>medieval RPG setting.
>a loaf of bread costs 3 gold coins.

isn't that like a years wage? why was everybody walking around with bags of gold yet still poor as shit ?
what CRPG is responsible for this ridiculous concept that everybody else just went along with?

Paying for things in Copper isn't as fun.

>>3812215 (OP)
>the big bad threatens peace and stability
>peasants get mass killed off by monsters and/or goons
>the value of bread jumps up
IDK, checks out to me.

>enter dungeon
>oh look a chest full of gold!
>leave dungeon and retire for life

>>3812215 (OP)
Probably just was easier to code. D&D didn't do it, and Pool of Radiance had multiple currency types and even money having weight.

damn dude i thought those were plantain chips

>>3812215 (OP)
Not gold coins. Just...gold. You can sell gold coins and gold bullion for...just gold.

>>3812325
so what game was responsible for the gold currency? Ultima? Wizardry?

What is a good currency for a fantasy setting that isn't gold or similar materials?
What is a good currency for a sci-fi setting that isn't called "credits", isn't something constantly surveilled by institutions and isn't completely tied to computers?

>>3812336
PLATO RPGs predate Ultima and Wizardry and directly inspired Wizardry. So, yeah, probably them and Ultima, which was most likely because it was easier to code.

>>3812340
for fantasy it should be pennies or coppers. or even groats.

the romanticism of Piracy plays a part. those scoundrels paid for everything in gold pieces

IIRC Darklands had all three major coins: thaler, groschen, and pfennig.

Betrayal at Krondor also used both gold and silver coins.

>>3812215 (OP)
Yeah in medieval Europe most coins were silver, with greater or lesser amounts of debasement depending on time and location. Gold was something only the richest people tended to handle.
In an RPG a night at an inn costs 20 gold coins, but in reality 20 gold coins would be pretty close to the cost to buy the inn.
But honestly very few RPGs really go for crunchy realism, so I just kind of shrug it off.

>>3812352
value of coins came from precious metal percentage they contained. and then jews started clipping coins.

>>3812352
Most RPGs aren't actually Europe either, they're just using the aesthetic. Not really a realism issue unless it's set on Earth or the lore for some reason gives you an indepth look at the economy and rarity of precious metals

>>3812367
That's the debasement.
Coin clippers one one end and profligate kings on the other end who mixed less valuable metals into the coinage.
Then you'd get a reformer king who expelled or executed coin clippers and issued new currency that was mostly pure. A few decades later, the cycle began anew.

>>3812340
original D&D and AD&D had
coppers (historically common)
silvers (historically common)
"electrum" (gold debased with silver, pretty historically common)
gold (rare)
platinum (historically insignificant)

peasant costs for daily living, workmans tools, etc were always in the coppers and a silver or two range. if you found a casket with a hundred gold pieces at the bottom it really was supposed to represent a supremely life changing experience for an peasant, like getting five years wages at once

>>3812376
Yeah until everyone wonders where you, a random peasant, found those gold coins.

>>3812215 (OP)
Show us on this mayan calendar and this map of the earth where and when the game takes place.

>>3812386

>>3812381
Old (A)D&D really jerked off adventurerers, like even the elite city guard of some early modern-like metropolis city would be like level 2 or 3 fighters. You were supposed to be a one in thousands badass to have reached level 4. Hauling out loot worth a few man-years of peasant work from your first adventure where you killed a few kobolds and a carrior crawler was normal.

>>3812473
There were a lot of costs to being an adventurer too. Paying a group of hirelings and torchbearers and buying horses who were inevitably killed and paying a sage to research some obscure quest hook and then later on owning and running your personal holdings and building a castle. Vidya doesn't really bother with any of that except in shallow terms.

>>3812340
>What is a good currency for a fantasy setting that isn't gold or similar materials?
Typically you'll be looking at metals/gems, humans, like crows, value shiny things.
Alternatively you have Salt, which was a currency in the Sahara, or if you want to get more exotic certain types of shells and feathers have historically been used as currency.
Think about anything people collect, bird/lizard eggs, butterflies, flowers, technically you could use anything as a system of currency provide you can attribute rarity/value and a social reasoning (hint: the old gods have fickle whims).

