How to make D&D loot matter 

"A name change is way cheaper than college" Ginny please that line was way too good for a sponsor segment

Ginny: “Earning gold is only fun when there’s something worth spending it on.” Dragon to their servant: “FETCH MY KEYBOARD!!!”

My one DM is absolutely incredible at this. Very early on, we took a job as guards on a ship protecting a princess. We hit it off with her, she and our paladin had a thing, and aside from some cool items, we also became friends of the crown. Awesome! And then she was coronated, and we were gifted an entire mansion, which we spent three or four sessions cleaning out, decorating, and hiring staff for- which our lower class characters REALLY got into. Later, that paladin turned evil and kidnapped the queen, and our manor staff ended up being essential in helping us rescue her, and we’re considering sending my eldritch knight/wizard’s parents to live there since their house was burned down. These are only some of the shenanigans we’ve gotten into there, all because we got a house instead of some money.

I personally prefer cursed items to be double edged swords rather then just traps. I love the sword of vengeance and berserker axe for this reason.

I think I might be late to the game but I really wanted to say: Congratulations on getting married!!!!!!! You're such a fun and uplifting part of my day and it brought me a tonne of joy to see you two so happy. Hope the fairytale lasts forever!!! :D

Another idea I saw somewhere was magic items that could be upgraded, which could mitigate the game-breaking aspect and make it more interesting. Let's say you find a ring which gives a small bonus, and it seems there is room for something embedded in it, but the jewel is missing. It can prompt you to investigate this as a "side quest" until the day where you find a pearl/gem/whatever which will, once embedded into the ring, increase the bonus it gives

One thing about boons: also be careful not to make them *too* scaled back. I remember a campaign where each of us got a boon from a being we saved from a black dragon that took over its home. This campaign lasted for several months longer and all of us still had our 1 time use boons unused when that campaign came to an end - the boons were neat and flavourful but had such niche applications and minor benefits that we never really had cause to use them. Even that's better than nothing, but ...if you're running a campaign set in and around a desert, maybe the boon that lets you cast water breathing on the party isn't the one you go with....

Ginny: Creates a very informative, friendly, and helpful set of guidelines for DMs in regards to helping players with engaging with loot. Me: “KITTY!”

Loot doesn't just have to be for character benefit. Finding a toy for your character's children on bandits, winning your spouse a business of her own from her corrupt family, finding job opportunities for orphans you grew up with, or even a short pause in a war for soldiers to collect their dead and grieve can all be meaningful rewards that characters earn for others. Money still works well with this too though. More than just "You can buy a business or your own castle" you could offer for instance "You've just slain the dragon and, as you look over its hoard before you, you think back to the street you grew up on. That money could be stronger than any magic sword to them". Even hope that didn't exist before can be reward. "He doesn't change or stop but, after what you've done here, you notice the BBEG listens to your words without dismissal". The benefit of these rewards is that characters feel like they are changing the world. This is loot that can outlive a character.

Yes! Loot in D&D can be shockingly boring. For me, the most important element is PERSONALITY! If you want your party to grow attached to a particular piece of gear, it should have some history to it. Who cares about rapier #7 when you can have "Touch of Malice," a rifle forged with the wicked heart of the BBEG you just defeated? That sort of story can build a true sentimental attachment and make that legendary loot actually memorable. ALSO! You'd be shocked at what an interesting shopkeeper can do for your party's gold spending. My grouip just met Acheron, a beholder in a trenchcoat who sells magical items that he stole from pesky adventurers. They. Love. Him. Even if he's clearly evil. Last session, we spent 2 hours shopping and bargaining and they ended spending half their gold. The wonders of decent loot with an excellent shopkeep to boot.

There's also something to say for non-magical loot that can be useful. D&D tends to focus a lot on magic stuff but I like other things to be useful too and be an advantage. Like explosives or smoke bombs can be fun and are also things with just one use. Or weapons or armour made of specific material that gives some benefit without being magical, or with something unique about the design. Like a pole axe that can do piercing, bludgeoning and slashing damage depending on how they hit with it. Or a heavy longbow that requires strength, not dexterity to use. Or a shield with a hidden compartment. Or a thick armour that ignores any attacks that deal 5 or less damage, but does take full damage of any attack that deals 6 or more damage. Or it could be a dwarven made armour that any dwarf you meet will have an opinion on if you are not a dwarf. Some might respect you more while others think you're appropriating their culture.

