The Gaming Den

Let me just say before I go on that I've been coming to this site awhile and have absolutely loved The Dungeonomicon et al. It presented all sorts of things I'd thought about and puzzled over myself in such a simple and reasonable manner.

In a similar vein, I'd often found it a bit absurd that it would take fifty gold coins to purchase a one-use 1st-level potion. To me, gold seemed highly undervalued, even after inflation as mentioned in the Dungeonomicon, so I decided to create a system of exchange I was more comfortable with. I figured I couldn't be the only one who felt this way, so I scoured the web (I think that's actually how I originally came across this site) and came across this thread on a Warhammer forum. It gave me a bunch of ideas, some of which which I've expanded upon here.

Anyways, sorry for blathering. Here's what I've got.

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+Fantasy Currencies

++Dwarven
As proud miners and metallurgists, dwarves take great care in ensuring the purity of their precious metals. This has led to dwarven bullion coins and ingots – namely copper, silver and gold – being the most widely accepted medium of exchange throughout the world.
One gold ingot is worth twenty-five silver ingots, which is in turn worth five-hundred copper ingots. A coin is one-fifth the mass and value of the ingot of the same metal.

++Elven
Elves habitually revel in emulating nature, and their preferred medium of exchange is no exception. Finely-embossed metal sheets in the shapes of leaves of various sizes circulate, and the type of metal and the intricacy of the design indicate value.
The default leaves consist of three bronze (one long pointed, one three-lobed, one multi-lobed), two electrum (one heart-shaped, one five-pointed), and one mithral (oblong and irregular). For values less than the lowest-denomination leaf, small amber beads are used.

++Orcish
Savagery and brutality define orcish society as a whole, so currency does not play as significant a role as in most other cultures. However, when a medium of exchange is required, it is common practice to use teeth. An orc's incisor represents the base value, with molars (usually) equating to two incisors and tusks worth five. As a general rule, teeth of other humanoid races are worth half as much as the equivalent orc tooth.
Teeth and fangs from monsters or animals are just as exchangeable, and the indeterminacy of the value of a particular creature's tooth is compensated by the necessary role of intimidation in orcish exchanges. More than half of the transaction is convincing the other party of the value of what you are trying to trade for.
(The idea of orcs using teeth as currency has several ramifications. Not only does it mean an orc will often try to collect a debt from you by punching your face in, but it makes them predisposed to hunting tusked creatures (e.g. elephants, mammoths) to extinction.)

++Hobgoblin
Similar to the dwarves, hobgoblins use metallic coins, but they are prone to dilution and debasement. In addition to heavily alloyed gold, silver and copper coins, tin coins are circulated, but have very low values. Hobgoblin coins are often characterized by a square hole in the middle.
Hobgoblins operate in a feudal society, with many lordships governed loosely by a central authority. Only one coin, the hobgoblin gold piece, is produced by the central authority and accepted as legal tender throughout the hobgoblin territories. Each lordship is responsible for producing and distributing its own smaller-denomination coins.

++Drow
As the most widespread and influential of the civilized humanoid races of the underdark, the dark elves have mandated that all transactions within their range of influence use only crystals grown and regulated by them.
These luminescent crystals feed and grow from the ambient magical energy permeating the underdark, and are grown only under the strict jurisdiction of the drow houses. Each drow ruling house grows its own hue of crystal, and the current politics of the houses determines a crystal's value in relation to that of other houses.
The other races that conduct business in the underdark tolerate this, particularly because all major transactions are by default moderated by the dark elves, and they keep both sides (relatively) fair.

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I also had an idea for an insular human society that relied heavily on bank notes, but it didn't feel worth expanding upon.

I tacked on some values to the elven and dwarven currencies to make them usable in-game.
Dwarven money translates easiest: 1gp = 1 dwarven silver ingot, therefore 1 dwarven gold ingot = 25gp and a one-fifth dwarven copper coin = 1cp.
Elven money is more clumsy, because I shied away from working with multiples of 5 or 10. The first bronze leaf is worth 5cp, the second 25cp, and the third 75cp; the first electrum leaf is worth 3gp and the second 12gp; I couldn't decide whether to make the mithral leaf worth 3 or 4 times more.

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In the end, it solved my original problem: a 1st-level potion costs 2 dwarven gold ingots instead of 50 gold pieces. Whether or not this amounts to significantly less actual gold depends on the size and mass of the ingots (to be determined).

And it certainly adds variety!

Thoughts?

[edit: spelling error]

I really like the idea; however it makes book-keeping a nightmare. If you have players who are good with it, then you are fine.

