D&D 5E Who else uses silver as the currency denominator rather than gold?

cbwjm · Jul 27, 2017

Shasarak said:
I tried to use the silver standard for awhile but it became too much of a pain when using modules that dont use the silver standard.

Yeah, lol Astral Diamonds

How were you implementing it and how was it difficult?

Xeviat · Jul 27, 2017

I've been strongly wanting to switch gp prices to SP, and use WoW's 100 to 1 progression to make money last longer.

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Shasarak · Jul 27, 2017

cbwjm said:
How were you implementing it and how was it difficult?

I was following an article from the Dragon magazine. I will see if I can find it but essentially any coins in gp became sp so a 15gp Longsword would cost 15sp in the new system.

pukunui · Jul 27, 2017

Coroc said:
Do you do something similar for a better make believe?

I used the silver standard in a homebrew campaign once, but I found that it didn't make the game better in any noticeable way, so I doubt I'll bother doing it again.

MNblockhead · Jul 27, 2017

I've toyed with the idea of having different currencies and standards in different realms. But it was something that just wasn't worth the extra work.

I assume that gold is the de-facto standard in all but the most isolated of communities.

I have no problem with the amount of gold. It is a fantasy world. Gold is valuable enough to be a main currency but not as rare as in our world.

Also, I assume that different areas have their own currencies but that a GP refers to 1/3 of an ounce of gold. If the local coinage has more or less gold, they will add to or remove coings to make the "gold piece", including cutting a coin in half, etc. Which is pretty accurate to how coins were treated in the ancient world.

Horwath · Jul 27, 2017

I would go with:

1pp=10gp=200sp=2000cp

copper and silver for everyday merchants,

armorers would deal in gold mostly and rarely in platinum(fullplates mostly)

unskilled laborer would earn 1-3 sp per day so 1gp that is 20 silver would be a rarity to him. And he would probably ask half his wage i coppers as it is base currency for low end merchandise.

Waterbizkit · Jul 27, 2017

I find these currency threads interesting when they pop up, some folk put a lot of effort into their currency systems. It's pretty amazing in some instances and always cool to read about.

But for my group it's all gold all the time. My players don't like tracking silver or copper and can't stand getting art objects or gems as "monetary" treasure. I remember I once had a tavern owner pay them in silver trade bars for a job they'd done... the looks I got were hilarious, it was like some sort of helpless confusion. Or maybe they were just annoyed.

Either way currency is something I sort of handwave now and while I might mix up narratively during transactions to make it feel interesting I just make the players track everything in GP. It's a win-win because it's what they like and varied currencies isn't where I need to draw a line in the sand as a DM to have my own fun.

Irda Ranger · Jul 27, 2017

Here's another point of view, which I have explained to my players.

All prices are expressed in the unit of account; they are not literal coin counts. So when I say that you find gold coins worth 1,000 gp, that doesn't mean there are exactly 1,000 coins in the pile. It means there are some number of gold coins that are worth 1,000 "standard" gold coins at a money changer's shop using standard weights and measures.

The actual coins vary a bit by weight, alloy, and purity from kingdom to kingdom, depending on the mint that made them and whether anyone has shaved off some edges. But professional money changers won't be fooled, so no matter how thin or thick a coin is, it can be converted to "standard" weights.

But we hand waive that away mostly. It's an abstraction. No one is playing D&D to play weights and measures. Sometimes I throw out that you find "400 Golden Thanes", which are larger gold coins bearing the likeness some dwarf king; and they're worth 3 GP each. But I only do this when it's relevant to the adventure for some reasons, such as "Oh, he was paid in coins from the Dwarf King, maybe he's an agent of theirs?" or something like that. Or sometimes I do it for flavor.

But then my players ask "And how much are they worth?" and I say "1,250 gp". I'm not insulted. They're just trying to keep their loot record manageable and I'm not trying to make their lives harder than it has to be.

A couple other things I do...

One of my tropes is that dwarves and gnomes can smell metals, so PCs of these races can identify metals and alloys (assuming there is no illusion magic upon them capable defeating all five senses). And while PCs can only detect the ingredients ("These coins are an alloy of silver and gold", for example), the professional money changers in town have developed their sense of smell to the level where they can determine the exact percentages. And alchemists have the ability to quickly separate out impurities and produce "pure" samples. So that's why you can always take your trade bars and non-standard coins to them and get them changed out for "standard weight, 100% pure" coins.

I've established that merchants have "standard trade gems" of uniform size and quality. "Trader's Pearls" are worth 100 gp, and "Trader's Diamonds" are worth 500 gp. When you have races like Tritons and gnomes about it's easy to produce a steady supply of these, and they're used by merchants who travel long distance, so as to avoid having to lug about heavy chests of coins.

Wiseblood · Jul 27, 2017

I get that peasants are usually poor. I get that merchants and nobles can be rich. I understand the poor and have a vague idea of how poor. I do not know how rich the rich are. When do PCs threaten an economy or a power structure with their wealth? What good is this money? DMG's for the most part discourage the use of or possession of money. (How to) Tax character resources seems to be THE objective for the DM.

I wax a bit hyperbolic so that the idea I am hinting at might be addressed better by someone else.