9:24 CAT SURGE New item : the cat effigie 😼 Once per day it summons a giant cat that can do 1 random action -Ask for attention (charm effect) -Show it's butt before leaving -Just watch you suffer...and Yawn -CAT RAGE (deals massive damage) -Take a nap -Meow because it's hungry

Ginny: "More like Debt and Disbursements!" Me, thinking about the accounting spreadsheet I put together solely to manage finances for the party: "Um. Mean." :D

"A name change is way cheaper than college" I will remember that golden line forever lmao

When I DM, I often take this route. For example, my party helped prevent some theives from rustling some animals from a specialty breeder. As thanks the rancher is going to give them a horse he "thinks they will like" when the horses come of age. I'm using this to give the party horses(and possibly other animals) with some special abilities that are taylored to each character. And it's not even an immediate reward. They won't get them for another level or so.

I had forgotten about the tree token.... Back in 1st edition my party tried using it to cross a dangerous moat in a temple, our thief crossed the moat with ropes then braced the token against an ornate sarcophagus on the other side. When they activated it to create a bridge for the rest of the party, the tree crushed the sarcophagus killing the big baddie sleeping inside that we hadn't discovered yet. Totally messed up the adventure but we felt awesome lol

I came up with a ring that helps with this problem. Ring of Indulgences: For every 500G (or whatever amount you want), make an INT check DC 15. On every success, you can add +1 to any d20 roll. However the ring cannot prevent the negative circumstances of a natural 1. You can up the cost or change the check. Whatever. I don't dish out a lot of money in my campaign, so for my players 500G is a whole lot.

My DM's been really good with this. Our party frequently spends large amounts of out gold wining and dining potential contacts. We also dropped most of our gold on a bounty on a hag who was out to get us. The DM letting us turn our resources into aid with an arc that was troubling us was really fun

I appreciate the love for weird consumable items. I love giving them out in loot just to see what the players do with them

I second the "Be careful with handing out magic items" section. This also applies to giving it to enemies, though, since the player can loot it if you're not careful. In a campaign I was in, the DM had us fight someone who had a Wand of Paralysis very early on. After we beat them, there was nothing stopping me from keeping it, and I just used it in basically every fight thereafter. I could just zap enemies with my fall-over stick and the party would proceed to beat the snot out of them completely unhindered; the DM had to start throwing hordes at us just to make any sort of challenge.

I started playing this game in the early 80s and played mostly within the same circle of friends for decades. Back then it was all guys. I recently started DMing a group of 3 women and a man. I never would have thought D&D could be so different! I love your takes and feel like I always get something from your videos.

One of the things I like to do is when the players sell an item the effects of that sale show up later. For example, that Phoenix egg may allow a wizard to reincarnate continuously so long as he is killed by fire (so once he's low on hp he fireballs himself to escape). It reminds players the effect of their actions don't end when they collect coin and might even have the players start to ask what fun things they can do with such items.

In my first and longest campaign, my players found a bowl. The bowl required you to meditate and sacrifice a gem, and then would restore some power to the character (spells, health, etc) depending on the value of the sacrificed gem. The item had not only a rich backstory, but it also scaled, was useful indefinitely and became a huge wealth sink for the entire party. I made plenty of mistakes with itemization in that campaign, but I still like making that one.

"Can you take this back? I am on fire." Ha! The Ginny ad reads just keep getting better and better.

Your comment about charitable spending reminded of the time our party set up an orphanage. We'd saved a couple of dozen street kids from a rakshasa who was going to sacrifice them. By the end of the session we'd spent 3 game months and about a third of our savings, and it was the most fun I've had playing D&D. We really felt like we'd made a difference! 😀

Don't forget, the more gold you carry, the juicier you look to that ancient dragon just over the horizon.

ok, the topic is great and very well discussed, but I'm in LOVE with that top you're wearing!!

Love the use of information as a reward. It's so easy to forget this aspect and lock secrets away in the plot. Something as simple as a letter in the pocket of an enemy is easy and meaningful! Thank you, great stuff 👍

In a one-shot I'm really proud of I used loot in certain ways similar to what you describe here. They had to take some stuff and people back from a group of orcs. When they where planning how a pair of orcs checking the surroundings encountered the players and they had a fight. It was sort of an easy win but one of them had a very beautiful gold belt, naturally one of the players took it for himself. At the end during the final confrontation the War Chief spotted the PC with the belt and it turned out that the belt was owned by his son, so he basically went mad using a potion of growth just to kill the one wearing the belt. Moreover the stuff and people the party needed to recover made the session more interesting because the parties patron offered a more substantial reward for different things, placing people as the second most important (or "valuable") "asset" to recover, just below a mysterious box. Sow the party had to decide if they wanted to do the moral thing and rescue the people or the selfish thing and look for the box and prioritize it over the lives of others. This brought some PC conflict that played awesome in the narrative. At the end they prioritize rescuing the people and never find out what was in the box, but at least there was this mystery and conflict looming over the whole adventure.

