Coin (or "What? No loot?")

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obcidian_bandit

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As was previously stated in another thread, we are having a shortage of coin. Some of it has left the chapter, some has been lost to the environment, some has been lost to players who no longer play, and some has just been lost. All of those things are beyond anyone's control. However, there is another place that coin goes that we all can control, and that's into the grubby mitts of our characters. Many of us have a sack of coin sitting around that we're not spending. Maybe we're saving up for something. Maybe we haven't found anything we want to spend it on. Maybe we just like the sound it makes when you drop it on a table. In any case, monster camp is out of it, and new coin must be purchased. Coins must be purchased by the thousands, and it is reasonably expensive. To diminish the cost of purchasing coin, it would help if we didn't have to purchase as much of it.

We're putting out a call to trade in as much of your coin as you can for coin of larger value and for gems. If you've got 100 copper, why not swap it for a gold? Extra 80 silver lying around? Same deal. If you've got a lot of gold, please swap it out for gems. We don't want every coin you've got, and if you've only got a dozen or so of each coin, you're in good shape. We're primarily targeting people with a significant number of coins of any one type. People will begin having the option of trading coin for gems at logistics beginning very soon. Please take advantage of it and swap out your coin to help the chapter.
Thanks.
 
He he he I know what you mean I have 104 Silver coins Myself. I would gladly trade them out for gold peices or shiny gems. I prefer gold though it just has this beutiful sound when you flick it in the air.
 
The proverbial "fat sack of coin" or the oog cost of coin?
A fat sack is more then you think you need in coin at an event. Those you should endeavor to turn into logistics for gems.
The oog cost is somewhere between $100-$200 per thousand, depending on the size, color, mint, and how many we order at a time. I'm still waiting on a quote to be certain, but it's a significant cost to the chapter. (We generally order 3-5 thousand at a time, at least a thousand of each, per the minimum order.)
 
obcidian said:
The proverbial "fat sack of coin" or the oog cost of coin?
A fat sack is more then you think you need in coin at an event. Those you should endeavor to turn into logistics for gems.
The oog cost is somewhere between $100-$200 per thousand, depending on the size, color, mint, and how many we order at a time. I'm still waiting on a quote to be certain, but it's a significant cost to the chapter. (We generally order 3-5 thousand at a time, at least a thousand of each, per the minimum order.)
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The latter. It seems like three or four of us could pony up the oog greenbacks if it were an issue.

Gems don't do well for people that travel, and even for people that don't. I've lost around 80 or 90 gold to gems that lost their stickers, and roughly 70 gold in tags to my laundry machine. It's just not worth it.

Something the incoming plot team may want to consider is providing a good reason for people to spend their coin in coin form.
 
As a thought, a long term solution would be to more heavily encourage production skills.

It would require *more* coin now to fuel the idea, but, in theory, if less production was put out as a whole, it would encourage more characters to pursue production skills and actually have the coin to back them up.

Not that this is a new idea out of me though...
 
The nproblem is that it has been tried over a long term and has ledf us to the point we are at now. People horde their coin, and we don't get any back. Not putting out much by way of production for about a year had little to no effect.
 
Not putting out much by way of production...

As long as it's healing and purify potions, spell shield and magic armor scrolls, of course you're not going to see an impact. Those are the items people *want*. If they can go kill a monster to get it, why bother to make it or buy it? Nearly every production item I've looted over the last year has been one of these valued items. I think I managed to loot one drain potion out of the lot. (But sending out necromantic potions is another issue entirely.)

Putting out merchants that undercut the PCs only encourages the PCs not to make things.

*shrug*


You could try assigning out the production, sending in merchants selling for 2.5 cost, then have that coin bucketed separately. Then, when you need to send out money, pull from the bucket. If the bucket is empty at the end of the weekend, you should, in theory, be out some paper and still have coin in reserve. (Assuming you can put it out this way. If some of it needs to be coin, you can always "seed" the bucket with it to start with.)

Another alternative would be to go over the spells and effects that can be placed out as production, and simply "remove" from the TP the ones that most devalue their corresponding production skill. Cure mort potions, Purifies, Dragon's Breath, Dispel, etc... That way you'd still put out production, useful production even, but would still encourage characters to produce for the "tastier" items. No one's going to balk at a bunch of cure wounds potions or a small stack of lightning bolt scrolls. But if they want to have that pouch of Purifies, they better get brewing.





I suppose part of the problem is that the treasure policy as written doesn't allow for flexibility in the way of the value of things.

Perhaps since the rules are up for changes, you might draft and submit something to that effect.
 
I don't know about everyone else but I would much rather have cool items than coin. I can see that plot is trying to do that with the recent magic item auctions. I know I stockpile my coin because I want a really nice sword or a suit of arcane armor or some other badass item. I bet you could collect mounds of coin if you had Gemino auction off even just a basic Magic Sword or peices of Arcane armor. I bet people would even buy wacky items like Arcane armor on boxers, Or a broken bottle that grants life spells, or maybe pink fluffy stuffed bunny rabbit that grants death spells, or maybe a sword that can only be used by people under six foot. Stuff like that would be interesting to see.
 
