D&D 5E A Very Fine Hat

[BookTenTiger]

Last night I was inspired by the DM advice to give characters random things to spend gold on, and it paid off beautifully.

The characters entered the town of Vetch, a village of cobblestone streets and beautiful Victorian homes in the middle of the swamp. Everyone was dressed beautifully, and gave the characters funny looks for their muddy, battle-torn clothes. I let the players know that in Vetch, wearing common clothing gives you disadvantage on all Charisma ability checks. They asked if there was anywhere to get "cleaned up."

Well well well, I had happened to prepare the Holland Brothers Haberdashery. Two twin tiefling brothers welcomed in the adventurers with a smile, showing them an exquisite array of fine clothing. Here's what I showed the characters:

• Fine Clothing (15 gp) - Removes disadvantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks in Vetch.
• Stately Clothing (50 gp) - Removes disadvantage on all Charisma ability checks in Vetch.
• Noble Clothing (100 gp) - Advantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks in Vetch.
• Finest Clothing (150 gp) - Advantage on two Charisma skills of choice while in Vetch.
• A Very Fine Hat (15 gp) - Just a really nice hat.

And can you guess which product was most popular? Only one character bought Stately Clothing, and two bought Very Fine Hats. Later in the session, one final character agreed to help out with a problem in town in return for a... Very Fine Hat! All three characters (one player was absent, can't wait for him to return) were walking about town in Very Fine Hats.

We also decided the hats were made on the spot, based on what the Holland Brothers could tell about your aura and life story. So one hat was a subtle top hat made of very fine quality. Another had a long rainbow feather representing the Warlock's coatl patron. And the gnome got one off the top shelf with a lot of feathers.

For the rest of the session, whenever the characters were in conversation with an NPC, there would inevitably be a pause in which the NPC would say, "That's a very fine hat."

This really showed me that adding in random things for characters to spend gold on is well worth it!

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

That's awesome! In my experience, many players love stylish nonsense. In a past campaign, when the one character was getting married, I asked them what they bought to wear to the wedding. And they were off to the races with describing their fancy clothes.

 

[TheDelphian]

I do similar things selling character's upgraded adventuring gear that seldom has a mechanical benefit. Like the collapsible ten foot pole that had special attachments to let them maybe do things, small cup to sample something liquid at ten feet, small wedge tool like crowbar to pry at range etc.

The one player goes and gets stuff from a leather worker halfling who sells several kits worked into her carry bags so she had a survival kit belt, and healer kit bandoleer and sells many unique leather goods , satchels etc that and adventurer might like and see as cool but have no real game benefit other than being cool.


I have other games were I get them to spend money on nice clothes and food a lot. It is manily about the description and actually selling them on the idea.

 

[NotAYakk]

This reminds me of the Girl Genius story "Maxim buys a Hat" ( Girl Genius ), in that it is about a hat, and that hat is very impressive.

In case you want to have more hat-based shenanigans.

 

[BookTenTiger]

UPDATE: Apparently the players are worried that the hats are cursed and they should have done more investigation before their spending spree.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

UPDATE: Apparently the players are worried that the hats are cursed and they should have done more investigation before their spending spree.

I think the ideal outcome is that they go on a whole campaign to throw the hats into Mount Doom and only then is it revealed that they were, in fact, just ordinary, nice hats.

 

[Oofta]

UPDATE: Apparently the players are worried that the hats are cursed and they should have done more investigation before their spending spree.

Yeah, that's where I'm tempted to do the Evil DM thing "They weren't cursed, but they are now!!! Bwahahaha!!!"

 

[aco175]

You should have a NPC with a portable hat, like a magician who pulls beer out of it.

 

[Istbor]

My last group, consisting of Two half-elves, a human and two dragonborn did something similar when they were invited to the city magistrate's home for a fancy dinner.

The hot item was fancy tail 'sleeves' for the dragonborn. Considered the height of fashion in the Empire currently. They each bought 3 for special occasions.

 

[zarionofarabel]