Even as an experienced DM with over 1000 hours of DMing, I still found some new insight in this video. Well done.

Thought for sure this would be a new music video when I saw the notification😄 "Let's talk about loot, bay-bee Let's talk about us and gp Let's talk about gold and platinum Copper, electum, And what's silvery Let's talk about that..."

I've been leaning HEAVILY on the Numenera oddities and cyphers for extremely weird consumable magic items. It honestly makes more sense for magic to be limited use or everyone would be enchanting EVERYTHING all the time.

I've found that my players love it when I tie loot/rewards in with the story or a side goal that a player wanted to accomplish. Recently my players helped a treant remove a corrupted, magic cannonball that had been festering in the poor creature for over a decade. They gave it an enchanted apple that was basically a reflavored Potion of Health to help it recover, and it thanked them by taking one of the seeds and rapidly growing an apple tree on its shoulder and giving them the resulting lumber. Said players had been wanting to make some magic items that would require enchanted wood, so I thought this would be a fun way to provide them the materials while rewarding their generosity since magical healing is a bit rare to come by in my homebrew setting.

I finally started my first campaign as a one on one with my dm to help him stop being foreverdm, and been having a lot of fun! Your videos have been a lot of help! Love your channel ♥

I love the idea of really strong cursed items. Specifically items that use use a curse to balance what would otherwise be an overpowered item. Like if you had a sword that always attacks with advantage but anyone attacking the sword’s wielder also attacks with advantage (I call this hypothetical weapon the Edge of Hubris). Then have it on the corpse of a killed adventurer in a way that implies that the downside got them in the end just to make it extra ominous

Nice ring!! 💍;) Must've been from the wedding loot! Congratulations

I always make sure that magic items are found on enemies, not sitting around in chests (unless those chests are, in fact, enemies). No one remembers the random junk they pulled from random chest #72. But they _do_ remember the stuff that annoyed, challenged, and/or killed them, which they got to satisfyingly pull from the cold dead hands of the one using it against them.

"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." I am the Thane...

I personally love building webs of character relationships, favors, promises, etc. and would definitely say that it could be a great way to keep your party invested, but typically this only works for groups that enjoy roleplaying and don't resolve every problem with: "I don't care how big the room is, I CAST FIREBALL!" also a great way of making personalized items/magic items for characters is the simple formula of (mundane thing + magic spell effect). an example of this would be (a copper ring + guiding bolt), then you just slap on a charge system or whatever you want and boom, you have a quick way to create magic items that you can use or build upon.

I LOVE the immovable rod! I've used it to climb, catch falling party members, and stuff. My FAVORITE time I used it I stuck it into a dragon's mouth, making it impossible for the dragon to bite us or move 's head. It was pinned in place for 2 rounds of combat! We got so much damage in during those 2 rounds and shortly killed it after.

Ginny: Eldamon Me: DnD POKÉMON

Playing Lost Mines, the bugbear in the first dungeon has a gold frog statue under his throne. The book says nothing about it except it's value, but my players were convinced this bugbear was worshiping it, and asked if they knew which god it was. I said they did, but I'd have to give them details next week, because I hadn't prepared it. So later I googled 'D&D frog god' and sure enough, there's a really grim god from 3.5e with lore and everything. So at the start of the next session they all have the same nightmare about this god, and when they wake up they have this really great discussion about destroying it vs. exorcising it, and their effects on the value! Finding an exorcist became the first side quest of the campaign. So awesome!

You mentioned the chimes in this -- and I agree -- I also strongly support stealing a page out of Cypher System and giving your PCs temp items -- sure they might be game breaking powerful things ... that work 1-3 times, ever :O So now the PCs have a choice, I also like the talismans from PF2E they let you add them to an item for a critical +1 on demand - then they are gone :) You elect to strap one on, and can use it for that 'clutch' battle you expect to wade into - but then it shatters -- makes for some great moments. Also there is a product called Beginner Baubles for 5E that is just awesome -- flavorful by design weird but useful things that can add weight to any game - I use them w/the cypher idea, and they are rich enough that you can weave them into your PCs back stories - all the better IMHO

i like to randomize all of the magic items in my games, i came up with a little spread sheet and i use some random generators i made and found. this means i needed some gameplay reason for there to basically be three times as many items in my players hands, so i added an npc who can basically be summoned and functions as a store. the players love this idea! also i love the tree token item! great example!!! i even home brewed another similar item because i love it so much. the wall token makes a 20’ tall x 10’ long wall when thrown. it really spices up combat because there arent a lot of terrain altering magic available in the game like that, unless you build for it, and imo terrain is a huuuuuuge part of any successful combat.

