Bury Your Gold: On Abstract Wealth
The corner of my character sheets that most quickly become an irreparable smudge of graphite and eraser shavings is always the little box used to tally gold coins, spare change and other forms of legal tender. Rarely did a session (or even an hour thereof) go by where I was not revising this figure to account for tipping the friendly barkeep or looting the unlucky wastrel. This is the part at which, if this blog post were an infomercial, the voiceover would say, “There has to be a better way!” Because the collecting of gold coins is so deeply embedded in Dungeons & Dragons and its successors, I am going to try to make the case that you should at least reconsider gold coins before I offer you the alternative of an abstract wealth system. If you’d rather skip the pontificating and get to the crunch, just scroll until you see the “Abstract Wealth” heading.
DISCLAIMER: I am not here to confiscate your gold doubloons. I’m not saying it is morally dubious or objectively bad design to use gold coins in your games (I do it all the time). Nor do I expect people to ditch gold pieces en masse. This is just an opportunity to reexamine this sacred cow. Please do not yell at me.
Gold coins are not realistic. Until this notion is disabused, gold coins are an almost invisible part of the game. Gold coins reflect more of G. Gygax’s modern, capitalist milieu rather than anything approaching the quasi-medieval European society D&D is thought to represent. I am by no means the first to point this out. If you’re interested in further reading, you may be interested in Historical Hit Points 2: Simulating Medieval Economics in Tabletop RPGs over at Play the Past or d&d is anti-medieval by Blog of Holding. For most inhabitants of any given D&D-esque world, commerce depends more on deeply cultural and varied methods of debt and credit than gold or silver. I do not wish to overstate my case here. For the type of adventurers (a polite term for roving marauders) that typically serve as D&D’s protagonists, coinage might be the only means of exchange acceptable to a skeptical populace. In a setting in which war and plunder is widespread and the players-characters always remain wandering outsiders to the settlements they pass through (e.g., Errant by Ava Islam in which the player-character explicitly have no home, friends or family and are avoided by respectable folk), trading in precious metals may be totally appropriate and reinforce those stated themes. Errant is explicit about the credit-risk the characters pose, stating “Given that errants have one of the shortest expected lifespans in the natural world, no creditor will guarantee a debt to any individual errant.” The following passage from Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber is illustrative of why gold coins make sense for a certain type of game:
“On the one hand, [adventurers] tend to have access to a great deal of loot, much of which consists of gold and silver, and will always seek a way to trade it for the better things in life. On the other, a heavily armed itinerant [adventurer] is the very definition of a poor credit risk. The economists’ barter scenario might be absurd when applied to transactions between neighbors in the same small rural community, but when dealing with a transaction between the resident of such a community and a passing mercenary, it suddenly begins to make a great deal of sense.”
However, a running tally of the exact amount of coins at a character’s disposal is a poor reflection of how most people think when it comes to purchases. While some may have a perfectly accurate accounting of their current wealth and spend accordingly, most people’s spending and self-perception of their wealth depends on a confluence of factors, such as general economic optimism or conspicuous consumption by peers (see, e.g., The Psychology of Money by Adrian Furnham and Michael Argyle). A more realistic system would encourage the players to view potential purchases the way their character might—something being either cheap, affordable, expensive, out-of-my-budget, etc. Instead, most games give the player near-perfect economic knowledge of both their finances and of the prices of goods. If the player can look at their character sheet and declare “I can buy precisely sixty-nine goats with these 69 gold pieces,” you may not be dealing with a particularly realistic system, even ignoring the inflation in the price of goats that such a course of action would cause in a given village.
