RPG Monetary Economy

This is an interesting idea for dealing with large amounts of money in RPGs like D&D. [Link]

So here’s a modification I’ve been considering: Money found does not equal experience, but money spent does. You don’t have to spend it on anything functional in-game, but doing so gets you a double reward of the XP at issue and whatever the money buys. So it makes for cool situations like:

• I spend my money drinking and whoring, like Conan, Fafhrd, and the Grey Mouser.
• I tithe my money to the Church of [Womble or Whomever], like a good cleric or paladin should be doing anyway.
• I invest my money in magical research, and create magic items as a result (particularly in terms of the D&D 3.5 ruleset, even though it doesn’t decree that found money is experience).
• I sock it away in preparation to buy my stronghold (an investment that then provides event opportunities, whether in terms of the stronghold, or in terms of the scoundrels with whom I banked it skimming off my deposits).

Very nice.