Older School
Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:37 am
As I'm working through this C&C/DCC merge (along with all the stuff I've liked from various rpg video games over the last 25 years), I'm introducing something that even the old school game didn't: Scarcity. I'm wondering if I'm tanking the whole game for my players, but this is a game I'd like to play, so I'm running with it for now.
To start out, I'm using the "silver standard" from a Dragon magazine article I can't remember, and taking it a bit farther. _Everything_ is priced in silver and in fact you will rarely find gold being circulated as currency in any transaction an adventurer would normally be involved in. If the adventurers are in a village or even small town, they may find that their coins are almost useless -- maybe at the inn. Peasants and laborers typically use barter as a means of transacting business and live on a just coppers a year, from a monetary perspective. When dealing with trade guilds and those higher up the economic and political food chain, silver is typically the currency. This would apply to mercenaries/hirelings, etc. Gold is the currency of the super rich...kings and such.
Secondly, you can't walk into a town and expect to find a mini-mall of adventuring gear, weapons, war horses, and the like. From a development perspective, I'm using a system based on % chance of a type of business even existing in a town. There may be a blacksmith, but he doesn't necessarily know how to make a suit of plate mail, or even a dagger. He's there to make stuff for his primary customers. So, your short sword may be what you get to use until you can get to a larger town or loot a better weapon from a battle.
Prices for "war gear" are inflated -- so even if you find a steel sword, it's going to cost you 1000+ silver. Still valued in the gold piece, but priced in silver -- and silver pieces are 100 to a gold.
And treasure is equally scarce. A cache of 1000 sp is a haul. More valuable might be swords and armor from dead foes, commodities stockpiled in a bandit's cave, etc. The "value" to the adventurer depends on the class -- clerics might find converts or disperse an opposing cult, wizards find their secret knowledge, thieves pocket a shiny gem, warriors find better armor, etc. In true DCC fashion, magical items are unique and rare.
I thought about doing all this through "regulation" -- as in laws against bearing arms/armor, etc, but I think a little realism in economics does it better and makes it seem less arbitrary, somehow. The characters will still be wildly richer than the average man, but, other than figuring out how to move crates of valuable commodities, I don't foresee a need to ensure the characters have bags of holding and trains of mules to haul their treasure around.
My question is: Would this kill your interest in adventuring (or playing in a game like this...more importantly)? I think DCC did a good job of reinforcing the _why_ of adventuring -- by character class. I just don't know if I'm taking it too far.
Oh -- and to add to the above -- Appendix N... our A/N heroes find big scores, but by the next story, they seem to be broke and seeking employment after drinking and whoring their ill-gotten gains... anyway...
To start out, I'm using the "silver standard" from a Dragon magazine article I can't remember, and taking it a bit farther. _Everything_ is priced in silver and in fact you will rarely find gold being circulated as currency in any transaction an adventurer would normally be involved in. If the adventurers are in a village or even small town, they may find that their coins are almost useless -- maybe at the inn. Peasants and laborers typically use barter as a means of transacting business and live on a just coppers a year, from a monetary perspective. When dealing with trade guilds and those higher up the economic and political food chain, silver is typically the currency. This would apply to mercenaries/hirelings, etc. Gold is the currency of the super rich...kings and such.
Secondly, you can't walk into a town and expect to find a mini-mall of adventuring gear, weapons, war horses, and the like. From a development perspective, I'm using a system based on % chance of a type of business even existing in a town. There may be a blacksmith, but he doesn't necessarily know how to make a suit of plate mail, or even a dagger. He's there to make stuff for his primary customers. So, your short sword may be what you get to use until you can get to a larger town or loot a better weapon from a battle.
Prices for "war gear" are inflated -- so even if you find a steel sword, it's going to cost you 1000+ silver. Still valued in the gold piece, but priced in silver -- and silver pieces are 100 to a gold.
And treasure is equally scarce. A cache of 1000 sp is a haul. More valuable might be swords and armor from dead foes, commodities stockpiled in a bandit's cave, etc. The "value" to the adventurer depends on the class -- clerics might find converts or disperse an opposing cult, wizards find their secret knowledge, thieves pocket a shiny gem, warriors find better armor, etc. In true DCC fashion, magical items are unique and rare.
I thought about doing all this through "regulation" -- as in laws against bearing arms/armor, etc, but I think a little realism in economics does it better and makes it seem less arbitrary, somehow. The characters will still be wildly richer than the average man, but, other than figuring out how to move crates of valuable commodities, I don't foresee a need to ensure the characters have bags of holding and trains of mules to haul their treasure around.
My question is: Would this kill your interest in adventuring (or playing in a game like this...more importantly)? I think DCC did a good job of reinforcing the _why_ of adventuring -- by character class. I just don't know if I'm taking it too far.
Oh -- and to add to the above -- Appendix N... our A/N heroes find big scores, but by the next story, they seem to be broke and seeking employment after drinking and whoring their ill-gotten gains... anyway...