Egor said:
I don't know about everyone else but I would much rather have cool items than coin. I can see that plot is trying to do that with the recent magic item auctions. I know I stockpile my coin because I want a really nice sword or a suit of arcane armor or some other badass item. I bet you could collect mounds of coin if you had Gemino auction off even just a basic Magic Sword or peices of Arcane armor. I bet people would even buy wacky items like Arcane armor on boxers, Or a broken bottle that grants life spells, or maybe pink fluffy stuffed bunny rabbit that grants death spells, or maybe a sword that can only be used by people under six foot. Stuff like that would be interesting to see.
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The problem is, unless they're LCO items, the scrolls and components to make those items comes out of the treasure policy... which means less stuff going out for ritual casters.

If they were just assigned various point values and the treasure policy was reworked to just a be a net point total for the weekend, you could easily and regularly do this kind of thing. (1cp = 1pt)

However, as it stands, putting out pre-made magic items doesn't necessarily generate the cash you think it should. People would rather hunt up the scrolls and reagents to custom build magic items.
 
Ok, why not a banking system? Cash in your coins at the end of an event. It gets recorded on your character sheet. Viola, more coins next event!!! I'm sure that its an over simplified answer, but is there a workable solution along that thought? I'd prefer $500 spent on props and costumes rather than coins.
 
Datajax said:
Ok, why not a banking system? Cash in your coins at the end of an event. It gets recorded on your character sheet. Viola, more coins next event!!! I'm sure that its an over simplified answer, but is there a workable solution along that thought? I'd prefer $500 spent on props and costumes rather than coins.
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There was an IG bank, however it kinda "poofed" and the result ended up being that the PCs have no reason to trust the IG bank.
 
Another option could be that hey, if your charcter is looking to gain some kind of title then purchase some land to help further that, if you've created your character to be a type of merchant, purchase caravans or boats and fortify them. Just becuase we send out a drain potion, death elixer, or amnesia, doesn't mean it has no IG value. You can always find someone to purchase/trade it PC and NPC. Just because necromancy is illegal does not mean NOBODY is interested, I would find it hard to believe that all of you are goody two shoes adventurers.
 
Right now, many players have non-coin coin (tags, gems, etc.), and want to spend it. Anything you put out to pull in coin will only result in players wanting to use their non-coin coin on it.
 
Datajax said:
Ok, why not a banking system? Cash in your coins at the end of an event. It gets recorded on your character sheet. Viola, more coins next event!!! I'm sure that its an over simplified answer, but is there a workable solution along that thought? I'd prefer $500 spent on props and costumes rather than coins.
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Reasonable thought, but it requires having the coin on hand to be able to cash out the accounts if they are called due, as well as records being kept accurately between events. Since coin goes out constantly as treasure, keeping the coin on hand for when someone demands their 1000 gold they have in the hold is nearly impossible and results in having to buy more coin anyway.

As far as the record keeping? At one point in time their was a hold. Records were kept... several years ago, those records were lost, resulting in having to announce that the hold was "robbed". (something we had said was not possible to have happen). Even the best intentions sometimes go wrong.
 
Find out who has the coin, then ask them what they're saving for. Could be they're waiting for a particular thing and are saving up the coin to buy it.





Write a proposal for a revision to the treasure policy. If the treasure policy was more flexible, you'd have the ability to send out less coin.





I'm putting out constructive ideas here and giving explanations as to *why* these things are constructive. Maybe take some time to sit down, think about them and talk to your staff about them before immediately nay-saying them?
 
Sarah said:
If the treasure policy was more flexible, you'd have the ability to send out less coin.
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What would you suggest? Treasure policy already is pretty flexible. The "treasure pool" from which coin is drawn can be put out as coin, spell-replicating magic items, and production items. Anything LCO (gems, asset tags, etc.) doesn't come out of that pool. The immediate answer, then, is simply to hold back putting out coin. Unfortunately, that too has the impact of coin becoming more valuable and more worth hoarding.

The better solution, IMO, is to ask players to trade up their small coin, and build an expectation of purchasing more of the big coin into the pricing of events. If you know that you're going to run through a bag of gold every four events, and you have an average 25 paid players, raise the price a mere dollar, and you're covered.
 
1k gold coin is actually about $200, so it would be $2/person. Given that we just recently raised it by $5 and people complained bitterly...

Frankly, if we were running the events based on actual cost and a desire for replacement and building of new props, costuming, treasure, etc.? It weould be a lot more expensive than it is. The margins on running these events is very low.
 
Sarah said:
Find out who has the coin, then ask them what they're saving for. Could be they're waiting for a particular thing and are saving up the coin to buy it.

Write a proposal for a revision to the treasure policy. If the treasure policy was more flexible, you'd have the ability to send out less coin.

I'm putting out constructive ideas here and giving explanations as to *why* these things are constructive. Maybe take some time to sit down, think about them and talk to your staff about them before immediately nay-saying them?
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I am not nay-saying them out of hand. JP is right about the flexibility of the treasure policy. Magic items can either be dfone as rituals and components or as production, but honestly? The players would probably be surprised just how much production goes into one, good, magic item. It can eat through it VERY fast and then one or two people get the loot.
 
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