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It seems most legit uses for money outside of magic items are more roleplay-oriented, yes.

There are plenty of ways to soak up money if you really want to though. Horses are a good start. Besides the expense of buying them and their barding, blankets, oats, etc., the party will need to either pay regular stable fees or set up their own home base, which will likely require hiring a stable boy, etc. to take care of things as they adventure.

When they travel, having to board their horse easily doubles the cost of their lodgings. And if you go into combat with your horse, that often doesn't bode well. Most horses are just for transport. If your party is ambushed by orcs, or you leave the horses tied up at the cave entrance while you dive for goodies, chances are excellent you will lose one or two of the animals. Bang, more bucks must be spent.

In regards to home life, it's easy for this to get neglected by the party. But that could be some fun as well. I once had a party who had so much gold around level 13 or 14 they didn't know what to do with it. At that point even most magic items had lost their appeal and they were basically adventuring only to solve mysteries, set wrongs right and discover interesting stories. They had a keep with stables, and a small staff. Unfortunately they then just ignored it. But I kept deducting from their treasury as their keep's expenses warranted. Once they finally went back home, they discovered that their bank account had run dry! Without pay coming, the servants had wandered off. The horses had been stolen, and the keep ransacked as well. A group of thieves had set up shop in the upper levels.

This led to a fun session of "cleaning house", which involved some political encounters as well. The party then spent a bunch of gold and fun times laughing over all the traps, secret passages and other improvements made to prevent this from happening again.

But why have a keep, stables, traps, etc if it isn't FUN? They had the keep and stables just to not have to bother worrying about up-keeping the horses and all their unused treasure and gear, but otherwise it was mostly a GP-sink. A gold sink must not only be useful to work, but must also be fun.

The campaign drew to a close soon thereafter, so I didn't have to worry too much about keeping their keep interesting. But at some point I had considered doing a little reverse dungeon adventure! The heroes would guide and command minions as monsters invaded their keep. :D

Dec 2, 2012 -- 3:32PM, Jenks wrote:

 I want my players to spend it on their desires.  Phat loot being entirely about numbers and power levels has its place, but doesn't anybody wanna buy a castle anymore?  A horse?  An airship?

Defeat monster, level up, get loot, buy better gear. That's how its supposed to go in World of...I mean D&D.

You do know that entire process was pulled directly from D&D right?

To all those who have mentioned that PCs cannot buy magic items anymore, that is not a hard and fast rule.  It is a playstyle assumption that any DM can freely ignore.  The current playtest packet even includes suggested pricing based on item rarity.

Yeah, I refuse to play the game if it does not have magic item creation and purchasing and selling. It doesn't have to be super common magic marts on every corner, but it needs to exist and possibly be in big cities...

Yeah there will always be high level purchases.

Magic items for High magic Games
Buildings and Structures for Location based game
Followers and Hirelings for games where Mass combat is important
Spells and Maneuvers for Create Your own style Games

For example, my game is based on building a castle(s), filling it with men, paying upkeep, and conquering land TBS style so "You need more Gold" will eventually be heard.