Non-coin currency

[Dogbrain]

Nope, not talking about paper money. This will work in a barbaric-flavored campaign:

Swipe a custom from the Norse, specifically "hacksilver". Jewelry is pre-scored to make it easier to hack off a piece. A merchant weighs the piece and the value of the weight of precious metal is the "money".

Other barbaric forms of "money":
Clan wealth as currency: You don't have cash, but Uncle Sven is known to be a man who has many cattle. So you put it on Uncle Sven's tab. The merchant goes to Uncle Sven to collect later. Uncle Sven has to pay up in goods or lose honor. If you didn't clear it with Uncle Sven, he can have you cast out of the clan. Even if he doesn't go that far, you may owe Uncle Sven a favor or fifty for it.

Status as currency: You're a hero. Your stock in trade is being a hero. Careful about how much of a "reputation tab" you run up. Outlawry can be a hassle. Some barbaric cultures had a class of warriors who could essentially count on home, food, supplies, weapons, etc. simply because they were heroic warriors. However, that also meant that they were "on call" and could not turn down legitimate commands from their war-chiefs.

 

[ConnorSB]

How about beads as currency. or currency backed by a precious commodity that isn't gold.

In Dune, each family of the fremen has a certain amount of water. A kilo of water is represented by a "water bead", which if i remember correctly women braid into their hair for safekeeping. These beads can be traded for goods, or exchanged directly for water...

You could do the same thing in DnD, only a precious commodity might be, say, spells, and you can pay for them with "spell discs," which are discs with holes in the center throuhg which you can string a string...

 

[clark411]

Towns on the dangerous frontiers can barter in Patrol and Wall. You can buy things, just about anything, by committing time to either patrolling the borders of your town's claimed territory, or by manning the walls. You can get more for "One on Patrol" than "One on the Wall," and merchants might look you up and down and say your hour on the wall might be worth more or less than another persons, within reason. Needless to say, renowned heroes get quite a bit more for their time than most.

Churches can sell gifts, favors, and benedictions etc. A benediction might be the equivalent of a Raise Dead, while a Favor might be a Cure Serious and a Gift may be a Cure Light. If you earn two gifts from the Church, you can walk away with a Cure Light potion or what not.. and the foundation of a theocratic economy could be dealing in vials of the miracle juice. Even if a cure light potion is relatively useless to a commoner or noble who may never see combat, it's as useful as a little disc of silver is.

 

[I'm A Banana]

My barbarians tend to go with less abstract pieces of wealth....

"All right, Sir Gork the Wild, your bar tab comes to a total of 25 golden sparrows."
*three orc heads are thumped loudly on the bar top*
"GORK PAY IN BLOOD!" <intimidate check>
*barkeep slowly backs away*
"N...never mind...."

 

[evileeyore]

How about beads as currency. or currency backed by a precious commodity that isn't gold.

--snip--

You could do the same thing in DnD, only a precious commodity might be, say, spells, and you can pay for them with "spell discs," which are discs with holes in the center throuhg which you can string a string...

Or how about metal disks with a hole in it that represent an amount of rice. You could call them Koku... No wait that would be Chinese coinage.

Face it guys, any carriable object that comes to 'represent' a precious substance (gold, silver, water, magic) is in essence 'coinage', whether they are round, square, oblong, beads, etc. And is thusly a monetary system.

Barter and honor systems, Uncle Sven's cattle and The Hero's Rep to name to earlier (and really good) examples, are probably the only non-monetary means to run an economy. (I say probably becuase it has been over a decade since I took Economics...)

The last system is anarchy. In this system you take what you want, when you it, generally by force, and hope it will be there for you again in the future...

TTFN

EvilE

 

[Hand of Evil]

The biggest issue is to come to a value for a barter system. What is the common product and just what is its value. Today the value is based on how much does it cost for a hamburger.

In a study with primates, just done, they would feel cheated if they saw another monkey get what they saw as a better reward for the same work. It is thought that this is a built-in funtion. So, in a game this could be handled as the players feeling it was fair and balanced when trying to exchange something.

 

[Tonguez]

Me I use a Status system based on Level + Cha and adapting the Modern Wealth system

eg Level 2 Character Cha 16 gets a status of 5. This can then change according to his deeds and when used it goes down (he now has a social obligation to fufuil). His Status also tells him whats the highest level NPC he's likely to have as 'patron' (ie Uncle Sven is level 5 and unlikely to be able to craft a +1 Battle axe)

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Consider that yoinked, Tonguez. That's a cool idea.

 

[psychognome]

Well, for what I know, the ancient Finns used animal skins and hides as currency...

I still remember a picture from my grade-school history book. It depicted a man and a boy in a snowy taiga, with only one tree around. The man was aiming his bow, coupled with a blunt arrow, at a squirrel sitting in the tree, and the boy was getting ready to catch the falling squirrel.

If I'm not mistaken, Finland wasn't the only place where animal hides were used to pay for stuff.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Well, for what I know, the ancient Finns used animal skins and hides as currency...

I still remember a picture from my grade-school history book. It depicted a man and a boy in a snowy taiga, with only one tree around. The man was aiming his bow, coupled with a blunt arrow, at a squirrel sitting in the tree, and the boy was getting ready to catch the falling squirrel.

If I'm not mistaken, Finland wasn't the only place where animal hides were used to pay for stuff.

yep. it is why the America dollar is called a buck, as in buckskin. Shells are other form.