For a major plot line I made the reward for my party a writ to found their own village. They didn't care what the quest was they wanted that writ.

My GM has almost exclusively provided the party with anything other than money or magic items as rewards. In fact, we almost haven't been rewarded for all the work we have been doing, despite literally saving two queens, and stopping two coups. Most of our party rewards come in the form of tag-along DMPCs, and temporary DMPCs. We love all of them. It started with the Ilithid who was just trying to make a living consuming unwanted memories, and has grown to include the Elvish Mayor of a trading caravan-community that travels along a giant beanstalk in the clouds (he's a shifter druid, and pretty dorky), the Half-Orc/Half-Elf enchantress graduate student with a shady past (who also happens to have become the love interest of our bard), a French maid (she's just a regular maid, albeit an incredibly loyal one), and the literal son of Asmodeus. No frickin' joke. He speaks with a southern drawl, cannot lie, dislikes his dad, and wears a Stetson. We love Titius, we love them all.

Hello Ginny. In a recent D&D campaign run by a friend of mine, I decided to try something new. I have not played since the original version 3.5 rules, so 5e is a learning experience for me. I ran a Centaur Ranger mare who is one of the children of a local Baron. The Baron, her father, was awarded his Barony after saving the local Duke and his party from an ambush and assassination attempt. So, after training to become a Ranger, my little mare went on an adventure and taking along with her, three friends acting as 'followers'. Basically childhood friends who wished to see some of the larger world. Windshear, my Ranger, upon hearing of a Noble's plight, went to a small village to find more information. Windy left her friends with the local Baroness and went on the adventure to find and free her children from a local bandit king. Windy had teamed up with a few other adventurers, and they proceeded off to find the bandit's lair. I won't go into detail about the adventure, but Windy and her companions reached 3rd level before being able to return to the Baroness with her children. Hearing of Windy's feats, her father, the Baron, summoned Windshear to his Baronial seat and Knighted her. He then granted her a Fief. A piece of land to rule in her own right. Subject to the Baron's taxes, of course! The Fief turned out to be a small village near Phandalin, which had been overrun by Bandits. Windy and her party cleared the bandits from the village and set up to deal with the ruins of the village. Windy immediately moved, along with her followers, into the Keep at the village site. Each of her party of adventurers received a house in the village to rebuild and call home. Upon being knighted, Windshear put out the word about the new Fief, so that any farmers, crafters, tradesmen, and others could travel there and find new opportunities. The village has an island in the middle of a river, with stone walls around the village area, extending to encompass both banks of the forked river, from just before the split, to the other end of the island areas where the forks merge into the river again. So, a lot of houses, old businesses, the temple, the mayor's house, the keep, and the town walls, need repairs. The farming lands surrounding the area need to be cleared and put back into use as well. This will all cost a pretty fair chunk of money, time, and effort, as well as the work of dozens of people. With the word out about the new Fief, there would trickle in various people looking for opportunities from her father's main city, as well as others when the word spreads about a new 'safe' area looking for all kinds of people to live and work there under the new Knight. Windy's followers will never adventure with her, but will act in her stead when she is not around to administer the village and its people. One acting as her Senechal, one as her Arms Master, and one as her general records keeper and tax man. The Senechal acts like a mayor of the village and runs things in Windshear's name while Windy is absent. The Arms Master trains a 'town watch', as well as hires and trains the formal Knight's Guards unit. The Recorder and Tax Man collects taxes, accesses tax values, and can grant temporary land grants for homes, shops, and farms, subject to Windshear's approval upon her return. This all acts as a huge 'money sink' for the character, and the party as a whole, and a source of income to help defray costs until the village is fully occupied and a 'going concern' in the future. To date, Windy has poured at least 10,000 GP into the village for its reconstruction and refurbishment. Including the costs to hire masons, stone workers, woodworkers, carpenters, furniture makers, etc. Windy has had a hand in the rebuilding of the village's tavern, and caravansary. Her keep is nearly finished, and the holes in the village's stone walls have been filled with wooden palisades. Several farmers and their families have settled the surrounding lands around the village. Clearing out the overgrowth and planting crops of all kinds. Windshear plans to 'tax' them about 60% of their yields for several years, before granting outright ownership of the plots of land to the farmers. The tavern is being run by an odd trio. A dwarf brewer, a human wine merchant, and a Half-Hobgoblin barman. They, too, will pay Windy taxes for several years before being granted ownership of the Tavern and the land it stands upon. Although Windshear still owns the land, she can Grant a lifetime grant of 'ownership' to any house, plot of land, or other within the boundaries of her Fief as she sees fit. Windy has made it clear that even though she can deny the Grant, to do so, she would have to recompense the 'owner(s)' of the former Grant the sum of money equal to a year's profits. Wanting to extend, and fully repair the stone walls, Windy is looking to hire dwarven miners and stone workers to make a foray up into the nearby hills to mine the stone needed. We shall see what becomes of that. Since I believe it will spark another 'adventure' for Winshear and her party.

