Money-grubbing new players

[arrowstorm]

I am running the LMoP campaign for a table of mostly brand new players. One of the guys has never said anything outside of combat except for "I'm gonna go get the gold". I was wondering how I could wean him off of that, I am already thinking mimics, chestful of mephits, and traps. Any other ideas? Thanks

[Laserlight]

I am running the LMoP campaign for a table of mostly brand new players. One of the guys has never said anything outside of combat except for "I'm gonna go get the gold". I was wondering how I could wean him off of that, I am already thinking mimics, chestful of mephits, and traps. Any other ideas? Thanks

Do you just want him to stop going after gold, even if it means he doesn't do anything outside combat? If so, why do you want that?

[arrowstorm]

I just think that once he stops playing with a Skyrim mentality, he will begin to role-play more. I was the same way when I started out, so my DM kidnapped my character and forced me to role-play to get out of it. I plan to add some more role-playing opportunities and possibly run a combatless session. It's that several of the other players, along with myself, are becoming quite annoyed.

[Cybren]

Just let him get comfortable with the game. He'll open up if that's the kind of game he wants to play.

[Kane0]

Have him be the target of a conversation.

Have the gold belong to someone he has to interact with.

LMoP doesn't have that much in the way of merchants, gold is sorta useless.

Make him tell you one thing about his character, such as an aversion to serpents or a particular fondness for cherries. Make sure you throw that into the game in some form to prompt him to interact.

If all else fails, say "Press A to speak to him/her" totally deadpan while looking straight at him.

Eventually he will get the idea that this isn't a video game, and that he has to do some thinking and conversing as well as stabbing and looting.

[recapdrake]

Quick question, what is the person playing? If they are playing the money grubbing rogue stereotype then let them go ahead.
If not then it will wear off, almost every beginner is a greedy little snot in some way or another heaven knows I was.

Also you may want to avoid doing the mimic/mephit/traps method. My current DM did that a lot to the party before I joined and now everyone except me has been traumatized to the point of being terrified of chests now, and I'm still not sure whether the fear is in character or not.

[JoeJ]

Decrease the xp awarded for combat and make it up by giving significant xp for roleplaying.

[djreynolds]

I am running the LMoP campaign for a table of mostly brand new players. One of the guys has never said anything outside of combat except for "I'm gonna go get the gold". I was wondering how I could wean him off of that, I am already thinking mimics, chestful of mephits, and traps. Any other ideas? Thanks

That's perfect. Force him to take dungeon delver and downtime for thieves tools. Make more side missions where he has to work for the money and more merchants to buy from. Money is part of the world, having the money for full plate and horses is important and better gear. Wizards need scrolls. Have extra rewards available for better outcomes on missions, like you have to save the mayor of the town who was kidnapped, but you get extra for no killing or not getting caught and then have potions of invisibility for purchase. It is a real world he plays in, sleep in the woods and face random encounters or pay to sleep in town.

What's better paying for the wizard to write spells in his spellbook or buy potions. What's more cost effective in the long run? He'll be more involved by hitting him with the economics of the world. Make him buy rations.

[ad_hoc]

Have an out of game conversation about the goals of play with the group.

If needed, explain that you aren't having much fun with the current playstyle and ask for suggestions on ways to improve it for you.

[Coidzor]

You need to find what engages your player, not punish him for indulging in the ubiquitous hunt for loot.

If he's being disruptive by searching for treasure when other things are going on and being disruptive, then you need to figure out how to nudge him back into what's going on, either in-game or through directly talking to him out of game about all this. And, really, you'll probably need to talk to him face to face in order to figure out what he's getting, what he wants to get, and how to keep him engaged.

Otherwise... if he tries to use his downtime to hunt for treasure, there's all sorts of ways you can lead that to having to roleplay more, from working the gossip mill to find leads to convincing the other players to help him with this instead of do their own downtime activities or to find at least a plucky NPC assistant. Maybe some puzzles, maybe some negotiation. A few run throughs of something like that and you might have him RPing during the rest of the game, too.

[MinaBee]

I wouldn't directly punish the player for being gold hungry. (Mimics, traps, monster traps set a bad precedent.)

I would definitely decrease the amount of combat encounters that yield good loot. (Say a pack of wolves attack the party. They won't be carrying saleable equipment or purses containing coinage.)

Maybe, include some lengthy exploration and interaction encounters, to encourage him to engage with the game through means other than combat.

