PC Crafting Materials Survey

[Willem Rivet]

Hello!
I'm JT, and I play a merchant-minded Artisan down in Chicago. The local Merchant Guild was talking about the wider economy of Crafting Materials and how we value them vs. other chapters and I was wondering if I could poll each chapter and see directly from them how the implementation is going there. So here I am!

In Chicago, we value single Crafting Materials as a silver coin. There has been some grumbling about it from non-Artisan folk, and it definitely gets purchased for coin by the Merchants Guild when Town Auction happens so the split is primarily coin (unless the person would rather CM than coin.)

So my questions are:
How are Crafting Materials valued in your chapter? Does everyone agree on this assessment, or is there debate?
Does everyone engage with it, or is it ignored by some groups?
Thank you for taking time to reply. At the very least discuss this amongst yourselves if consensus hasn't been reached.

My DMs are open if you want to reply privately, but I think the public discussion is helpful.

Thanks again!
-JT

 

[DeSylvia]

It's been valued at 1 silver, which is seemingly the midwest standard, and most people ignore it, barring a few heavy crafting invested pc's

 

[ecrath]

It's been valued at 1 silver, which is seemingly the midwest standard, and most people ignore it, barring a few heavy crafting invested pc's

Its me. I value them.

 

[DeSylvia]

For what it worth, the rulebook inadvertently also values a cm at 1 silver. A Co provides you either 1 silver, or one cm. If they aren't the same, why would you ever take the cm when you could just take a silver and buy two cm?

 

[Willem Rivet]

For what it worth, the rulebook inadvertently also values a cm at 1 silver. A Co provides you either 1 silver, or one cm. If they aren't the same, why would you ever take the cm when you could just take a silver and buy two cm?

I see the same thing, but the argument becomes murkier the further you follow it. In any event, it has been asked that I close this line of inquiry.

 

[tieran]

In any event, it has been asked that I close this line of inquiry.

For the sake of clarity, I wasn’t asking you to stop talking about it. I just think it’s a much better conversation to have in game than out.

 

[Shen [he/him]]

I think it's as much an in character question as it is an out of character one.

A player could not play a crafter & still have an opinion on the subject.

Just the same as a player's opinion could be different from their character's.

While anyone may feel that it's better ic or ooc that feeling is personal and doest reflect the dissonance of a role playing game.

The player culture is an environment where we as people desire fairness and understanding to the people who all pay the same to enjoy a shared hobby. Ensuring that as a person, you create a a collaborative & cooperative "yes, and" story. In character culture is shaped by heritage, class, positions(or lack) of authority, current IG story elements, character background/ history/ experience, and so many other things

For instance, an ooc answer to a different but similar question.

Wisconsin tends to view restricted reagents at 1g each & lco at 5s as a general ooc standard. The lco unique story reagents, have an initial standard of 5s, but vary drastically from one character to another based on their personal importance.

IG, the primary story area lacks avian animals/ creatures/ monsters and as a result the characters have had a shortage of Penna for the last year, increasing the cost for both lco & res. Penna is more readily available in other IG locations of the greater world, and the cost is what you'd expect, but Local adventures still place higher value to them due to their IG circumstance.

The question in game is equality important, but informs in game information about character's & story. The question out of game, informs player culture & establishing expectations

 

[Madrina Adlao]

I agree with Dwayne, and would go further to advocate for the dialogue to continue OOC (more so than IC even).

The issue of equity and value feeds directly into Player perceived fairness from a "rules" standpoint. PCs can IG have debates about value and economy, such as how many loaves of bread or heads of cattle is a unit of CM worth, but that dialogue has very little merit or impact on the more pressing concerns, such as an OOG PC feeling slighted during a transaction where the value of CM is up in the air.

This discussion who lead to better understanding, and hopefully garner more trust and reduce overall friction between PC Chapter Communities.