One fun option for loot: Give them an art piece with a signature. On its own its not worth much, but if they can pass a history check or find a reputable appraiser they can find that its actually made by a famous artist increasing the value of the item by a hefty amount.

Something that I've found works wonders is that in the kingdom the players are in, all magical items must be registered with a national index and all adventurers must register as well. Gives the players some bookkeeping to do, and encourages them to interact with the area. Also, give them a castle/title to work with!

I love creating weird items for PCs to find creative ways to use: a decanter of endless ale or a sword that screams whenever it is unsheathed can provide benefits but they aren't just flat bonuses and they also have drawbacks

One of my favorite tricks is to do the early artefact. Something of immense power that has great drawbacks, such as the form shifting weapon. It dealt the same damage no matter what, but you could swap its forms to gain other benefits, such as heavy, light, or reach. It also did additional acid damage, but wasn't a +1. The main drawback is it was cursed and had limited sentience, being a creation of a warlock. It always sought to kill, and every long rest, there was a chance it'd overpower the will of whoever had it and force them to kill the nearest creature. For us, it was a child the party was escorting back to his hometown, a full month away. The child was revived, and the party agreed to never use the weapon again, but they also never sold it and kept it around just incase they needed to punch up.

Super episode. A few years back we had a lvl 7/9 party who, by chance and ingenuity, ended up acquiring a whole dragon hoard of gold and listening to this episode my wife and I got talking about what they actually could have used that amount of gold on. She suggested spending it on finding a top-class wizard and paying them to teach our wizard character "Wish" eventhough that character was nowhere near the right level. As a DM I would absolutely have said yes and made a whole campaign around this idea. Also, this trick I have only used once in the last four years, but we had a lvl 10/11 party who helped a god (Bahamut) and I wanted to give them something unique so I gave each character a top tier ability from a sub-class, other than their chosen sub-class, but from the same class as the character in question.

My DM often gives us fun items that are particularly specialized to certain party members, especially at lower levels. He is the kind of DM that focuses on storytelling, and making it fun for the players. We also have a keep that we need to spend money to do upkeep and improvements on. Even with all of this, I still struggle to remember to do the accounting I need to in order to know how much money I need.

I have literally binge watched a ton of your videos in the past few days. I honestly think you've taken the top spot for favorite DM RU-vid channel from Matt Colville for me. Your explinations are down to earth and straight forward, and once you say it, I always get that feeling like "Oh, that makes so much sense". Thank you!

I had a Swords Bard in Rise of Tiamat adventure. At one point he accumulated so much wealth from the dragons he has slain with his allies, he ended up investing in an estate in Waterdeep. He, then turned that estate into a fencing academy, granting scholarships and such. He even decorated the training room with various weapons collected during his adventures in numerous displays...

Oh the subject of gold in D&D (not sure if someone has already mentioned this) but AD&D had a mechanic called Gold-for-Xp. Basically, every time you find a pile of gold you get a set amount of experience points. If you want players to spend gold, maybe have it where every time they use gold get something they want, they receive an amount of experience points equal to half the amount of gold spent. Don't know how well it will go, but it's an idea.

