Let’s Make Better Rpg Currencies
I’m curious what currency systems my fellow #ttrpg GMs have dreamt up when #worldbuilding.
It’s always annoyed me how #dnd’s gp/sp/cp currency resembles the USD system so much in the way it is used, despite the fact that IRL a single gold coin would be worth more than my car. Does #WotC think my backpack is worth $8k? That makes no sense to me.
My last setting had regional apocalypse due to the collapse of their Roman Empire equivalent, which resulted in no national currency since the new feudal regime was so incoherent. There were, however, several local currencies that were gaining traction, such as:
- The goblins had a long-standing traditional currency system of specie coins, similar to that in the dnd handbook. However, anyone who wanted to mint currency could. This resulted in what could best be described as a deciduous economy. In the winter, goblin smiths would try to cheat the system by forging random gold, silver, and copper trinkets into coins to buy food with, resulting in rampant inflation. By the time spring rolls around and food starts becoming plentiful again, frustrated goblin smiths begin melting down their near-worthless coins into much more valuable jewelry and trinkets to sell, resulting in a period of rapid deflation until prices stabilize again in the fall. Often the values of the specie coins would inflate and deflate at different rates, resulting in periods where copper coins were more valuable than gold and silver coins but less valuable than bronze coins. Unsurprisingly, non-goblins tended not to bother with goblin currency.
- Most parts of the local Marches ran on a system of favors. I would have kept track of my player’s reputations as a sort of credit score, but i decided to ignore this after one player lost his mind at the idea of not being able to buy things with those dolla dolla bills he provably did not have.
- A currency system gaining popularity was formed in a local city, which resembled the British LSD system but where one pound was 360 pence, and the values of the other coins corresponded to the prime factors of 360. Very logical, and I am sure my problem player would have lost his damn mind at having to do actual math to buy things.
- The nobility did not need to bother with currency, and never have. They simply conducted barter in bulk, backed by favors and local prestige. Exchange rates were very stable. As a result, they tended to use whole 5-pound ingots of precious metals as a form of currency when barter would be unnecessarily time-consuming. However, they seemed to see barter as the more civilized form of trade, since you had to actually conduct diplomacy with your fellow nobility to make it happen, so currencies have had to overcome the stigma of being the uncivilized tool of goblins and peasants to become popular. This was, in fact, the main factor behind why a dominant currency had not emerged in the last century.
Unsurprisingly, non-goblins tended not to bother with goblin currency.
Until one of your players invents currency speculation and gets rich. Though that could lead to a cool arc where the bankrupt goblin clans come after them for revenge.
That would be hilarious, and 100% what the setting was meant for. Big open world to fill with shenanigans.
“A currency system gaining popularity was formed in a local city, which resembled the British LSD system but where one pound was 360 pence, and the values of the other coins corresponded to the prime factors of 360. Very logical, and I am sure my problem player would have lost his damn mind at having to do actual math to buy things.”
I like this.
“Credits”, which is gold IN SPAAAACE. The thing is, if you’re running a merchant campaign, currencies, jurisdictions, red tape, bribery, and smuggling can be fun. Otherwise maybe don’t even bother with money, the quest to findwhat you’re looking for is much more fun.
@acockworkorange
Love your username 💜I aim to please
I’m afraid I don’t remember the name of the system or else I’d link the rules, but I do remember playing a game where I really liked what they did with inventory and currency.
Basically, the game divorced the rules from the settings’ currency entirely. So if you’re into homebrew, that means it works equally well with gold, credit chips, reputation, bottle caps, and seashells
When you defeated a monster, finished a quest, or found hidden treasure, you would acquire LOOT. Get ten LOOT and you level up at the end of the adventure.
Instead of writing down and purchasing all of your basic equipment, you would have a certain number of GEAR points. If you found you were in a situation where you needed some item, you could mark off one of your GEAR to retroactively have brought that item with you.
I liked it because it sped up play and was super newbie friendly. You no longer run into a situation where a career adventurer plum forgot to buy torches before spelunking. It also meant you didn’t have to roll a check for each item in the dragon’s hoard to see if you could afford to feed your hirelings.
If that system sounds familiar to anyone, please let me know. I wouldn’t mind taking it for a spin again
It’s definitely not what you’re thinking of, but the World of Darkness games have a similar system in that each character has a stat called “resources”, representing their general level of wealth, and can trivially acquire any item rated less than that.
I think d20 Modern also had something similar, though it’s been years ago and I’m not 100% certain that wasn’t a homebrew rule based on WoD.
I really like WoD’s Resources background, one thing I do tend to append to the rules is separate out recurring income from lump assets.