I'd like to just put in a note that having a wealth roll system or something else that sidesteps actual penny-counting bookkeeping opens up a lot in the way of possibilities for making your monetary systems more realistic and/or interesting without adding any unwanted bookkeeping

So are the currencies backed by monolithic species-based cultures? Or do that have some intrinsic value which makes them more useful for inter-species trade?

How are the elves getting the precious metals? Fabricate mining? Melting down dwarven coinage?

Trees that grab the minerals in their root systems and gather them up as deposits in leaves or seeds, perhaps?

I like the idea. I have played in a campaign with different monetary systems (metal is rare in the dessert and obsidian is used as currency rather than gold, making the value of gold hyper-inflated). One of two things happen:

1 - Players are happy and annoyed. Their money is worth bonus money if they put up with the bullshit of exchange rates, fencers, and powerful organizations in which to do business. The trip to the money exchanger is a stupid adventure and usually eats up at least an hour real-time every time you need to buy stuff.

2 - Players are annoyed and angry. Their money is worth less than its original value because the DM said "exchange rates". Now you have a trip to the money exchanger so that he can rip you off and your +1 swird is just out of reach of purchase.

Here's the problem: unless you handwave money exchange, money exchange is part of the adventure... a lame part. If you do not handwave money exchange, you might as well have done it all in <resource>, because <resource> is what players spend for <stuff>.


What I was hoping for this thread was for alternative Planar Currencies, like:

Refined Hope - Refined Hope is worth twice as much as a soul, and takes many, many souls to collect it from. Refined Hope always is always under the effects of a daylight spell, and may be used in this manner when not being used as a currency.

SunTzuWarmaster wrote:What I was hoping for this thread was for alternative Planar Currencies...

I'll leave that to Frank and K who are actually any good at that.

You make good points; it's impractical and it makes bookkeeping a nightmare. But with dwarven money being pretty-much globally accepted, you'd only need other currencies in special circumstances.

The way I see it, but elves would have little problem trading directly for dwarven gold; it just doesn't seem like something they'd use amongst themselves.

You'd most likely get screwed over trading with goblinoids, with their debased and overvalued currency, so hobgoblin coins don't seem like something you'd carry around with you for any reason aside from the novelty.

Drow crystals would be completely useless outside of their influence, so they'd be a very adventure-specific roleplaying tool.

And then you have the orc teeth. I'm surprised no-one commented on it: it's my favorite idea. Again, it's not something characters would use by default (due in no small part to the fact that no other race (except perhaps gnolls and the like) would accept it in exchange), and thus only comes into play in roleplay-specific instances.

Again, that's just how I made it fit in my head. For the most part, everyone would still be carrying around gold, silver and copper pieces. But if you're planning on bargaining with orcs, or want to make a good impression on a group of elves, a few alternatives couldn't hurt.

(By the way, I have no good idea where the elves get the metals for their currency, though I kinda like virgileso's super-trees idea. 8) )

It is a cool idea, but it has some problems. What are teeth backed by? Is there some kind of central orc banking system that tries to set the purchasing power of a tooth? If orcs can just go beat each other up and take each other's stuff, and the elves and dwarves don't want don't want the teeth, what good are they?

If the teeth were vital to orcish magic, I'd understand it. If orc teeth were really good for making into weapons, I'd understand it as well.

Yggdrasil Sap
The sap of the World-Tree is a beautiful amber that retains its color even in darkvision. If left alone, it eventually hardens into crystals highly valued by druids. Hard as stone normally, they can be boiled down into a syrup that by itself is enough to feed and water a plant for a week. In addition, it prevents the plant from receiving any negative effects from age. Fruit-bearing plants will eventually become infused with magical energy, granting the effect of a beneficial potion when their fruits are eaten, though the fruit spoils as fast as mundane equivalents would.

A chunk of crystallized Yggdrasil sap sufficient for a single dose of syrup weighs about half a pound and is equivalent in value to an average soul of unknown source, though some will purchase it for considerably more. Acquiring it can be difficult, since the World-Tree has many guardians and the sap must crystallize before it has much value.

The purchasing power of a tooth says 'you were able to bully this many orcs'. It's like a fiat currency, except the fiat is your fist.

It's primary goal is to say you can muster this many orcs in battle or economics, and so trading your mother's teeth for a dinner shows poverty. A show of power would be to take teeth and destroy them, showing that you have no need for money.

It's similar to a gift economy, where you prove your worth by how much you make everyone else rich.

There are many different economies which are tough for us capitalists to understand.

-Crissa

Everturning Cog

Mechanus is filled with gears of varying sizes. Some of these are so small they can be moved by force of muscle. Those used as planar currency are generally no more than half a foot wide, allowing one to put them in a satchel and carry them around without significant effort.

