The way that my mind works, I have been thinking about coinage and the way to use it game. Part of me wants to come up with all of these strange names, or use the names from the past to describe a coin instead of saying, "You find a bag with twenty gold pieces."
I think there is a certain verisimilitude in using that kind of coinage. Yet, I think that my players will just look at me, again and again, and ask, "How much gold is that?" or "What is that in gold pieces?"
I am a world builder. I want to breath life into the campaign world. It is a way to make it a little more vivd. One way to do that is to have different coins, and even to have different values for them in different kingdoms. Yes, this gives me more work, but I think it is worth it. IF my players actually pick up on it. I am curious if this is something many GMs go through?
So, which side do you fall on this issue? Should I use sovereign, crown, mark, shilling and drab? Or should I just say gold piece, silver piece, copper, electrum?
I'm pretty firmly in the verisimilitude camp. Coins should be something that makes sense to the people in the game world, not abstract "gold pieces" and "silver pieces" that happen to be convenient to people outside of the game world who haven't had experience with the coins. The players will get used to the coinage system soon enough.
ReplyDeleteI like the concept of different 'coinage'.I feel the best way to handle this would be a money changers."Ok,'ere these gold coins weigh a bit more..than the normal gold of the kingdom,so,we'll 'ave the difference cover taxes."
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