A simple few questions

[Treebore]

Not to derail the thread.. but
[MENTION=10177]Treebore[/MENTION] I would enjoy hearing about how you have your PC's draw the map and have it not take *more* time than doing it yourself. Draw it like that.. no that long.. I would love to do this but I am yet to find a way to have the do it effectively.

/On Topic/
I personally do not force a conversion fee on gold/platinum etc unless it is a hefty sum, or it something being translated to a per lb cost. (Platinum bars rather than coins.) It might not be accurate in terms of history, but I find it works quite well for our group so I keep it.

At first, like with any new experience things move slowly, but with practice/experience, the pace picks up.

We use over sized graph paper for mapping the "dungeon". I use a dry erase laminated map I got from Paizo to draw out the "battle map", if I am not using my tile sets. I believe the graph paper we use is 11 by 17.

I draw the first room, positioning it at the most optimum location on the paper, so they will be able to put as much as possible on the first sheet. From there I will describe what they see, such as, "You see that the hallway going out the North wall goes 20 feet and ends in a "T" section."

I clarify as necessary based on what they ask and what I see them drawing, and keep them on track and as accurate as possible. If I see something come up to where they are making an error I decide from there whether or not to correct it right away or let them discover the mistake later. Unless its going to create a big mistake with a lot of erasing and redrawing, that wastes too much time for not a good enough reason.

Plus, when your done you have a hand drawn map with all the little notes the players decided to mark down, and its a nice "record" of your game sessions in that dungeon. Just a nice "touch" and a important enough "record of events" that my players find worth doing. So for us, its worth the extra time and effort to have a map as we go, and especially when we are all done, that was made by "us", rather than a print out.

So I do two kinds of maps with my group. The group map, that lays out the whole dungeon/castle/manor/whatever, and then I do up "battle maps" using either dry erase or my tiles, dependent on what I am in the mood to do, when the specific encounters occur.

So that sums up how we do our mapping, and why.

 

[haakon1]

What was the deal with labeling the dollar San Francisco or Boston? I just assumed that was for identification purposes for determining forgeries and other illegal activities. There was no difference in value, correct?

It tells you which Federal Reserve bank issued it, and it's only on the $1 bill that it actually spells out the city -- the $10 and $20 have the same coding, but don't say the city. That's because the higher notes are redesigned more recently versus counterfeiters, whereas the $1 bill is an older design.

My guess is each bank wanted "credit" for its work on the bills originally, whereas in more recent designs they toned it down because the Fed doesn't see the point.

There's never been a difference in value for Federal Reserve Notes (since 1913, I believe), but in early America, banks and colonies/states issued their own money, which devalued at different rates. Thus the popularity of the stable, reliable Spanish dollar/pieces-of-eight. (Two bit, as in 25 cents, is actually referring to 1/4 of the Spanish dollar, or 2/8 of a pieces-of-eight coin. It was an 8 real coin to the Spanish, but English speakers applied the name of a similar German coin (thaler) to it.)

(BTW, San Francisco is actually L, not K. I live in the Seattle area, and the most common cities in my wallet are F (Atlanta), L, B (NYC), and A (Boston) -- it seems the larger cities print more notes.)

 

[garrowolf]

I was thinking in terms of a medieval campaign. Previous to banks making notes of value which became paper money after a while only a few nations actually printed coins. The only reason that you would have money changers is because they would have the coinage of the realm if you were near a border. You would have two money changers at least. One would have a scale and a lot of one realm's coinage such as the Roman coins. Then the other would have a lot of Persian coins and a scale. (They might not have a scale if both nations didn't devalue their coinage occasionally like the Romans did) You take your Persian coins to the money changer with the Roman ones and he weights them to find the value of the metal. Then he gives you the Roman coins that he has already weighted (theoretically but he would more likely give you underweight coins). Once he has too many of the Persian coins he trades with the other money changer and the process repeats. You would normally have several money changers in a group with a merchant who actually is the one who owns everything watching over and a circle of guards around them. The money changer would get a few coins of the kind that he is changing for the service. However keep in mind they were trading based on weight on a scale. It didn't mean that the money changer could actually do math more then count. To have him to do a percentage makes no sense. It would more likely be a number of the coins that he is changing so if you go up to one and ask how much he would say or hold up three fingers. Then if you change gold then he takes three gold. If you change silver (MUCH more likely) then he would take three silver. If you wanted to change all your silver into gold then he would probably take some silver at the same rate.

