Slightly more on topic. It seems to me that magic items are the reason for having huge amounts of cash in fantasy games these days. I'm not really sure of a way to fix that.
Gygax's solution, which seems to me to have been unjustly abandoned, is both to grossly inflate the price of goods (which is actually a rational response when there's a sudden influx of money into an economy, such as when Smaug's hoard is suddenly being spent by the Lakemen), and also to create lots of gold sinks such as cost of living, taxes, tariffs, and so forth.
Gygax's solution also involved not allowing easy or custom crafting, so magic items were incredibly rare to the point of not available for purchase, which means characters could accumulate huge piles of gold coins, but then spent them on castles and armies instead of vorpal swords.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the older versions of D&D the 'weight' in pounds of items was actually a weight/volume.
The D&D Rules Cyclopedia says: "All coins are about equal in size and weight. Each coin weighs about 1/1O of a pound."
The 1st edition AD&D Player's Handbook says: "It is assumed that the size and weight of each coin is relatively equal to each other coin, regardless of type."
Later the 1st edition Player's Handbook states: "Weight is usually stated in gold pieces, 10 gold pieces equaling 1# (pound)."
And the 2nd edition DMG says: "Coins (regardless of metal) normally weigh in at 50 to the pound."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the older versions of D&D the 'weight' in pounds of items was actually a weight/volume.The D&D Rules Cyclopedia says: "All coins are about equal in size and weight. Each coin weighs about 1/1O of a pound."
And the 2nd edition DMG says: "Coins (regardless of metal) normally weigh in at 50 to the pound."
AD&D 1st Edition used the coin as its unit of encumbrance. Encumbrance was an optional rule, and we pretty much always ignored it.
Pretty sure the encumbrance rules were not optional rules.
1st ed really had very few if any optional rules outside of character creation.
Our table does not track gold weight in detail but we are cognoscente of it's encumbrance. We trade in gold for gems should the coin become burdensome.
Buying and selling the gems at value is the tricky part and that requires various skill checks such as appraisal.
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Our table does not track gold weight in detail but we are cognoscente of it's encumbrance. We trade in gold for gems should the coin become burdensome.
Buying and selling the gems at value is the tricky part and that requires various skill checks such as appraisal.
Rules wise, you're wrong. Art objects, gems and precious metals are sold at 100% price.
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The setting I'm working on uses this for money:
Platinum - The size of an Ike dollar. [I love these coins and I seriously wish they caught on in the 70s.]
Gold - The size of a Kennedy half-dollar. [Wish these caught on too.]
Silver - The size of a Sacajawea or President gold dollar. [Need I say it?]
Copper - The size of a dime [Because, as adventurers hate CP so much, I've really grown to hate dimes.]
You have that backwards. Massively so. More valuable metals mean smaller coins.
The current US gold bullion coin is the American Buffalo. It is about the size of a Ike dollar and contains a Troy ounce of 24k gold. It has a face value of $50 and a real value of something like $1500.
There's some electrum in those coins anyway. =p (Sorry for the late reply, the last two days have been WEIRD for me.)
Rules wise, you're wrong. Art objects, gems and precious metals are sold at 100% price.Our table does not track gold weight in detail but we are cognoscente of it's encumbrance. We trade in gold for gems should the coin become burdensome.
Buying and selling the gems at value is the tricky part and that requires various skill checks such as appraisal.
I was not aware there were rules for such a thing. Now that I know, I can properly ignore it.
We use the gem rolling charts from the forgotten realms Adventures book. The GM rolls up the gem and that determines the type of gem and the average value. The player then uses his/her appraisal skill and if they make their check they are given that gem's true value. Like in real life, the value is what a person will pay for it.
With a success the player now armed with this knowledge goes in to barter. The buyer or seller must also make a skill check. Once the value is established we barter by way of RP, skill, charisma, sense motive, intimidate...or whatever. This is a Role playing game so we get creative.
It's fast, fun, dice are rolled, and in the end coin has changed hands. I had a player who would trade gold for uncut gems, cut them himself and mark up the price on me. I love it, great use of a skill.
I don't have magic item shops, so money is not as big a deal as it is in some other games. Don't get me wrong, money is always useful, but when magic item distribution is not dependent on campaign economy it takes much of the luster off the gold.
Actually I don't think Art or Jewelry are covered by the "trade goods" clause. Gems are clearly a trade good used in the crafting of fine goods though and should qualify to be traded at full value.