If money is the root of all evil, then the
AD&D® game certainly pushes player characters
toward the path of righteousness. The
weight of taxes, tithes, training costs, recreation
costs, and the like is part of the game,
certainly. But, there are times, especially for
low-level characters, when it weighs too
heavily on PCs. What?s more, the cutthroat
economics of the AD&D game tend to
suppress PC cooperation, which doesn?t
make for good play. Good gamers surely
know that a harmonious, cooperating party
survives more easily than a bickering,
conflict-ridden one. Sensible cooperation by
PCs, and some suggested rule revisions for
the AD&D game, can overcome many of
these problems ? and this begins before
any adventuring starts!

Starting money
To begin with, some key desirables ? like
plate mail armor -- are well beyond the
purses of beginning characters. Fair
enough, and of course any purchase of
magic must be completely out of the question
for starting-out characters. However,
some small deviations in dice rolls can make
vast differences to characters at this level,
especially clerics and fighters.

For the cleric, starting money is 30-180
gp (average 105). His overhead before he
buys any armor can?t be driven below 35-40
gp (for a small helm, shield, money for a
week?s rations, one waterskin, one weapon,
a holy symbol, a backpack, and one ? just
one ? flask of oil). This sum includes absolutely
no luxuries at all ? no question of
affording a bone tube for holding maps or
scrolls, for example. Let?s use 35 gp as this
fixed overhead sum. (He?ll be lucky to get it
down to this, but it is possible, assuming he
doesn?t have to pay for the clothes he wears
at the game?s start.) A dice roll of 12 or
better leaves him sufficient money to purchase
splint mail, for a base AC 3. A dice
roll of 11 may just leave him enough to buy
chain mail for AC 4. On a roll of 10 or
below, he has to settle for scale mail, for AC
5. Two dice pips cost him two armor class
places. At this level, one good hit from a
goblin may kill him, and the goblin?s
chances of hitting him nearly double as he
drops from AC 3 to AC 5 (from 15% to
25% hit probability). It is clear that few
times in a PC?s career will such a tiny sum
of money -just 20 gp or so ? make such a
huge difference to his survival chances.

The same logic holds for the fighter.
Certainly, the lighter starts with an average
of 20 gp more than the cleric, but his weap-
ons cost more. The extra 20 gp will be eaten
up when the fighter buys only two weapons.
He usually gets a sword and a bow; without
the latter, the party has no missile attacks
worthy of the name. (Crossbow-using
monks hardly have enough money to eat at
this level.) The fighter will be in the same
boat as the cleric.

It might be thought that this shouldn?t be
a problem, since the adventurers in question
(if they?re intelligent) will run back to
base as soon as they?ve gained a few gold
pieces from adventuring and trade in their
old armor for better stuff. Actually, this is
no solution at all, except perhaps for thieves
who can pick a pocket or two around town
(but they don?t usually need more starting
money anyway!). At 1st level, one good hit
from anything bigger than a giant rat may
do a PC in; his first combat may be his last.
If the adventure involves any significant
trekking from home base, returning home
will slow the game down badly. There are
credible alternatives.

The first option is the moneylender. It
should at least be possible for a PC to borrow
a small sum from a moneylender;
remember that sums of as little as 10-20 gp
may be crucial here. The DM must decide
what factors will influence such transactions,
but certain elements are of obvious
importance. The moneylender will obviously
seek surety and guarantees of some
kind, and he will probably want some form
of written agreement. Character alignment
will be relevant (lawful characters will get
the best reactions). Racial factors may be
relevant (e.g., dwarven or gnomish NPCs
may add moneylending as a sideline to
jewelry or other commercial businesses, and
may react very favorably to PCs of their
own race).

Moneylenders may well ask for very high
interest rates (100% per month, perhaps).
This is fair enough; after all, this is a speculation
on their part. With small sums, players
are not going to feel that this is
unreasonable. So far as surety is concerned,
other PCs (especially lawful ones) may
guarantee the repayment if the PC who
borrowed the money is killed, or the PC?s
family or church (only for a paladin or
cleric) might do so. This raises an obvious
point: Why go to a moneylender at all?
Couldn?t these potential guarantors actually
loan money themselves?

