Resources -Vs- Coins

Gamers are going to rules lawyer and nit pick. If they were the type of personalities to do anything different, they wouldnt be gamers. What your doing is walking up to penguins and asking em not to walk like penguins.

I would have to disagree with this. I know plenty of gamers who do not rules lawyer. I had a long discussion with Aaron yesterday about the importance of knowing the rules in order to play a game. I agree with that, at the rudimentary level. What I disagree with is everyone thinking they are the difinitive Alpha and Omega of the game. We have people to fill that role, they are called GMs. It is not our job to rules lawyer. It kills the game. The best game I ever ran was my tabletop Vampire game. Ran it for 5 years, still don't know the rules. never had a player complaint about it. A couple feel it was among the defining experiences that have them still Role-Playing today.

[WayneO42]

I agree with Eric that coins seem a little advanced for the setting however, there are a few reasons I think that is a perferable evil.

First of all, we are making a barter system look more apealing through artificial means. We are allowing people to carry the equivilent of two months worth of food on their person. One of the reasons coins developed historically was for convenience. In real life, barter is difficult because "Stuff" takes up lots of room wheras coins dont. If everyone could be like Brian and walk around with a live chicken in their pants (Sorry, couldnt resist) then we would probably STILL be a barter based society.

The next reason is game play. Coins are just easier to work with in a LARP setting than resources (both for the player and the GM). How many drinks at the bar is a chicken worth? a turnip? a potato? What do you pay another player for a cure wounds potion? I havent noticed a lot of player to player economics in the game and I think it is for the above reasons. Also, upkeep of items becomes a lot easier. Just pay your money at check-in to upkeep your standard items. No hole punch, no stickers, just show your tags, pay the money, get the tag validated. You also dont need to worry about artificial rules as to how many coins you can carry. You can carry what you can carry. No worrying about phys-reps or containers, just a jingly pouch. If we had a player base that is willing to phys-rep all resources and containers with props that are appropriate for the aesthetic of the game (Art, notice I didnt say "period") then most of the above issues would be resolved but the fact of the matter is that the PCs dont want to bother. A coin system seems to take care of all the phys-rep requirement issues for the economy.

In the end, we need to evaluate which is the lesser of two evils. Do we want an in game coin system that may be a bit too advanced for the in-game environment or do we want a resource tag system that is difficult to translate into the in-game environment. I think that is what it really boils down to. So, there is my two coins worth.

All of my characters in the past have given their resources to someone else in order for them to store. There have been a small few times where I've hidden my resource tags out in the forest for lack of trust in other's usage of my resources. *For character reasons.* I prefer the gold carrying ideal for it's many possiblities.

And if we were all to truly phys-rep our resources in how large they actually are and where we store them, that would be amazingly encombrous for all who had any resource at all. It would need to be atleast three sacks of food, two bolts of cloth, and one decent sized box of supplies.

And we speak of era of barter or currency. I agree that it feels better within the game to have a barter system. Yet, how many pc farmers, pc butchers, and pc woodworkers *by profession* do we have that we need to feel we must barter 'our' things. At best of what I can see in the RGO system; we help in order to get what is made by the town and surrounding areas. We don't actually do the majority of work. *As I understand it* I feel currency works better for bits of general labor. As for that matter, we've had quite a few accountants in the game; moving resources around in the 'business manner' I'd seen. I guess I've always felt it's a been currency-like system than simply resources being moved around. Which is what was actually happening.

I like the idea of barter, yet it just doesn't feel practical to me.

A hole in the ground is not safe and causes many in game issue's.
*Snicker*

Hehe, indeed.

There is no way to change my vote on the poll, but I would like to see coins in game. Especially if they are Calydonian coins. *snicker, snicker*

I think that a system where coin and resources could co-exist is going to be the best. You hopefully get the best of both world and less than the worst of both too. The ability to break down resources into smaller amounts and easily carry around/store but by keeping resources too you keep the feeling of being a troubled post-cataclysm society.

I offer these two arguments as to coins being acceptable even with civilization being in its current state. First we're not talking about paper money we talking about precious metals and the like. People like shiny hard to find stuff, they are willing to trade stuff for it. Always have always will (or at least so it seems). No need for a bank. Second you don't need a government to make it. All you need is some bored smith/craftsmen with a pile of raw material. ::cough::dwarfs::cough:: The coins don't have match, different makers, different marks. They just have to be approximately the same size and quality.

Here's my thoughts:

First of all, I like the current resource system. When we threw a wrench into the mix and asked the GM's whether we could skin the armadillos and Rhinos at the Sept. FH event (which garnered us a supply of unique 'researchable' hides), it was really cool compared to something dropping coins. Also, a Rogue's barter is more characterful using resources than coins.

