gold's value

[luciousjyrent]

ok dont let the title distract you but, i have a suggestion why dont you make it an even better rp server by writing a scrypt that makes every 300gp weigh 1lb or something because i see a lot of people walking around and someone says hey how much does that cost, and some other guy says that would be 60000 lions, and then next thing i know he has 60000 lions in cash, first of all who the hell carries that much money around with them, and second how? i mean unless you have uber uber strenght, i do not see how you can carry that many coins, i noticed there is a banking system not many people actually use it, i mean they prefer to carry around cash, so i am suggesting to make this a more realistic rp server you can actually put a weight to gold....or something like that...

[Nim_White]

The weight of gold coins would, realistically, preclude any but the insanely strong from carrying any significant amount of coin in cash. So I agree that anyone carrying 20000 or 30000 coins would be unable to move!

But I think one has to assume that characters carry wealth other than small change in the form of gems or, to a lesser extent, jewels or treasure items such as magic rings.

The truth of the matter is that in mediaeval times a single gold coin would represent wealth to a commoner, while in a fantasy setting this standard is thrown out of kilter by the availability of high class weapons and armour, and magic items generally, which there is no point in having unless adventurers can acquire (and carry) the wealth to buy them.

So while I would be happy to see coins being given a weight - just as I would be happy to see missiles such as arrows being given a weight - I think we have to accept that this would require a lot of scripting, which would probably cause more lag, and apply Coleridge's 'willing suspension of disbelief' to the matter.

[gathera]

Actually I would suspect most players rarely carry that many gold coins at one time. Most of the wealth is converted into the paper notes which do have weight in the game. Or those mythical gold bars, not that I have any heh. If you carry say 60,000 and you should happen to have an untimely accident ...well that ol' gold bag does get a few ragged holes in it.

[Helgrin Granitesoul]

Not many people use the banking system?

I assume this is a joke....

People ask me to cash notes for them all the time since i always carry a decent amount since I buy and sell things. But i almost never travel anywhere with more then 5000 on me if I am going anywhere other than by caravan since it would just be... well foolish.

I have also played it where instead of getting a bag of gold after a outing it is a couple really nice gems just to get away from that *hands over heavy bag of gold coins* scene after getting back to civilization.


anyway.. How do we know how big the golden lion coin is.. maybe it is the size of a dime... just because a dollar coin in the US (and i use that just because I am from there.. and we are the BEST ) doesnt mean the 1 gold piece coin from Cormyr follows the same guideline in size.

[Foomanchu]

true dat helgrin. two words: Bank Note. Good idea, but ultimately it doesn't seem feasable for the server to have to calculate how much weight in gold you had on you every time you pick up some loot, especially when most people don't carry much.

[moulinous]

*makes notes to start robbing pcs since no one is using the banking system anymore*
on the truth though, i do not think anyone does NOT use the system...and if they dont, well, i know some thieves that might be looking for them right quick

[arcadiadragon]

pardon the rambling if there be any

*sighs*....the idea of gold having weight..sounds attractive at first but i have played on server that tried it once.....the result were disastrous to say the least...it got shoved down our throats the bosses wouldn't listen and we lost about five to ten longtime veterans that spent about two real life year amassing said fortunes. because their characters were weighted down to the point of immobility and the the dms just said this is the way its going to be...well the server ceased to exist in very short order..the system was cumbersome and it got in the way of "role play"

[Nim_White]

Mez has been into the bank - but has never had enough money to get a bank note. So I don't even know what the minimum amount is.....

[catmage]

Five thousand gold and twenty thousand gold are the amounts that you can trade in. At one point it'd auto translate four notes into a bank bar, but I geuss that was disabled

[Quadhund/Greenhouse]

Nearly every PC on the server uses the banking system. It is the smartest route. the only ones that do not, are the ones that cannot afford the weight of the bank notes or the ones that cannot afford to have bank notes. But I will say, the gold bar, in terms of weight efficiency, is seldom used (since the size of the gold bar is the same as four bank notes and of equal value, but bank notes weigh 1.2 pounds total vs. 5 lbs.)