Gold coins are boring, as both a game mechanic and as treasure. Yes, gold coins are a game mechanic. It is a tool by which the players may interact with the fiction in the game. As a mechanic, it consists of adding and subtracting for any gold obtained or spent, respectively. It is probably not thought of as a mechanic because it is just so dull and has no chance of introducing exciting or surprising results. It is also boring as treasure. I have never seen players get excited because they found gold coins (perhaps the sheer amount of coins, but not the coins themselves). If I tell players that, after looting the body of a cultist, they find a small, jade statuette of a frog worth approximately 20 gold pieces, gears begin to turn and they are curious about the semi-valuable trinket beyond just its market price. If I instead say the cultist was carrying 20 gold pieces, they will just add it to their current total (as a note, my players usually track gold collectively instead of individually. This is to minimize math and because my players tend toward a collectivist outlook). It is common advice that a +1 Sword is boring, but 100 gold is just as boring. Treasure is more interesting when it has a unique history, and perfectly fungible means of trade lack that type of history by their very nature. Here is Graeber, again, on the nature of currency: “an object without a history, valuable because one knows it will be accepted in exchange for other goods just about anywhere, no questions asked.” The best treasure has history.
Abstract Wealth
In the Prismatic Wasteland, the adventuring party (called the Company) has a separate character sheet and is run collectively by all the non-referee players. The Company has three stats that work similar to the player-character stats, except each interacts with the economy of the game, in some way. These stats are Reputation, Supply and Wealth. Stats in Prismatic Wasteland have the two traditional components of Scores (0 to 20) and their associated Modifiers (-5 to +5), but Scores here are not merely vestigial. Instead, the Modifiers are used to make tests (d20 + Modifier) where outcomes are uncertain, but the Stats can be damaged (reduced by an external force) or spent (reduced by the character). Ways the stats work differently for the player-characters than the Company is that (1) the stat Scores, when spent or damaged, do not impact the Modifier, which is based on the player-character’s max Score for such stat, and (2) the stat Scores can be restored to their max when the player-character rests. For instance, casting spells requires spending Intelligence (no spell slots). A wizard with 18 Intelligence who has spent all their Intelligence on spells still has a +4 on Intelligence tests, but they need to rest and restore their Intelligence score before they can cast more spells. For Company stats, on the other hand, reducing the stat Score reduces the Modifier, and stats do not regenerate by resting (if only it were so easy to earn money). Already, you will notice that these stats are collective in nature, and may be a poor fit where the player-characters are more individualistic actors (either because of the themes of the fiction or player preference).
Wealth (be it gold coins or otherwise) is still the primary means for adventurers to buy or sell goods. The Wealth stat represents how well-off the Company is and the typical quality of goods and services they can acquire. Most settlements in the wasteland use a credit-based economy unavailable to the Company unless they have somehow established their creditworthiness to the community. To facilitate trade, the referee determines a “Value” for any good or service the Company wants to buy or sell. The following table provides a guideline for setting Values. The referee may also ask the other players for input.
(Note: an “animaltronic” is an mechatronic animal that escaped from a bygone theme park and proliferated across the wasteland)
If the Value is lower than the Company’s Wealth score, the Company can simply acquire the good or service, but seller may request a favor in exchange. If the Company is selling something with a Value lower their Wealth score, the Company may improve the buyer’s attitude toward them, but their Wealth score does not increase. The point here is that, for anything with a Value below the Company’s Wealth, buying or selling is unlikely to have any material impact on the Company’s accumulation of treasure. If the Company is buying low-Value goods in sufficient bulk, the referee may decide that it requires the Company to spend 1 Wealth.
If the Value is equal to or higher than the Company’s Wealth score, the Company makes a moderate Wealth test. If the Company is buying such goods or services, they cannot buy new goods or services of that Value or higher for two weeks, regardless of the result of the test. (The randomness of this test imperfectly represents both the fluctuations in value of both the Company’s Wealth and the good or service’s Value in a less complicated way than having an entire, functional economic simulation for each good. It is also more fun than simply adding or subtracting gold pieces)
Bad Deals. When a deal goes terribly awry, the character leading the effort makes a difficult Charisma test.
On a full success, the counterparty alters the deal in an inconvenient way. Pray they alter it no further.
On a mixed success, the Company faces exile from the settlement or similar retribution for their faux pas.
On a failure, the Company just made an enemy for life! A fight or similar conflict may break out.
On a critical success, it was just a misunderstanding! They gain the full success result for the original deal.
On a critical failure, the character wakes up shackled in a debtors’ prison or similarly horrible situation.
