Gold as Economic Backbone and New Item Idea to implement it

[RyojiroSan]

Ok, first off gold has to be useful in some fashion to make it as the stable economic monetary value.

My proposal for a system that would bring uniqueness to the character's and for the implementation that gold could be viable has an economic source are twofold.

One, upon starting your character you are given a choice to pick one inventory item (No weapons for balance reasons). This item would be labeled Legendary and have its own unique color. However not a popular choice for many, but for balance sake it would have to be (EX in FFXI terms or Bound in WoW terms (god I hate wow >.> lmao)). Whatever the wording you would not be allowed to trade this item.

Upon character creation and selection of the armor piece of your choice you would get to name it, and as you level, it levels with you. This armor would have a level value also and experience points. Each level in order for you to add to its stats you would have to take it to an NPC and pay a gold fee in order to imbue any stats you wish onto the item. The item would have NO level cap. (I abhorr the idea of level caps in games). This would allow players who have capped out their character to progress even further once capped and give a reason for characters to have a main character.

Each level you attain with the armor piece would give you one stat point. Each attribute you wish to imbue onto the armor would have a pre-requisite stat point requirement. For example say you wanted +1 to all skills on your armor, it would require 5 stat points. Or if you wanted +25HP require 2 stat points, or you could balance it down so everything low tier was 1 stat point along the lines of +10 or +15HP / +10MP/ +1 Attribute or +2. Numbers are subject to change / testing and balance, however you get the general idea.

Also for example if you wanted to get added damage to a particular enemy type it would require for you to kill X number of creatures while wearing the armor. This would also give more replayability as characters would have to roam throughout the lands in order to get whatever bonus they would like.

These items would have a TEAL color for legendary. This item would be with you throughout your character life and would give a new and unique feel to your character knowing your the only character in the world with this armor and it allows you to critique your character to your playstyle and liking.

The possibilities of stats that you could imbue onto the item is limitless with your imagination.

The gold value for each increase of value would rise so it would give gold value along with decreasing the sale values of items and monster drops would be a good system to be put into place to stabilize the economy and give a good solid equilibrium to the value of items.

I also have another system in place that puts the emphasis of the game into the players hands. The bane of RPGs in todays world is that they are truely not unique and are pigeon-holed into roles. I will create another topic covering this and see your thoughts and will link it onto this once finished.

The topic pertaining to character overview: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=688084

[CaptainDingo]

Enhance the economy by removing loot? Might want to rethink your idea. :P

[deadbeater]

A simple way to make gold valuable is the ability to buy the most expensive runes.

[RyojiroSan]

Yea, I mean, because diablo 3 brought 2 new item slots into the game, and taking one away which is random per person, some might choose legs, some shoulder, some body, etc. really hurts the economy more than it helps?

Have gold used for something meaningful is a plus, also having an item that is truely unique is also a plus is it not?

Also, you could change the appearance of the item for gold price, however you must reach certain level restrictions in order to do so.

Also, I do not think runes are going to play a significant role in D3. Just my opinion, but, rather than having a static item wouldn't you rather have a dynamic item?

It is just one item that you wouldn't have to worry about attaining through drops, and you have

Head
Body
Shoulders
Legs
Gloves
Boots
Shield
Weapon
Rings
Amulets
Belt

So all in all it really is reducing the items needed for your character by around 5% if that. That is the con to such a system, however the plus side is having characters distinguish themselves from one other, give you something to do after you reach lvl 99, and truely create a character that fits your playstyle.

One has to weigh the cons vs the pros. Eager to hear your thoughts Captain.

[Hodl Pu]

I for one enjoy the player based economy. But as of now, I don't mind what happens to the currency in D3. I'll adjust right? After all, we adjust to fads and pop culture all the time... buying clothes, um.. cool new pens? w/e is big in your home town i guess.

[CaptainDingo]

I dunno, I guess I just don't understand how having one less item you need to upgrade equates to money being worth more. Wouldn't it be the other way around? The more types of armor that have to be replaced, the more items have to move around, and the more money people have to have for that?

Quite possible I'm completely lost and don't understand your idea or how it relates to gold.

[RyojiroSan]

I dunno, I guess I just don't understand how having one less item you need to upgrade equates to money being worth more. Wouldn't it be the other way around? The more types of armor that have to be replaced, the more items have to move around, and the more money people have to have for that?

