Sensible Economics? Sort of.

[RyvenCedrylle]

I'm preparing to start a new campaign in a setting where currency isn't common in most of the realm. Goods and services and achieved primarily by bartering in the world we'll be playing. The lack of currency is a significant issue for standard D&D, however, as the PCs are expected to be toting around exorbitant quantities of wealth. How am I to take away 90-some percent of the PC's gold and still maintain system integrity?

When I came up with the answer, I facepalmed. Why didn't i think of this before? Maybe some of you have, and I'm just slow. Anyway, my solution - gold pieces are hit points.

What I mean by that is that in the same we abstract life through HP, why not abstract wealth through gold pieces? I have given my PCs a "bank", a sort of virtual storehouse where most of their "found gold" is kept. For every 100 gp they should get at their level, they might actually find 5 gp to keep on their person; the rest of it goes into the "bank." The bank then represents everything the characters get for being heroes. The town they just saved wants to give them free room and board for a week? The cost comes out of the bank. The heroes are going to get some henchmen or resources from a wealthy sponsor to complete their mission? Bank. The PCs gather up all the weapons left over from the dead goblins and try to use them to barter for supplies? More bank. Fame, reputation, luck, favor - all these factors now neatly quantified in gold pieces and I don't have to explain why you could buy a small kingdom for the cost of a Lv 17 magic sword. You only really need 150 gp.. plus a really big bank for the shopkeep to have one and trust you enough to sell it. I think it also nicely cleans up the 20% resale problem once all these other factors can be lumped in with pure currency.

Admittedly, this might not impress any one else; it could be just me. There's really no mechanical change to the system. It's pure flavor and so I suppose not some major innovation in game design. It just solves a heckuva lot of problems in my game and so I present it here for your consideration.

 

[Negflar2099]

I for one like this idea. I don't know how my players would like it (they can be sort of literal sometimes) but it seems like it could work well for groups used to dealing in abstracts. I wonder though how magic items are going to play out in this system? If the PCs want to sell a magic sword they earned through the "bank" what happens? Does it becomes actual money or does it go back into the bank? Plus there's the issue of having to come up with in game reasons for everything the PCs want to do. If they decide for instance to spend some of the money in the bank on a magic item what does that mean? Do the townspeople just give it to them in the next town? Do they just happen to find it in the next treasure chest? And what about standard of living? How does your bank idea explain how PCs can live on a day to day basis?

Don't get me wrong. As I said I like this idea. I just had a few questions.

 

[eriktheguy]

Make sure to drop some books with rituals for creating, transferring and disenchanting early on.

 

[RyvenCedrylle]

As it so happens, I really don't like 4E's magic system all that much. I'm using the automatic item bonus to attack/damage/defenses at a certain level. This lets me focus my magic item drops on rituals, components, consumables, and wondrous items - the parts of the system I DO like. It also means I don't expect my characters to sell their magic items very often. If they do, I imagine they'll get some in cash and some in the "bank."

As to having to come up with reasons for their purchases, your bug is my feature. The townspeople give them an important local magic item (think the Escutcheon of Chorrol in Elder Scrolls IV) for helping them. They could find it in a treasure drop. They could get it from their sponsor, buy it in a larger city, have it automatically upgrade their current weapon in a legacy sort of sense, whatever.

Also, my characters are part of a sort of citizen militia and the adventures focus on their time in that militia - like playing the National Guard or something. In the downtime, the characters are explicitly assumed to have other professions on which they survive. If this was not the case, i could simply adjust the coin to "bank" ratio as necessary to allow them to purchase daily bread until mundane items became insignificantly cheap due to cash inflow - the way they do around 6th or 7th level.

 

[Negflar2099]

I was going to suggest that you use the inherent bonuses idea from DMG2 I just wasn't sure you had access to that book.

No, I think this is a great idea. It neatly solves the one problem with the DMG2's bonuses concept, namely that the PCs still acquire way too much treasure for some campaigns.

Overall I also think this fits nicely with 4e's natural tendency towards abstraction and flexibility. After all in a game where fighters can only use their very best moves once a day (and their not so good but still cool moves once a battle) it makes sense that gold should be hit points.

 

[DreamChaser]

there is a reason that precious metals were used as money: they have explicit trade value above and beyond their currency value. In a trade / barter economy, there is no need to revise what money is or how PCs find it, simply make it clear that the innkeeper is only willing to take that silver because he knows he can give it in trade to the smith who will take a third of it as payment and turn the rest into a nice set of flatware that the innkeeper can use for when special guests are in town to impress them.

On the other hand, I make it VERY clear to my players that their starting money is not a shopping spree but a reflection of what they have gained in training, inheritance, etc. If they want to play a character who came into a great sum of money, that's fine but 100 gp IS a great sum of money when it comes to a person in the average world. I carry this through the game because I'm far far far more likey to hand out items than raw gold.

When I do hand out gold, it is as often as not with the stipulation that it is a xyz worth to be spent on items, rituals, reagents, etc. "The duke is pleased that you returned his family's ancestral shield stolen by the possessed servant, he would like to reward you with (choose 500 gp worth of reward...you can't keep more than 10 gp in coin).

DC