Hello Ginny. I used to GM a LOT back in the 80's. That would be in the 'dark ages' of version 1.0 rules. I ran into a lot of the issues you describe in your video here, and I had to come up with many, diverse, ways to deal with them. One great example was the Portable Hole. My Players desired one of these items, and eventually got one... sort of. The Portable Hole they spent RL months finding and obtaining, turned out to be a Portable 'Hole'. A magic item that creates a 10-foot wide, 10-foot deep hole through almost anything. This turned out to be even more fun for the players than what they originally wanted, since it allowed them a magical way to bypass 10-foot thick walls in the vast majority of cases. By the time the party found a 'real' Portable Hole, one of the Players had designed a special item to use with it. It took quite some time to build, and a fair share of loot to fund, but eventually that player had the item he'd thought up to use with his PH. This turned out to be a tubular cabinet 9 feet, 10 inches wide, and 9 feet, 10 inches long. Along the sides were embedded roller wheels to assist in sliding it in and out of the PH. Into this cabinet went all the Party's 'extra' gear, extra food, loot obtained (other than other kinds of Nth dimensional items, like Bags of Holding, etc), replacement weaponry, and even such things as portions of the remains of dead Characters (to be reincarnated, or raised from the dead, later). One such player, a reincarnated Human Fighter, who was reincarnated as a Lizardman King, used a PH and cabinet, to store portions of his kills for later consumption. Since the PH leads to a 'pocket' universe, no time elapses inside it, and thus his food stays fresh. This led to the Lizardman ending up carrying dead Characters for revival later, and his consumption of the bodies, keeping only the heads for the Priests to work their magic upon (and increasing the fees to pay for such regeneration!)... which was a source of wry amusement for the group. Once designed and created, the Player's Character, along with the NPC carpenter, and NPC dwarf engineer, made a fair profit, selling the ornate cabinets for use with other PHs found in other locales in the realm. This, in turn, led to a 'boom' in the manufacture of Portable Holes, funded by the Elite and Powerful, to store their valuables. Which, in turn, drove up the prices for the cabinets... etc. So, two types of Portable Hole, with differing uses, benefits, and detriments (having your PH stolen by a thief can cause the Party to go on a Quest to obtain it again!). Things like Bags of Holding can be fun as well... especially, if you vary the amount they can hold, and the size of the overall bag itself. Example: I created a 'bag of holding' that was only the size of a MU's component pouch. Now, the MU of the Party didn't really NEED a pouch that would hold about 30 lbs of a single component, and the item languished in the Party's inventory for quite a while. At least, until a Fighter traded for it, and used it to hold several throwing spears, without the usual massive weight penalty for carrying that sort of mass. I allowed this, since the bag of holding has no limit on the size of the item, other than what can be stuffed through the mouth of the bag, and since it was amusing to have a Fighter able to pluck throwing spears, seemingly, out of nowhere to use in combat. Needless to say, really, that the larger the pouch of the bag of holding, the larger the items that could be place within it, and the higher the relative value it became... until only the very rich could afford bags of holding the size of a knapsack, or backpack! Oh, as a side note: the Fighter was really miffed when he stored sharp spears in his pouch and destroyed its usefulness to him. He had to find and obtain another, this time making sure to put leather caps upon the spear tips before storing them within the bag. I could go on and on about single use items, 'limited charged' items, and such, but you get the basic idea here... a creative DM can encourage his (or her!) Party to use magic items in new ways, and can create variations on existing items that enhance Party use.

I recommend giving your players a continuous money sink, like a small castle that’s fallen into disrepair or a wagon they could outfit with weapons and gadgets. When the players get more money, they can spend some to improve the object and reap some benefits. Maybe the players could repair the stairs of the castle so that they don’t have to keep making dex saves to avoid the broken steps, or maybe they could affix better wheels to their cart that increases travel time.

I can't really place *why,* but the way you make your videos makes it so easy to digest and retain the advice you give. Love this channel : D

I love how calming and chill your videos are with the soft background music. It's a nice break from the CONSTANT EXCITEMENT of the rest of my algorithm lol.

In one of my past groups we took over an abandoned mansion and had it refurbished into a brothel and then a hero's guild HQ (great way to introduce new PC's) and expanded it into a fortified enclave to train the guards for and protect the nearby town.

As someone who prefers to play casting classes and scribe spell scrolls, I rarely reach a level of wealth where I don't have anything to spend it on (high level scrolls are expensive to scribe!) But one game I started to feel this way about having tons of gold and nothing to spend it on, until we suddenly came across a broken sand ship that would cost us $$$$ to repair and use. I appreciated how the DM gave us a fun way to spend all that dungeon loot!

My players continuously got gold and thought they were rich, because normal things were so cheap. Then they discovered the potions shop and asked for potions of flying and stuff and quickly realised, they are not rich

awesome video. some GMs(especially newer ones) tend to come from videogames and because of that, we see rewards in the same way that videogames do them, as in things that are purely pratical for gameplay; better weapons, better armor, etc. it helps a lot to be reminded that rewards can be LITERALLY anything, the only limit is the imagination of the GM. P.S: congratulations on getting married btw :)

Ginny is the only youtuber who’s ad skits I never skip

Picked ancestral weapons with your code, and have had a blast making fun unique items!

I love this so much. I've used a bunch of these and was surprised at the effectiveness of reputation style rewards. Just letting the party know that they are on a social level to talk with governors, dukes, princes or whatever turned out great for everyone. It set up the characters to go into those higher levels where they might be fighting stuff that could topple nations.

