Copper - silver - gold

[Kelpo]

There was one thing I liked very much about World of Warcraft and that was the monetary system. At the beginning of the game, all you ever got was a few coppers for easy quests and cheap items. As the game proceeded, at some point you would get hold of your first Real Silver Coin, and it was a great moment while you pondered how to spend this newly aquired wealth, while you could still only wonder at the items that cost actual gold to purchase.

So what I'm suggesting is that we discard the old fashioned denars and add a system where you have copper, silver and gold coins. Each gold coin is worth 100 silver and 1 silver coin is worth 100 coppers. This would make expensive items seem Really expensive at the beginning when a plate armor might cost 10 gold coins and you haven't even seen a piece of silver in you life. So, what say you?

 

[Ilex]

Denars are fine in the vanilla. However, I would like to see a different money system in the LOTR mod.

 

[[P]aradox]

Certainly it would cut down on the logistical problem of a solo character carting around tens of thousands of denars.

 

[Ilex]

He could still carry tens of thousands of copper coins around, or would they magically turn into silver or gold?

 

[maw]

i just think of it as different valued pieces, or prolly gems equivalent to "x" value of dinars.

at 20,000 dinars or so, i'd expect friggen' Borcha ta slit my throat in my sleep and drive that unseen four-horse pony cart filled with gold away from my still warm body.

i am certain there is a limit to that bastards loyalty. no one can shoot me that many times by accident. maw

 

[CrazyEyes]

This type of thing really bothers me, so I'll say it now: Maw, you don't need to sign your posts, if I forget who you are in the next couple of seconds, I can just look to the left again.

Anyway... yes, in WoW, your copper coins magically turn into silver when you get one hundred of them, and so on. This, however, makes one feel EXTREMELY poor until they get high level, that's why I don't like it.

I don't even recall a monetary unit in the Lord of the Rings books! I'll be damned. New mystery to solve.

 

[Khalid ibn Walid]

Eh, but nothing costs only gold.

Gold has a price in silver and silver has a price in copper.

(the ancient silver:gold exchange rate was 12:1, during the M & B era methinks 15:1 or thereabous, but there were no gold coins in circulation at that time anyways, only silver deniers).

Multiple coinage means you'd have to keep track of trimetallic exchange rates -- which would be a really pain in the ***.

 

[DaLagga]

Khalid, wake up! *smacks on head* Its a game...remember? I do like the idea of a new form of currency, so the idea sounds good to me. And what about the platinum!?

 

[Kelpo]

Anyway... yes, in WoW, your copper coins magically turn into silver when you get one hundred of them, and so on. This, however, makes one feel EXTREMELY poor until they get high level, that's why I don't like it.

That's exactly why I like it, it sort of represents the rags to riches aspect of the game. And yes, I meant for the copper to magically turn into silver once you get enough of them, so it wouldn't complicate gameplay needlessly.

I do like the idea of a new form of currency, so the idea sounds good to me. And what about the platinum!?

Google told be that platinum wasn't discovered until 1748, so I don't think it'd quite fit.

 

[Roady]

Denars work fine for me.
May as well change the money system a lil bit... support different denominations with modding capability.

Vanilla M&B could have 1-piece, 5-piece, 10-piece denars.
EQ/Wow fans can mod the money names and ratios to their liking then.

 

[Manitas]

What's the idea exactly?

Now the ammount of money is represented in numeric form. Do you want it to be split in three values, so in order to see how much money you got you have to convert them and sum them up or what?

Sounds very redundant, if not annoying.
I think most important question about suggestions is: what for? I cant think of an easy answer in this case.

 

[Khalid ibn Walid]

Khalid, wake up! *smacks on head* Its a game...remember? I do like the idea of a new form of currency, so the idea sounds good to me. And what about the platinum!?

Na ja. But non-convertible coinage is simply . . . impossible. But it is just instinctively wrong.

Non-convertible multiple currencies is the economist's equivalent of squaring the circle or turning lead into gold. We've had kooks proposing all three schemes for centuries.

 

[Ilex]

I don't even recall a monetary unit in the Lord of the Rings books! I'll be damned. New mystery to solve.

MERP (Middle Earth Roleplaying-game) by ICE has that sort of monetary system so I thought it would be like that, as they were pretty loyal to Tolkien's work.

