Hiya!
Ah the gold piece. The staple of the RPG economy. But why?
Because Dragons hoard Gold...not wheat, wool and nails.
((snip))
Has anyone tried using barter instead of (or in addition to) GP in their games? I like the idea of it, especially given that GP is kind of worthless in 5e anyway.
I find the question...a bit odd. I mean, it's not an either/or thing, is it?
If you were a commoner living in a village, say, you were the cooper. You build barrels and such. Your neighbour is the town's tanner. He needs a new barrel for some "tannin' liquid" (whatever it's called). Well, chances are that neither of them have much gold...so it's just easier to say "Hey, Coop...build me a new barrel for some tannin' liquid, and the first deer hide to go into it is yours. Fair trade?".
The villagers would know one another and they would all have access to stuff they and the other villagers need. It would just be much easier to trade/barter for anything significant... or even insignificant; "Olaf...I'm starving here. Feed me todays lunch and a simple dinner tonight, and I'll spend the rest of the day cleaning your stable". Using coins, especially Gold, is probably used for large purchases that take time or require large amounts of effort (re: buying a horse, or having a saddle made, or re-stocking the wine cellar). For small things, Copper and even Silver are probably used relatively often, pretty standard I'd guess. The farmers wife going down to buy some new hand rags for cleaning, for example. Easier to just toss a few copper or a silver to the tailor (?); the tailor would have more need for coin to purchase larger bolts of cloth when the merchant arrives from the big city in the spring...that merchant isn't going to want to travel with a dozen chickens, a piglet and a dozen loaf's of bread.
Once in the bigger settlements, I think coin would be more prevalent, including Gold. Lots of people can't also be bringing in lots of goods to barter with...there simply would be NO ROOM in the city to hold it all! I mean, what are you going to do at the end of the day when your Inn is filled with goods from all over? The back yard of your fancy Inn would look like Old McDonalds! Then you have to get rid of them all asap...or have to start feeding them, housing them, etc. No...for the cities, gold is the way to go.
So... it's not "either/or". Barter between townsfolk would be common...but for travelers, they're more likely to use coin as it is easier to carry 10gp than 200 chickens.
Townsfolk might try and barter for things they see on the PC's person simply because the townsfolk isn't likely to be able to get a LOT of the stuff a PC is packing around. I mean, it's not like a village has some guy making fancy belt buckles, or purple dyed cloaks with silk inclining, or metal flasks, etc. Maybe, sure, but probably not.
^_^
Paul L. Ming