How to spend several tonnes of gold? - Page 2

PseudoFenton · 03-26-2012, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanHoward

Up until fairly recently it was impossible to actually BUY land in many countries. The best that could be done was to lease it from the local authorities for an extended period of time.

That will actually be the case. It'd be "bought" in as far as it would be theirs to do with as they see fit but its still technically the lords lands. The idea is that if enough is paid upfront there wont be an ongoing payment/taxation in any realistic time frame to worry about.

Of cause with the money they'll soon have at their disposal, nothing stops them wondering out into the wilderness and setting up their own keep/castle and claiming it as their own. Assuming they could hire the workers, buy the materials, make the lands safe during construction, and not crash the economy in the mean time. Still, in theory it's doable, and there is enough wilderness that can be claimed should you be willing to go up against the local monsters etc.

Apache · 03-26-2012, 03:03 PM

Booze, hookers, and gambling still remain the time-tested tradition of getting rid of player's excess (and not-so-excess) gold.

Also, theft/scams/fraud/outright banditry.

aesir23 · 03-26-2012, 03:29 PM

Make your GM happy: buy the best ship money can by, and hire an experienced captain and crew: this way your party can explore even more of the world and have new adventures in distant lands.

The ship will also serve as a mobile base of operations, so you always have a place to run to when you need to heal up.

[EDIT] Oops, I forgot that you are the GM.

~~combatmedic~~ · 03-26-2012, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aesir23

Make your GM happy: buy the best ship money can by, and hire an experienced captain and crew: this way your party can explore even more of the world and have new adventures in distant lands.

The ship will also serve as a mobile base of operations, so you always have a place to run to when you need to heal up.

[EDIT] Oops, I forgot that you are the GM.

With several tons of gold, it sounds more like 'buy the best FLEET money can buy.''
:)

~~combatmedic~~ · 03-26-2012, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

That will actually be the case. It'd be "bought" in as far as it would be theirs to do with as they see fit but its still technically the lords lands. The idea is that if enough is paid upfront there wont be an ongoing payment/taxation in any realistic time frame to worry about.

Of cause with the money they'll soon have at their disposal, nothing stops them wondering out into the wilderness and setting up their own keep/castle and claiming it as their own. Assuming they could hire the workers, buy the materials, make the lands safe during construction, and not crash the economy in the mean time. Still, in theory it's doable, and there is enough wilderness that can be claimed should you be willing to go up against the local monsters etc.

The clear & build idea you suggest can be tons o' fun. I've seen it done well in D&D games.

sir_pudding · 03-26-2012, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

You can, or at least you can plausibly minimize it if you want to. If there's that much gold just lying there for years on end, why wouldn't other people find and exploit it? That could crank down the amount of free gold to a manageable amount. Or maybe it's all there, but it becomes the focus of massive competition to get to it. It could be at the center of a large war, really.

Yeah, I think the most likely thing that I'd do in this situation is have them find a bustling mine there. Or even competing bustling mines from various mining races (men, dwarves, deep elves...). They can steal the gold now (which really is what they are good at anyway, probably) but mining it isn't that good of an option.

Note too that the sudden appearance of a supply of gold doesn't have to be unusual or economically destructive in a fantasy game. What if in the setting gold veins natural grow within the living earth (as some once thought)?

William · 03-26-2012, 04:49 PM

Perhaps the enormous amount of wealth in the area has caused the lump of gold to warp magical energies in the vicinity. Powerful demons have been causing greed flareups in the area, and nobody but the PCs knows why. When they attempt to remove any of the gold, they quickly realize that they will be followed by these fiends in proportion to the amount they use, and they will have to weigh the ethics of passing the curse along to someone else. Naturally, giving any of it away, like Bombadil, removes the curse on the amount given away. The "cursed treasure of the Wherever" could be a new local legend.

Second thought. The sheer amount of absolutely pure gold makes a once-in-a-lifetime magical opportunity for a nation-level enchantment project. The fact that this much gold would ruin the economy is a plus for the nation's chief wizards or priests, who have already divined the existence of the hoard but failed on divinations to find it (perhaps due to the aforesaid demonic interference). The party finds out that the government is looking for someone who knows where it is. They'll cut a deal with the PCs -- they'll provide the party with the cash you mentioned that they need right now, plus a handsome extra, if the party agrees to show the government where the cache is, so that it can be used in a massive magical working instead of getting stolen and flooding the economy. If they don't agree, the government simply keeps a closer and closer eye on gold transactions, making it harder and harder to move significant quantities (give the PCs a decent chance to sneak a lot of it under the radar), until they're found and the rulers simply confiscate the remainder.

Anthony · 03-26-2012, 05:01 PM

By far the easiest option is to neuter the pile of gold. Two obvious options are that the effect was temporary and the gold has disappeared, and that someone else has already found the gold (possibly resulting in a crash in gold prices). If you don't want to do that, the primary problem you'll have is that you really can't introduce all that much gold before the price starts to collapse, since adding new gold doesn't increase the production capacity of the economy, and a lot of the economy isn't gold based to start with.

Dammann · 03-26-2012, 05:53 PM

My first thought was that there would be miners crawling all over it. But maybe that seems unlikely due to considerations in the campaign (like a remote location or whatever).

They could spend a lot of money on an elaborate treasury, complete with traps and a menagerie of guard beasts.

