Coinage, Nationhood and the defacto Gold Standard

Irrespective of your particular flavour of FRPG the Gold Piece is one of the defacto fantasy standards, and is accepted the world over (whichever world it is that you play in).  The implicit reliance on a Gold Standard, the intrinsic value of gold itself, means that a GP acquired in one nation has an equivalence to one acquired somewhere else ensuring trade is not stifled and that PCs can still buy what ever they need irrespective of what nations coinage they choose to use.

But what if that wasn't the case, some interesting plots and fun could be had from playing around with the Gold Standard and the ubiquity of the GP

1.  Gold is Commonplace - The Gold Standard only really works because gold is rare and therefore valuable.  In a society where gold is commonplace its value will be reduced and some other rare commodity will take its place.  This concept is explored to a degree in post-cataclysm Dragonlance where steel currency replaces gold.  However, this is the case throughout Krynn rather than just single region.  Consider a party visiting a nation which has access to vast amounts of gold (like the conquistadors encountering the Atecs), the PCs will no doubt struggle at first and will need to convert their existing wealth into whatever is used as the local currency.  Greedy PCs might try to exploit the difference in commodity prices by frequent trips across the border which could bring them to the attention of local law enforcement or worse border bandits.

2.  Not Legal Tender - Imagine that two bordering nations are in dispute over something or other and their respective governments refuse to accept their neighbours coins as legal tender.  A coin minted in one nation does not automatically become worthless on the other side of the border, as it still has an intrinsic value thanks to the gold standard, it just becomes really hard to spend it and stay the right side of the law.  Local law enforcement may be on the lookout for strangers trying to infiltrate or subvert the locals with coins from across the border.  PCs may be forced to turn to the blackmarket in order to buy simple provisions.  They could even be approached by criminals offering to launder or re-mint their illegal coinage for a fee.

3.  This gold's been watered down! - We've all seen those pirate movies where a character tests a coin by biting into it.  This crude form of assaying tests that the coin has the correct amount of gold in it, but if a nation state changes the amount of gold in its currency this be reflected in the gold standard for that currency.  For example Nation X is going through tough times financially and its unscrupulous leader decides to change the gold content in the GP it mints.  Everything goes swimmingly until import prices start to go up and the population is in revolt.  Enter the PCs with a fat wedge of foreign "pure" gold and suddenly the corrupt local sherrif is looking at ways he can relieve them of their burden and smelt it down for a fat profit.  However, the local sherrif might be the least of their problems if the Thieves Guild's coin clippers and forgers find out that they're loaded.

4.  Ripped Off! - Wandering into a town over the border can get PCs into all sorts of trouble when they are trying to spend unfamiliar coin with the local merchants and their chances of getting ripped off increase dramatically.  Any difference in size or shape of a coin will result in differences in the coins value and exchange rate.  One nation's GP might be twice the thickness of anothers and therefore worth twice as much.  The first time they get a handfull of change, they might be pleasantly surprised or falsely accuse a merchant of ripping them off. 

5.  Accused of Forgery - The Gold Standard ensures that the intrinsic value gold is preserved but that doesn't mean that the local merchants gleefully accept foreign coin and trust it like their own.  They might try to take advantage of the situation and accuse the PCs of forgery, particularly if they are using coins acquired from a distant land and not a neighbouring one.  If the case goes to trial the local magistrate may be in on the swindle.  This is also where an Adventurers or Merchants Guild can provide a valuable service to its patrons by operating a coin exchange program, for a fee of course.

The Lands of Dual: It's a Crusade!!

Always late to the party but I get there in the end. 

My eagerly awaited Castles and Crusades books have arrived from the chaps at Games Lore one of the finest (and cheapest) web game stores here in the UK.  So now the hard work of converting The Lands of Dual over to C&C can begin in earnest.  In my post today were:

• Players Handbook (Damaged apparently but I can't tell) - £6.99
• Umbrage Sage (also slightly damaged on bottom edge) - £6.99
• Monsters & Treasures of Aihrde - £16.49
• Total (inc shipping) - £30.47 (in US that's approx $48)

I've already started work transferring some data over at The Lands of Dual site which is primarily aimed at the players but it's totally public and I'm open to comments.  I'll be cross blogging every now and then, mostly with session reports, creature features and NPC Biographies (as soon as the players have finished with them as we wouldn't want to spoil the surprise now would we).  Wish me luck...