Or, some of the older dragons have the ability to flawlessly scry on anyone who takes even a coin of gold from their lair. Just have the party encounter the hoard before they encounter the dragon. :smallwink:

[ruy343]

This might sound weird... but if you have a copy, I recommend reading through the 4th edition dungeon master's guide, which contained a lot of advice on how to engage your players. AS a DM, it's very helpful to do a thought exercise and ask yourself what it is that this player wants from his game. Some of the player types that that book discussed are:


Instigators: they just like to see things happen as a result of their action.
Slayers: They love combat, tactical movement on a grid, and the triumph over bigger and bigger foes
Power Gamers: They want to develop the most powerful character ever, so powerful magic items are what they're after.
Actors: They are more interested in roleplaying than combat or anything else.
Explorers: They want to see what the DM has prepared, and enjoy finding new, unique situations
Watchers: They play to be with friends, and haven't developed their own attachment to the game yet.


There are more, but I don't have my book right now.

When you can think about your players in this light, it's often easier to see what you need to provide to your players. However, if you're an actor, and enjoy emphasizing that part of the game, you may have to be careful to meet your power gamer's needs as well, of they won't have much fun.

This guy who'd causing you grief is likely to be coming from the instigator or power gamer's perspective, and they're likely hoping to have an opportunity to use that gold to their benefit. This isn't a bad thing, in and of itself. In fact, What I would do to catch that player's attention is reward his actions by providing an opportunity to spend that gold on something that matters to their character (Which we know nothing about yet, BTW). If they're a power gamer, give them a chance to invest in (or commission) a magic item that they need for their build (if you let the player commission the item's construction, there could be a missing ingredient for which they go on a quest before it's finished, and it could take a while to finish, so you can put off giving the item to them for two more levels or so :smallwink:).

If they're an instigator, ask the player why the character places such a high priority on gold. Giving instigators secret missions is one of the best ways to catch their attention. Maybe he has a motivation similar to Haley's from OOTS (ransoming a loved one); maybe they're looking to obtain the funds to construct a temple to their god; maybe they're trying to pay back an inherited debt and regain their family's honor; maybe they were sent on a secret mission to establish a new thieves' guild. The possibilities are endless. Now, that player has an ulterior motive for their adventuring, one which the party doesn't know about, which that kind of player tends to enjoy.

However, if they're a watcher, just playing because that's what their friends are doing, try a variety of different things, possibly including the stuff from above, or something new entirely. Something else you can do is have them feel important through their character, by contributing a skill that's unique to their character out of combat, such as thieves' cant, the ability to read magic, or tracking enemies (ribbon abilities without direct applications to combat/skill checks are best for this kind of thing).

Finally, if you want to make treasure more interesting, I suggest that rather than making it a trap, make what happens an adventure. If necessary include story-based warnings or prophecies (if they go for it anyway, they're likely an instigator!). Maybe the gold, or some golden object is cursed, causing others to come hunting for it (like the gold in Pirates of the Caribbean). Maybe something he plunders asks him to take it back to where it belongs. It's better to make a story out of teaching the player to interact with their world than to just punish them for not waiting for the rogue/wizard to check for traps...

[KorvinStarmast]

From the OP, it isn't just the DM who is annoyed. The other players are as well. Given that the group is new to the game, the Same Page Tool (http://rpg.stackexchange.com/q/58658/22566)may be a good thing to go over together so that all of the players get to involve themselves in norming for this group.

[Kajorma]

The idea here is to get him to open up and try things. There's a good chance that he is intimidated by the game, or worried about doing the wrong thing and that he's letting the 'experienced' players make all the decisions. Splitting him away from the party (while hard to run for any length of time) will push him into making decisions and advancing the story.

One method I like is to have them be captured.

In prison, there are guards you can talk to (but on the other side of bars so that there's no option for trying to punch your way out)
There's other prisoners, he can fight with them sure (Blekar), but he could try to protect the weak (Roy) He could engage in trade of contraband items (weapons or digging equipment), etc.
He could attempt escape. It should probably be presented in a way that it is clear that he should be trying to do that somehow. Motivation would depend on the world/society/his character/etc.
He could try to represent himself at trial. An option if he wanted to go the less "action man" route. Maybe the place he's captured is LE, and he could actually stand a chance at trial, if he played the rules just right.
You could try to fake sick/play dead.

But the solution isn't about punching.

You could have the party trying to find a way to spring him from the outside, or...
If you don't want his character singled out, the whole party can be captured (but placed in separate cell blocks, so that he can't always take a backseat to what's happening)

The choices that he makes aren't important. The important part is engaging him in doing something

[gullveig]

Once I (as a DM) had a player that played this quiet guy that just wanted to kill monsters.

I watched him until I found that he was a honorable guy. So I made his father give him a family sword and give a quest to retrieve some MacGuffin stolen in war or whatever. Since then he tried to drive the adventure forward to bring back glory to his family again.


TL:DR... Grab something the character cares about, put consequences on caring about it.

Only cares about money? Don't steal his hoard, but make attempts to do that.

Only cares about killing? Avenge the fallen monsters.

Etc.