How do monsters spend gold pieces?

[Mark CMG]

Amazon.warrior.com...

when you're a man-eating monster, it's all about male-order.

You're not above the law, ya know . . .

 

[VirgilCaine]

Who says only the player races have economies?

Totally agree here. The OP is WAAAAAAAAY off in his thoughts on gold pieces.

 

[Numion]

It may have been the first metal used by humans and was valued for ornamentation and rituals.

It's wiki, so maybe not true, but if it is, gold was used as ornamentation before coins (currency) was invented. Intelligent monsters might value gold for same reasons, without a thought for economy.

My opinion is, though, that the monsters are part of some economy, usually. There's always some trader who sells them Ogre sized weapons and what not.

 

[The_Gneech]

How do monsters spend gold pieces?

They make cut-throat deals! *badoom-TISH*

Depending on your setting, there's lots of ways, assuming sentient monsters. The Underdark as presented in much FR material is a veritable Disneyland of sentient monster markets. Settlements on the edge of the wilderness might very well trade with mountain orc tribes for lack of anyone else to trade with. More fairytale-ish creatures may just hoard gold because humans desire it.

Brainless monsters, OTOH, don't even notice gold pieces, except possibly in a magpie-ish way (described elsewhere as "Ooh! Shiny!"). Except rust monsters -- they think gold is yummy!

-The Gneech

 

[kigmatzomat]

One thing to remember is that gold does not corrode except in the presence of magic or a particle beam. If you dump a bunch of adventurers' "junk" in a pile at fall, by spring the leather & cloth will be much rotted and the gold will be the only thing that isn't covered in crud. Eventually, these sentient races will recognize that gold may get dirty but it doesn't rot.

Any tool using species will recognize the value of a metal that does not rust. Gold is relatively easily worked and while pure gold is pretty soft, at around 10karat it is useable for goblets, plates, spoons, and other household functions. Gold foil is a kind of rust-protection as well as making stuff look great so it too will have appeal to tool users.

 

[Aaron L]

My friends and I always imagined big monster bazaars, where orcs and hobgoblins and kobolds and such would have trade fairs where they would buy things from each other.

Oh, and the tradition of dragons and other monsters having big piles of gold and treasure precedes Tolkien by about a few hundred years at least, Im afraid.

 

[el-remmen]

You know, my players once asked the same question.

The giantess held her husband’s head in her lap and was holding him close. She looked up at them, her face growing rigid with anger again, “You owe us for our chickens!”

“Whu-what?” Jeremy’s jaw dropped, as he made to grab Beorth by the shoulders to drag him off.

“You killed our chickens!” she accused.

“What about the gnomes your chickens killed?” Martin spit back, forgetting himself for a second. All the death he had witnessed in less than a year’s time weighed heavy on his green shoulders when he allowed himself to think on it.

“Your chickens attacked us, and the little ones are our friends. We want to know what happened,” Ratchis asked her, as examined Derek after having stabilized him with a spell.

“If they hadn’t come into our home uninvited and set them free they would not have been attacked, and the hole in coop would not have been there for them to have escaped once again and attack you when you came here uninvited. The gnomes decorate my garden now.” Her disgust was for them was apparent.

Rumble coughed and a bubble of blood burst at his lips. Perika wiped it away with the hem of her fur and leather dress.

Kazrack grumbled and then offered to heal the giant. “That will be payment enough!”

“Payment enough!?! You were the ones who attacked him, and now we should owe you for that?” Perika sneered.

“What would you have us pay you with? We have nothing to give you that you could use, I’m sure,” said Martin, calming down.

Kazrack grumbled about his dishonorable it was to trade with giants.

“We will take coin,” the giantess said, looking up. “We trade with the woodsmen north of here, and can use the coin to buy goods and supplies we cannot make or find ourselves.”

BTW, the "chickens" were cockatrices, and the giants were stone giants.

 

[Turanil]

The gnomes decorate my garden now.

LOL!

 

[Harmon]

I kinda of thought of it this way- If you kill every merchant you run into you will never get exactly what you want.

Also the community thing comes to mind- bands of Orcs have to have their families somewhere and retired Orcs make swords and the 1st level Barbarian Orc isn't gonna try to Intimidate the retired 20th lvl orc that is now a black smith to make him a sword- is he? Nah, he's gonna have to have a way to pay for it.

Orges know that Orcs trade in gold, so why not collect some, then go havea breast plate made, or a nice magical back pack.

Some monsters don't make sense but I haven't the time to go into my thoughts on that (Bug is fussing and might need food or changing ).