The PnP 3.5 rules say 50 coins to the lb.

But here's the rub. 1) The economy of FRC is over inflated. In a PnP style game, you wouldnt see players with this much gold. Any character with 60,000 gold would eagerly convert that into some sort of magical item. 2) There is no other currency than gold. In PnP you could at least convert up 60,000 gold into 6000 platinum.

This is a high fantasy setting, and we only have so many resources at hand. Sometimes making things too realistic actually conflicts with the fantasy of the game.

[Driderman]

And if you were to impose realism on the current monetary system I suppose every single shopkeeper on FRC should close down their shops and retire to their personal paradise island/floating fortress/small country which they've bought with the insane amounts of gold they've received over the years

Haven't got my FRCS with my, but the average yearly pay for a simple carpenter/farmer/etc is 10 or 20 gold pieces...

Judging from that, even Biedello should be able to afford his very own Stronghold by now

[ShadowCatJen]

I'm all for realism myself, but as several have said sometimes realism needs to be set aside for the sake of fun gameplay.

I also played on the same server Arc mentioned and to put it bluntly, it sucked. We did lose many of our long time players because they literally could not move their PCs because of the weight. Players like myself who played low strength merchant type characters really got screwed over because we could no longer carry our wares. Those that did nothing but go out and powerloot found their own clever ways around the system, but those of us who actually RPed things out found ourselves heavily constricted on things.

And lots of people do use the banks. Perhaps the people you've been traveling with don't and perhaps you've never seen anyone actually use it yourself, but I've heard the lines:

"I need to head to the bank to get this note exchanged."

and

"I'll sell this to you for the price of a note."

More than once.

So, though the suggestion is fair in concerns for realism, I don't think it would fit well in the confines of FRC.

[soulfien]

couple of notes...

1. I know before the rules were revamped about pickpocketing, it was safer not to use the banking system. I know one player mentioned that he never uses gold bars anymore after having a thief steal one of his. That was a huge 20,000 gold loss. The most you can lift of a player in actual gold is about 40, I think?

2. As DM Greenhouse mentioned, it's not really gold you're carrying. It's a combination of copper, silver, electrum, gold, and platinum. The economy has been altered to account for those coins. That's why you see things costing upwards of 100,000 gold or more. You could buy a fortress for that! Kam could actually buy back his ship for much less. Just picture the gold amount in copper coins and convert from there.

3. If a player is walking around with 60,000 gold coins then he's probably got a magic bag by now that makes carrying that much possible.

[Mehangel]

The way I see it, is when I see someone carrying 60,000 gp, I translate it into 60,000 cp which inturn translates to 6,000 sp then to 600 gp or 60 pp. (I have carried 60 in cents before and it isn't much weight) I also do this same method in determing the prices set for other items, and strangely enough it is rather acurate in strong magical items, although less with minor items. I do this because bioware did not include the other coins, This however does not stop my character from calling them lions. I would also agree with DM Greenhouse as it would be most likely that the character would be carrying more then just gold pieces.

[Masterbard Alyster Darkharp]

I never have more then 5k in actual coins on me..because as soon as I hit that mark I make a note..even if I end up walking because I can't afford caravans

[EDM Entori]

I would like to get a 2000 and 10 000 option added to the banks.. for easier saving, I far to often get up to 4500 and spend it.. *curses* but yeah I carried 30 000 once to go to suzial from redmist to buy a ring. theres no bank that I can find their. or in many other places. often times especially if going to the elven settlement you gotta bring your gold, can't change it there. you gotta drag it all through the hullack.

Anyways

Peace.

Ent

[catmage]

There's a bank in both Redmist and Suzail. It's just that not all banks are in places a character would want to go.