DrunkonDuty
he/him
There's been multinational banks since the middle ages: The Fuggers, later the Medicis. Others whose names I can't recall. It could be done. and huge fortunes could be made. But the bankers always ran the risk of having Kings and Emperors refuse to pay their debts. There's not much a humble ( 
)banker can do about that. It was this that ruined the Fuggers IIRC.
I'd like to suggest that in an RPG there's the virtual economy and there's the metagame point keeping system. Although both can be called economy they are distinct systems. (Hmm. I say that, but I feel someone will show me how they overlap somewhere, at least sometimes.) The meta game one is mostly a method of keeping score. The virtual one is a narrative tool.
I'd like to put forward an example of how having a virtual economic system can be beneficial to actual play:
In my current campaign I am basing a major plot point on the banking system. In short: Banks are based on dwarven clans, each clan having their own bank. The banks use letters of credit backed up by precious metal. One bank has lent out much more in credit than it has gold to back its promisary notes. (This behaviour works in a modern economy, NOT in a medieval one as in my game.) To make matters worse my BBEG then robbed this bank's vault. Cleaned it out. The bank didn't say a thing as they were scared of a run, total collapse and scandal coming to light. So they went along as if nothing had happened. When the BBEG was caught (alive, unfortunately for all) the bankers were forced to make a deal with the BBEG to get their money back and to keep her silent.
This has left us with a situation where the BBEG is theoretically serving a life sentence doing hard labour but is really now working to subvert the bank and the clan. This BBEG is a cleric of Abbathor and is working from inside to destroy the Dwarven kingdom. She's using her high charisma and cunning argument to convert the leader of the clan to worshipping Abbathor. She is encouraging the continued use of loaning more money than the bank has. ("Don't worry, once you're far enough ahead you can stop and it will all catch up." "Just this one more time." "Abbathor sees nothing wrong here.") And to make things even more fun this is the clan of the PC who just happens to be the one who captured said BBEG and is her particular enemy.
Ah good times!! And all thanks to having a virtual economy.
All this assumes certain controls on money. I haven't spelt them out but I assume: assayers to value coinage, laws to define the amount of metal in coinage and regulate exchange of letters of credit, courts to enforce said laws. I haven't mapped any of this out in detail. I have a rough idea and keep notes of what I do use in play so that I can refer to it later if needed.
I would like to point out that where there's a a spell to determine the actual purity of metal, there'll be spells developed to fake it. There'll always be forgers and coin shavers. It's part of the fun.
On the metagame economy:
I don't keep exact track of how much cash the PCs have, I leave that to the players. A rough guestimate is OK. Nor do I have magic wal-marts. It's a low magic item game. So strict accounting by players and DMs is not necessary. They are rich enough to have virtually any non-magic gear they want. I have tried to use more realistic names, such as saying "silver" instead of "gold" but I, and the players, just fall out of the habit and back into DnD slang. In the end it's just names.
cheers all,
Glen
)banker can do about that. It was this that ruined the Fuggers IIRC.I'd like to suggest that in an RPG there's the virtual economy and there's the metagame point keeping system. Although both can be called economy they are distinct systems. (Hmm. I say that, but I feel someone will show me how they overlap somewhere, at least sometimes.) The meta game one is mostly a method of keeping score. The virtual one is a narrative tool.
I'd like to put forward an example of how having a virtual economic system can be beneficial to actual play:
In my current campaign I am basing a major plot point on the banking system. In short: Banks are based on dwarven clans, each clan having their own bank. The banks use letters of credit backed up by precious metal. One bank has lent out much more in credit than it has gold to back its promisary notes. (This behaviour works in a modern economy, NOT in a medieval one as in my game.) To make matters worse my BBEG then robbed this bank's vault. Cleaned it out. The bank didn't say a thing as they were scared of a run, total collapse and scandal coming to light. So they went along as if nothing had happened. When the BBEG was caught (alive, unfortunately for all) the bankers were forced to make a deal with the BBEG to get their money back and to keep her silent.
This has left us with a situation where the BBEG is theoretically serving a life sentence doing hard labour but is really now working to subvert the bank and the clan. This BBEG is a cleric of Abbathor and is working from inside to destroy the Dwarven kingdom. She's using her high charisma and cunning argument to convert the leader of the clan to worshipping Abbathor. She is encouraging the continued use of loaning more money than the bank has. ("Don't worry, once you're far enough ahead you can stop and it will all catch up." "Just this one more time." "Abbathor sees nothing wrong here.") And to make things even more fun this is the clan of the PC who just happens to be the one who captured said BBEG and is her particular enemy.
Ah good times!! And all thanks to having a virtual economy.
All this assumes certain controls on money. I haven't spelt them out but I assume: assayers to value coinage, laws to define the amount of metal in coinage and regulate exchange of letters of credit, courts to enforce said laws. I haven't mapped any of this out in detail. I have a rough idea and keep notes of what I do use in play so that I can refer to it later if needed.
I would like to point out that where there's a a spell to determine the actual purity of metal, there'll be spells developed to fake it. There'll always be forgers and coin shavers. It's part of the fun.
On the metagame economy:
I don't keep exact track of how much cash the PCs have, I leave that to the players. A rough guestimate is OK. Nor do I have magic wal-marts. It's a low magic item game. So strict accounting by players and DMs is not necessary. They are rich enough to have virtually any non-magic gear they want. I have tried to use more realistic names, such as saying "silver" instead of "gold" but I, and the players, just fall out of the habit and back into DnD slang. In the end it's just names.
cheers all,
Glen
