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Jul 24, 2011 -- 11:15AM, Vexar wrote:

I've been getting back into DMing for Dungeons and Dragons 4e lately. New players abound at my local shop.

The issue that I am having is my players are getting wealthy, fast. Typically only four players through three encounters are walking out better than they would have if they were fighting under the wealthiest nations flag.

Do any of you have any tips or suggestions? I've come to the conclusion, so far, that lowering the rewards by half seems to pace things alright. Letting Level 1's start off with only 5 gold and basics for gear.

This just feels wrong though.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

-DM Vexar 

I use the level treasure budget of 2xPC's level in magical items = Treasure for 5 guys.
For example 1st level PC's =720gp of treasure plus 3 magical items of level 2-5

or 5th level party 2000gp in treasure for the level, plus 3 magical items of 6th - 9th level.

Then I just drop the treasure in during the adventure by dividing it between minor end of adventure encounters and the final end of level encounter, usually giving the bigger amount to the end of level adventure.

E.g 5th level party and the Dragons horde, it consists of 500gp( Gold,Silver and some copper), 100gp in bejewelled sword, a stature of Corellon-Elven god made of silver with gold embellishment and gems for eyes( 250gp), 2x gems worth 50gp, 5xgems worth 10gp = total 1000gp. 

Well, adventuring pays better than being a soldier in an army, so you can expect them to be wealthier than mercenaries of the richest people around. The treasure parcel system (DMG p. 126) gives your players a standard amount of money and magic items, and can be adapted for the number of players. The idea is that you give your players all those items over the duration of one level.
The newer (but not necessarily better/worse) system has you rolling for treasure. Based on the level, you roll 4d20 every time you want to hand out treasure, and based on the result you give them gold, gems, art objects and magic items for each dice roll respectively. This can all be found in the Dungeon Master's Book starting at page 246.

Stick to these limits and your players probably won't get that superrich.
But they will still become pretty rich if you remember that one silver piece is roughly worth one dollar, if not more.

Also, some more information regarding why and how you think your players are getting too much money, like examples, would help people help you. 

Jul 24, 2011 -- 11:15AM, Vexar wrote:

I've been getting back into DMing for Dungeons and Dragons 4e lately. New players abound at my local shop.

The issue that I am having is my players are getting wealthy, fast. Typically only four players through three encounters are walking out better than they would have if they were fighting under the wealthiest nations flag.

Do any of you have any tips or suggestions? I've come to the conclusion, so far, that lowering the rewards by half seems to pace things alright. Letting Level 1's start off with only 5 gold and basics for gear.

This just feels wrong though.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

-DM Vexar 

Given a gold piece amounts to a week's wages for a soldier I suggest you simply allocate then an assortment of 'old and poor quality equipment' to their starting wealth value and loose currency in the poorest coin possible based on social class (copper for poor, silver for merchant, gold for noblemen).

Treasures can be monstrously wealthy. Given the recent discovery of a treasure hoard in only one of six vaults in an Urban located Hindu Temple in India of 36 billion dollars (translates to about 15 million gp), Discovered treasures can be monstrous even for first level PCs. Its their capacity to get away with the wealth that defines them.

If they are getting too rich then introduce greed. Villagers who see them flashing gold around will gang up and rob them while they sleep. Local Authorities might sieze the assets of a wealthy individual in the guise of 'Taxes' simply to reduce the fortunes of the victim. Nobles have been known to confiscate the assets of Merchants and lesser nobles alike simply because they have blown their own dough and resented the prosperity of their rivals. It isnt uncommon for a noble to force a wealthy adventurer or merchant to loan a noble money that isnt paid back. A Merchant house in japan had loaned assorted nobles and officials some staggering hundred million ryu at the time the shogunate 'confiscated' it's assets.

Have some local bureaucrat start screwing the PCs for all they are worth.

Also, if your PCs spend money on non-magic items or consumables, make sure that you give them more money the next level or something, so that their expected wealth level stays roughly the same (don't do this if all they did is give 2 cp to a beggar).