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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ydars" data-source="post: 4650857" data-attributes="member: 62992">I once used different coins for each realm as an integral part of the stories I used to tell. Haven't for a while, but that is just because I haven't tried to tell that type of story for a while. Varied coinage for its own sake is pointless; if it has no effect on a story, then why have it? For example, in one game, actually using heavily house-ruled Palladium, the land the PCs had to enter, had a hatred of foreigners because of their lack of "proper religion". One instrument of state control was through money-changing; you had to get the coin you wanted to spend in this realm at a island outside the realm and once you had spent it all, you had to leave. Coin from outsiders was worthless and money-changing within the realm was illegal. This lead to some interesting side-treks where the PCs were forced to deal with some very dubious characters to get more coin. Later, one of the sub-realms of this religious country tried to cede from the parent nation because of the unfair exchange rates the authorities were charging outsiders, effectively making their goods much more expensive (to try and crush all trade with the outside world). This was done as a punishment, because of a religious schism, and in the end lead to a civil war that was a major backdrop to the campaign. A second example is the use of different types of coin to enforce taxes. In the old days of BECMI, I used the fact that coin dragged out of dungeons was usually minted centuries ago, as a way of rulers keeping on top of PCs paying taxes; any obviously ancient coins were counted and the ruler demanded 10% of all plundered gold. This would annoy the PCs but we had great fun when they decided to smuggle the gold home, melt it down and recast it into ingots. There was then the fun of forging dies to make counterfeit coins (though they were actually of greater value than the real currency because the players didn't know how much the ruler had adulterated the metal in his coins). Having said this, coinage is just one of the many tiny elements I have used to build up a sense of vermisilitude in various games; it is never a major thing that I make any point about, just something in the background that can be used to thwart PCs who try to avoid the checks and balances of the game and to give them something apart from killing things, to worry about and to generate microstories from.</blockquote>

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