Fantasy Alternatives for Modern Gadgets

Inspired by Fantasy Billboards over at Gothridge Manor and after recently watching the excellent Reign of Assassins I thought to myself, what medieval equivalents exist for our everyday technology?

Mobile Phone : Courier - Couriers or runners can be found on every bustling metropolis street corner.  For a few coppers they will carry a written (or spoken) message to any inhabitant of the city.  If that person is at home you may even get a quick return message.  If you want a message or maybe even a package sent to a nearby town it will cost you quite a bit more depending on the distance and weight.

The couriers can be anything you like, street urchins, mundane or magical creatures like pigeons or fairies.  Longer distances can be covered by horse riders or if speed is the essence and you have a highly magical world, by means of teleportation, magic carpet or even by air elemental.


Clock : Muezzin - Time is money and people have always been willing to pay handsomely to know what the time is.  This could be handled either by the state, church or by an enterprising candle maker as a municipal function.  Water clocks existed in many different cultures around the world from as early as 4000BC, all you need is a regular sized vessel with a regular sized hole in it and are easy to manufacture by potters or smiths using templates.  In my Arabian setting this function was performed by the muezzin who called the faithful to prayer but I added a rudimentary clock to each minaret in the form of 12 metal fish which would tip down to strike the hours (the time was referred to as 3 fishes or 4 and a half fish).  Sundials (shadow clocks) can be erected as municipal features, like Egyptian obelisks, or complex architectural as is the case with a stone circle like Stonehenge.

News Media : Town Crier - This function can be performed by a Town Crier or similar who at various times of the day (he also performs the function of municipal clock) cries out the latest public announcements and for will cry private announcements such as market day announcements, weddings, birthdays etc.  It is also the function of the Town Crier to "post" written versions of these notices on a notice board.

Fridge : Windcatcher - There's nothing like having a cold beer after a strenuous days adventuring,  In temperate regions that function might be performed simply by using a cellar but in hotter climes they use a windcatcher or "Malqaf".  For hundreds of years these towers have been designed into Persian buildings as a form of air-conditioner which uses the Coandă effect to cool the air.  If coupled with an underground canal or resevoir they can chill water down to near freezing temperatures.  The Persians built this feature in to their ice houses (Yakchal) for this express purpose.  Or you could use a captive immature frost giant...

How to make your own Fantasy Googlemap with MapLib without needing to be a code monkey

NB: I've since written an update to this article which details my thoughts about MapLib 6 Months into a mapping project of my own.

I've seen a couple of campaign world maps which use the googlemaps api and wondered how easy is it to make your own.  The answer very hard if you're not a bonafide javascript code monkey.  I then came across www.MapLib.net, a free service which allows you to build your own maps with custom overlays.  This is far too useful to keep to myself so here goes:

You'll Need:

• A JPG, PNG or GIF of your campaign world.
• A MapLib account (they're free)
• Plenty of patience

Add your map to MapLib.net

Once you're logged in, go to the "My Pictures" section and upload an image. If you want a 4:3 ratio map use the settings below.  Place a map pin to define a location and type in it's name in the pop-up box.  You can add descriptions (see the example below) to the pins and include hyperlinks.  If you have them upload your own custom icons (or use the ones that other users have uploaded) and attach them instead of the bog standard pin.  If you've got lots of pins to manage you can create categories for Capitals, Cities, Towns or what ever takes your fancy. If you need to mark out an area or a line use the polygon or line tool.

Embedding Tips

Make your iframe at least 500px wide so your users can close any map pin pop-ups you create.

