Doing a bit of playing around with a campaign monetary system to diverge from the #decimalisation of most #DnD based #TTRPG. Not a #numismatist so I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. Taking suggestions! pic.twitter.com/YLX9Cw9PJG
— Benjih҉ͣ҉ͪ҈ͣad X-ian (@benjihad) May 9, 2019
Would love to get some feedback from some of the great world builders since I'm sure they've wrestled with this before? @TheEdVerse @matthewmercer @JeremyECrawford @TrollLordSteve
(I'm sure there's more greats, that's just all I know about to @ on Twitter so far.)— Benjih҉ͣ҉ͪ҈ͣad X-ian (@benjihad) May 10, 2019
1/This is great fun. I think the important thing to remember is that everything's always in flux due to barter, goods surpluses and shortages, counterfeiting and abundance or shortage of whatever the currency is made from, and TRUST. Merchants, like everyone else, trust in the…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 10, 2019
2/…the (usually ruler) whose (usually) head is stamped on one side of most coins, and trust the metal in one country's mintings over those of another, and this trust rises and falls with rumor not just deeds and events, so it's all an endless game of craps. If someone hadn't…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 10, 2019
3/…tainted the phrase "the art of the deal" (see?), that would be the heart of it: the deal a merchant can make here and now. I played with this in the Realms back before D&D existed: the royal family of Cormyr has the Crystal Grot, a cavern lined with gems, but to…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 10, 2019
4/…release/spend too many of them into circulation at once will drive down the value of one gem because they're no longer perceived as being as scarce as they were formerly. Meaning everything on your monetary guide chart is really carved in quicksand on a stormy beach with…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 10, 2019
5/…the tide coming in, by its very nature. Anyone who's done lots of traveling in our modern real world and tried to convert currency after crossing a border knows this reality all too well. Nothing is fixed. Which keeps the game fascinating… [end of my jabbering, for now ;}]
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 10, 2019
Got it. In the Realms, there are alloy "trade bars" (small cylinders w/blunt-pointed tapered ends) worth 25 gp, used a lot by merchants in daily trade (many wear money-belts or baldrics with leather "holsters" for individual trade bars) to cut down "coins carried" to manageable.
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 11, 2019