Basically Income Resources are used up and refresh each month worth of time provided players maintain their income or have retainers keep watch over the accounts. Lump Resources are like having a big pile of gold, or a big inheritance from an eccentric uncle or just a bunch of money in a savings account. Once they’re used up, they’re used up.
I can confirm that it’s not, I haven’t tried WoD yet.
I do recall there being a similar mechanic in at least one version of Call of Cthulhu. Among all your character stats you also had a Credit Rating. I think it was left a little bit vague about how to implement it, but a successful check basically meant that you convinced the target you were good for your debt.
I got the impression that it was supposed to be more about your social credit and your ability to convince people of your honourable reputation, but I definitely used it to buy a car once.
…marvel super heroes also featured a resources ability score and feats to represent financial maneuvers akin to lines of credit; it felt frustratingly abstracted as a teenager living in a discretionary cash economy, but after several decades as a real-world adult i realise that it’s an elegant abstraction for how people actually live and conduct commerce…
That sounds like every generic/settingagnostic RPG.
Eclipse phase has a pretty cool reputation economy. You don’t use money but network and reputation to get things (mostly info and access to fablab, it’s a post abundance economic)
Letters of Credit can lead to side quest.
@Shkshkshk @rpg
Poland calls their coins ‘gold’ and ‘silver’ (though silver are now worthless due to inflation), so the USD doesn’t necessarily have any relation.I went with 1gp = 10sp = 1000 cp, so people could carry coinage more easily.
But it’s coins made of solid gold/silver/copper that players find in dungeons, bring back to town, and immediately spend. People bring their irl money intuition to the table when they need to pull prices out of their ass which results in tavern food costing, like, 10 gold coins per plate. Realistically, given the prices of the materials in the specie coins, I think players paying for stuff in gp should be treated like some rich fuck paying for fast food with Benjamins.
@Shkshkshk @rpg yea, basic expenditures needs to be in copper.
Shadoversity had a video where he spent 20 minutes saying ‘gold is heavy’, and shows that hiking with 1000 gold coins isn’t really feasible.
I have no idea what medieval things cost, so I decided 1cp = £1, and assumed items cost what you might see on Etsy (which I also have no idea about, I have done no research).
I mean, usually my #dnd players strongly dislike tracking encumbrance, so the coins might as well be weightless.
Something I think people tend to forget about is the practice of “free lunch”. Sit yourself down at the bar, order a drink, and you get access to a whole lunch menu as long as you keep drinking. It particularly makes sense if a pint of beer &/or a single lunch actually costs slightly less than a cp, so two beers would cover the cost.
@Shkshkshk @rpg
I just listed an entrance cost, all drinks included. Sounds like you basically arrived at the same solution.The beer’s gonna rot after a day or two anyway, so it’s not like the barkeep really needs to cling to it.
@Shkshkshk @malin @rpg yeah wasn’t it basically *just enough* alcohol to make it safer to drink than water?
Most beer nowadays contains some preservatives. Hops was the first natural preservative added to beer. With very few exceptions, beer is supposed to be drink fresh after a short “aging” period and starts deteriorating flavor in the bottle.
Unpasteurized beer spoils much faster. It might not rot super fast because the yeast can compete with other bugs to an extent, but it’ll sure start tasting progressively worse as time goes on.
@Shkshkshk @malin @rpg the PHB does pretty much say that coins are rarely used day to day, and most trading is done by barter or other exchange. True, adventurers are some of the people most likely to use coins, but maybe those gold coins aren’t all literal gold coins
Ah mate please don’t bring #hastags in the middle of sentences to this platform, please.
Dude they are posting from Mastodon
Yeah, I know. I recognise the @'s at the beginning of the message. Please don’t bring middle-of-the-sentence-hashtags to it. It makes the text less legible, for the sake of better SEO on… Mastodon
I find it funny that you are only taking issue with it here, in the comments, not with the original post
Yes.
Denarii where originally silver, just like dollars & Yen.
I can think of a couple systems that don’t use gold (or any other straight currency) :
The One Ring uses treasures as a measure of wealth, which above set amounts grows and gives you access to more. It’s not about spending your treasures, you’re not buying goods for currency (most of the time), instead you can afford stuff depending on your level of wealth.
Warhammer Rogue Trader (40k) while not a ttrpg still offers an interesting alternative. Since you’re extremely wealthy, earning and spending currency wouldn’t make much sense on a small scale, so instead you gain reputation with various factions by trading with them, which in turn gives you access to items you can grab freely.
The idea is the same, rather than using currency you have a measure of what you have access to. It can evolve up or down, varying what you can get over time, without the hassle of book keeping (or verty little of it).
The opportunity for shenanigans is rife with something akin to Rai Stones