Quite possible I'm completely lost and don't understand your idea or how it relates to gold.

Simply put it makes gold valuable once again. All players would need gold in order to upgrade and imbue their armor piece. That gives gold an inherent value, and makes it useful VERY useful. Not only that you get a unique one of a kind piece of equipment that you can shape any way you want.

It replaces the medieval and archaic barter system and uses one functioning unit of currency. This gives ALL items a monetary value and stabilizes the economy.

Bartering items gives gold no use, like it is in D2. Items and gold have no correlation, unless you implement a system that you have to have gold in order to increase your armors stat values.

Have I made that clearer?

[thetang]

The easiest way to have money be valuable (as has been shown in MMO's) is to have a player ran auction house. I don't know that it would work too well in the Diablo series, but it might be a nice change of pace from the endless trade shouts seen in the chat screens. It would make trading less frequent, but it would put a value on money.

The real economy of D2 was based off of trading - "What can you offer me for this great item I've got?" Thats the real goal of the Diablo series - getting great loot to make your character exactly what you want. Thats the real reason money had little value in D2 - because you didn't need money to get those items you wanted...you just traded other items.

Put some sort of auction house available where you can view LOTS of items that are all purchasable only by money and you've now replaced trading item for item as the primary economy.

[Galabab]

A simple way to make gold valuable is the ability to buy the most expensive runes.

+1 ......... 10chars ..............

[zooply]

Yea, I mean, because diablo 3 brought 2 new item slots into the game, and taking one away which is random per person, some might choose legs, some shoulder, some body, etc. really hurts the economy more than it helps?

I will have to agree with dingo here. It may not be a big hurt on the economy, but it could be used better. I'm going to go ahead and assume here that most people don't want to have to permanently lose an item slot. Instead of taking a slot on your character, why not one in your inventory or some sort of symbol for your character (kind of like Morrowind)? That way you still have the item slot free and have the same gold sink.

[Yuri The Barbarian]

I like the idea of a legendary item that levels with you.

[mithy]

I kinda like your idea, but if the item was not capped, people would eventually get "too" powerful, itemwise. Like modern day runewords. I hope they make diablo3 more skillbased, though I guess thats too much to expect for a hack'n'slash.

[Naja]

I thought the purpose of gold was to blow it all on gambling.

[zooply]

I thought the purpose of gold was to blow it all on gambling.

True (at least for D2)

I hope they have gambling in D3. Even if it doesn't work well enough to make gold the common currency, it's still a nice gold sink.

[kevink]

The easiest way to have money be valuable (as has been shown in MMO's) is to have a player ran auction house. I don't know that it would work too well in the Diablo series, but it might be a nice change of pace from the endless trade shouts seen in the chat screens. It would make trading less frequent, but it would put a value on money.

The real economy of D2 was based off of trading - "What can you offer me for this great item I've got?" Thats the real goal of the Diablo series - getting great loot to make your character exactly what you want. Thats the real reason money had little value in D2 - because you didn't need money to get those items you wanted...you just traded other items.

Put some sort of auction house available where you can view LOTS of items that are all purchasable only by money and you've now replaced trading item for item as the primary economy.

I like this idea, but I like the idea of keeping gold useless even more.

[CarsV]

A simple way to make gold valuable is the ability to buy the most expensive runes.

Or just make it so gold doesn't pour out the *** of every monster and chest, thus enhancing its rarity, value and even amplifying the concept of durability, something that in D2 is merely a hassle than anything else.

[sleep]

To be honest, I really do not like the idea at all. And I still don't see how a ridiculous item, that can't be traded or valued in any way, would affect the economy in a positive way. I can see you put a lot of effort in this idea, but I just can't see it really helping the economy in any way. It sounds like a fun item that could be acquired through a difficult quest in the early stages, but not like something that could be given to you when you start the game in a desperate effort of trying to back up the value of gold.
My 2 ¢

[dotatough]

gold cannot be currency in a game people play for weeks months years on end.
so much gold will be attained it will become completely devalued within days. even if they drastically reduce the amount of gold being dropped.

[stillman]

Unless....
Blizzard forewarns us all about a periodic "mass movement", the type of which occurs in the transverse colon. Only with gold.

