General Discussion Thread X

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Firefox is extremely slow for me currently, or at least it feels like that. Maybe I need a patience upgrade.

I use Firefox and I detect no difference in speed. Perhaps it's your ISP?

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

What should we do about coin weight? I've been ignoring it unless a huge quantity of coin is being carried (more than a thousand coins). RAW say that 50 coins weigh 1lb. I've never actually played where coins count against weight. What does everybody think?

 

[Wik]

I don't usually play where coin weight matters, but that's in face to face play, where a GM has other concerns and cant' spend time tracking such stupid little things.

Here, I think we have the leisure to do it, and we should pretty much follow RAW whenever possible. I'd say keep it. But maybe introduce an Orrussus bank (maybe run by a temple, to simulate the middle ages?) that can deal in holding large amounts of cash?

Or, as an interesting twist, something I did in an old campaign involved using paper money. Could be a neat turn.

Finally, in my last adventure, the PCs all got letters of credit worth 200 GP, instead of actually receiving 200 GP. I think that might be a good idea for GMs worried about too many GPs weighing the group down.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Yeah, that's why I always switch my money to platinum at the first possible chance. Fortunately, since we're talking about Sairundan, Lasair does have a Handy Haversack. But wow! Those guys had tons of copper. I don't know how two men alone could possibly have been carrying around that much by themselves.

 

[Solange]

I've always though that was mostly some kind of hand wave thing.

 

[Bront]

I've been ignoring it unless a huge quantity of coin is being carried (more than a thousand coins)

I agree with this idea.

Given we realy don't have a bank setup, it's a lot to figure out how much it weighs when you're carrying it, and unfair for penalizing players when they can either save it on their person, or spend it.

I also think that is just WAY too much math to ask players and GMs to do for the most part.

 

[Someone]

But maybe introduce an Orrussus bank (maybe run by a temple, to simulate the middle ages?) that can deal in holding large amounts of cash?

Or, as an interesting twist, something I did in an old campaign involved using paper money. Could be a neat turn.

Finally, in my last adventure, the PCs all got letters of credit worth 200 GP, instead of actually receiving 200 GP. I think that might be a good idea for GMs worried about too many GPs weighing the group down.

There was an old proposal by b4cchus about banking that fell in the pits of oblivion. I suggested the temple bank like in the antiquity there.

Anyway, it's been stablished in several adventures that the world has a relatively advanced level of trade and commerce, and letters of credit have appeared in several of them. I think that the fact that some kind of banking exists is already stablished, if only because is a natural development of an increased trade.

 

[Boddynock]

I keep track of coin weight for my characters, and while it's a hassle, it's not really that difficult to multiply total number of coins by 0.02 to get weight in pounds. I guess I've always enjoyed that little bit of extra realism ("I told you that bag of 500 coins would slow you down."), and there's an historical game element, in Gygax's choice to give huge amounts of copper as treasure ("Tell me again just how you're going to carry that out of the dungeon?").

There are ways around it. RA spoke about converting to platinum ASAP. Personally, I like gems (a part of the game underused in the my experience) but as Somone pointed out, letters of credit are another way around it (just so long as you don't expect the innkeeper in that out-of-the-way place to give you change).

Of course, if you have all your funds tied up in a single, highly portable unit such as a gem, it would be such a blow if some rotten so-and-so stole it from you! But then, surely only a RBDM would even consider such an underhanded ploy (all in the name of roleplaying, of course).

Oh well, I don't really mind either way. Just wanted to point out that the idea wasn't wholly without merit.

Mind you, one way to simplify might be to round down to the nearest 50 coins. That way, we'd only have to deal with whole pounds (as opposed to halfpennies )

'Nock

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

At the beginning of Sojourn, Joe gave Shadya a bill of lading which she cashed at a local bank. We didn't specify anything about the bank, it could be a religious institution or a secular one. But a bank definitely exists. And as Wik said, letters of credit have been distributed and used as well. I prefer sticking to the coin system over switching to paper. Gems and jewels are great as well, though I think there's a certain lack of liquidity because it requires an appraise check to determine their value.

While this does apply to Sojourn, I'm really asking because of character approvals. I propose this: DMs may handle coin weight in their own adventures as they see fit, but by default round coins down to the nearest 1000 and determine the coin weight from that. A gem or a jewel counts as a single coin, and letters of credit or bills of lading weigh nothing. So 999 coins weigh 0lbs, 1000 coins weigh 20lbs, and 3450 coins and 50 gems weigh 60lbs. This way, characters can carry around change to spare, but they still have an incentive convert their coin into more portable currency.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

But wow! Those guys had tons of copper. I don't know how two men alone could possibly have been carrying around that much by themselves.

The cashmonies were stashed away, so they weren't exactly carrying it around everywhere they went.