Last week I wrote about using reality and history as a way of World Building. This week I want to continue along those lines, but this time, I want to talk about money.

 
As a kid, I had heard the old saying, In for a penny, in for a pound, but I never understood it. Being American, I didn’t understand how a penny, a measurement of money, related to a pound, a measurement of weight. I had no idea that there was such a thing as a British pound. As it turns out, when that saying was first popularized, the common unit of British coinage was the shilling, 1/20th of a pound, not the pound.

 
This relates to our game because the British Pound Sterling was originally valued at a pound of sterling silver. Therefore £100 was literally 100 lbs. of silver. The One Pound coin obviously didn’t weigh a pound, it was a way to make carrying large sums of money easier. We still have this problem in our games, and to try to combat it, we summon Encumbrance.

 

The Monty Haul

Back in the days of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D), now called First Edition, Gary Gygax wrote in the DMG about the Monty Haul. Being a teenager, I understood the reference completely. Now, you’d need to be at least 50 years old to get that reference, so I’ll take a moment to explain it.

 
Monty Hall was the host of a game show in the 1960’s called, Let’s Make A Deal. It was a unique show, in that everyone in the audience dressed up in costumes. There’s a story behind that, but it has nothing to do with today’s subject, so I won’t go into it.

 
In this show, Monty would pick someone out of the audience to play a game. It usually started with him gifting them something small, like a pack of gum. Next, he would tell the (now) contestant, that they could keep that pack of gum, or trade it for what was in The Box. It was easy enough to make that trade, because all they had to lose, was a pack of gum.

 
Generally, what was in The Box, was something much more valuable, say a washer & dryer. The contestant is happy, they just traded a pack of gum for a new washer & dryer! Now Monty tells them, they can keep the washer & dryer, or they can trade it for what’s behind the Curtain. Now the choice is harder because they won something of value. What’s behind the Curtain could be “A Brand New Car!” or it could be a Zonk. A Zonk is something worthless, like an old Prospector with a mule.

 
It was a fun game to watch, because people sweated the choices so hard, and the audience is shouting at them to take the trade and at the same time keep the prize. Also, there was the multiple choice option, where you could trade in what you had, and choose if you wanted Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3. You knew that behind at least one of them, was a Zonk, you just had to choose the right Door to avoid it. If you kept trading up, and you were good, or lucky, in your choices, you could end up with an all-expenses trip to Europe, or a new car, or an entire house full of furniture.

 
All this explanation just so you’ll understand that Monty Hall was known for giving away a metric ton of prizes, for free. A Monty Haul therefore, was where the DM gave the Party gold, jewels and most especially magic items, treasure beyond measure, as it were, for little or no work.

 
The exact definition from the AD&D DMG is: Monty Haul - A campaign (or the DM running it) in which greatly excessive amounts of treasure and/or experience are given out.

 
No one wanted a Monty Haul. They wanted to run a game that was fun, and rewarding, but that didn’t over reward.

 

How Times Have Changed

My, how times have changed. Today, it’s not uncommon for 1st level Party Members to claim chests of gold, and Rare or even Legendary Magic Items after a fight. How they carry it all, and what they do with them during the next fight, is hardly, if ever discussed. If it is discussed, it’s usually that one of the magic items found, was a Bag of Holding.

 
Now, I’m not saying ALL DMs do this. The better ones certainly know better, but it is only natural to want to reward your players. The problem is, that’s not realistic. Also, by adding a little (just a bit!) of real-world Economics to the campaign, you’ll make your game more challenging for the players, and a lot more fun too. One of the first lessons you need to learn as a DM, is that you don’t reward your players with wealth, if you can reward them with something else. Or more accurately, reward your players for problem solving, or thinking outside the box, with smaller, but more relevant rewards.

 

Economics 101

The first thing to understand is that money needs to be valuable. If it’s not, no one will use it. All money has seven characteristics:

1. Durability – It must last longer than a single use
2. Divisibility – You must be able to divide it into smaller units
3. Fungibility – Any coin or other unit, is worth exactly as much as any other. They are interchangeable
4. Convenience – It must be easy to trade for something else of equal value
5. Intrinsic Value – It must be valuable in itself – The reason gold is money, is because people want to own gold
6. Limited Quantity – To be valuable, there must be less of it than people want. Supply & Demand
7. A history of acceptance – Money usually has a long history of being used for trade.

It’s not important that you remember every one of these characteristics, but the more you keep in mind while building your world, the more real that world will be.

 

What Do I Do With This?

You need to understand that when money is scarce, it’s valuable. That means it takes less of it, to buy something. I’m old enough to remember buying Pepsi (Bottles or cans) from vending machines for a dime. Before 1971, when the world left the Gold Standard, money was more scarce, because it had to be backed by physical gold. Once they stopped backing money with anything, it became worth less, and continues to lose value over time, until it becomes worthless.

 
In our games, Gold and Silver are money. If they are scarce, it takes less of either, to buy things. A small town, out of the way, with few travelers, will tend to charge less for things like food and lodging. Their local economy is small, so they don’t need much money. A tankard of ale might be a few coppers, a night at the Inn may be 3-5 silver.

