From: johnjmedway (jjm@zycor.lgc.com)
Date: Mon 31 Jan 1994 - 00:04:17 EET
>> >> Wayne Shaw
The following broadside is brought to you by someone who has never played
>> > me
>> Mark S. c/o Tom Yates
an Issaries, 'cos it didn't look interesting, and has thought that that
was a shame.
>> >> all that meant was that prices were in "barter points". Just list them
>> >> in coins and let the GM worry about the barter conversion.
>>
>> >I'd suggest the reverse.
>> ...
>> Coin prices are a useful convience for players and GM
>> alike. If a gamemaster is wants to put in the extra effort to
>> detail this part of the world, a price list is as useful a place
>> to start as a set of barter points. Most people will find the
>> effort required to model bartering a useless waste of time at
>> best, and an annoying distraction from storytelling at worst.
Why would fixed cash prices -- and what I see with it: a register-tape
Even *advanced* societies of antiquity, with coin and currency systems,
To rely on semi-fixed prices, stated in standard coin, is to modernize
And nevertheless, I'd say it was *not* an inconvenience if everything
from the checkout at Target -- seem to fit storytelling better? Neither
are appropriate for a bronze age society, and neither fits the picture.
conducted the bulk of trade, especially on a lower level, with barter.
This is the way the people would think, buy and sell.
these societies above much of our current world. Most of our planet
*still* uses barter. Artificial gaming convenience aside, why would
these guys get "past" that stage 10,000 years more quickly?
was measured in barter value. If you want to keep it simple, just say
that the *usual* value of a barter unit was 10 clacks. Then we've all
got something with which we can easily work. You have your convenience,
I have something which I believe is more culturally relevant and colorful.
And others have suggestions, and ability to choose.
Besides, we're trying to make these rules mesh better with this pseudo-
ancient world. Here's another convenient place and way to do that.
>> > Allows for varying rates of exchange between monies, and preferential
>> > forms of money. Why is the Clack universally a tenth of a lunar? Why is
>> > a Wheel universally 20L? In an culture where the value of the metal in
>> > the coin is part of the monetary value of the coin, this won't fly.
>>
>> I would imagine that in Glorantha the value of the
>> coin would be based SOLELY on the value of it's metal. (less a
>> negligible seigniorage). Most people don't play games where the
>> value of metal varies so most people should not play in games where
>> the value of coins vary. If you want to play in a game where the
My counterpoint is that you do not have to make the values vary, unless you
want to. Having the suggestion in the rules to do that would be neat.
I am far less concerned about this point than the barter issue, though.
The truth of it is that all prices, no matter with what unit they are
Either with it in the rules ( probably, oh, two sentences, maybe? ) or
without, I can easily inform my players that in a certain situation silver
is only 19 times as valuable as copper. Without it in the rules, as a
suggestion, others may not think of what happens when an Issaries priest
arrives with a boat load of silver. Or what happens when a party of
adventurers comes home with the worlds biggest clack collection.
measured, should change with time, with respect to the index, as well
as other price. Whether that is measured in change in the number of
chickens, or clacks, it does not matter. Without such variance in prices,
mercantile activity is dull and completely deterministic.
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