully. Just like in real life, you
can reach a level of wealth where you don't really
have to work for anything, which makes for a super boring game. As your players amass riches, they should have the opportunity
to spend those riches on bigger ticket expenses
that feel worthwhile. They should feel like their
wealth is opening doors that were closed to them before. This might mean that your
players can purchase property, build a homestead or a
library or a business. They might gain access to an enchanter who can customize or create
specific items for them, which is a big investment. And just like in our world, experiences and travel
can eat up a ton of money. Say, hiring an airship or a boat, buying their way into a prestigious event, or paying for access to resources, like teleportation circles
or private collections. If your party is the
type to feel charitable, introduce opportunities for them to use their money to help others. Perhaps your party's cleric
wants to build a temple to venerate their god and
serve their local community. Maybe bandits stole from a town and then burned it to the ground. Even returning the money the bandits took isn't gonna be enough for
these people to rebuild. Maybe your players would
like to contribute. Your players might not
necessarily think to initiate these things themselves, but
NPCs can help let them know that these kind of
options are on the table to encourage them to use
their gold productively, instead of just hoarding
it in the basement and occasionally going for
a swim like Scrooge McDuck. I am usually the first one to say that pursuing realism in
D&D is a fool's errand. So if it's easier for you for items to be basically interchangeable
with their listed gold value, that's up to you. But, incorporating a little more realism into your in-game economy
can help put guardrails around players' spending and
make loot more interactive by creating problems to solve. In a realistic economy,
items don't generally have a set unchanging value. We live in a world where a brand new car famously loses value the moment
you drive it off the lot. If you buy a ring at a jewelry store and then walk across the
street to a pawn shop, you are not going to get
all of your money back. This means that your players
will most likely not be able to resell items at full value. How much they can get for an item, or even whether or not
they can sell it at all, should depend on where they are, the condition of the item,
who they're selling it to, and their bargaining
skills, among other factors. Not to mention, the
more expensive the item, the harder it is to resell, which is why there are entire professions that just consist of valuing
and reselling antiques, art, and other expensive or rare items. Maybe your party obtains a
Phoenix egg and wants to sell it. They might have to go on an entire quest to form connections, earn trust, and then deliver the egg to
a buyer before it hatches because I guarantee the
shopkeep at the general store is not gonna buy it off of 'em. Maybe they need to build a relationship with the city's black market before they can sell items there or maybe selling a certain item ends up getting them in trouble with the law or with sellers of
similar items in the area who don't want competition. If reselling items
becomes a puzzle to solve, then each item they loot has more meaning than just a token that
they exchange for money. The rewards they're
gaining after encounters aren't just padding their pockets, they're also part of the story. - Hello, Professor Tree? - Please, that's my father's name. Call me Professor. - Your first name is Professor? - A name change is way
cheaper than college. Have you come to bring Eldamon into your D&D or Pathfinder game? - Yes, Roll for Combat
just launched their new Battlezoo Eldamon Kickstarter,
but I have some questions. Like, what are Eldamon? - They're ancient elemental creatures that we've learned to befriend
and even trained to fight. They're slightly out of sync with reality, giving them the ability
to phase in and out and even meld into items or people. Watch. (air whooshing) - Whoa, what's that? - This is Squirrelash, an
excellent starter Eldamon because they're very friendly. - Aww, ow!
(fire hissing) - Also made of fire, though. Here, look, this one is in its pet form, which it can return to anytime. But someone with the Eldamon Trainer class can invoke its battle form, Squirrelember. - But any class can
befriend Eldamon, right? - Yes, the whole party
can collect them together and even duel each other for fun. There's also a class where
you can merge with an Eldamon and manifest powers
based on their element. It's called Elemental Avatar. - This sounds awesome,
how do I get started? - Visit eldamon.com to learn more and pledge on Kickstarter. You can also get the Battlezoo Bestiary which has more than 150
award-winning monsters, the Year of Monsters, where
you get monthly new playable monster ancestries and races, and the Eldamon Battles card game, a fast paced standalone dueling game. - Sounds good, can you take this back? I am on fire. - There is little more exciting
than adding a new skill to your character's arsenal. Introducing new abilities
as rewards can keep players on their toes and shake up the
regimented scheduled nature of gaining abilities at regular
intervals from leveling. And there is precedent
for this, by the way. The Dungeon Master's guide
has some fun resources for non-treasure rewards
that people tend to sleep on, maybe 'cause they haven't read it. No shade, it's a textbook
and they have hidden it behind nearly a hundred
pages of magic items. But starting on page 227,
they suggest rewarding players with blessings and charms when they achieve meaningful milestones. These supernatural gifts
include stat increases, weapon improvements,
temporary or permanent access to spells, and more. There are also Epic Boons, which are supposed to be
just for level 20 characters, which whew, that's the dream, huh? But if you wanna mine these
for ideas for lower levels, most of them are pretty
easy to scale back. For example, Boon of Peerless
Aim gives a character plus 20 to one ranged attack per short rest. But you could easily lower it to plus five once per long rest or something like that. You can always build on these
sections by granting a feat, pulling abilities or
spells from other classes, or bringing in third party
resources to give players a truly unexpected spell or ability that feels really special. And of course, you can
always make stuff up. There are infinite
possibilities for how to tie new abilities to players'
successes and experiences. Maybe they defeat a magic user and their spell book contains a new spell for the wizard to learn. Maybe when the monk goes head to head against another type of martial fighter, that combat teaches them something, unlocking access to a new skill. Maybe the party rescues a powerful fae who grants them all Mask of the Wild. While this kind of reward
can get overpowered if you use it too often or incautiously, it will feel very