 

[Kelpo]

What's the idea exactly?

Mainly to make money seem more valuable. No, this isn't anything important, but rather a nice touch that I'd like to see in the game at some point. Having peasants constantly deal with filthy pieces of copper while the nobility handles shiny gold pieces just sounds right.

Currently when you start the game, you have something like 100 denars. so when you talk to the merchant, and see plate armour costing around 10 000 denars, there is no "Wow, I'll never afford that" feeling. I think that might be achieved if it's cost pieces of gold, which you haven't even seen before.

 

[Khalid ibn Walid]

Why is it any more overwhelming? You'd come across gold denars soon enough, just as quickly as you'd come across 10,000 silver denars.

And you still haven't answered why an armorer would only accept gold for a particular item, rather than its equivalent amount in silver?

(Not that it makes a difference. The price of plate armor is three leather jerkins. If one is paid in gold and another in silver, I can smell a very exploitable arbitrage opportunity, where I wouldn't be dealing with either gold or silver, but converting my wealth in leather jerkins and making loads of mullah just from the difference between the gold-silver conversion rate and the leather jerkin-to-plate armor rate .)

 

[Kelpo]

Why is it any more overwhelming? You'd come across gold denars soon enough, just as quickly as you'd come across 10,000 silver denars.

It wouldn't be really be any more overwhelming, it'd just be a psychological effect.

And you still haven't answered why an armorer would only accept gold for a particular item, rather than its equivalent amount in silver?

Ah, as I said previously, 100(or some other suitable amount) copper coins would automatically turn into 1 silver and 100 silver would automatically turn into 1 gold, so that's no problem.

 

[Manitas]

So, if we applied this idea to a game set in modert times, it would be something like:

- change, nickels and the like, which is dealt with by bums and such
- 1 dollar bill, 10 dollar bill, 100 dollar bill etc..
- and finally 1000 dollar bill which is the greeniest of them all, accesible to VIPs

Your inventory would look like:
100$ - 2
10$ - 4
1$ - 5
50c - 1
nickel - 5

And you come in a shop and say "hey shopkeep, how much is it?"
"It will be one hundred dollar bill, two ten dollar bills and three nickels Sir." he says.

 

[Khalid ibn Walid]

Ah, as I said previously, 100(or some other suitable amount) copper coins would automatically turn into 1 silver and 100 silver would automatically turn into 1 gold, so that's no problem.

Ah, so I misunderstood. In effect, you would just amass 10,000 silver denars and pay with that, rather than have to go searching for gold coins to convert those 10,000 into?

*shrug* Ok, I guess. So gold-silver-copper is only an accounting system?

Well, I'm still not too hot on the idea. But if I had to pick an accounting system, I would use the actual libra-solidus-denarius accounting system that was used everywhere in Europe then. Now that would make for some massive calculations complications (L.1 = 20s. = 240d. = ugly calculating mess only elderly Brits would be able to do quickly )

 

[Kelpo]

So, if we applied this idea to a game set in modert times, it would be something like:

- change, nickels and the like, which is dealt with by bums and such
- 1 dollar bill, 10 dollar bill, 100 dollar bill etc..
- and finally 1000 dollar bill which is the greeniest of them all, accesible to VIPs

Your inventory would look like:
100$ - 2
10$ - 4
1$ - 5
50c - 1
nickel - 5

And you come in a shop and say "hey shopkeep, how much is it?"
"It will be one hundred dollar bill, two ten dollar bills and three nickels Sir." he says.

Exactement, although maybe a more fitting example would be if he said: 3 dollars(3 silver) and 25 cents(25 coppers), which I believe is a more common practise.

Ah, so I misunderstood. In effect, you would just amass 10,000 silver denars and pay with that, rather than have to go searching for gold coins to convert those 10,000 into?

Indeed, although the 10,000 silver would automatically change into 100 gold in your inventory.

 

[Roach]

How about going the whole hog and giving money an encumberance that comes into effect on the map screen? Sure you could have half a million pennies in your war chests but it'd slow you right down. Have banks in every town that'll convert it to silver/gold - for a price. Then all the merchants can charge 49.99gps instead of 50, makes everything seem cheaper. Kind of makes the world more immersive.

And someone could write a mod which lets you use a sock full of pennies as a blunt weapon for capturing river pirates. Now that would kick ass.