AD&D Campaign Spotlight: The Role of Taxes
One of the strangest things in D&D is how often parties come home with thousands of gold pieces and nobody ever stops to ask for their share. No king, no guild, no priest. The players just walk away with full purses.
That is not how a kingdom works.
Taxes have always been part of history. Kings need to feed their armies. Lords need to keep castles repaired. Priests demand tithes. Somebody always wants a cut. So why not put that in your game?
It does not have to be complicated. A simple 10% or 15% tax is enough. Take it off the top of big treasure hauls. Call it “the king’s cut.” Players will grumble, but it will feel real. They will also start making choices. Do they hide treasure? Do they smuggle? Do they fight back?
Taxes can also create story. Maybe the tax collector is corrupt. Maybe the party is asked to hunt down smugglers. Maybe the temple demands double tithes because of a holy war. Suddenly taxes are not just numbers. They are hooks.
The best part is you can scale it. A toll on the bridge here. A guild fee there. Property taxes when the party finally gets a stronghold. It is a gold sink that makes sense and one that builds the world at the same time.
The Role of Taxes is not about nickel-and-diming your players. It is about reminding them that the world reacts to their success. Gold has weight. Gold has a price. And sometimes that price is the taxman at the door.
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Other similar tactics are a fee to store any treasure, like a bank charge.
Also, you could determine that coinage recovered as treasure is not necessarily the coin of the realm, it needs to be exchanged with valid currency before it can be used to buy things, with undoubtedly and very poor exchange rate.
I love this idea of taxes after adventuring. It is a great way to add realism and a sense of a living environment.