How are people feeling about the new "money" system?

[Matthew Downie]

Abraham spalding wrote:

Basically if everyone is simply a goblin attack away from being wiped out then you would never have enough luck or time to actually get to where the setting is today.

A base level of assumed competence in the world is mandatory or everyone would have already been wiped out.

A society where people latch on to the super-competent and build life around these superior beings would be vastly different than anything we see in Golarion.

That doesn't sounds too unlike Golarion to me. Powerful individuals (linnorm-slaying kings, ancient gold dragons, retired PCs from old campaigns, Razmir, Baba Yaga...) form points of stability. This encourages people to build and expand cities. In these places it is perfectly possible for the weak to survive as long as they don't offend the ruling order. Even so, such places are rarely entirely secure, due, for example, to secret worshippers of hostile gods, corrupt militias, demonic influence, foreign espionage, etc. When the ruler dies, it creates an immediate power vacuum that may or may not be successfully filled.

On the periphery of these 'safe' areas, villages are formed by people looking for farmland. (Farmland around the capital would be far too expensive.) Such places are less secure, but there's usually a powerful priest or noble who can provide some protection from wild beasts, goblins, kobolds, etc.

If trouble breaks out that's worse than they can handle themselves, they might get wiped out entirely, or they might get aid from the capital, or from passing adventurers. The most powerful individuals are usually occupied with admin, diplomacy, politics, and defending their seat of power, so they're likely to send investigators to deal with problems on their behalf.

(How humanoid civilization could have developed to the point where such a situation could have arisen in the first place is a bit more questionable, since a world where hundreds of sentient species evolve more or less simultaneously isn't one that makes much sense, but in that case, "the gods wanted it to happen".)

If the stable areas continue to exist long enough (which may depend on PCs successfully completing campaign objectives so the Whispering Tyrant doesn't just wipe out the entire country) social and economic progress become possible.

[Ed Reppert]

pauljathome wrote:

All D&D economies are best left unexamined.

^^This.

[Charlaquin]

Deadmanwalking wrote:

Charlaquin wrote:

Worth noting, the whole “an unskilled laborer makes X amount of Y currency per day” thing is very rooted in modern economic thinking. A feudal system just plain doesn’t work that way.

Golarion is not a feudal setting. In almost no places does it behave as one. It's much more Renaissance in technology, and almost 1800s in terms of things like schooling (even small towns have a schoolhouse, paid for by the town, and literacy is almost universal). Really, judging it by feudal terms is incorrect on a lot of levels.

Which doesn't mean we should focus too much on the economic system, mind you, but seems worth noting.

Right, sorry, Pathfinder noob here, not terribly familiar with Golarion. Feel free to disregard my earlier comment.