After much trial and error I came up with these settings for my 4:3 ratio (2046 x 1536 pixels) map:

Zoom Level 7

IFRAME SETTINGS:

WIDTH: 512px, HEIGHT: 409px, LAT: -53.750, LNG: 36.558, Z: 7

Zoom Level 8

IFRAME SETTINGS:

WIDTH: 512px, HEIGHT: 409px, LAT: -53.750, LNG: 36.558, Z: 8

Zoom Level 8

IFRAME SETTINGS:

WIDTH: 512px, HEIGHT: 409px, LAT: -53.750, LNG: 36.558, Z: 9

Sin? or is it just Karma

Thanks to Jeff Rients for his thought provoking post Sin and Sin Points draft as I've been struggling with a way to explain how my Evil races exist.

Back in the day I playtested a friend's game about fairies (it was self published and even though I'm a credited playtester, I can't remember the name of the system... Answers on a postcard to the usual address please) which utilised a Karma system to manage Alignment.

The fun thing about the Karma system was that if you were essentially Good and did bad things you became Evil and vice versa. The whole game was wrapped around this concept.. The scenarios were based around the eternal struggle between the Good and Evil Fairies, Brownies, Redcaps, Pixies and Unicorns of Englis folklore. The task of the PCs was to convert the Evil fairies by not just foiling their plans but making them do Good things and making them gradually less Evil.

One of the most fun aspects of this Whenever you lost Karma (or gained it) your physical appearance would gradually change until you eventually changed into your Evil variant. This led to a little subterfuge on the players parts as the GM might make you grow a wart, one of your eyes would change colour or you'd get Evil eyebrows overnight!!

I thought that this physical change might work in my world so thinking cap on, my thoughts are thus:

Every race has it's Evil counter-race. Except Humans, 'cause every rule has to have an exception, each Race's diametrically opposed race is the antithesis of the Good. So for Elves who are very cultured and graceful it would have to be Goblins, who are crude, vulgar ugly creatures. This could take some time to put together but once the different factors are weighed up I should be able to come up with some nice transitions for the 6 or so common PC Races and the more common evil monsters.

The Alignment wheel has potential. As a mechanism to gauge the transitions from Good to Evil it's crude so maybe sub divide it a little to make the shift more gradual and give the player time to repent.

My pantheon needs more Evil Gods - I've always thought that my campaign world's Pantheon was a bit loaded towards the Neutral or Good sides. It will force me to be a bit creative and there's more opportunity for plots which take place in my teutonic setting of Wulfschlossen where the boy King's army is led by a bunch of Bishop Generals.

It would give the Paladins a bit more colour. I've always thought that they were a bit too shiny and needed a few shades of bent copper added to the mix. Historically the Templars became tarnished when Pope Clement V abolished the order claiming that they were not Holy Defenders but Heretics.

Death is not the answer. However, when a PC gets to zero hit points and falls unconcious they should have a near death experience. As a result they could come back with a slight Alignment shift towards the darkside and maybe that wart or slightly greener shade of skin.

or I might be completely bonkers. You decide...

Hello Whirled! ...grr... Hello World!

Just had my case for membership of the rpgbloggers.com network approved, so woot! is me.  Sadly the first of my posts which was visible was an abortive mobile blogging attempt via BlogWritter app on my 3GS.  Damn unintuitive GUI!! I've just worked out that if you're in the "New Post" screen you can save a post in draft format just by tapping "Back".  Lesson learned...

"What was your first post then!" you ask

It was an instructable on how to make a scroll case from a Pringles can.

Let me explain, I'm looking through my old copies of Dungeon to get a few scenarios to link together to form a new plotline for my campaign world The Lands of Dual and I came across the scenario "A Race Against Time" (Issue 81 Jul/Aug 2000).  The scenario features a nice 3 hour timed plotline which calls for the delivery of a message in a scroll case delivered via juvenile winged snake courier.  The message is the cornerstone of the scenario and will be poured over ad-infitum by the players, so I thought it would be nice to give them a nice handout to look at.  The theatrics are very important for the message's punchline so I need to make a scroll case to hold the message.  The campaign starts in Jan 2011 so watch-out for more posts about the make and a session report.