They could get robbed hauling the gold away. Alternately, the authorities could show up to tax the hell out of them.

The irony of needing money but being unable to translate your assets into currency could work. Maybe having unminted gold makes the PCs appear suspicious?

After they set up an extraction operation, someone with experience in gold mining could arrive and offer to buy the claim and develop it. A structured payment plan could see them collecting the money (at inconveniently distant banks) over time, so that their wealth isn't a sudden shock to the campaign.

If your players have any interest in a PvP angle, this could be part of a Treasure of the Sierra Madre style campaign denouement.

Jovus · 03-26-2012, 06:14 PM

Turn it into something useful in a way that isn't money, for example, spell components. I don't know for what, but something sufficiently valuable (or rare) that they will consume gold voluntarily. Maybe a resurrection spell that you tell the Cleric/Wizard character he can cast from anywhere, given a few seconds and the previous opportunity to make a mystic connection with the gold. (The previous assumes that resurrection is about as common in your setting as it is in mid-to-high-level D&D, and gives them effectively a combat-relevant one-shot resurrection spell.)

03-26-2012, 03:03 PM	#12
Apache On Notice Join Date: Apr 2007	Re: How to spend several tonnes of gold? Booze, hookers, and gambling still remain the time-tested tradition of getting rid of player's excess (and not-so-excess) gold. Also, theft/scams/fraud/outright banditry. __________________ If you think an Apache can't tell right from wrong....wrong him, and see what happens.

03-26-2012, 03:29 PM	#13
aesir23 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Vermont	Re: How to spend several tonnes of gold? Make your GM happy: buy the best ship money can by, and hire an experienced captain and crew: this way your party can explore even more of the world and have new adventures in distant lands. The ship will also serve as a mobile base of operations, so you always have a place to run to when you need to heal up. [EDIT] Oops, I forgot that you are the GM. __________________ My ongoing thread of GURPS versions of DC Comics characters.

03-26-2012, 04:49 PM	#17
William Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Upper Peninsula of Michigan	Re: How to spend several tonnes of gold? Perhaps the enormous amount of wealth in the area has caused the lump of gold to warp magical energies in the vicinity. Powerful demons have been causing greed flareups in the area, and nobody but the PCs knows why. When they attempt to remove any of the gold, they quickly realize that they will be followed by these fiends in proportion to the amount they use, and they will have to weigh the ethics of passing the curse along to someone else. Naturally, giving any of it away, like Bombadil, removes the curse on the amount given away. The "cursed treasure of the Wherever" could be a new local legend. Second thought. The sheer amount of absolutely pure gold makes a once-in-a-lifetime magical opportunity for a nation-level enchantment project. The fact that this much gold would ruin the economy is a plus for the nation's chief wizards or priests, who have already divined the existence of the hoard but failed on divinations to find it (perhaps due to the aforesaid demonic interference). The party finds out that the government is looking for someone who knows where it is. They'll cut a deal with the PCs -- they'll provide the party with the cash you mentioned that they need right now, plus a handsome extra, if the party agrees to show the government where the cache is, so that it can be used in a massive magical working instead of getting stolen and flooding the economy. If they don't agree, the government simply keeps a closer and closer eye on gold transactions, making it harder and harder to move significant quantities (give the PCs a decent chance to sneak a lot of it under the radar), until they're found and the rulers simply confiscate the remainder.

03-26-2012, 05:01 PM	#18
Anthony Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Berkeley, CA	Re: How to spend several tonnes of gold? By far the easiest option is to neuter the pile of gold. Two obvious options are that the effect was temporary and the gold has disappeared, and that someone else has already found the gold (possibly resulting in a crash in gold prices). If you don't want to do that, the primary problem you'll have is that you really can't introduce all that much gold before the price starts to collapse, since adding new gold doesn't increase the production capacity of the economy, and a lot of the economy isn't gold based to start with.

03-26-2012, 05:53 PM	#19
Dammann Join Date: May 2011	Re: How to spend several tonnes of gold? My first thought was that there would be miners crawling all over it. But maybe that seems unlikely due to considerations in the campaign (like a remote location or whatever). They could spend a lot of money on an elaborate treasury, complete with traps and a menagerie of guard beasts. They could get robbed hauling the gold away. Alternately, the authorities could show up to tax the hell out of them. The irony of needing money but being unable to translate your assets into currency could work. Maybe having unminted gold makes the PCs appear suspicious? After they set up an extraction operation, someone with experience in gold mining could arrive and offer to buy the claim and develop it. A structured payment plan could see them collecting the money (at inconveniently distant banks) over time, so that their wealth isn't a sudden shock to the campaign. If your players have any interest in a PvP angle, this could be part of a Treasure of the Sierra Madre style campaign denouement.

03-26-2012, 06:14 PM	#20
Jovus Join Date: Sep 2008	Re: How to spend several tonnes of gold? Turn it into something useful in a way that isn't money, for example, spell components. I don't know for what, but something sufficiently valuable (or rare) that they will consume gold voluntarily. Maybe a resurrection spell that you tell the Cleric/Wizard character he can cast from anywhere, given a few seconds and the previous opportunity to make a mystic connection with the gold. (The previous assumes that resurrection is about as common in your setting as it is in mid-to-high-level D&D, and gives them effectively a combat-relevant one-shot resurrection spell.)