Coinage in your Games?

[Doc_Klueless]

Back when I used to actually get to play/DM, I used to have different coins for different era and areas, until I realized that I was the only one who really cared or was having fun with it. That kind of detail really depends on the group. Most of the groups I've DMed appreciated the effort but didn't enjoy the reality.

9 times in 10 now, I'd just use the CP, SP, GP and leave it at that.

 

[kitsune9]

How important and detailed is coinage and its usage portrayed in your games? Is it just a gold/silver/copper situation or do you have different names for the coins based on where and when they were minted? Is passing ancient coins from a crypt foray bound to raise eyebrows? Has a PC ever done things in a campaign that warranted their own visage appearing on currency? Has a mint ever figured into an adventure in some way? Please tell me all you can about coins in your games.

When I ran FR games, I wanted to introduce different coinage, but all my players write down is cp, sp, gp, and pp and if they didn't know the difference, they didn't care, even if it was to their advantage (like finding rare coins, etc.). Nowadays, just getting them to keep track of their minor purchases of room for the night that costs 1 sp or a toll for 1 gp is like pulling teeth, so there's little point in forcing the issue of keeping track of different coinage. I know that if we played in a game system where different coinage is inherent to the game or if we played a modern game, they would keep track of it, but in D&D, forget about it.

 

[Tetsubo]

From my last FR campaign:

Imperial- platinum pc (pp)
Royal, sovereign or pound- gold pc (gp, gs or lb)
Ducal, Duke or shilling- silver pc (sp or ss)
Count, pence or penny- copper pc (cp or p)
Baron, 1/10 pence, tenth or wedge- copper bit (cb)
1pp = 10gp = 100sp = 1000cp = 10000cb
1gp = 1/10pp = 1gp = 10sp = 100cp = 1000cb
1sp = 1/100pp = 1/10gp = 1sp = 10cp = 100cb
1cp = 1/1000pp = 1/100gp = 1/10sp = 1cp = 10cb
1cb = 1/10000pp = 1/1000gp = 1/100sp = 1/10cp = 1cb
pp = 1oz each (8/lb), gp = 1oz each (16/lb), sp = 1/2oz each
(32/lb), cp = 1/4oz each (64/lb), cb = 1/40oz each (640/lb)
One pound Au = 1pp 6gp, 16gp, 160sp, 1600cp, 16000cb
Mithril pc (Dwarven): 10/lb, 1.6oz each = 3sp 5cp
Electrum pc (Elven): 28/lb, 0.6oz each = 5sp = 1/2gp
Orichulm pc (Divine): 4/lb, 4oz each = 1000gp or 10000sp


This is my 3rd revision of my FR house monetary system. Hopefully I've
got it right this time ;->. The system is basicly metric in nature. The
copper bits are actually a copper piece divided into 10 wedges, a literal
"bit". The mithril and electrum coins are cultural monetary units rarely
seen outside there respective societies. The orichulm coin is a magical
metal of divine nature. Very few of these coins exist, four are in my entire
FR campaign. These coins possess one unique quality (besides rarity), they
absorb magical energy like water to a sponge. Each coin absorbs this energy
in a further unique manner, each acquires unique magical abilities. These coins
can be used as magic items in there own rights or the metal can be forged
into other magic items. The created item acquires the coins powers besides
becoming extremely easy to further empower.

 

[evilbob]

Nowadays, just getting them to keep track of their minor purchases of room for the night that costs 1 sp or a toll for 1 gp is like pulling teeth, so there's little point in forcing the issue of keeping track of different coinage.

We don't even bother to track stuff like that for exactly that reason. To paraphrase Steve Martin:

Son, if you have a gold piece and you buy a loaf of bread for 2 silver pieces, you only have 8 silver pieces left. But if you have 10,000 gold pieces and you buy a loaf of bread for 2 silver pieces, you still have 10,000 gold pieces. How's that for a math lesson.

 

[Barcode]

I introduced a combination of "uninteresting" coinage and "interesting" coinage into my Eberron game.

