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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 4581175" data-attributes="member: 19675">I like- no, I LOVE- old-style banks as substitutes for bars, guilds and the like as the center of a campaign.An institution centered entirely around handling money in a FRPG world would need some intelligent workers...and some really good strongarms as well.  The Pinkertons were quite feared in their day- why not have PCs as their FRPG equivalent.If your world's monetary system is as sophisticated as old money-men of Venice, your world would have not just the traditional gold and gems, but certain forms of valuable papers.  Not paper money, but things like promissory notes and the like.Venitian "banks" in those days were already using documents like letters of credit and so forth to minimize the need to ship actual money between cities.  Instead, Bank A would issue letters that would instruct Bank B to pay the holder's debts in that new city up to a certain amount.  And Bank B's clients would benefit from similar treatment in Bank A's city.  At the end of the month, there would be an accounting to see how much of each other's clients' debts were covered by the other bank.  Then, instead of several coin shipments- one or more per client, each with its inherent delays and risks- there would be 1 shipment of coins to correct whatever imbalance existed between the banks' accounts.Such a caravan could be a fine substitute for the traditional kind- it would be smaller but more heavily protected...and just as tempting a target.</blockquote>

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