Coin weight and the new economy


Prerelease Discussion


We've been told that the economy in PF2 will be silver-based rather than gold-based, so a sword that previously cost 15 gp will now cost 15 sp.

I'm hoping that while they're doing that, they'll also changing the size of the coins. A gold coin in Pathfinder weighs 0.02 lbs, and (at least in 3e - I'm not sure if Pathfinder specifies it) has a diameter of 1 inch (which gives it a thickness of about 1 mm or 1/25 inch). That's a really big coin.

I know historical accuracy isn't a big thing given that Golarion is not our world, but the common silver coins of the European medieval world were based on the denier or penny, which was minted out of 1/240th of a pound of silver. It would be cool if Paizo took this opportunity to fix that as well.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

My guess, with the bulk system, coins will have a weight of - (negligible) perhaps whilst also having something like a Coin Pouch item with a weight of L.


1/100 of a bulk? sigh yeah I'm not big on this whole bulk thing.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Vidmaster7 wrote:
1/100 of a bulk? sigh yeah I'm not big on this whole bulk thing.

L is 1/10 of a bulk. Anything less than that is -, which means so small to not bother tracking. Like how most people didn't bother tracking coins.

EDIT: This is going by Starfinder. They did say Bulk would not be a 1 for 1 copy in PF2E.


So what ya think would we say like oh 100 coins equals 1/10 of a bulk then? or like you said and not worry about the weight of the coins at all.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Vidmaster7 wrote:
So what ya think would we say like oh 100 coins equals 1/10 of a bulk then? or like you said and not worry about the weight of the coins at all.

I imagine it will be handled like ammo (physcial shells) in Starfinder. You don't bother tracking the individual item, you track the container. So if a coin pouch can hold 100 coins and you need 10 to carry all your coins that'll be 1 bulk (10 times 0.1) but you don't care to track the individual coins within those containers.

This works very well in Starfinder. My players don't need to recalculate their weight every time they scrounge or expend a bullet, they just total the number of clips.


Ah interesting. I suppose it would be equally as silly to minus the .00 whatever the coins weight from your capacity every time you bought something. I think even most video games don't make you worry about the weight of money.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Vidmaster7 wrote:
Ah interesting. I suppose it would be equally as silly to minus the .00 whatever the coins weight from your capacity every time you bought something. I think even most video games don't make you worry about the weight of money.

I think you could do a rounding to nearest hundred for getting L bulk for coins as well. I might actually perfer that is it means you don't have to keep buying more and bigger coin pouches Zelda style. Though I do like coins requiring some logistics in world as trading in large amounts with things like gems etc is a staple fantasty trope.

Pros and cons to whatever way they go with it. But having both played and run Starfinder, as much as there are somethings I dislike, Bulk is a system I am glad they are bringing forward. It is the first time we have ever bothered tracking any sort of encumbrance, without encumbrance rules weighing down the system.


So your saying I should probably give them another chance eh?

Also Nice pun.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Vidmaster7 wrote:

So your saying I should probably give them another chance eh?

Also Nice pun.

If you've played with it in SF and found it lacking I think its fair to be wary with it (even altered) moving to PF2E. If you've not played with it I think you should wait to try it in practice.

Although I think if you are the sort of player who enjoyed the minutiae of weight tracking, you won't like it.


I actually liked the bulk system, it was easy to handle and you could actually track a bit what your players carried around
in pf1 I usually handwaved carrying capacity because it was just so darn much work


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I prefer PF1 encumbrance in principle, but it really is a PITA sometimes. I want to dislike bulk so much (and in many ways I still dislike it), but it really does streamline encumbrance in a positive way.

On the coin weight issue, they are already reducing the effective weight of coins required by 10, do they really need to reduce it further? It's pretty much a non-issue beyond the practicalities IMO. I hold historical accuracy in pretty low regard though.


Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Malk_Content wrote:
Vidmaster7 wrote:
Ah interesting. I suppose it would be equally as silly to minus the .00 whatever the coins weight from your capacity every time you bought something. I think even most video games don't make you worry about the weight of money.

I think you could do a rounding to nearest hundred for getting L bulk for coins as well. I might actually perfer that is it means you don't have to keep buying more and bigger coin pouches Zelda style. Though I do like coins requiring some logistics in world as trading in large amounts with things like gems etc is a staple fantasty trope.

Pros and cons to whatever way they go with it. But having both played and run Starfinder, as much as there are somethings I dislike, Bulk is a system I am glad they are bringing forward. It is the first time we have ever bothered tracking any sort of encumbrance, without encumbrance rules weighing down the system.

But hey, in every vaguely period movie, people always throw a small pouch of coins to someone as payment for a job, so if we're always carrying our coin in a bunch of little bags, we get to canonize that visual. :)


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Shadrayl of the Mountain wrote:
Malk_Content wrote:
Vidmaster7 wrote:
Ah interesting. I suppose it would be equally as silly to minus the .00 whatever the coins weight from your capacity every time you bought something. I think even most video games don't make you worry about the weight of money.

I think you could do a rounding to nearest hundred for getting L bulk for coins as well. I might actually perfer that is it means you don't have to keep buying more and bigger coin pouches Zelda style. Though I do like coins requiring some logistics in world as trading in large amounts with things like gems etc is a staple fantasty trope.

Pros and cons to whatever way they go with it. But having both played and run Starfinder, as much as there are somethings I dislike, Bulk is a system I am glad they are bringing forward. It is the first time we have ever bothered tracking any sort of encumbrance, without encumbrance rules weighing down the system.

But hey, in every vaguely period movie, people always throw a small pouch of coins to someone as payment for a job, so if we're always carrying our coin in a bunch of little bags, we get to canonize that visual. :)

True, just don't want players going back to town to buy more leather bags so they can then go right back to the adventure and take the coins they find with them.


Seisho wrote:

I actually liked the bulk system, it was easy to handle and you could actually track a bit what your players carried around

in pf1 I usually handwaved carrying capacity because it was just so darn much work

You mean like how most people will probably handwave Bulk?

I myself will only use it in the playtest, and then drop it like a rock.

To be fair, I largely dropped the weight in PF1 like a rock. I just asked for sensible carrying, or if weight will play a key element. Say trying to transport stuff across a desert or tundra, or lifting things to great heights. Or even falling overboard.


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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
MerlinCross wrote:
Seisho wrote:

I actually liked the bulk system, it was easy to handle and you could actually track a bit what your players carried around

in pf1 I usually handwaved carrying capacity because it was just so darn much work

You mean like how most people will probably handwave Bulk?

I myself will only use it in the playtest, and then drop it like a rock.

To be fair, I largely dropped the weight in PF1 like a rock. I just asked for sensible carrying, or if weight will play a key element. Say trying to transport stuff across a desert or tundra, or lifting things to great heights. Or even falling overboard.

I'll be honest, I want to use stronger words here, that is a terrible attitude to have.

You aren't going to give the system a fair shot if you have already decided (without actually seeing its whole implementation) you are going to drop it. This goes for a lot of things.

And from personal experience. My entire group never used weight in PF1. We all loved Bulk. It let us track what we consider an important logistic without the massive baggage.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps Subscriber
Malk_Content wrote:
MerlinCross wrote:

I myself will only use it in the playtest, and then drop it like a rock.

To be fair, I largely dropped the weight in PF1 like a rock. I just asked for sensible carrying, or if weight will play a key element. Say trying to transport stuff across a desert or tundra, or lifting things to great heights. Or even falling overboard.

I'll be honest, I want to use stronger words here, that is a terrible attitude to have.

The only reason I'll ever use it is because I'm playing PFS. Other than that I'm going to ignore it.

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