(Author’s Note: To avoid confusion later, in this article Lawful equals
Good and Chaotic equals Evil and you can make your own extrapolations
from there.)

This article suggests one answer to a vexing problem that appeared
in local play: too much treasure in the scenario. After the players
amassed a few thousand GP equipment costs became irrelevant, though
the players had nowhere near enough money for luxuries like private
towers or galleys. But there was far too much cash for the players to
simply leave in their rooms at the local inn. This couldn’t be right;
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser never had it so good! And the poor harried
ref had to continually devise sneaky ways to divest his players of
their ill-gotten gains.

The best solution would have been a simple method for removing
large quantities of treasure from the game; releasing the referee to
spend more time developing and managing the scenario. The solution is
simple:

    "Instead of receiving experience for gaining
    treasure, players would receive experience
    only as the treasure is spent."

The expenditure in GP is divided by the level of the character to
determine experience. The divisor is limited to the number of hit dice
allowed for the character class. The divisor is used only for experience
from treasure and has nothing to do with experience for monster kills
or miscellaneous experience awarded by the referee.

Only special expenditures reflecting the characteristics of a character
class count toward experience (see partial list below). Funds spent
for general maintenance, upkeep, advertisement, hireling salaries, and
equipment yield NO experience. Neither do luxuries (fine accommodations,
castles, etc.) or investments, though income from the latter may
be used to increase experience. Hirelings may use their pay to gain experience,
but such experience is halved for non-player characters.

Among expenditures used to increase experience are the following:

1) Sacrifices. AN Classes. This is treasure offered directly to a god
or demon, or to his representatives. The offering may be made once per
week, and must be made within one week after the treasure has been acquired
(though special dispensation for long wilderness journeys should
be granted). The offering may not be a payment for services rendered
or a bribe, though it may have been the object of a Geas or Quest.
Tithes count as sacrifices also. Referee Option: If the sacrifice was at
least 100 GP per level of the giver, the recipient will grant a wish or fav- <?>
 

2) Philanthropy. Lawfuls only. This includes aid to the downtrodden
poor or to any non-player character not a hireling of a player character.
A real need must exist and as above, the treasure may not be given
in payment or as a bribe. If no visible need exists, the treasure may
be given to a local Lawful church or temple for distribution. Referee
Option: Reaction roll for favor if substantial aid has been rendered.

3) Research. Magic Users and Alchemists. Up to 250 GP per level
per day may be expended on “general research” each day the MU/Alchemist
spends in his chambers. Treasure spent for spell research as in
Book I also counts. Expenditures for the production of magical items,
potions, or poisons do not count toward experience. Production and research
may not be carried on simultaneously.

4) Clan Hoards. Dwarves and other Clannish Folk (probably Neutrals).
Experience is given to clan members only for contributions to the
public hoard. Such a hoard is heavily guarded, and under no circumstances
is a private individual allowed to make a withdrawal (the treasure
is, in effect, out of the campaign). A player desiring to contribute
to his clan hoard must journey to the hoard or to its keepers, of course.

5) Orgies.
 

Fighting Men (excluding Rangers and Paladins), Bards,
Thieves, and all Chaotics (excluding Monks). Lusty indulgence in wine,
women, and song. Maximum expenditure is 500 GP per level per night
(250 GP if recuperating and under 50%). A player may orgy continuously
as many days as he has constitution points, but then must rest
for as many days as he orgied. (For effects on Psionic Powers, see Appendix
II.)

Many referees will be able to come up with similar ideas for expenditures.
Potential problems with this system are minor. Unearned treasure
giving “freebie” levels is not really a factor due to the divisor,
since a Level 10 Lord with eight villages of 400 people each (the maximum
holding) will only pick up 3400 experience points out of 240,000
he needs for the next level; this is provided he only spends his income
for experience.