So Blizzard would warn us about all the gold on bnet disappearing once a year at a specific day and time. Then, palyers have to basically get rid of all their hoarded gold by dumping it all into numerous gold sinks, buying items, etc. Then, Blizzard delets all the gold out there. It's like a ladder reset for gold only.

Buy that's crazy! Don't pay any attention to me guys.

[Frostraven]

My suggestion:

If gold is supposed to be worth something in the 1000s -- don't have monsters drop gold in the 1000s all over the place.

If gold is supposed to be worth something in the 1000s -- don't have every piece of crap armor be worth more gold to NPCs than the most godly pieces that exist should be to players.

Thus we get: Bosses could drop gold in max 100s -- matching the chance of them dropping something worth the same amount of gold.

Perfect gems in diablo ii ALMOST got the value gold SHOULD have in an online game.

1: Make gold as rare as gems in diablo ii. (1 gold = 1 chipped gem, 3 gold = 1 flawed gem, 10 gold = 1 normal gem, 30 = 1 flawless gem, 100 = 1 perfect gem.)
2: Make crap items worth as much as their gold price in diablo ii; utterly worthless, max 10 gold for super high level rares.
3: Make sure people have to repair things, costing gold, and to have gambling and have something good that can be bought for large amounts of gold.

Thus we get: In diablo iii, pul should be worth 4000 gold, if the gold and runes were balanced to equal diablo ii economy.
Make players able to hold 1 000 000 gold, and it should all be gravy.

+#% Gold find shouldn't even exist above 10% on single items.

[Littlegator]

My suggestion:

If gold is supposed to be worth something in the 1000s -- don't have monsters drop gold in the 1000s all over the place.

If gold is supposed to be worth something in the 1000s -- don't have every piece of crap armor be worth more gold to NPCs than the most godly pieces that exist should be to players.

Thus we get: Bosses could drop gold in max 100s -- matching the chance of them dropping something worth the same amount of gold.

Perfect gems in diablo ii ALMOST got the value gold SHOULD have in an online game.

1: Make gold as rare as gems in diablo ii. (1 gold = 1 chipped gem, 3 gold = 1 flawed gem, 10 gold = 1 normal gem, 30 = 1 flawless gem, 100 = 1 perfect gem.)
2: Make crap items worth as much as their gold price in diablo ii; utterly worthless, max 10 gold for super high level rares.
3: Make sure people have to repair things, costing gold, and to have gambling and have something good that can be bought for large amounts of gold.

Thus we get: In diablo iii, pul should be worth 4000 gold, if the gold and runes were balanced to equal diablo ii economy.
Make players able to hold 1 000 000 gold, and it should all be gravy.

+#% Gold find shouldn't even exist above 10% on single items.

You have to think about the player curve. Newbies will have to hunt for like 15 minutes to buy a pair of normal boots. Then, all crap items will still sell for 1or 2 gold for the newbies. Meanwhile, people who can afford 4,000 for a rune can gamble for like 3 days straight.

[Frostraven]

1-2 gold is equal in rarity to chipped or flawed gems.

You don't go hunting for 15 minutes for those, do you?

Most of my level 30 characters in D2 have seen 50-ish chipped gems and numerous flawed gems.

[MysteryNotes]

In diablo 2, uniques sell for a super low price.
Think of about 3-6k only.
If they're unique, shouldn't they go for more?
Perhaps they should make them more expensive in diablo 3.

[ManBearPig]

I posted this already in a different thread but I also believe it relates with this one.

I have an idea I think that would work great in Diablo3. What if you could spend a large amount of gold to add a modifier "level" to an item. For example, if I spend a large amount of gold or rare runes on a sword it would reach modifier level 1, which would add damage and some attack rating. For each subsequent modifier level added the cost of gold would be greatly increased and the modifiers would increase on a percentile basis based on the item level Eg. great sword,executioner,colossus.There would have to be a modifier level limit obviously, but around 10 i think would be good. Also, everyone would obviously want to be doing this to their items therefore I believe it would be enough to make gold the main form of currency.I know what I'm trying to explain is hard to understand, but Conquer Online uses a system like this. Straight from Conquers website, it might give you a better understanding of what I'm saying.

What kind of Bonuses will my item get? What does the +1 mean?

Different types of equipment and weapons gain bonuses depending on what they are. For a quick reference, see the following list. If your main item is a weapon, it will gain physical damage. If your main item is an earring, it will gain magical defense.

