D&D 5E alternate coinage, ie "non decimal gold"

[Satyrn]

It's a pain. People won't even track rations past 3rd level.

This people doesn't even want to write them down on his character sheet at any level. Same for ammunition. When I was DM, I told my group not to bother, and I've been happy that my successor has followed suit.

 

[Morrus]

I like to use toy money. Give it to players in treasure, have them pay for hear out of it. Players don't have to track it - if they physically have it, they have it.

 

[Zardnaar]

Our DM tried adding other currencies to the game.

The Altmark mark (based on Prussia) and the Hawkmoth pound (based on England). They had different conversion rates between them in addition to the PHB currency. So we had 3 sources of treasure. It was quickly abandoned as it was a pain in the ass to keep a track of and the party treasurer was struggling remembering the conversion rates.

 

[Satyrn]

I like to use toy money. Give it to players in treasure, have them pay for hear out of it. Players don't have to track it - if they physically have it, they have it.

That reminded me of when I drew a pile of gold right on the battle map, and the loot hungry players got excited. Might be even more fun to have an actual loot pile to place on the map. Maybe as the hoard of a dragon. I could even lay it out to create valleys and peaks for the minis to stand on.

 

[Umbran]

I like to use toy money. Give it to players in treasure, have them pay for hear out of it. Players don't have to track it - if they physically have it, they have it.

"And now for the dragon's horde. Joe, I hope you drove your pickup truck to game tonight...."

 

[jgsugden]

Just to say it: You can have the best of both worlds. You can have the abstraction of various currencies, exchange rates and non-decimal coinage and enjoy the benefits of a simple coin system.

Old and foreign coins: Treat the non-local currency like you'd treat a gem or art piece.

Local merchants won't generally take foreign or ancient coins because they will not be sure what they are worth. You'll have as much trouble turning them into local currency as you would for a gemstone, jewelry or work of art. You might as well treat them as such.

Modern coins: Describe using whatever conversion you want, but summarize them into gold piece equivalent value. "You found a pile of copper coins in a sack under the sink. There are a few silver mixed into the pile, but it is almost all common copper. There are tens of thousands of penny sized coins in the sack, but if converted to gold it would only be a little over 15 gp (15.24 to be exact)."

 

[jgsugden]

I've used physical coins for players, too. Even if the treasure is not easily converted in game, you can have it be so in the physical currency. I did this in 4E, nonetheless, where high level PCs had treasure piles in the millions of gp.

All you need to do is give them additional currencies with higher values - and for 5E that is barely necessary. After all, treasure in 5E does not grow geometrically.

For a party of 5 PCs, I could get by comfortably with 50 Copper, 50 Silver, 50 Gold, 50 Platinum, 50 Mithril (10 Platinum to 1 Mithril - Shiny Silver Coin (each worth 100 GP), 50 Adamantine (10 Mithril to 1 Adamantine - Shiny Black Coin - each worth 1000 GP), 50 Crysteel (10 Crysteel to 1 Adamantine - Clear Disk - each worth 10,000 GP), and 50 Astral Diamonds (10 Crysteel to an Astral Diamond - Glass Gemstones - each worth 100,000 GP). That is like 5,555,555.5 GP - more than the party will ever have. 400 'coins'. Total - an easy amount to manage. You can buy some packs of plastic coins, a set of varied color plastic chips, or go get some cheap foreign currency.

 

[MostlyDm]

My experience is that GMs are much, much, much more interested in setting details than players. It's a rare player (and probably someone who spends a lot of time GMing) who bothers with things like coinage, calendars, racial cultures, etc. I've played in games where I made references to setting (Greyhawk) details that the GM didn't care about, like human sub-races (I played a Baklunish character with some cultural impacts).

I don't see a problem with naming the coins. Some players may adopt the names, others won't. Adding extra math will almost certainly cause frustration.

Probably true. I love stuff like this, but you can see my username.

I often GM for other GMs, too, so we dig stuff like this.

I've done various systems in the past, including one case where the three major areas each had their own sets of coinage... One was loosely based on British currency, one a decimal system, and another totally different one.

Some players had fun with it. Other players just tried to convert to their currency to the decimal system whenever possible.

Such systems generally work best when you don't have to constantly convert PHB prices. That's the biggest hassle, IMO.

 

[thalmin]

I didn't mean 1 gp = $1 in actual in-game value. I just meant that it helps me get my head around the D&D currency to think of it that way. Heck, the copper and silver pieces are even the right colors for pennies and dimes! ;P

In the US, we even have "gold" colored dollar coins, though almost nobody uses them (In fact many people almost never use any currency, using credit/debit cards or Apple-pay all the way.)

 

[pukunui]

In the US, we even have "gold" colored dollar coins, though almost nobody uses them (In fact many people almost never use any currency, using credit/debit cards or Apple-pay all the way.)

Here in NZ, we have gold $1 and $2 coins. They still see a lot of use. You'll often see places asking for a "gold coin" donation.