The best way to increase Wealth is by delving into dungeons. The most valuable treasures in the Prismatic Wasteland are in subterranean vaults left behind by collapsed civilizations from beyond recorded history. I previously discussed dungeon delving and treasure tables, and the most generic of the treasure tables in the Prismatic Wasteland is the Valuables table, which abstractly represents ancient coins, jewels and other fungible trade goods. Typically, my players spend their treasure dice on obtaining rare weapons, armor or vehicle modifications, but they will use the Valuables table when they have trouble agreeing on which other table to choose. The Valuables table is less exciting (no laser swords, sniper rifles or wizard skulls containing spells) but is more flexible in how it can benefit the Company.
Reputation is an alternative to the exchange of coins, but it will necessarily pull the adventurers into social entanglements. If the Company is trading in a settlement where they have gained the trust and respect of its residents, they may spend Reputation instead of Wealth. However, the seller may later ask for a favor in return. Refusing a favor from such a seller deals 1d6 damage to Reputation. Reputation also has its own uses aside from its integration in the economic system, e.g., testing to determine a settlement’s initial reaction when the player-characters arrive in town or determining the bounty on a player-character’s head. Enterprising explorers may try to ingratiate the Company with a settlement’s residents so they can begin to purchase things on credit. This expanded access to resources is also an opportunity for the referee to insert adventure hooks into their games. A Company looking to impress the people of a settlement may look for quests to help them up-front, and when the Company starts buying goods on credit, the residents of the community will come asking for more favors down the line. The Company could still act as ruthless mercenaries, relying on just their wealth, but their Reputation may precede them. There is now a non-murder-hobo avenue of adventuring for Companies interested in doing so.
Supply is helpful for adventurers that don’t want to starve to death on the side of the road. Supply represents how well-provisioned the Company is for exploration, including not just food but fuel, crafting materials and other necessary comforts for itinerant Heroes. Prismatic Wasteland is a game about long-distance journeys across a vast wasteland, and the Company will need to frequently replenish their supplies (rations, camping gear, fuel for their war rig, etc.) to get to the next destination. In addition to being consumed by travel, Supply can be tested to determine if the Company packed specific, generic gear or used in repairing existing gear (or the Company’s vehicle). This idea of supply is heavily influenced by Five Torches Deep.
Resupplying. When the Company restocks at a settlement or trading caravan, it makes an easy Wealth test.
On a full success, they spend 1 Wealth and increase Supply by 1d4+1.
On a mixed success, they spend 1 Wealth and increase Supply by 1d4.
On a failure, they spend 1 Wealth and increase Supply by 1.
On a critical success, they spend 1 Wealth and increase Supply by 1d6+2.
On a critical failure, they spend 1 Wealth and test for a Bad Deal.
Abstract wealth is a more accurate reflection of commerce in a post-apocalyptic (e.g., quasi-medieval European) world. In Prismatic Wasteland, there is no grand empire or kingdom minting coins or collecting taxes (though there are several factions that wish to change that). Instead, most people live in close-knit settlements to protect themselves from the hazards of the wasteland. Itinerant adventurers are disconnected from these networks of credit but can delve into antediluvian chrome halls and emerge with wheelbarrows of precious loot to fund their next expedition.
Abstract wealth makes trading more dynamic and engaging. This system is less predictable than the gold coin mechanic, and that unpredictability is rife for surprises and emergent play. The players are encouraged to take risks and reap commensurate rewards. It also fuels a neat game loop. Spend Supply traveling to a new destination with dungeons to explore for Wealth and settlements to spend the Wealth on Supply to travel to the next destination, with the additional wrinkle of establishing Reputation (for woe or weal) among the diverse peoples of the Prismatic Wasteland.
In designing the economic gameplay loops for your game, it is easy to default to standardized coinage and shopping lists with goods and their prices. But such a decision should be a conscious choice, because there are alternatives! One such alternative is the abstract system of Wealth (accompanied by Reputation and Supply), but there are no doubt other ways to handle it to complement a given setting and its themes. Hopefully this blog post at least made you think about the best way to handle commerce and trading in your games.