For weirder items, my husband loved the Cloak of Billowing. No mechanical difference, but he got to make cool entrances all the time. And I loved the bag of tricks. That had more mechanical implications, but it was also so just fun to pull out an animal going for a bear and get a jackal instead.

Cool video. One of the most popular pieces of loot I ever gave my players in a d+d game was a broken-down flatbed truck (the game had some post-apoc elements). The players had to do a whole bunch of favours to a local artificer to get it fixed, so finally getting it working gave them a real sense of achievement (and helped make said artificer their fave NPC in that game)

Thank you for talking about this topic! Upon watching this video, I realized I had been overlooking rewards for my players. I felt like I was just giving them new objectives to go to without looking at what really rewarded their actions. We are talking about it now, and while they’re being so kind and saying they feel sufficiently rewarded? I’m now putting more thought into how I can reward their actions both narratively and in more tangible ways.

Thank you for talking about the non-monetary rewards in the DMG. They're tremendous and deserve to be used more for all the reasons you mention.

I don't even play D&D, I just love your content from a creative perspective. Awesome video, I especially adore the idea of access and connections as rewards!

I appologize in advance if the following wall of text crits you but I wanted to share. You see this video reminded me of the time our party helped an NPC with an experiment with something called Ash Crystals, a substance that absorbs and warps magic but can be harnessed to extract huge amounts of energy from them. One of our magic users tried shooting a fire bolt at the crystal chunk and *ooop* a spherical area with a 50 foot radius around the crystal turned into arctic weather conditions. It did dissipate after an hour so the next magic user tried the classic Magic Missile. They figured that one thing would happen for each spell. What they didn't take into account was that MM shoots three bolts at the target. Which of course generated three different effects. First hit generated an 10 foot radius explosion (that noone had been silly enough to stand within) around the crystal. Next two bolts each created a wave of magical energy flooding out from the crystal, prompting Will saving throws. Successful save lead to only taking necrotic damage. A failed save, however, lead to the necrotic damage AND... permanently learning one cantrip from the Wizard spell list. TL:DR Our party got rewarded with new powers for failing an experiment.

I think I've said this once before but; your videos are very validating. It is all beginner DM stuff and it is great that you are here to help new dm's and players. What I like is hearing you say all the cool things I do for my players out loud. I've basically been on my own as a dm. I played cnc (it's basically dnd light) when I was in college for a few months and then started dming for my friends and family. I'm sure you get this a lot but I would love to have you in one of my games or be in one of yours, plus I've been wanting to cosplay more but the pandemic has been making me sad. Anyway keep having fun and I'm sure I'll see more videos; the youtube math seems to really like you :-)

I got so excited when I saw this pop up! I’m starting a new campaign and this video is immensely helpful!

Consumables are an excellent measure to allow frequent rewards without permanent power creep. Sly Flourish has adapted Relics learning from Numenera, they're neat!

I want to play Debts & Disbursements. I'll play a L1 Business Analyst with the Pivot Table Feat.

Haven't been able to try this out yet, but I love the idea of giving out teamwork skills after the first arc of a campaign.

The skills thing can be really fun. I actually just yesterday was trying to find clues, spotted something I recognized from a prior vision experience, and my character thanked their god for it. My DM liked the RP and the god gave my character the Keen Smell trait for a few hours, making the tracking much easier. It was super simple and temporary, but also pulled things together and let me play my character in a bit of a new way. I loved it.

I've always loved your videos Ginny, buit since I've started DMing they've been invaluable. Thank you!

Thank you! I need this vid so bad! I struggle with loot.

I would love to play in one of your campaigns... if you ever need an experienced online player good lord that would be awesome. I've learned so much from your videos.

Great stuff! I love giving letters of recommendation or free passes for travel in a city/etc

Such a good video again! I'm just starting up a new D&D game (based on the One D&D characters builds) and will definitely use some of these ideas. I like to refer to myself as a "veteran" GM, but I always love hearing new and fresh ideas about things like this. Wonderful! In regards to the "accounting" problem that collecting loot can have, I recently came up with an idea of my own that I will be implementing into my new game: Equal Division of Found Coin. Essentially: Say the Party defeats a group of 6 bandits. Instead of rolling for each bandit's pockets and then having the Party add up the coin and then divide the coin, simply say "there's enough collected for everyone to have 2gp and 1sp." Easy!

