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<blockquote data-quote="Empirate" data-source="post: 6283286" data-attributes="member: 78958">...and in the Middle Ages, the perfectly fine silver denarii from two towns over were worth exactly nothing at the local market, because the local merchants were heavily fined if they accepted them. You first needed to exchange your coin for local specie - at one of the authorized moneychangers' stalls, of course, and at a significant discount, netting you maybe 75% of the 'foreign' coins' worth in silver. The local count or town council would share the proceeds with the moneychangers. Just sayin'!Also, on the subject of Common: I like to assume that the 'Common' tongue is like a merchant pidgin, a lingua franca used mostly for trade, thus very limited in its vocabulary and nuance, and spoken with a heavy 'accent' by everybody. So, you know, language skills are actually useful, like they are in the real world: most everybody can converse in heavily broken English, but most people in the world cannot communicate on difficult or abstract topics in English, preferring their native language for that.Oh, and concerning fetch quests: I'd rather make them general than specific!Don't go &quot;you need the ashes of a burned assassin vine from Greenwood Forest&quot; or &quot;you need the blood of a red half-dragon centaur&quot;. Instead say something like &quot;the ritual calls for the ashes and blood of magical creatures, the more powerful and unusual, the better; it also needs something precious to each of you, something that was found by chance, something that is stolen, something that is black, and something that will not be missed&quot;. If the PCs want a powerful and efficacious ritual, they better put some thought into what kinds of items they want to use, and how they can strike a good balance between the power of the ingredients and the ease of getting them. That would play to pen&amp;paper's strength!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Empirate, post: 6283286, member: 78958"] ...and in the Middle Ages, the perfectly fine silver denarii from two towns over were worth exactly [I]nothing [/I]at the local market, because the local merchants were heavily fined if they accepted them. You first needed to exchange your coin for local specie - at one of the authorized moneychangers' stalls, of course, and at a significant discount, netting you maybe 75% of the 'foreign' coins' worth in silver. The local count or town council would share the proceeds with the moneychangers. Just sayin'! Also, on the subject of Common: I like to assume that the 'Common' tongue is like a merchant pidgin, a lingua franca used mostly for trade, thus very limited in its vocabulary and nuance, and spoken with a heavy 'accent' by [I]everybody[/I]. So, you know, language skills are actually useful, like they are in the real world: most everybody can converse in heavily broken English, but most people in the world cannot communicate on difficult or abstract topics in English, preferring their native language for that. Oh, and concerning fetch quests: I'd rather make them general than specific! Don't go "you need the ashes of a burned assassin vine from Greenwood Forest" or "you need the blood of a red half-dragon centaur". Instead say something like "the ritual calls for the ashes and blood of magical creatures, the more powerful and unusual, the better; it also needs something precious to each of you, something that was found by chance, something that is stolen, something that is black, and something that will not be missed". If the PCs want a powerful and efficacious ritual, they better put some thought into what kinds of items they want to use, and how they can strike a good balance between the power of the ingredients and the ease of getting them. [I]That [/I]would play to pen&paper's strength! [/QUOTE]

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