Weapon: Physical damage
Bow: Physical damage
Magic Sword: Magic damage
Headgear (Warrior/Archer/Trojan): Physical defense
Taoist Cap: Magic defense
Earring: Magic defense
Necklace: Physical defense, max hit points bonus
Bag: Magic defense, max hit points bonus
Ring: Physical damage
Heavy Ring: Physical damage
Bracelet: Magic damage
Armor: Physical defense, magic defense
Shoes/Boots: Dodging ability
Shield: Physical defense

Remember, a +1 bonus is not actually addition. In other words, it doesn't add +1 to the item's stats, it grants a percentage increase on the item's stats (more like multiplication). So, the +1 on a level 40 item grants much better bonuses than the +1 on a level 25 item.

http://co.91.com/content/2008-08-28/...33420444.shtml

I also like the idea of an auction house/Market. I believe this maybe could be implemented by adding auction games that would hold a large amount of people and would let everyone to set up a vendor and showcase their items. The auction games would have a small square sized map maybe with some npc vendors for repairs and what not. Speaking of NPCs, how about adding a NPC that would allow you to add sockets for a large amount of gold? The more sockets the more gold and I'm talking about A LOT of gold.

My suggestion:

If gold is supposed to be worth something in the 1000s -- don't have monsters drop gold in the 1000s all over the place.

If gold is supposed to be worth something in the 1000s -- don't have every piece of crap armor be worth more gold to NPCs than the most godly pieces that exist should be to players.

Thus we get: Bosses could drop gold in max 100s -- matching the chance of them dropping something worth the same amount of gold.

Perfect gems in diablo ii ALMOST got the value gold SHOULD have in an online game.

1: Make gold as rare as gems in diablo ii. (1 gold = 1 chipped gem, 3 gold = 1 flawed gem, 10 gold = 1 normal gem, 30 = 1 flawless gem, 100 = 1 perfect gem.)
2: Make crap items worth as much as their gold price in diablo ii; utterly worthless, max 10 gold for super high level rares.
3: Make sure people have to repair things, costing gold, and to have gambling and have something good that can be bought for large amounts of gold.

Thus we get: In diablo iii, pul should be worth 4000 gold, if the gold and runes were balanced to equal diablo ii economy.
Make players able to hold 1 000 000 gold, and it should all be gravy.

+#% Gold find shouldn't even exist above 10% on single items.

I would like to see something like this implemented too so when I say Large amounts of gold it wouldn't be like 2,000,000,000 gold...you get the point.

I'm aware my grammar is terrible :jig:

[Schpwuette]

My suggestion:

If gold is supposed to be worth something in the 1000s -- don't have monsters drop gold in the 1000s all over the place.

If gold is supposed to be worth something in the 1000s -- don't have every piece of crap armor be worth more gold to NPCs than the most godly pieces that exist should be to players.

Thus we get: Bosses could drop gold in max 100s -- matching the chance of them dropping something worth the same amount of gold.

Perfect gems in diablo ii ALMOST got the value gold SHOULD have in an online game.

1: Make gold as rare as gems in diablo ii. (1 gold = 1 chipped gem, 3 gold = 1 flawed gem, 10 gold = 1 normal gem, 30 = 1 flawless gem, 100 = 1 perfect gem.)
2: Make crap items worth as much as their gold price in diablo ii; utterly worthless, max 10 gold for super high level rares.
3: Make sure people have to repair things, costing gold, and to have gambling and have something good that can be bought for large amounts of gold.

Thus we get: In diablo iii, pul should be worth 4000 gold, if the gold and runes were balanced to equal diablo ii economy.
Make players able to hold 1 000 000 gold, and it should all be gravy.

+#% Gold find shouldn't even exist above 10% on single items.

You forget something: the only reason perfect gems were worth anything is because they were needed for crafting.
It wasn't to do with rarity. (well.. partly, I guess)
Skin of the Vipermagi is a lot more rare than a Perfect Gem, and yet it's worth only 3-4 of them.

Also putting a cap on the amount of gold players can hold is silly :yes:


To keep the numbers reasonable (which is essentially what you're doing), I would suggest every 10,000 (or 100,000 or more, whatever) gold be converted into, say, gold bars. Or maybe bags of gold.
But, as ever, the only way to make gold worth something is to make it useful, like all currencies have been in d2 - sojs, runes, pgems, these are all things that people want for their own sake, not just to buy something else.