1) Basic spending money used the gp, minted by House Kundarak and standard across the continent of Khorvaire. These had a variety of denominations, bits, pennants, scepters, crowns, Galifars, and Dragons, including half and/or double versions of the coins. There were also Kundarak-issued letters of credit, which were as good as coin in civilized areas. The actual precious metal content in the coinage was very little though, perhaps 1/10 of the face value, and would require a metallurgist to extract. The names of the coins were pretty much used for roleplaying purposes. The characters didn't really need to keep track of them if they didn't want to, and they all had large letters of credit.

2) Ancient coins were treasure, and a minted gold piece was worth much, much more than 1gp. This varied by age and degree of civilization. The baseline was that a basic coin-weight of pure gold was worth 100gp. I generally did this so that high level characters wouldn't look as a necklace made of solid gold and go "pshhh". Platinum was reserved for very rare objects of great value, even to a mid-high level adventurer. These kinds of coins could not be traded at the tavern - you needed to find someone who traded in ancient or precious objects. Since treasure hunting was a regulated activity, you would generally need to have a letter of marque and pay a portion of your take to the Crown. Either that or fence it.

3) Intelligent monsters tended to trade in crudely minted silver, copper or iron bits. A pure silver piece was worth about 1gp. If they were raiders, they might have fair amounts of Kundarak coin on hand which they would might melt down for the silver, copper or tin, or else try to sell back to the civilized world through unscrupulous humans.

 

[Quantarum]

In my homebrew with a little effort I managed to get the players to use the common coin names (bronze squire, silver noble, gold sovereign, Mithral Dragon). By mid point of the campaign the terms had become interchangeable. Ancient and foreign coins became something of a novelty. When a giant's treausre included a large amount of silver I decide it was in "giant silver pieces", crudely stamped and big around as drink coasters. The parties cleric (a gnome) was so enamored of them he carried some around everywhere, tossing them on the table at taverns. "I'm a big man and I leave big tips!"

-Q.

 

[NMcCoy]

I abstract out to tracking gold-with-a-decimal-point, and as the campaign progresses I'm expecting players to track their net worth only to four significant figures.

On the other hand, the players are currently in a town where the local currency uses ironwood coins instead of silver pieces, and spending silver within the town is considered to be something of a political statement; the party exchanged "all their silver coins" at the bank, without worrying about how much "all" is.

 

[Thondor]

Quantarum i love the "giant-sized coins for giants" idea. The players reaction makes it better of course.

The only theing I usually do is bump the value of coins up by 10 ( so that something in the PHB that costs 7gp instead cost 7sp.) I like the idea of coins being relatively rare and valuable. Plus someone carrying around 100,000 gp kinda strains my disbelief.
I also tend to use non-coins as rewards, jewelry, art objects and animal trophies (ivory, expensive pelts, valuable eggs -- dragon eggs anyone?) etc.

However I still enjoy the occaisional, a large chest containing almost 3, 000 cp. and a few other coins (and lerefore weighing 300pounds) and having the PC's try to bring it out.

I assume that smart wealth seeking PC's will have hirelings and animals/carts to help extract loot. If this is done then weight can be abstracted/forgotten.

Of course it really all depends on the type of campaign being run/type of PC's. The last campaign I ran saw virtually no coin treasure from levels 1-5, rewards were in kind or favours owing.

 

[Mark]

Quantarum i love the "giant-sized coins for giants" idea. The players reaction makes it better of course.

The only theing I usually do is bump the value of coins up by 10

That'd be a simple way to handle an inflation scenario in game, too.

 

[Ydars]

Hi Mark!

I think D&D prices are modelled on a hyper-inflationary economy anyway; at least that is what EGG intended. He wanted to have prices stable but at a level set by the fact that large numbers of adventurers have been flooding the market with gold.

This is one of the reasons none of the prices make "real-world" or historical sense; because the prices in the 1E game were not designed to reflect the real-world medieval economic system.