As a matter of fact, I like to beef up fief income by reducing the
cost of speialists by a factor of 10 for fiefholders (with the exception of
Assassins and Spies). This brings their pay more into line with the
average man-at-arms. I also allow fixed investments along the followings
lines: A water-powered mill costing 500 GP might return 100-600
GP annually per 100 people within a day’s march of the mill. (A list of
similar investments can easily be drawn up.)

Income from gambling should not be a factor either. See Appendix
I for some general guidelines and ideas. However, a factor that may
cause trouble is the increased importance of monster kills. At the highest
levels, fighters may tend to do better and thieves may tend to do
worse than currently. Some fine adjustments may be needed, but these
are left up to the individual referee.

The advantages of the system are substantial. It not only achieves
rapid and easy elimination of large quantities of treasure from the cam
paign, it leaves the player the choice of whether to buy that much-desired
item or whether to get a little closer to that next level. In addition,
it gives the players some existence outside the dungeon or wilderness
areas. Compare the option with the alternatives.

Establish a Bank. While this gets rid of the irregularity of inn
rooms piled with gold, it doesn’t really solve the problem of too much
money in the campaign. Besides, it gives the players 100% security, and
we don’t want that, do we?

The Robber Band. Forcing players to hand over their hard-won
treasure at sword’s point is easy, but leads to low mutterings among the
natives and a positively Chaotic dropout rate. It is just too heavy handed
to be much fun.

Pay As You Go. Every request for information or a service is accompanied
by a liberal “donation” and the Wheel of Fate must frequently
be greased with gold. It’s better, but it takes a while to wipe out
a fortune of several thousand a few hundred at a time. All the bookwork
tends to turn the players into a bunch of calculating money grubbers.

Devious Means. Bilking and fleecing operations are fun on occasion,
but many are a strain on the stamina of the referee. He must figure
out new and unique methods of getting the treasure back after he
has spent hours figuring out new and unique methods to hide it and developing
new and unique monsters and traps to guard it. Also, frequent
trickery tends to reinforce an adversary relationship between the players
and the referee, not healthy if the ref wants total control over his
scenario too.

In conclusion, it seems reasonable that the most efficient way to
get treasure out of the campaign is to make the players want to give it
up. The foregoing option does this in a way that is both stimulating and
fun. I hope you all enjoy it.

APPENDIX I: GAMBLING
Although any agreeable system can be used to resolve gambling situations,
the referee should make sure the odds are at least 60-40 in favor
of the House. En Garde has an excellent system that may be adapted
to D&D by halving the winnings (allowing full winnings with this system
makes gambling too important as a source of experience).

Regardless of the system used, the following controls may be used
to prevent things from getting out of hand:

    1) Limit the amount of treasure in a single wager.
    2) Limit the number of bets allowed per week.
    3) Require gambling with tokens that cannot be converted back
into cash (or can be at reduced value), but may be exchange for equipment
or magical items, or kept on account.
    4) Charge heavy progressive taxes on winnings.
    5) Arrange occasional raids by the authorities or rivals.
    6) Establish a secret “house limit” that when exceeded will cause
the House to send out high level Thieves/Assassins after the lucky win-
ner (!) to recoup their losses.

APPENDIX II:
EFFECTS OF AN ORGY ON PSIONIC POWERS

Each 20 GP spent on an orgy will reduce psionic point level by one.
Every 100 GP spent will have a 10% cumulative change of eliminating
one special ability secretly determined by the referee. The
psionic points are regenerated normally, while a special ability is
returned with each 100 psionic points regained (or all lost points are regenerated,
whichever is least).

EXAMPLE: A 4th Level could spend 2000 GP in one day, gaining
500 experience points and losing 100 psi points and two special abilities.
For convenience, start regeneration the next day at 6:00 AM. Assuming
only one day was spend orgying, the character must spend the next day
resting quietly.  With a regeneration rate of 12/hour, the character will
be completely recovered psionically in just under 8 hours, though his
hangover won't disappear completely until the next morning.