>What is a good currency for a sci-fi setting that isn't called "credits", isn't something constantly surveilled by institutions and isn't completely tied to computers?
Pretty much any traditional currency. But if you're looking for a physical "universal" currency, just invent some form of rare exotic matter. Helium-12

>>3812487
Using salt as currency has interesting implications if your game has also more in-depth hunting and food preservation systems.
You caught a boar and want to preserve it in barrels? Well, you NEED a lot of salt. There are also various methods and quality classes of salt - From fancy Fleur de Sel through pretty normal rock salt to whatever the fuck you can make on your own boiling down the sea water.

>>3812495
If the game mechanics allow you to own property, you could buy a piece of coastline, construct a saltern, and create your own "currency".

>>3812473
remember you're pretty much supposed to retire and become a lord of your own state at level 9. The increase in power from level to level was also a lot slower than in more modern systems, where hp and feature bloat are a lot more prominent.

Another thing that few (if any) games address is, depending on time and location, medieval Europe wasn't fully a cash economy. If you roll into a sleepy village, being able to buy and sell in money may not be possible, regardless of what coins we're talking about.
Even as late as the composition of Domesday, some tenants in England were paying their taxes in kind, rather than in cash or in service.
That made William a bit unhappy, as he wanted to use England as a tax farm to fund his wars in France.
That's what led him to induce Jewish moneylenders from the continent to move to England: people who had paid tax in sacks of grain or whatever then had to borrow money to pay their dues.

>>3812590
That tends to get ignored for the sake of making the game not awful to play. There's a balance between simulation and game, and the convince and inherent understanding of money to the modern player far outstrips the simulationist benefit of something like that.

>>3812367

>>3812477
>Vidya doesn't really bother with any of that except in shallow terms.

All of that kind of stuff tends to be menu driven, so I don't really blame them in terms of focused development costs.
Sadly the same as most dialogue.
It's not really fun to menu your way past interesting fights.

I wish someone would include fights and Phoenix Wright style conversation "fight" mechanic, or apply more engaging techniques to negotiations and hirelings or strategic stuff like castle management.
The problem of linear fighter vs. quadratic wizard for example was always more balanced in old school D&D because the fighter became a head of state with an army and the wizard became a shunned hermit in a tower.

>>3812590
jews also were tax farmers
king sold the right to tax specific area for the jews and they paid up tax upfront then go and get money or goods from people, of course they taxed more that they paid to king

>>3812340
Fantasy: Shells, gems, souls, magic rings, collectible, artistic, and barterable.
Sci Fi: Drugs like spice that must flow, deathsticks, or I've even read serious non fanfic/tumblr sci fi of a world full of pacifist genetic artisan aliens. This race remained pacifist by assimilating other races through genetic engineering, yes it included fucking a human male to create a daughter with beautiful bird wings that was useless for piloting a tank or firing a rifle as in DNA is currency.

>>3812595
I mean like, that's sorta how loans work today. The entity collecting on a loan is very rarely the entity from which the loan is taken from.

>>3812600
that is how roman empire collected it taxes
it was very profitable for tax collector
also imagine that somebody paid taxes you suppose to pay government for this year and then come to your home with armed thugs and license and demand goods worth 2 times as much or he beat you and take whatever he want
there was reason why people rebelled or petitioned kings to be able to collect and pay taxes themselves

>>3812215 (OP)
Same reason towns don't have 1000+ npc.
Are you autistic?

>>3812215 (OP)
Strictly speaking, medieval peasants wouldn't be buying bread anyway.

>>3812604
>also imagine that somebody paid taxes you suppose to pay government for this year and then come to your home with armed thugs and license and demand goods worth 2 times as much or he beat you and take whatever he want
OY VEY

>>3812325
>Pool of Radiance had multiple currency types
It was autistic as fuck but I love it.
>10 copper pieces = 1 silver piece
>10 silver pieces = 1 electrum piece
>2 electrum pieces = 1 gold piece
>5 gold pieces = 1 platinum piece

>>3812651
Imagine a game with the British currency system.

>>3812352
I have seen dev, both vidya and p&p, using a shortcut of Gold = whatever currency the dev use IRL, sometime with matching prices too.

>>3812215 (OP)
Copper and silver should exist as currency, agreed

I just really like the flavor of "daily living is measured in coppers and silvers". It's cool to establish a feeling of living rich because you're now dropping gold pieces left and right. And then thousands of gold pieces should have the feeling of life and death sums, like you can establish a town that could last a thousand years with 10K gold in capital. People think about money IRL all fucking day, it's the least you can do.

>>3812340
I always appreciated Gothic 1 using magic ore as currency because the game takes place in a mining colony prison