You’ve risen from nothing. You’ve gained lands and tiles, saved nations, battled gods, and amassed a literal mountain of gold. But as the saying goes, you can’t take it with you. At some point, the campaign is going to end. You don’t get any bonus points for unspent gold.

If you’re in the kind of campaign that uses magic item shops, you’ve already got an obvious loot sink. However, even if you do include a gold/power exchange rate in your campaign, there may come a time when enough is enough. You’ve got a boatload of wondrous items, a spellbook full of all the latest magic, and even a fully tricked out stronghold. What comes next?

This is exactly what happened in my long-running megadungeon campaign. After the party Lootsmeister finished the tally, the gang discovered that they’d accumulated nearly half a million GP in assets. After the spending spree was over they’d bought out the local magic merchant, got creative by commissioning combo items, and even purchased a crab tank. After they got done taking their newly acquired luxury items for a victory lap around town (“Suck it, anti-party!”) they still had too much money lying around. And that’s when they did me proud.

My selfish, penny-pinching, kill-a-goblin-for-his-last-copper PCs spontaneously turned to philanthropy. Guilty about all the times they’d lead monsters from the dungeon and back into town, they commissioned four watch towers and a garrison. Then they made a combination guildhall and inn. Next was an adventuring university, a monument, renovations for two local temples, a performance hall staffed by a troop of gnomish actors, and even free training for the local militia. I promptly changed the small town into a small city, and the world was summarily transmuted, shaped by the PCs’ will.

In the end, I think that is the best thing that GP can buy. Not shiny new items or a bragging rights, but an element of narrative control. You’re no longer an adventurer. You’re a world-builder. I can’t wait for the professors at the newly founded Adventurer U to ask the PCs to guest lecture.

How about the rest of you guys? How do you like to spend your loot when a campaign comes to its end-game? Let’s hear it in the comments!

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