Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 9551948" data-attributes="member: 6799660">Well, I'm glad the blog is called 'A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry.' <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Okay, serious thought on the first part-- yes, we got it (we all got it, a long time ago) -- it is unrealistic that D&D treats gold as the benchmark coinage*. Most societies used coins where such a unit would have been silver, because that is the precious metal commodity with the right scarcity upon which to run a currency. *same role as dollars and euros -- how much a single one matters to you differs based what year it is and your personal wealth, but you probably think of sums large or small in terms or fractions or multiples of this unit.D&D was built as a treasure-hunting game, and (IMO) naturally framed optimal treasure in units that evoked desire when sitting in treasure chests -- Hollywood-doubloon-sized coins (1/10 lb., initially), objects of art, gems and jewels (likely looking like the ones in Goonies more than realistic carats, although I don't think it actually says). Of course the coins came in all varieties, but then you summated them into GP value to convert that into XP (and the gems and art had a GP-value, not SP- or PP-values, etc.). This makes sense when the predominant game purpose of coins is to acquire them. So, I get both why D&D does it the way they do, and why someone would dislike that. Just like using pikes outside formation or wearing plate harness while crawling into dank holes in the ground, it all depends on what value you place realism. It likely doesn't change anything in the game (I've played plenty of non-D&D fantasy TTRPGs that did it, people treated the coins the same way). Serious thought on the first part -- this idea has (IMO) a lot more meat to it. The local town or even lord doesn't have the coinage sitting around to pay every PC adventuring party in coins. Instead they do so in goods, services, (titles, land), and so on. Want to turn those bolts of cloth and wagons of grain into coins? Well, that's a trip to the main city (complete with logistic details, potential pitfalls, adventure hooks, and so on). Better idea might be to trade it nearby to someone who has what you want -- assuming they want grain and cloth (if not, can you trade it to another party for what they do want?). All of this works -- if your gaming group would find that kind of play pattern enjoyable. Personally, I love such things (it gives you more things to actually do between dungeons and fights and such), but it really depends on what you want out of your game.</blockquote>

Verification