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

[Umbran]

So my question is this. In your opinion, is a non-decimal, vaguely accurate coinage system (but not too complex!) something that can enhance a game, or just a pain in the behind?

I'll answer the question with a couple of questions: Do you find balancing your checkbook to be entertaining? How many of your players go, "Oh, yay! Coinage conversions! This is what I wanted to do after a long day at work! I'm glad I got a babysitter for this!"?

I think that illustrates where I stand on the matter.

 

[psychophipps]

Having just picked up Dungeon World, I find the flat "Coins" money system is pretty nice. Less muss rolling up different coin types, no need to convert anything, and I can honestly say that loot management (at least in tracking the coinage) has been far from orgasm-inducing over the last 30 or so years.

 

[Jester David]

It's something I always thought of as a neat idea, but is tricky because we're unfamiliar with that kind of math, and it would slow down possible conversion. Especially since silver and copper wouldn't see much use.

If this was your desire and you wanted to tweak things (and reprice the entire equipment chapter) it might be neat to add a brass coin below copper and move the value of all the other coins up, so the exchange actually matters. Keeping things simple is good. So 5s, 10s, and 20s. When you get to the 12s of shillings to sovereigns it gets ugly.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[delericho]

Having just picked up Dungeon World, I find the flat "Coins" money system is pretty nice. Less muss rolling up different coin types, no need to convert anything, and I can honestly say that loot management (at least in tracking the coinage) has been far from orgasm-inducing over the last 30 or so years.

Yep, this sounds good. It also has the advantage that the DM can they layer on whatever coin names he wants as a flavour detail without it impacting on anything else - one DM might go for gold, silver, and copper pieces, while another could go for pounds, shillings, and pence, and a third could go for crowns, crescents, and beans, and it would make no difference.

Heck, in a truly realistic system there would be a multitude of different coins in circulation with values that fluctuated with both time and location... and it would be an unplayable mess if actually tracked. A flat "coins" system lets the DM drop as much detail in as he wants, and he can just assume it all comes out in the wash.

 

[TwoSix]

I personally only use the barter system. Nothing says "successful dungeon crawl" like bringing home 5 bushels of apples, 2 cobblers and a blacksmith.

 

[TerraDave]

For years and years, I had a system that:

1) Had a variety of coin names

2) Was silver based

3) Used a version of the old UK conversion rates (the equivalent of which could be found in many other countries).

http://terra-viejo.net/SRD/Money.htm

It was fine. 1 silver mark = 1 gp in buying power, and the rest was mostly window dressing. It was really on me to do the math and not a big deal, as it did not come up that much. I do think that a silver standard does make treasure management a bit easier, but makes giant hoards of gold coins less likely.

 

[Waterbizkit]

If this is the sort of thing that a group enjoys then I wholeheartedly approve of any system no matter how complex. My group, however, is not one of those. My players don't get any enjoyment from tracking money or material value of any kind outside of how much gold they have. No copper. No silver. They don't even like keeping track of gems or art items. I had some "art items" as part of the loot not long ago and as I started describing the pieces all I got was "Yeah, but how much is it all worth?"

Do I sometime wish they had a greater interest in the things that make a world seem a little more real? Sure. But I know what my players like and I cater to them as much as I can while still keeping it fun for myself too. So our coinage system is decidedly unrealistic as is the ensuing economy since nothing costs less than 1gp. But we have fun. So if you have fun with something more complex I say dive right in.

 

[Pssthpok]

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

 

[pukunui]

a single gp is a fortune. Historically 1 sp = one unskilled labor's wage for a day. So the D&D value of 2 sp = one day's expense for "poor" lifestyle is reasonable. This means that a single gp is worth 5 days of minimal wage labor, or roughly 600$

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