What is the allowable use of gold found during a scenario?
An excerpt from the scenario that triggered this question, with spoilers removed:
For Tier 1–2, a sack of 500 gp (for random expenses) can be found in the desk. For Tier 4–5, the sack contains 200 pp.
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Rewards: If the PCs recover the sack in the desk, reward each tier thusly:
Tier 1–2:
Give each player 233 gp.
Tier 4–5:
Give each player 348 gp.
The reward does not reflect an even split for a party of any size, in either tier, so what's the point of the gold in the sack, other than unlocking the reward? They don't get to keep it, of course, but the 'random expenses' line suggests to me that I should allow the PCs to use the gold to pay for, say, spellcasting services after the main quest is over.
The gold provides them with absolutely no benefit to advance the scenario itself, so that's the only point I can imagine. But when I played this adventure as a player, the GM apparently actually mentioned the group finding the sack, but only added the reward gold.
Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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The find that gold in an office. The 500 gold was there for the office's random expenses, not the pathfinders. Usually the gold given is 1/6 of whatever they found, this is an early adventure, and they didn't calculate the amounts correctly.
Each PC may use the 233 gp they earned to pay for spellcasting services at the end of the adventure.
They do not additionally get the sack of 500 gp to use.
Venture-Captain, Germany—Hamburg
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yep, it is assumed that the characters distribute everything valuable they find in that room evenly among themselves, resulting in each character receiving the listed amount (233/348). This includes selling equipment looted from enemies etc.
The sack containing 500 gp is just for flavor, so the players can imagine how their characters managed to gain all that gold in the end.
(Also, if someone chooses to run the scenario in a non-PFS campaign (yes, you can actually just play it for the roleplaying adventure it is, without participating in the PFS campaign), that sack containing 500 gp will be the actual loot instead of listing a certain amount of gold on a chronicle sheet. ;) )
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The find that gold in an office. The 500 gold was there for the office's random expenses, not the pathfinders. Usually the gold given is 1/6 of whatever they found, this is an early adventure, and they didn't calculate the amounts correctly.
Each PC may use the 233 gp they earned to pay for spellcasting services at the end of the adventure.
They do not additionally get the sack of 500 gp to use.
Each PC may do this, but it will come out of their gold earned at the end of the scenario, just the same as if they had spent it using their money on hand.
Alright, thanks for the answers. So it's just a semi-arbitrary amount for roleplaying purposes, not some sort of "temporary gold" that can be spent immediately without eating into the reward pot.