Gold in Fantasy Worlds

[LoneWolf23]

This online comic I discovered shows just how big a deal Gold coins would be in a real fantasy world:

One guardsman: "A Gold Coin! Fresh vegetables for the kids this week! Maybe little Charity won't succumb to scurvy!"

http://www.sackofjustice.com/index.php?date=20030212000

 

[Carnifex]

Actually, in the medieval period gold *was* probably the most common form of coinage, as other metals simply weren't available enough. The effect that the flow of American silver into Europe had on economies once trade between America and Europe had started up was quite impressive, especially on places like the Ottoman empire.

 

[Mach2.5]

Barter coinage was likely more popular since gold was still, well, worth its weight . . . most peasants would trade bater items or representative coinage and never lay eyes on a gold coin. Few treasuries of the time would boast the amount of equivalent coins that high level PCs can be found with.

 

[Wombat]

Err, actually the silver "penny" (change name for locale) was the single most common coin during the Middle Ages (and beyond).

In England from the time of the Anglo-Saxons through until sometime in the 14th century, I believe the silver penny was the only coin minted (numismatists, help me out on specifics here!). That coin could be cut in two (ha'penny) and quarters (farthing); the shilling, mark, and pound were accounting concepts, but with no actual coins. France was in a similar situation; I become less sure when I start talking about the Italian & Iberian peninsulas, but I'm pretty sure the silver penny remained the standard.

Of late, just to put my mind at rest, I've instituted the following change in my games: keep the costs the same, but anything labelled as gp becomes sp, anything labelled as sp becomes cp and anything labelled as cp becomes "bits" (a very small coin of low worth). Gold coins are worth 20 silver coins and are only used for major transactions.

I try not to get too into economics.

...actually, given my players, we keep very little track of day-to-day coin-counts. We run low-level games and only worry about having "enough" to get food and lodging. Personal gaming tastes only, of course.

 

[Hand of Evil]

It is the demand set sets the value. It is also the backing a the currency gets from who ever is putting it out, just because a coin is called gold does not make it so, a dollar is called a buck but does not mean it is equal to a buckskin anymore. There is a set standard for D&D on value, conversions to real life is hard.

Oh, everyone knows a shot is a drink but did you know in the early days of the west it meant the trade of a bullet for a pour of whiskey.

 

[Klaatu B. Nikto]

So how radically would it affect a campaign to switch everything to a silver standard? As in everything listed gets bumped down so hopefully gaining 50 gps actually means something. At least that's the intent. I dunno what could be below copper pieces since you could now buy 10 torches for a copper. Pieces of eight? Bits? Bytes?

 

[Benben]

So how radically would it affect a campaign to switch everything to a silver standard?

I did this for a while in my last campaign. It will really retard the item acquisition of the party if they can't afford to make anything.

This is fine if you use mostly levelled humanoids observing the same rules as the PCs. If you introduce standard monsters into the fray things will become a lot tougher for them.

 

[Centaur]

Rolemaster uses a non gold standard That I think worlks quite well.

1gp = 10sp = 100bp = 1000cp = 10,000tp = 100,000ip

gp = gold
sp = silver
bp = bronze
cp = copper
tp = tin
ip = iron

they also have a mp (mithril) worth 100gp. It is usualy not common enough to be used as regular currencey and is often found with a hole in it so it can be worn around the neck of a noble or rich merchant to show his wealth level.

IIRC things like a pint of ale are 2tp and a horse was 25gp or something like that.

if you use a system like this, it spreads out the value system a bit more and you can use a book like And a 10' Pole which is a 200 page IIRC book with tables of prices for everything for different time periods. Very cool book.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Rolemaster uses a non gold standard That I think worlks quite well.

But that is 'a gold standard', just that prices are in silver. 1 GP is going to equal 10 SP no matter where you go, it is a uniformed standard. To get off the gold standard you have to say a Tarkin GP equals 25 sp or 2 Lok GP building a conversion chart for every type of coin that your party may come across. This becomes a pain but sometimes is fun, party finds 50 gold Karken coins only to find out thet only are equal to 5 SP each but no one will take them.

If you want your prices in silver make it so.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I worked out the conversion for gp-$ once. It was for 3e, and I started by assuming that masterwork sword=damascus sword. Got prices from a couple stores and MRL, and plugged it out. Came up with 1 gp=$ 4.50. Since a dagger is 2 gp, that's 9 $, and a store near my place sells daggers for 10-15 bucks, so it's fairly close to reality. Of course, gp are still way too bloody common. Just my 2 cents.