[MauriceBastard]

The game just needs gold sinks. Gold drops should be changed from d2 to be less frequent but more meaning full, ie no 1-15 gold drops, should be 20+ per drop.

As far as good gold sinks, we've had some good ideas here already.
1. Pay to level up / upgrade items. This is a no brainer, takes gold right out of the economy initially, then adds to the value of p/p trading of items.
2. Stash size. Players can purchase ever increasing stash sizes.
3. Some kind of player properties, house, stores, guild areas. All of these could be furnished/decorated. That would take a bunch of gold out of the economy without a lot of work balancing game play changes.
4. Paid side quests, not necessary for the completion of the game.
5. Mercs have to be paid to level up.
6. Characters have to pay to level up.
7. Character customization: funky hair cuts, tattoos, ritual scaring etc.
8. Make entering nightmare or hell of the first time cost gold.
9. Loss gold when/if you die.
10. Paid "titles", like countess or duke of so and so.
11. I think the auction house idea is great, but there needs to be a SOLID selling fee there to help remove gold from the economy.
12. Paid achievements, IE luxury stuff that doesn't do anything in the game but can be shown off to other players.

It's all about the gold sinks.

If the only things to spend money on are items, repairs, initial hiring of mercs, then gold is going to have to drop MUCH less, selling items to merchants will have to be heavily in favor of the merchant, and repairs will have to constant and expensive. This sinks seem boring to me.

[RogueJuggalo]

The game just needs gold sinks. Gold drops should be changed from d2 to be less frequent but more meaning full, ie no 1-15 gold drops, should be 20+ per drop.

As far as good gold sinks, we've had some good ideas here already.
1. Pay to level up / upgrade items. This is a no brainer, takes gold right out of the economy initially, then adds to the value of p/p trading of items.
2. Stash size. Players can purchase ever increasing stash sizes.
3. Some kind of player properties, house, stores, guild areas. All of these could be furnished/decorated. That would take a bunch of gold out of the economy without a lot of work balancing game play changes.
4. Paid side quests, not necessary for the completion of the game.
5. Mercs have to be paid to level up.
6. Characters have to pay to level up.
7. Character customization: funky hair cuts, tattoos, ritual scaring etc.
8. Make entering nightmare or hell of the first time cost gold.
9. Loss gold when/if you die.
10. Paid "titles", like countess or duke of so and so.
11. I think the auction house idea is great, but there needs to be a SOLID selling fee there to help remove gold from the economy.
12. Paid achievements, IE luxury stuff that doesn't do anything in the game but can be shown off to other players.

It's all about the gold sinks.

If the only things to spend money on are items, repairs, initial hiring of mercs, then gold is going to have to drop MUCH less, selling items to merchants will have to be heavily in favor of the merchant, and repairs will have to constant and expensive. This sinks seem boring to me.

I agree with most of this. I think the OP's idea is very creative and fresh but it wouldn't accomplish much of a purpose but limiting the player's gear choices. You can already customize your character the way you've described with item drops. The one thing that I liked about WoW was its economy. In D3, players should be able to 'respec' their cahracters for an increasing cost like it does in WoW (respec means to have their skill points refunded so that they can be redistributed).

I also think that paying to have the stash size increased would be a really good idea, especially if accounts can have a shared stash (accessible by all characters on that account). The shared account could be a huge gold dump because that would have incredible use and could cost tons of gold.

An auction house would also be essential, run by gold of course. The godly items should have a huge repair cost (in comparison to the average/crappy items). Having some kind of support for clan/guilds (whatever you feel like calling them) would be a great idea also. Again, stealing from WoW, make it cost some gold to have a charter done, pay for a guild stash, and pay to travel to some places (because Meshif is probably sick of sailing us back and forth nonstop for free).

There could be some special vendors of craftsmen also that sell/craft useful items or gear that cost a fee (maybe some other materials) to make or purchase. Along with that, there could be some skills that do not belong to any class and perhaps player characters can have a limit of one or two of them at a time. They'd cost gold to train and to unlearn it in order to get another would require a respec. Ideas for the types of skills that could be used for this would be things like Sprint (Run X% faster for Y seconds) that can be generalized among any person (and therefore class, anyone can sprint in reality.) or maybe some passive enchantments cast on the player that act as a passive skill and give some kind of passive resist.