special and very exciting if you use it in moderation. Also in the other rewards
section of the DMG, is a subhead called marks of prestige. These include things like titles, land, medals, letters of recommendation,
and special favors. I think we could reasonably
add things like NPC allies and even hirelings to this list. This means granting your players
things like noble titles, trusted positions of power, and symbols that give them access to important people and places. It might mean that the party
earns the respect and gratitude of powerful allies who
can make connections, offer resources, and potentially even fund or fight alongside the characters. I really like rewards like these because they both naturally arise from and contribute to roleplay. If you save the town and the mayor says, "I owe you a favor", that's
both a powerful reward and a reward that can
really only be fulfilled in a narrative way. These kinds of rewards don't
necessarily have cash value, which can make them very special. A lot of the things on this list can't realistically be bought. I also like prestige related rewards because they can be really
useful steps on a quest or even quest starters. Owning property or having a noble title might come with responsibilities. Being trusted by a
powerful leader might mean that they ask for your aid and gaining access to
protected spaces or information could be a key piece of
the party's larger journey. You're already feeding
your players information in various ways. Maybe NPCs tell them important things, maybe they do their own research, or maybe they learn crucial details from sleuthing or bribery or scrying. But remember that information can also be a part of your reward system. If players are fighting a
baddie relevant to the plot, planting a letter with
key strategic information onto one of the bodies
makes players feel like this combat was important to the story. Letters, journals,
objects that act as clues, clear tracks, last words, all these things can function as rewards. In Matt Mercer's "Rewarding
Your Players" video for Geek and Sundry, he also-- yes? (bell jingling) I've been blessed. He also mentions access
as a useful reward. This is something I think
a lot of us have seen used in video games, but might not have intentionally
brought into D&D before. In a tabletop setting,
this could be a building, a dungeon, a city, a
country, an entire plane. This might mean that by
clearing dangerous monsters, a certain travel route becomes accessible or by defeating some sky
pirates, you now own a airship. In one of my games after finally
clearing out a huge mansion that was infested by undead, we learned that a secret passage
beneath the chapel led down into a whole abandoned underground city. This kind of thing is naturally
a very exciting reward to get because instead of
just adding some numbers to your gold pieces count,
you're literally opening up an entirely new place to explore. I'm not in the punish
your players DM camp, so I personally think this kind of thing should be used sparingly. But, introducing a little risk can really spice up your loot game. Magic items are fun and
exciting unless they're cursed. Maybe you looted a magical amulet off that corrupt noble you killed. Turns out it's a family
heirloom and that noble's son has vowed to hunt you down and reclaim it. Were you recently running around town, spending platinum like it's
burning a hole in your pocket? Well, word travels fast, and being visibly rich makes
you a target for thieves, bandits, and scammers of all kinds. Now again, I think this should
only be used occasionally because the last thing
you want is for something that's supposed to be
rewarding your players to instead punish them. But by introducing the occasional pitfall, you can not only teach
players to be more thoughtful and wary about loot, you also remind them that taking something off of a body isn't just a transaction. It's part of the story and there might be
consequences attached to it. If you're worried about
giving out magic items because you're afraid of making
your players overpowered, you are not alone and you're not crazy. It's way too easy to hand
out magic items like candy and then suddenly
realize that your players are punching way above their weight class. That's why when it comes to magic items, I say the weirder, the better. Not only does it help mitigate this issue of overpowered magic items, but it also pushes players
to be more creative with their problem solving. If you give a character a plus one weapon, that weapon is gonna be more
powerful in every combat. You have permanently increased
this player's damage output. Same thing with say, a Ring of Protection. That's a bonus to AC that will apply to every single encounter
from here on out. You can see how offering
up a ton of items like this can quickly make your characters beefier than they might otherwise
be at at their level. But when you give them a Chime of Opening, they can use it to unlock
10 locks and then it's done. It'll come in clutch when they use it, but there will also be plenty of times when it's not helpful and
eventually it will be consumed. The more specific the
item, the less likely that it will seriously
skew your game balance and the more likely that
it'll actually be fun and narratively interesting in your game, rather than just adding
a plus one to something. A great example is Quaal's Feather Token. It seems like everybody has a
story of using the Tree Token in an unexpected way that
throws the entire encounter into chaos and leaves the party feeling like total badasses. That means players
thought outside the box, activated a single use
item in a creative way, came away with a great story to tell about an amazing session, and now the game balance
has returned to normal. Single use, limited use,
and consumable magic items are an excellent way to prevent items from making your party overpowered. But even non-consumable magic
items that are weird enough are unlikely to completely
screw up your game. Consider items like the Immovable Rod or Slippers of Spider Climb. They will undoubtedly save
the day in some circumstances, but they're not a magic win button and they demand that players
be engaged and inventive in order to benefit from them. I'm all for fun, exciting
new magic items and weapons. Trust me, I love that shit. But no amount of fancy stuff
is going to make loot exciting if it functions only as a currency counter ticking up and down. It is completely possible to make loot part of the story you're telling. But to do that, you gotta go beyond rolling on the treasure tables and start thinking about how
you can reward your players while also drawing them
further into the narrative. Speaking of making items
more than just items, if you want more like this,
you have gotta check out my video about ancestral magical weapons that grow more powerful
alongside characters as they adventure. It is super badass and
also, I make a lot of puns. You're welcome.