It should rarely be possible for a PC?s
family to loan him needed money. Presumably,
the character?s starting funds may, in
large part, come from that source. This will
depend on how the DM determines the
social class of PCs. If they come from
wealthy backgrounds, they will surely have
all the money they need. This isn?t desirable
in my view; PCs should have similar
backgrounds, from comfortable but not
wealthy families, and this extra money ? if
needed ? shouldn?t be handed over in this
w a y .

However, institutions ? notably
churches ? are very plausible loaners to
clerics and paladins. Perhaps the church has
already provided part of the PC?s starting
money, but a small loan in addition is
hardly out of the question. After all, it?s in
the interests of the church. A young acolyte
going on his first adventure with inadequate
armor has a much smaller chance of becoming
an adept and furthering the interests of
the church than one who had sufficient
funds to start with reasonable armor. The
same is true of a paladin. Of course, it will
be implicitly understood that the favored
acolyte will be expected to make up a
worthwhile donation from the funds he
gains on his first adventure, as a mark of his
gratitude.

The last possibility for borrowing sources,
however, is another player character. Here
we run up against the fact that, in the
AD&D game, helping other characters out
in this way is not encouraged. Paladins
never give excess money away to other PCs,
no matter how loyal, courageous, lawful
good; and needy they may be. Likewise,
rangers never donate extra funds to other
PCS.

But, at first level, two character classes
usually do have excess funds: the druid and
the magic-user. Their weapons (and the
druid?s armor) cost next to nothing, and no
costly material spell components are required
yet. Why shouldn?t these characters
lend to the clerics and fighters who need just
a small handful of gold coins? Whether or
not they can do so depends on when the
PCs who form a party actually meet up.
The clerics and fighters may have spent
their poor funds on inadequate armor before
the roving young druid turns up, and
trade-in values may be too low for a small
loan to make buying better armor possible.
But, both loans and even gifts from druids
and magic-users should be reasonable and
well within the spirit of the game, even if
the letter of the law sometimes clearly discourages
it.

Druids might seem implausible moneylenders,
but a wise druid might see an
opportunity for furthering his own interests
or his religious views here. As an example,
many a 1st-level druid may wander around
with the spell combination of speak with
animals and animal friendship, and a
trained pet (perhaps a war dog, if the DM
permits a 1st-level druid to have a 2 + 2 HD
animal). This pet may have ?to hit? rolls
better than the fighters in the party at 1st
level, and would be handy to have around
to help out beleaguered PCs in a dicey
combat.

But the druid has a problem: He has no
healing spells at 1st level. So, as he hands
over a few coins to a cleric of an alignment
he finds tolerable (neutral good; perhaps),
mentions that the dog is a handy helper in
such situations, and expresses the hope that
the cleric will be prepared to cast one of his
cure light wounds spells on the animal if
needed, using all his high charisma when
making this reasonable suggestion. The
cleric will hopefully agree, and one of the
druid?s anxieties is eased.

The magic-user is an even more likely
prospect to be a lender. In one example
from actual campaign play, a lawful good
magic-user I rolled up selected a deity from
the DM?s pantheon and found that the
paladin rolled up by another had independently
chosen to worship the same deity.
Since all PCs in the campaign came from
the same small town, it is likely that these
PCs worshiped together at the same church
and knew each other as children. The paladin
was 8 gp short of affording splint mail;
my magic-user had 31 gp to spare. Lend the
8 gp? I gave it away as a gift. How could
any lawful good character in my magicuser
?s situation have behaved otherwise?

Gifts like this are usually given by good
characters to other good ones, but another
example will show how any sensible PC
with a few gold pieces to spare should help
others out with starting funds. A group of
newly created 1st-level characters is confronted
with the prospect of adventuring in
some catacombs, wherein old tombs lie.
Tombs mean undead; undead need turning
by clerics. If the clerics are a few gold pieces
short of buying decent armor, surely all
other PCs with just 5 or 10 gp to spare
could help out. Even a chaotic neutral thief
with an intelligence of 6 can see the sense of 
this. It?s obviously in his own interests; the
clerics get rid of the undead and leave some
tombs for the looting. This monetary cooperation
is part and parcel of good PC cooperation,
and wider cooperation is essential
for successful adventuring.

