When we all get the chance between marathon Skyrim sessions, I thought we could discuss the treasure system a bit. :P
First, coinage. I am absolutely behind the idea of having prop coins in play. Nick will take more convincing, but the prospect of commerce, gambling, and bribery adds real roleplaying and immersion value. Tom and Jenn, I'll need to talk to you about appropriating game funds and producing the actual coins, but here's the system I have in mind for managing them in play.
Coins will come in three denominations: Gold, silver, and copper. A gold coin is worth 10 silver coins, and a silver coin is worth 10 copper. The scale will be moving up a decimal point, so a gold piece in the current system will be worth a silver piece in the new system. This makes it basically the same as before with the addition of the new denomination.
Coins will come into play as treasure tags. They'll probably say something generic like "Sack of Coins" or "Money Purse" and list out the value of the coins inside. Characters will be able to add these tags to their inventories and get them at check-in, and they will replace the much-decried silver nuggets. Instead of a silver nugget, you'll get a "Sack of 10 Silver Coins" or something similar. That's basically what they've always been, anyway.
The actual prop coins will come into play when people change out money. Any coinage tag can be taken to the Den Keeper to change out for prop coins. Whether you have 60 gold in your inventory or you pick up a bag of 25 silver after an adventure, you can take the tag to the Den Keeper and get the coins. The Den Keeper will also have tags in various denominations, so you can exchange coins for tags if you so choose. Whether they be coins or tags, any money in your check-in bag at the end of the event goes back into your stash to repeat the process.
I am very much behind this idea (THS 9). It allows us to have coins without adversely affecting logistics, and makes it so the total number of coins in play is only as much as people want to use. If you want to have coins for something, you can; otherwise, you can keep it in tag form for easy carrying. And it takes the extra work off of logistics by making the Den Keeper the money changer, which only makes sense since he or she is the one with the coins for the monsters.
Any comments? Glaring problems I've missed, or is this the elegant solution to prop coins that I think it is?
The system sounds great. I agree that having physical coins in game will do a lot to enhance roleplaying and player/NPC interaction. I'd like to sit down with Thad and Nick at some point to determine what kind of image we'd like to strike into the blanks. That way we can get the custom stamp made.
I am behind this for all the above mentioned reasons. It just makes more sense to have coins than to have nuggets as treasure, even though I did love the nuggets. It gives us good players something to bet with when the PvP craziness ensues lol. Who knows maybe Taklinn will become a bookie haha. Overall I love the idea, and it also lends room to move if you need even larger denominations in the future (platinum, electrum etc.).
on a side note....to help with logistics and such, I think that the "Bank" should only be open at specific times, so as to not bog down tht plot person when people come up one or two at a time all freaking day long. Just a thought to be proactive before it comes up.
We've already got a solution in place for this. Incidentally, it's your wife. ;)
Seeing as the Den Keeper is the one with the coinage on hand, she will be the one to change out money tags for coins and vice versa. As an added bonus, it'll give people an extra reason to come see her, at which point she can sign them up for monster duty. :P
Sounds pretty elegant to me. The closest thing that I've seen to this was the "banking" system that they used at Nero Piedmont. In order to minimize the number of coins that the game actually had to purchase to keep having a treasure fund every month, they allowed people to check the coins that they earned in at the end of the game much like we do now, or are proposing to do.
Any money asked for at check-in was marked on the character sheet, though this was somewhat infrequent unless deals were in place before the game for barter for goods as coinage was pretty commonly found on random monsters and the like, or from the treasure chest at the end of a mod, assuming the town as a whole got to share it.
Piggybacking on the discussion that was talked about regarding PvP treasure (-1 draw for all PvP players, that would be collectively tossed into a chest at the end of the mod for them to distribute "as they see fit"), being able to pre populate that with actual coinage instead of just a few tags in it would be quite a bit of fun as we would have likely pre-pulled what was going to be in there for PvP loot. This will place more physical coinage into the hands of the players, and it will be more likely that people will actually use it for RP purposes. Being able to say that I'll give you 5 silver for doing something now and another 15 when you finish the job it just a touch more incentive (from a plot standpoint) than saying here's a silver nugget now, and I'll give you another one once you've finished your task. It also allows players to do the aformentioned things such as gambling and bribery, and it also lets players have a smaller denomination to give as tips or incentive instead of giving up an entire treasure draw for someone to do something.
I very much like this idea, and I'm glad that we're finally starting to be able to go down this route.