Made of a metal resembling bronze but far more durable, these cogs are unaffected by gravity and always spin at a constant rate if they have room to do so. A skilled artisan can use them to create clockwork devices that never run out of energy.

The small cogs commonly accepted as planar currency are worth about as much as a soul, but larger ones are worth progressively more. However, bigger cogs are harder to handle, so the growth in value peters off sharply. Extremely small cogs can be used in progressively more delicate devices, so anything the size of a gold piece or less is increased in value as well.

Honestly, with the teeth, it shouldn't be currency.

There are two kinds of orc deals: Strong takes from weak, and weak begs from strong. The strong would never give up their teeth trophies, they'd just take what they want, and the weak would never be able to get an even trade anyway.

So how about this:

Teeth. Orcs never take each others teeth. Teeth are a hierarchy. If an orc has more, he must be obeyed by the orc with less. This even goes so far as giving him everything the weaker owns except teeth.

Heartstones and Fossilized Dragonbone

Dragons are very magical creatures, and most bits of their bodies are infused with enough mystical mojo to be useful for something. This magical energy only increases with age, but since there is generally also a corresponding increase in the dragon's personal power, good-quality dragon chunks are hard to come by. Generally, only minor draconic giblets can purchased with gold alone.

More valuable and safer to collect, but infinitely rarer are dragon fossils. Draconic cadavers are valuable enough that few are left alone for long enough to become fossils, and fewer still are located in areas that would facilitate such a transformation. Most of these can be found in the Elemental Plane of Earth, where bodies are often sealed up by the plane's ceaseless efforts to eliminate open space within itself.

Fossilized dragon bone is very easy to enchant, and can be used as the base material for a wide variety of items. Generally bones are sold by weight and shape, with a roughly sword-sized bone often selling for between three and eight souls.

Dragon hearts fossilize into large, brightly glowing gems. Much of the body's magic is concentrated into these, and they are favored as power sources for magic in general. Fresh, fully-charged draconic Heartstones easily sell for many times their weight in soul gems.

Tael

XP points are physical objects. You can collect them, trade them, or eat them to gain levels. Monsters want them because monsters are high-CR creatures, and creating new baby monsters is like creating magic items - it costs XP. That's why monsters hunt people, because people create XP. That's also why monsters don't cast Epic Glavin and just eradicate all other people.

The base unit of currency is a peasant; and the amount of tael he produces when he is fully grown is roughly equal to the gold cost it took to raise him to adulthood.

I develop this idea in somewhat more detail in my World of Prime campaign setting. At first it sounds really weird, but my players seem to like it. It makes so much of the D&D game more sensible (like why do magic users sell magic items? Because you pay in XP!)

Kaelik wrote:Honestly, with the teeth, it shouldn't be currency.

There are two kinds of orc deals: Strong takes from weak, and weak begs from strong. The strong would never give up their teeth trophies, they'd just take what they want, and the weak would never be able to get an even trade anyway.

So how about this:

Teeth. Orcs never take each others teeth. Teeth are a hierarchy. If an orc has more, he must be obeyed by the orc with less. This even goes so far as giving him everything the weaker owns except teeth.

I prefer the idea of Orcs actually handing around teeth, because it means when an adventuring party takes down a dragon, the orc says "dibs on the teeth" and walks towards the head with his dagger out.

Yahzi, I actually really like the idea of Monsters saying "Okay, I'll give you three peasants and a king for your sword"

Prak_Anima wrote:I prefer the idea of Orcs actually handing around teeth, because it means when an adventuring party takes down a dragon, the orc says "dibs on the teeth" and walks towards the head with his dagger out.

Under my system he does freaking say dips on the teeth and cut out it's teeth. In my version though, when dealing with another orc, he says, "See these teeth, got them from a Dragon. Now give me the damn +1 Sword."

Instead of giving away Dragon's teeth for a +1 Sword.

Kaelik wrote:

Prak_Anima wrote:I prefer the idea of Orcs actually handing around teeth, because it means when an adventuring party takes down a dragon, the orc says "dibs on the teeth" and walks towards the head with his dagger out.

Under my system he does freaking say dips on the teeth and cut out it's teeth. In my version though, when dealing with another orc, he says, "See these teeth, got them from a Dragon. Now give me the damn +1 Sword."

Instead of giving away Dragon's teeth for a +1 Sword.

hmm... yeah, your way's better, but it means that orcs' currency is "might".

Prak_Anima wrote:hmm... yeah, your way's better, but it means that orcs' currency is "might".

That was the plan.

come to think of it, that means that if someone gets on an adventurer's case about looting orcs, so long as he doesn't kill any, he can expalin it as just a shopping trip...