 
The one time that will not be the case, is if the town has something you need, and it’s the last chance to obtain it before heading out to somewhere this item cannot be obtained for any money. Think about the Last Chance for gasoline. If you are about to head off across the desert in your car, and there are no gas stations until you get to the other side, you might want to top off your tank, but gas is going to be expensive, because you can’t get any more, and this is the ONLY place to get it now.

 
Both of these possibilities make for great game play. Getting your players used to low prices out in the countryside, will make them really appreciate things when they get to the City.

 
In the cities, prices are going to be higher. A tankard of ale might be a silver, and a night at the Inn may be 10-20 silver. You’ll notice that I haven’t even brought up gold. In the Medieval Era, one ounce of gold, could buy the entire Inn, the land surrounding it, and a good part of the town. That is how valuable gold is. Even the Nobility might go their entire lives without ever seeing a gold coin. Only the very Upper Nobility, dealing with paying armies, or perhaps ransoms, would ever use gold.

 
On the other hand, in a city where Adventurers are going through all the time, prices are going to be extraordinary! If a city (or even a town) is close to a place where people are pulling treasure out all the time, well now you’re talking about that tankard of ale being 1 Gold, and a night at the Inn costing 10-20 gold pieces. Why? Because when money is not scarce, it is worth a LOT less. Therefore it takes a LOT more of it to buy things.

 

Money Changers

One of the things I do in my games, is put Money Changers in every city. They won’t be in anything smaller than a city, there’s no reason for them to be there. Not enough money being used, and any place that happens to be near a source of wealth, will grow FAST. Just look at the Boom Towns in California starting in 1850, as the Prospectors flooded the area, looking for, and especially when they found, gold.

 
A Money Changer does two things. One, they can take a PCs gold, silver and jewels, and exchange it for receipts. These receipts can be in various denominations, so for example, 100gp could be exchanged for 100 One Gold Piece receipts. It’s a LOT easier to carry 100 slips of paper, than 100gp. You can of course also have 5gp, 10gp, 20gp and 50gp receipts, to make it easier to carry. These receipts are, of course, accepted anywhere in the city, as being as good as gold (or silver, or copper). Even other cities will accept these receipts, especially if the country’s Government is considered strong. Small towns will reluctantly take the receipts, only because it means they have to make a trip into the nearest city, to convert them back to hard money.

 
Even across borders. receipts will work. Generally the Party will need to convert the receipts they have, for receipts that will be accepted in the next country, but that’s easy to do in a border city. Also remember that every time there’s any sort of conversion, from coin to paper, from paper to coin, from this county’s receipt to that county’s receipt, the Money Changer is going to take a fee, for performing the service. In computer games, this is called a Money Sink. The PCs are always going to get a little less than they gave, for the convenience of paper. How do you think banks originally started? This also means that those small towns are probably going to charge you more (to make up for the fee) if you use receipts, instead of coin. It’s a cash discount!

 

Creating Value

If you make it so that your players start with using coppers and a silver now and then, they will get used to that. Especially new players, who don’t know any different. Even after Encounters where they defeat whatever, or whomever they meet, make the reward in coppers and silver. If a drink at the local Tavern is two coppers, and a meal is five, and a night’s stay is a couple of silvers, they won’t need any gold.

 
Certainly, at the lower levels, keep them restricted to copper and silver. That way, when they DO happen upon a gold piece, it will be something special. Make sure to create a simple exchange rate for your money. I usually have 100 coppers to a silver, and 25 or 50 silver to a gold. I will also do things like silver pieces that can be, or look like they might be, broken into smaller pieces, or shards. Research Pieces of Eight. I usually do Shards of Ten, because the math is easier. That makes each Silver Shard, worth ten coppers. Half a Silver (coin) is worth 50 coppers. That allows your PCs to color up their money into easier to carry metals.

 
You can do the same thing with gold. If one gold is worth 50 silver, then half a gold is worth 25. Your players will complain about it at first, but then they will start to use the system, and they will rave about how easy it is to make change. Room costs five silver, and you’ve only got gold? Give the Innkeeper one Gold Shard, and you’re square for the night.

 

In The End

Having worked in the Financial Industry for 30 years, I could go on for pages. I won’t. My point here, is to give you a foundation to work with, and the understanding that using Real World ideas will make your job easier. There’s a reason it’s used in the Real World. You don’t have to be a Mathematician, I’m certainly not. Just make a system that’s based on the Real World, and make it simple for you to use. Or use mine.

 
If you reward your players with smaller amounts to start off with, they will appreciate the rarer larger reward when it’s given. That also means that something like a magic item, which is worth many gold pieces, is also going to be appreciated more. You don’t have to constantly over reward your players, if you set a few rules at the beginning, and stick to them. Making rewards valuable is entirely in your hands.

 
I’m not saying you shouldn’t reward your players, I’m saying to reward them with smaller amounts, especially at lower levels, so that they value the bigger rewards later. If a PC decides to look in a small barrel accidentally dropped along the side of the road, giving them a few copper and maybe a silver inside the barrel, will give everyone in the Party an incentive to look closer at things. You never know what you might find.

 
The game is supposed to be fun. Fun and massive rewards are not the same thing. The fun is in the exploration, the solving of puzzles the evading (or not) of traps and the defeating of foes. The gaining of items and money is just a reward for using their minds and doing the things you want them to do.