Money Systems

[Drawmack]

First let me say that I am posting this here because I'm not interested in rules variants but just in flavor.

IMC I leave the way the money system works alone but I introduce some intermediate currancies and give the currancies names. The names always come from the real-world and I try to fit the place that the names come from with some element of the city. For example I am currently playing in Freeport (Island city-state) so the coinage names are english (Island country)

Here is what I use
DnD Name - Game Name - Symbol
1/2 Copper - Pence - d
Copper - Shilling - l
1/2 Silver - Florin - f
Silver - Half Crown - hc
1/2 Gold - Crown - c
Gold - Pound - L
1/2 Plat - Half Royal - HR
Platinum - Royal - R

As I stated before the values do not change it is simply flavor. Does anyone else do things like this. I am currently working up pictures of the various coins as well.

 

[Berk]

This is always the case IMC's but the currency is always exchangable with each other so nothing is lost and to just avoid having to come up with different names for the coinage. However, when my campaigns take a short stint into Ravenloft things get tricky for the party members. Mostly because characters love to carry around platinum and not other types of coinage and platinum doesn't exist in Ravenloft. =o) Anyways back on topic, Ravenloft domains have different currency and all so the rules are strictly enforced there and names are given to every type of coinage with exchange rates and such.

 

[The Sigil]

There's an excellent article to this effect in an old back issue of Dragon Magazine (issue #142?) - the article's name was "Just Give Me Money!" Might want to check it out.

--The Sigil

 

[Fast Learner]

Originally posted by Drawmack Silver - Half Crown - hc
1/2 Gold - Crown - c
Gold - Pound - L
. . .
As I stated before the values do not change it is simply flavor.

Actually, I think this does change the values:

1 Gold (Pound) = 2 1/2-Golds (Crowns) = 4 Silver (Half Crowns)

So 1gp = 4sp.

Otherwise it works fine. Or I'm missing something.

 

[Berk]

Actually, I think this does change the values:

1 Gold (Pound) = 2 1/2-Golds (Crowns) = 4 Silver (Half Crowns)

So 1gp = 4sp.

Otherwise it works fine. Or I'm missing something.

Didn't catch this earlier but yep. =o)

 

[Drawmack]

I have kept the standard DnD exchange rates of 10 coppers to a silver, 10 silvers to a gold and 10 golds to a plat. I just use the english names not the english exchage rates so it does not change anything.

Or as I stated in my first post

IMC I leave the way the money system works alone but I introduce some intermediate currancies and give the currancies names.

 

[Berk]

I have kept the standard DnD exchange rates of 10 coppers to a silver, 10 silvers to a gold and 10 golds to a plat. I just use the english names not the english exchage rates so it does not change anything.

But if something costs a crown could they pay for it with 2 half crowns? If they could then they would only be paying 4sp for something that cost 5sp. I understand that you don't change the exchange rate and all but if they can spend 2 half crowns to pay for something that costs a crown then they are ultimately saving money. I would pay for everything in half crowns. =op

 

[Wikidogre]

this link may help a little.

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/3633/coins.html

 

[fusangite]

Go Drawmack go!

In my campaign, after a brutal war, the city state where the characters live instituted currency reforms to deal with a number of post-war economic problems (and screw the poor) and changed from a decimal system to a base 12 system. It's still copper, silver and gold but now copper and silver just don't go as far and it's way easier to swindle the characters.

In the previous medieval fantasy campaign I ran, it was in an alternate past in the Americas and I used the base 7 currency system from the Book of Mormon. I'm a big proponent of varying currency systems for the following reasons:
1. Flavour and depth
2. New possibilities for the use of numerological symbolism.
3. The fact that decimalized currency systems are horrifically modern and not the way things were done in pre-modern times.
4. Replicating the fact that math was not something most medieval people were at all schooled in, even many educated people. By using a currency system that so closely resembles our own, we are giving the characters and advantage they don't deserve and has nothing to do with adventuring.
5. More uses for Appraise.

 

[Fast Learner]

I have kept the standard DnD exchange rates of 10 coppers to a silver, 10 silvers to a gold and 10 golds to a plat. I just use the english names not the english exchage rates so it does not change anything.

I saw that you stated it, but you contradicted it.

A: A silver is a half-crown, so two silvers would be a full crown.

B: 1/2 gold is a full crown, and with 10 silvers in a gold, five silvers would be a full crown.

Both of those statements can't be true.

The rest of them work fine, but this particular one doesn't work. If a silver was a fifth-crown or there were five crowns in a pound then it would work fine. I the other cases you don't span your "half-x" name between metals, but in this case you do and it just doesn't work out.

Don't get me wrong: it's a cool idea. It's just mathematically flawed in this one case.