D&D 5E "Fixing" electrum pieces - looking for a player's perspective

[the Jester]

If I gave certain of my players the ability to do the bolded, adventuring would very quickly go out the window.

Yeah, but that would be an adventure, since it's illegal. And bear in mind that you could only spend the marks in the one city, so you are getting rich in one location at the expense of not having any money usable elsewhere!

 

[Shadowdweller00]

Nothing wrong with that house rule. And in fact the very first coins were supposedly made of electrum, so there's a bit of historical angle. Prolly makes gold seem a bit more valuable from the players' perspective which isn't a bad thing IMO.

There are or could easily be things like standardized gold or silver bars though if the main issue is having larger denominations available.

Aside from the odd thematic treasure hoard, electrum mostly sees use in pickpocketing in my games. Because there are times when a PC gets it in their head steal from the less well off. And handfuls of sp seem like too negligible to justify the time used, but gp seems a bit too much for realism.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I see a lot of value for worldbuilding purposes in electrum (it predates any pure gold or silver coinage historically, so it makes sense as the coin of choice for ancient treasure hordes), but how nice that is from a player perspective depends on how the player feels about setting detail.

I know how I would feel as a player, but I'm weird.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If I gave certain of my players the ability to do the bolded, adventuring would very quickly go out the window.

I'm in support of mercantile ventures in D&D-style gaming. Makes a lot of sense in-universe.

 

[TwoSix]

I ran an OSR game recently where "gp=XP" was literal; the "gp" were magical golden scales found in the megadungeon that powered magitech and could be absorbed to gain XP and empower your class.

"Electrum coins" were the primary currency of the lower classes, and were 1 magical scale alloyed with silver, and made into smaller, faintly glowing, silvery coins. 100 ep = 1gp.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I ran an OSR game recently where "gp=XP" was literal; the "gp" were magical golden scales found in the megadungeon that powered magitech and could be absorbed to gain XP and empower your class.

"Electrum coins" were the primary currency of the lower classes, and were 1 magical scale alloyed with silver, and made into smaller, faintly glowing, silvery coins. 100 ep = 1gp.

That's a neat idea. I'm always intrigued by worldbuilding that makes the more abstract aspects of play literal. Reminds me of the web comic Order of the Stick.

 

[TwoSix]

That's a neat idea. I'm always intrigued by worldbuilding that makes the more abstract aspects of play literal. Reminds me of the web comic Order of the Stick.

For sure. Don't want to derail the thread, but I've been playing around with mixing OSR frameworks with some more of the NSR "specific diegesis" elements into a "LitRPG stew" for the past year or two.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

I like the ease of the decimal system for as the core baseline of the D&D fantasy economy. 1pp=10gp=100sp=1000cp.
Electrum is a natural alloy of silver and gold, so it fits right in the middle of those two values: 1ep=5sp=0.5gp

Because lore-wise for my campaign, I root the value of precious metal coins in metaphysical fact, so the value of coins doesn't fluctuate like the real world. Each of the precious metals used in coinage has inherent mystical qualities (applicable to magical endeavors) and therefore weight of the material denotes value, not economic standing.

All standard coins are 1/50th of a pound, no matter the material. However, the size of the coin may vary based on weight of the materials used, or if the coin has a hole or a different shape. A 1 lb. gold ingot or trade bar is worth 50gp because of the weight, because that is all that matters. For example: A real big non-standard gold coin/ingot that is 1/10th of a pound would be worth 5gp. 10 of those gold coins is 1 lb, which equals 50gp.

Civilizations only make coins for ease of economic trade, but it's not necessary. Merchants may use scales and reagents to weigh and test significant gold payments to make sure the material is legit. The gold coins minted by most hated, evil realm in the world are worth the same as anywhere else because the gold is the value, not the coin. That said, some coins from enemy realms are red flags to their rivals, and some rival realms melt coins from enemy realms and re-mint the gold in their own currency.

If a realm makes paper debt notes or ceramic marks, or other fiat currencies, those values may fluctuate just fine. They are just promises for real money.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I see a lot of value for worldbuilding purposes in electrum (it predates any pure gold or silver coinage historically, so it makes sense as the coin of choice for ancient treasure hordes), but how nice that is from a player perspective depends on how the player feels about setting detail.

I know how I would feel as a player, but I'm weird.

That's the eternal struggle... trying to figure out how much of this worldbuilding that is so important to me that I'm spending all this time working on it and coming up with cool and evocative names and designs will actually matter to my players at all. And more often than not, the answer is "Not really at all." Which kinda stinks, but it is what it is. Can't force them to care.

I found that greatly in my last campaign of Theros... I tried highlighting the 'Ancient Greek' aesthetic as much as I could, but most of it went over their heads or they just didn't pay much attention to it. Even something simple like changing the name of a skill like 'Persuasion' to 'Rhetoric' in order to get just a touch of Greek philosophical flavor, and renaming most of the weapons to their Greek counterparts were pretty much ignored. Like it was with changing the names of months in an in-game calendar... trying to remember these things while playing was just not worth the time. Other parts of the game took precedence.

But oh well... you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's the eternal struggle... trying to figure out how much of this worldbuilding that is so important to me that I'm spending all this time working on it and coming up with cool and evocative names and designs will actually matter to my players at all. And more often than not, the answer is "Not really at all." Which kinda stinks, but it is what it is. Can't force them to care.

I found that greatly in my last campaign of Theros... I tried highlighting the 'Ancient Greek' aesthetic as much as I could, but most of it went over their heads or they just didn't pay much attention to it. Even something simple like changing the name of a skill like 'Persuasion' to 'Rhetoric' in order to get just a touch of Greek philosophical flavor, and renaming most of the weapons to their Greek counterparts were pretty much ignored. Like it was with changing the names of months in an in-game calendar... trying to remember these things while playing was just not worth the time. Other parts of the game took precedence.

But oh well... you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink.

You're right, you can't force your players to care...but so long as the stuff you're doing isn't actually bothering them, I see no reason you can't include whatever detail you want.

DMs get to have fun too.