Lifestyle spending

[Lord_Kimboat]

Is lifestyle upkeep a good idea? I've always thought that it should be in the game, players should have to pay for meals, getting their clothes cleaned, etc., but I always then get players saying that they're characters will live in the forest and throwing more encounters at them seems to be rewarding their bad behaviour because they like it and try to claim rewards for it.

So, question one is should I even bother with it? It would be useful since I think it will make the PCs feel part of the city they are in rather than just treating it as a camp where they can buy and sell stuff.

Second question, if I do, I think there should be some rewards for the PCs for spending their hard earned gold, so what should these be?

My idea is maybe a sort of concordance thing, where if they pay for a high lifestyle, the city denizens will like them, give them discounts, and generally help them out. Living in the wilderness and/or disrespecting the guards and people will get them smacked down and fined.

Or maybe this won't work at all. What do you guys all think?

[NecroRebel]

To be honest, beyond extremely early levels the amount of money spent on anything less than a ludicrously opulent lifestyle is just not worth tracking. Magic items start at 360 gp and only go up from there. On the other hand, 3 common meals per day and a night in an inn will run 11 silver per day. For the cost of one magic item, you can stay at an inn for nearly a year, in other words. If they're staying in a house they own and doing basic safe work (like, say, working on a farm or something), they'll almost certainly break even or even make a profit. Once a single level-appropriate magic item costs several years' room and board, that room and board isn't really a significant cost anymore.

You might consider giving roleplay experience for actually, you know, roleplaying their stay in town properly, though, especially as that can give extra story hooks for you to use. If they do choose to stay in the wilds, making them make forage checks is a good idea unless they brought rations (which are actually cheaper per day than meals at 5 sp, but oh well). Of course, practically every group I've ever been in has had at least one player with Everlasting Provisions, which makes food and water enough for the whole group every day, so foraging was unnecessary.

[Tegu8788]

I second roleplaying it. The only way to make it worth tracking money, which isn't why most people want to play, would be to play in an inherent bonus game. It removes the need for magic items, which allows you to reset the economy to whatever you like. At that point, you don't get a years worth of food and housing at second level.

[Kimera757]

I also suggest RP. If PCs are intending to collect and spend that wealth, they should retire. Adventuring is lucrative, but also expensive, as you need to stay on the item treadmill. Once you've retired, and hopefully have nobody coming after you looking for revenge, you could sell your items and/or last batch of loot and spend that money on living high.

Actually I wonder how many adventurers regret retiring. Many won't have the skills to invest that money, and some will cling to their expensive items if they have an emotional connection to it. If "The Brightspear" retires, must he sell his Brightspear? It's worth a decade of retirement income, but he might want to hang on to it.