Need a currency system

Steerpike · Post by **Steerpike** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:50 pm

I've never liked the default D&D currency system. In my game world, normal people tend to deal in coppers. Maybe silver is you're well off. The average person has probably never held a gold piece. So the idea of slinging around the gold for a room and dinner at an inn doesn't fit well in my world.

But tweaking the currency system is always a huge pain because all of the written game materials assume the standard system, and whenever I try to tweak it down, even holding all the values constant, it seems to be more trouble than its worth.

Anyone else use an alternate currency system where everyone isn't running around with gold pieces? If so, you mind sharing?
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Frost · Post by **Frost** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:31 pm

Do you keep the equipment prices by the book? If not, you could simply change the terminology (e.g., anything that normally costs 5 gp would cost 5 sp).
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Steerpike · Post by **Steerpike** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:09 pm

Thanks, Frost. That would definitely be easiest. Seems like I tried to do something like that with 3e and the results weren't great for some reason. But I'll look at the C&C PHB with that in mind. It would certainly be the easiest way to shift things down a notch in terms of wealth.
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mordrene · Post by **mordrene** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:12 pm

go to http://dragonsfoot.org/ and there is a document on using silver as a base currency.

Traveller · Post by **Traveller** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:15 pm

Or download my house rules, for I use copper as the base coin. I've also done the work of changing the equipment prices, so....
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CharlieRock · Post by **CharlieRock** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 12:53 am

Just use the British Imperial currency system. It's the easiest.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 1:03 am

Or, toss money aside and make the players earn every single thing they ever get, including the shirts on their backs.
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Barrataria · Post by **Barrataria** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:58 am

There were a couple good Dragon articles BITD, and I think they're referenced in recent threads on DF. Although the Joe Maccarone article is good.

From one of the Dragon articles, here's what you do:

- wherever a module, equipment list, treasure listing, etc. lists gp, change that (in your head, duh) to sp.

- change gp to pp.

- add bronze pieces (bp) to replace what used to be sp.

- leave cp alone.

So, most things will be priced in sp. 10 sp= 1 gp= 100 bp= 1000 cp.

Making your own equipment list is a worthwhile exercise, but I think it's tedious and unnecessary to go item by item to decide whether 6 torches should cost 1sp or 8 bp.... and so on.
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Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:56 am

I use a silver based currency in my campaign - and the price list from Harn. Just search for 'harn price list' on google and you should be able to find one.
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:13 pm

Stuie wrote:
I use a silver based currency in my campaign - and the price list from Harn. Just search for 'harn price list' on google and you should be able to find one.

That is what I use as well. Plus Harn material is just AWESOME!
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Traveller · Post by **Traveller** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:59 pm

Barrataria wrote:
Making your own equipment list is a worthwhile exercise, but I think it's tedious and unnecessary to go item by item to decide whether 6 torches should cost 1sp or 8 bp.... and so on.

Hmm, I must have read the Dragon article a long time ago and forgot that I had read it, since the system presented and mine are a lot alike. I use copper as the base and tin as the replacement coin, but make silver and gold far more valuable and thus far more rare at the same time. I did in fact find it necessary to write down the values on the existing equipment list because I didn't want to have to play around with a calculator to convert from copper pieces to tin pieces for the items where such a conversion matters. For treasure, I have to do the math, though this math is rather easy since I don't put my tin pieces in treasure sacks. For silver, move the decimal two places to the left. For gold, move the decimal three places to the left. Copper, leave alone.

Examples:

15,000gp = 15gp

15,000sp = 150sp

15,000cp = 15,000cp

This isn't explicitly stated in my house rules for coinage, but since the entire intent is to make gold and silver far more rare, this is one way I do it. The other way would be to convert everything to copper in a treasure trove and leave it at that, however that sacrifices a little bit of realism since the players may well ask where all the gold is.
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Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 12:31 am

I haven't too much lately, but in some of my past games, I don't change the economy more than I just work to keep the flow of cash down. No cash rewards for saving the town - but they might get some livestock, or free work done at the local blacksmith. Pay for training. Upkeep for things like weapons, armor, lodging, etc. I try not to make it too cumbersome a system, but I can't imagine my players would think they get a box of coins and it's easy, free spending on whatever they want. I try not to keep my players poor, but they have expenses just like the next person. The key for me is to not make it too intrusive. No leaving the dungeons to pay rent on their castles.
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Barrataria · Post by **Barrataria** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 3:17 am

One other aspect you might consider is: coin size and weight. In D&D, the "most a character can carry is 1600 coins". In AD&D, 10 coins of any type weighed one pound. So a mule literally cost 3 POUNDS of gold.

In the Dragon article I negligently mentioned and will look for (which I think was similar to JM's article in Footprints) the author suggested 200 coins to the pound (which is roughly equivalent to the modern US dime or .01 euro coin). This works well because merchants can actually carry a lot of money in their belt pouches (although of course your monetary system might feature one or more other forms of wealth like ingots or letters of credit or whatnot).

It also helps characters carry sufficient wealth around. Do be careful if you mess with coin size as some prepared adventures might describe huge chests filled with 25,000 coins which might not make too much sense.
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Traveller · Post by **Traveller** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 2:22 am

Already spent the time on coin size and weight. Each coin is described in the following order: coin type, diameter, thickness, weight of one coin, value in cp.

Tin 1.26 0.1 0.32oz. 1/20cp (50 coins/lb.)

Copper 1.06 0.08 0.32oz. 1cp (50 coins/lb.)

Silver 1.26 0.08 0.53oz. 100cp (30 coins/lb.)

Gold 1.26 0.08 1.06oz. 1000cp (15 coins/lb.)

I chose for my coins to be rather large compared to history, being slightly larger than a US half dollar.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 4:06 am

If it is described as huge, it could have an inordinate amount of stuff packaged inside -- it would matter only if precise sizes are provided where relative coin size is concerned. That is, it might not make much sense to have 25,000 2" gold spheres inside a 3' x 3 ' x 1' box... but, if it is said to be "rather large for a box of its type" then its OK because that leaves the exact measurement out of the equation.

But, maybe that's overthinking it.
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