A cheap alternative to Campaign Coins

[Dannyalcatraz]

Another suggestion: cheap plastic poker chips and cans of spray paint...

 

[Morrus]

Here are the latest acquisitions. The green and white crystal things mentioned above, and the four giant 4-inch gems (ruby, sapphire, emerald, diamond).

More assorted plastic junk to arrive today, I hope!

 

[TarionzCousin]

My treasure haul grew again today with the discovery of a large bowl of green and white crystallish stones in the kitchen cupboard. Goodness knows what they were doing there, but they are now officially uncut emeralds and diamonds!

Does DCYC know you took these? They may be her magic charm to attract more shoes.

 

[nillic]

After seeing Campaign Coins for the first time at GenCon several years ago I purchased a set and started using them. My players loved it, mostly, but here's some things to consider if you are going to use money props (I was running an AP but I'd caution against the same things no matter what)

1) If you don't have every encounter's worth of money counted and planned in advance using money can really slow things down. This was the main complaint from my players, and admittedly my fault.

2) If the game isn't happening at the GM's house hauling around rulebooks, pencils, gm supplies, maps, etc is already a pain. Adding the entire party's treasure to this (especially if it's metal) is another thing to fret over.

3) DON'T LET YOUR PARTY MEMBERS TAKE HOME THE GOLD. I had a guy drop out because he was moving, and before I could get ahold of him BAM. I lost coins, luckily they were only 2nd level and I only lost a few.

These are just some things I ran into while using them. But personally I love props, about 10 or 12 years ago InQuest magazine ran an article about making potions, maps, and treasure for games and it's something I've loved ever since.

 

[Morrus]

Does DCYC know you took these? They may be her magic charm to attract more shoes.

Well they're mine now!

 

[Morrus]

This is everything so far.

 

[Nytmare]

Also check the candy isles.

Man, what level do you think you need to be to clear those out?

 

[Morrus]

Aha! My treasure chest has arrived. It's awesome!

 

[nedjer]

Aha! My treasure chest has arrived. It's awesome!

Every GM should have a hoard like that - just so we can occasionally reach into it and then brandish the loot in front of players' greedy eyes - before sometimes slowly pouring it back in and closing the lid when the gameplay snatches the prize away

 

[Janx]

Aha! My treasure chest has arrived. It's awesome!

that is cool. definitely sound advice to not let players take the props home. Though these are cheaper, loss of materials still is a hit.

One thought to consider, to keep from having to truly horde up all the money a party of PCs will ever earn, is to setup a form of banking or storage, such that a player can hand you 1,000 GP and say he stores it in his treasure vault at the castle or some such.

In this way, the GM get's 1,000 GP of coins back for re-use in the next treasure horde, and players aren't accumulating and carrying 1 million gold coins because that's what their PC has.

Basically, a bit of a hybrid of the coins as money and the old-style paper accounting.

Assuming some maximum threshold of practical carrying capacity for gold, it would limit the need to actually buy enough coins to model ALL the wealth the party could possibly aquire.

How far are you going with the real props for gear thing? Rings, wands, rods and staff?

I used a card system for my own PC's gear. it worked alright, but in some ways was more cumbersome than the traditional char sheet.

In some ways, I think a game with less treasure/magic items would work well, because it is easier to model with physical props (less items to buy/make) and it's rarity keeps each item special.

I forget if you linked where you ordered the plastic money and gems from, but it sounds like you found a pretty good cheap source.

Tell us how the gaming turns out with this phat loot