I once made a "cloak of the road" that gave a +1 to stealth checks in dirty locations, but a - 1 anywhere it was clean. It did this by constantly shedding the road dust. They took 4 sessions to figure out what it actually did, assuming it was just a +1 stealth cloak because they were in a derelict castle. It made for great story moments! Our Goliath wore it, and led the team through a tunnel. The rest of the party ended up unable to see where they were going and couldn't figure out why. They annoyed the noble when turning their quest in because they made the manor dusty. And when he finally figured it out he would flick the cloak around in combat to throw dust in the faces of his enemies. They also spend a bunch of money to build a separate cloak room for it and hire a maid just for that room as it would fill any small space (cupboards or bags) he put it in too quickly.

Pooh heeel yeah!! You just saved me as a DM. Our game just started to get boring and you just come up with some dnd Pokemons? That's what I want! Thank you very much.

These are good ideas. I definitely use consumable items, especially at lower levels. Giving the PCs a blessing that is used and then gone for completing a quest is a nice reward as well. I recently used this when the party recovered an epic item for a temple.

Nothing more rewarding than a cat coming up, installs itself in your lap and starts purring. 😌🐈

one of my favorite loot items are useless but amusing or situationally useful items, one is the ring of fire detection (can detect magical and non magical fire with a range of touch), or the cape of narrated invisibility(the wearer becomes invisible but an audible voice narrates your movements), one i straight up stole from morrowind is the boots of blinding speed(move 2x your speed but you are blinded and must roll a D4 to determine your direction). keep in mind i also have mechanics that allow the players to remove the negative effects if they so chose to go down that path

I want to go off the skills items category, and remind people that every monk ability is an interesting magic item. Gloves of missile snaring, ring of feather fall, something that lets them dash or disengage a limited number of times as a BA, maybe even a druid finds a natural armor that lets them add their wisdom to their AC.

The spider climb slippers made me start thinking of a variation of winged boots just while watching this video. Let's call them "Oobloots." Oobleck is that cornstarch/water "Non-Newtonian Fluid" that you can run across. These boots let you run across liquids as long as you keep moving your feet (like a mini version of that monk feature). But also once per long rest, you can gain a fly speed equal to half your walking speed for a number of minutes equal to your con modifier. Half your walking speed and using your con modifier just to emphasize how difficult it is to try and run through the air. It would be slower and more taxing on your stamina. Thanks for the creative spark!

Cat makes an appearance. 10/10 video, no further questions your honour

In my current game the DM gave us a tavern as the final reward for rescuing people. Then he also gave us resources, ie. copper sheets, that our Smith used to craft weapons. Finally he gave us one feat and that is really helpful.

I second Ginny's video on ancestral weapons. I bought the pdf, and it's awesome. I've added it to my campaign, with some of my own additions. Also, since Ginny mentioned that she doesn't run a mechanics channel, I thought of another channel that can supplement some of Ginny's content: Master the Dungeon. They'll give you ideas for how to implement some of Ginny's ideas with mechanics.

Quaal's tree feather token was used in a fun way in my game too when the rogue dimension doomed through a fortress wall and off a cliff and used the tree to catch their fall

Fun video idea: how to run homebrew settings. I’d especially like to see something like Steampunk D&D. Like it’s still a D&D world but it also has steam engines and zeppelins and factories.

The list of art and treasure items in the DMG is super helpful, stuff like that is not only more realistic to stumble across but also means that players will often end up bartering valuables for other valuables and finding a merchant to just buy the items off you is going to be a quest in it's own right. This can also be a good way to add extra roles to a party as you might give a thief rogue or a character with a merchant background advantage on insight roles to estimate the value of items with their roll determining the accuracy of the estimation. If you play with encumbrance rules then treasure items are good to limit the amount of valuables the party can carry with them at any one time and also leads to players having impressive treasure vaults where they can store things that they have either taken a liking to or are still looking for a buyer to sell to.

These are great ideas! Thank you so much!

One of the most ecstatic loot-related times in the main campaign I play in was when we fought a hag and got rich enough that we could afford (drumroll please!!) a stove for our cart. It was the middle of winter as we travelled towards a country where spring never shows its face, and for a squad made up of impoverished characters, that stove is still a sign that we're able to accomplish things and move out of miserable existences. And it gave a lot of roleplaying and feelings opportunities for interactions because all of our characters happened to be from deep poverty, plus it adds extra tension to combat because what if our stove cart gets stolen or destroyed??? We still talk about our stove cart even when we're not in the main campaign!

Jeff Rients's carousing system, used by Luka Rejec in UVG. Blow a random amount of gold to gain a corresponding amount of xp, and a corresponding partying experience. If you end up spending more than you have, roll with disadvantage. Also, check out How to be a Great GM for another take on most of these ideas.