Insurance policies
The Dungeon Masters Guide provides
costs for having NPC clerics cast spells.
Although a newly formed group of 1st-level
adventurers may be too excited at the prospect
of setting off on the high road to think
about this, there are some services from the
NPC spell list that may be needed before
too long. Some possibilities are too expensive
to be considered, and some require
high-level NPCs who will not be available
to 1st-level characters. Other spells are
simply unlikely to be needed at this stage.
Cure disease may well be helpful, but this
spell costs 1,000 gp ? obviously beyond
almost any 1st-level character?s resources.
Since giant rats are plentiful in many lowlevel
adventures, it may very well be
needed. Remove curse (at least 2,500 gp)
and dispel magic (100 gp per level of the
spell-caster) may also be high on a list of
spells needed by a returning 1st-level party.
The most-needed spell is raise dead, which
will cost at least 5,500 gp (however, costs
may be adjusted downward for ?faithful,
lower-level characters?).

Characters may very well agree that an
insurance policy would be a pretty smart
idea. If any adventurer needs one of the
above cleric spells, the cost should be shared
among all the PCs who make an agreement
with each other. If there are not sufficient
funds for a spell (and the need for raise
dead is the most likely possibility here),
then those who made the initial agreement
will give absolute priority to further adventuring
to gain the extra funds needed. A
written contract might be drawn up or an
oath sworn to seal the bargain.

Intelligent chaotic characters or characters
of true neutral alignment might also
well see the sense of being part of such an
agreement ? enlightened self-interest applies
here. But, lawful characters might
require some exceptional form of oathtaking
before they would accept this. Insurance
policies are a wise move at any experience
level ? and good habits should be
cultivated from the beginning!

Two final problems
There are two aspects of AD&D game
rules which make the life of 1st-level characters
harsh so far as money goes ? and that
oppressiveness doesn?t favor the enlightened
cooperation and good gaming we?ve been
considering. One of these is the training
system and the phenomenal costs attached
to it, which David Reeder discussed so well
in DRAGON® issue #97. A DM who can?t
be bothered to revise the training system
wholesale, and doesn?t want to simply scrap
it and give training away free (and that?s
too kind to PCs), has a real opportunity
here. The DM can introduce an adventure
by ruling that the NPC trainer is prepared
to halve costs for PCs with impossibly high
training costs, if the PC carries out some
assigned task or duty. If more than one PC
is in this boat, it should be possible to think
up some reason why both the NPC trainers
involved have a common desire to see some
task accomplished. Now, the DM can kill
three birds with one stone. The economic
adversity afflicting the PC is lightened, one
does not give away something for nothing,
and one can set up the next adventure, all
in one fell swoop!

The other aspect of the AD&D rules that
needs changing is the DMG ruling that PCs
have to spend at least 100 gp per month
between adventures entertaining themselves,
such expense being justified by the
rationale that adventurers are a freewheeling
and high-living lot (except, of
course, for monks). This rather annoys me!
Are paladins free-wheeling and high-living?
Of course not. I suggest that this DMG
section infringes on players? rights to determine
the personalities of their characters.
Pious clerics, righteous paladins, introverted
and studious magic-users and illusionists,
and nature-loving druids and
rangers are not high-living, and the DMG
ruling should be ignored by DMs. It is
especially unfair to PCs when, for whatever
reasons, the DM requires that they should
spend some time (weeks or longer) between
adventures, awaiting the return of a mentor
or patron. The only significant costs incurred
by my paladin (except for eating) at
such times are the replacement of prayer
mats worn out by many hours of kneeling!
 
 

Cooperation is the key to successful adventuring
? and it should start before any
adventuring begins, with wise sharing of
resources, including money. Sadly, the letter
and spirit of the AD&D rules tend to discourage
this. It doesn?t have to be this way,
and certain rule revisions would lighten the
heavy burden on low-level characters and
encourage better cooperation in all areas of
character play. When that nasty little goblin
rolls a 16 and-your 5-hp cleric is wearing
splint mail and shield, thanks to a little help
from his friends, he may owe his life to that
cooperation. It?s worth thinking about.