[diabloegghead]

Instead of players being able to get the best items or runes from killing the same old boss over and over again, why not allow players to buy that IST they need or Being able to buy a SOJ from NPC. In this way Gold becomes very important in order to get that ring or that last rune for Enigma........... Ive never understood why i couldnt save my gold to be able to purchase that item i need. After all is money not to buy things?

this whole thing " have a special item that only you will have" makes no sense in how that will be able to make gold more desirable? If gold is going to be important than let it do what it is suppose to do.... buy things...... There should be a dealer in game that u can buy runes or uniques or whatever....

then again all of the ideas going on in here are good... if you want the game to be more complex than fun.... sometimes the simplest ideas are the best ideas....

[superjayson]

basing the economy on gold ? that almost makes.. sense !

at least ALOT more sense than basing an economy on incredibly rare, duped items.

[ptitbob]

basing the economy on gold ? that almost makes.. sense !

at least ALOT more sense than basing an economy on incredibly rare, duped items.

As long as they can prevent gold duping :wink:

The diablo 2 HR economy would be perfectly fine IF duping was non-existant.
You can't base an economy on anything that can be duped...
How much would the $ worth if we could just make as many as we wanted on a PC printer?

There's 2 things to do to make the gold the economy basis in diablo 3.

1) Prevent duping.
2) Make it important for high level players/top players.

What is the economy based on in D2?
High runes, crafting runes, pgems.
Why? Because top players use the high runes for their items, the low/mid runes to attempt crafing elite items, and the pgems to roll charms/craft elite items.

If they want the gold to be the economy basis... it need to be usefull for a level 99.
Not for a level 50...
The high level/top players "set" the economy in diablo ( or basically in any game/system )

The great idea about a "low" thing ( even a level 1 player can find gold ) worth something for the "elite" player, is that a noob can buy some stuff...

Back when chipped were used for crafting sword, noobs had it easy... They could find chipped gems to buy a full suit of great items ( for their level )...

Now, chipped aren't worth anything anymore... so they can't trade until getting a lot of pgems/runes... which is way longer.

If gold is worth something for level 99 in D3, it'll be way more noob friendly, because a player, even if he's noob/bad at the game, will be able to trade for some stuff, if he's patient enough to collect the gold.

[Nightswipe]

Adding 5 potions per game that adds 1-5 to health, and make them super expensive.
Or adding gold for quests. Like giving money for bridgerepairs and such.

[Bladewind]

Just be sure to stamp out gold sellers...

[tommerbob]

I think your overall idea of a "bound" item is more about player/item customization than it is about gold. It's not a bad idea, but I don't think I'd go for it. It may be only one less item slot to worry about, but who ever wanted to give up one item slot? Sure you can customize it with a leveling-type system, but I think there are other ways to both increase the use for gold, and also increase character and item customization.

Gold should be used not necessarily to purchase items, but upgrade them. Remove the cube from the game, and replace it with a gem-cutter NPC that can turn 3 of your chipped gems into a flawed gem, for X gold. Or you could have a blacksmith add X sockets to an item for Y gold. IMHO, I never liked the cube much anyway.

I don't like the idea of having to pay to level up my character. Bad idea. However, needing to pay for my mercenary to level, I kinda like that.

Adding to that idea, would if we could buy skills/spells for our merc's? There could be combat-style NPC trainers for merc's, such as Wizards (for spell-based mercs), Weapon Masters (for hand-to-hand mercs), etc. You could purchase them new skills or spells to use. Or if not buy new ones, maybe modify the ones they have, like the rune-system for our own characters.

While I love the AH in WoW, using the same type of bartering/auctioning house in the diablo genre is a bad idea. D2 was all about trading. My SoJ for your Occy, or w/e. But if you add an AH, it removes all of that, and everything becomes gold-based.

Having one stash for an entire account, that all characters on that account can access, is an interesting idea. It's combining a mail box with a legal muling system, two things which D2 lacked, IMO. Not sure if it would work though.

Using gold to increase size of stash is a great idea.

Have separate areas in the game that are accessible only by paying X gold. There could be a whole bunch of different areas for this: can't cross bridge til you pay X gold to an NPC troll; gladiator arena where a powerful NPC captures rare boss-type monsters, and you pay the NPC to fight them.