 

[haakon1]

Medievalism (and Greyhawk specific idea)

I was thinking in terms of a medieval campaign. . . .
However keep in mind they were trading based on weight on a scale.

I think in medieval campaign, the idea of moneychanging being legally required to trade doesn't make sense.

I think you are correct that the weight of the coins and their purity is what matters to the medieval mind.

I think you are incorrect that the typical medieval state can enforce a uniform currency monopoly. Just as medieval states didn't have as much of a monopoly on the legitimate use of force as modern states, they didn't have as direct control of the economy.

So I figure the "change Furyondian sp's for Dyvers sp's if you want to buy stuff in Dyvers" is silly -- entire regions are likely to use the coinage of whoever mints reliable coins in high volume. Therefore, I rarely pay attention to the source of coinage in my campaign, unless it's exotic or ancient.

Here's how I'd do Greyhawk, if asked:

1) Rel Astra was the original mint of the Great Kingdom. It's coins have always been reliable. It's a death penalty crime against Drax the Invulnerable's authority to counterfit or shave a Rel Astran coin in that fair city.

2) Northern Aerdy, Ahlissa, and other successor states to the Great Kingdom, the Iron League, Ratik, and the northern barbarians all use and prefer Rel Astran coinage to anything else. Under Ivid the Undying, the GK coinage was debased, so recent coinage from Ahlissa or Rauxes gets a 20% discount. But Ahlissa is now once again minting full value Great Kingdom coins, and is Irongate. They are accepted at par with Rel Astran coinage if they are recently dated (post 585 CY), but for older coins, they need to be weighted, because Ivid even (horrors!) faked the date stamp on debased coins.

3) Nyrond also issued coins, on par with those of the GK. During the war, it too debased. Now it's trying to go back to full value. There's a 20% discount for coins with 583-584 date stamps. Rel Astran and Furyondian coins are often uses, and preferred.

4) Dyvers issued the GK coins for the old Viceroyalty of Ferrond -- Dyvers, Furyondy, Veluna, and surrounding areas, including what's now the Empire of Iuz. Dyvers never debased, so its coins are preferred through most of the Nyr Dyv (and in Blackmoor), but are interchangeable with Nyrondian coins except those with the offending date stamps (which were never faked by the mint). Rel Astran money is good throughout this region.

5) Keoland issues its own coins, but just as its nobility adopted the language of the GK, they also aped its coinage. Keoish coins are fine throughout the Sheldomar Valley and in Greyhawk, and Rel Astran coins are accepted as a normal part of the currency.

6) In Greyhawk City and Cauldron, all coins are accepted, except debased coins of the 583-585 CY period in Nyrond, and any coins from Rauxes or Ahlissa (as it's too hard to tell which are faked). Most coins in circulation in Greyhawk are from Dyvers or Rel Astra. In Caudron, they are mostly Keoish.

7) Bissel uses Keoish or Dyvers coins, and will (like nearly everyone else) take Furyondian or Rel Astran coin without complaint. Baklunish coinage is illegal and must be exchanged.

8) Perrenland is like Bissel, except it also takes Baklunish coins.

9) Baklunish coins are most often minted in Zeif and are generally not accepted in non-Baklunish lands. The Tiger Nomads, Wolf Nomads, and Rovers of the Barrens rarely use coins, but if they do accept them, Baklunish or Dyvers are what they want. The rest of the East doesn't like Baklunish coinages because they are too different from the GK standard (Baklunish coinage prefers triangular electrum pieces), plus there's political hostility between Bissel's allies (Keoland and Veluna-Furyondy) and the invaders of Bissel.

Other campaign worlds, of course, may have quite difference economic histories.

 

[Treebore]

They may or may not be able to calculate "percentages", but they do know they get two units out of every 10 units they weigh out.