It also gives a feeling of a damaged world. Even though it's around 6(?) years after the cataclysm, things are still going to be up in arms, especially when societies who would be reaching the level for monetary needs (like Haven) are being destroyed soon after finally reaching stablilty. And Winter Haven is right out in this idea, I think. Hell, there we don't even freakin' have an intact town, much less the time to sit down and come up with a monetary system. It's literally a clearing in the woods where people just happen to be living.

And the FH crowd is soon going to be going through this as well. Sure, we are moving to Caldonia, but all our heros are dead, leaving all the refugees on their own to pick themselves up from the ashes. I think we'll be hugely lucky if the Caldonians can even spare a simple out-of-the-way settlement for us to regroup in and rebuild as our own, seeing as Caldonia sounds like it's barely somewhere between WH and FH, society wise.

And this is coming from someone who initially thought coinage would be cool, prior to the death of Haven, because we were reaching that 'stablility point' where a society can finally have the leisure to think of such things. Also, the general ease of use and easy of carrying such things as opposed to resource tags and the space they take up. But then I thought about how by doing so we would be joining nearly all other LARPs, MMO's, video games, and tabletop D&D systems. The resource system makes us unique. It provides an additional emphasis on how we are playing our 'post-apocolyptic' LARP.

The only way I can see coinage coming into game is if it can be purely character-made, traded, and controlled resource (because we are the ones who impact the game world, not a faceless NPC banker), because the whole game is about no GM hand-holding. The problem with that is the assured abuse by some players, and possibly just general apathy towards doing the work a monetary system needs.

Or maybe use the coin system, but represent it like Lambic says, using gems and precious metals.

I think the last thing that was talked about was that it'd be the best if we had a currency/resource economy. Currency for carrying around, because out of game it is just much easier to transport/phys-rep and resources because it's needed in this type of post-apocolypic society. I really like the idea of gems as currency. I'll probably do some research on if it's plausable to buy a large amount of seperated value faux gems. I'll look from toy jewelery on up.

Edit:I like the idea of being able to pay for an in-game service, rather than saying, "Well, this is gonna have to be free." or "This will cost you a whole iron resource each time you want this to happen." Then having to lug the resource to them. Heck, having to lug 3 to 6 of those resources around all the time in real life would kill someones back.

Edit: Here's one. http://www.deadmentellnotales.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?search=action&keywords=XTJW&gclid=CP63n4yRwo8CFQIQFQoddUWMXg . I would recommend the "JewlS - Assorted Acrylic Treasure Jewels (singles) $0.19"

Edit: Or maybe even "JewlB - Assorted Acrylic Treasure Jewels (bag of 144) $14.95" on the same site. Saves $12.41

Edit: And I was thinking about the fact that neither WH or FH are necessarily all alone. Perhaps FH adopts the currency of Caldonians *it's possible they could have changed from coins to jewels after the cataclysm* and WH adopts the currency of their surrounding trading groups. Pirates most likely use jewels to trade with the small surrounding societies, as well as resources.

Edit: This post is mostly edits.

[GM_Chris]

That is good stuff.

We are looking at coins. We know where to ge them and just mulling over price.

Halloween candy is on clearence, just uses chocolate coins, then if the players eat all their supplies, it's their own fault.

My only concern is price. If someone accidentally makes off with or loses a coin, how's it going to be replaced? I've found a larp coin at one of the sites and it looked as though it probably cost a decent amount to make. And as had been said, dwarves could cut gems easier than minting coins of the land. I would think they'd need the metal for weapons, armor, and ale steins.

I have no other problem with coins then that. I'm just concerned about the cost of replacement. Where as with the gems I'd mentioned, a lot can be bought for a very small price.

If someone accidentally makes off with or loses a coin, how's it going to be replaced?

its called the "morning scavange"

Its a event that happens at any LARP where the critters drop treasure of any type (coins, gems, components for alchemy and rituals, etc...). Lower level PCs and greedy upper level PCs will wander out just after sunrise and scour the area for treasure missed during the assults from the previous night.

Ive played at 4 LARPS that had critter drops, happened at every one eventualy.

[WayneO42]

Replacing coins really isnt all that expensive, in fact it would be cheaper than replacing gems. The expensive part of coins is the initial set up and creation of the dies.

[GM_Chris]

Yeah it is like 100 bucks for 1000's of them. The problem is it is like 170 bucks per die and if you want two faced dies then you need 2 dies. If you want 3 denominations all different sizes then you would need 6 dies.