Ideas

Not All That Glitters Is Gold

A mini-article of 50 roleplaying game currencies that aren't gold for Blog Friday.

Clayton Notestine

Clayton Notestine

— 2 min read
Not All That Glitters Is Gold

One of the great traditions of tabletop blogging is the discussion. It's like discourse on social media, except it's done with essays, and therefore is nothing like discourse on social media. Dozens (dozens!) of us are enjoying Blog Friday, a scattering of posts across the blogosphere about buying, selling, and economies. If you're a big blog and article reader, you've probably seen a few.

I'm starting my contribution at 10:45 PM. So, rather than talk about the design of currency and economies in roleplaying games, I'll make a list, and in a miserly fashion, publish it on the website without notifying the newsletters.

Let's get to it...

Currency as resource.

  1. Drams of Water.
  2. Lead Ink for the Canticles of Atom.
  3. Gluey sustenance bricks.
  4. Individual grains of barley.
  5. The last cords of fire wood.
  6. Cans of Mr. Moxie's Genuine Air.
  7. Jerry cans of guzzoline.
  8. D Batteries held in tube socks.
  9. Fresh skateboard wheels.
  10. Keys to the World Dungeon's doors.

Currency as memory.

  1. Names. Forgotten when used.
  2. Secrets. Dangerous if used.
  3. Pieces of the world on map scraps.
  4. Scars. Grant access like key cards.
  5. A stanza from The First Poem.
  6. A written word or sentence in a world without books.
  7. Shards from tombstones.
  8. Luciferian employee ID cards.
  9. Cassette tapes. Songs worth extra.
  10. Mail from the US Postal Service.

Currency as violence.

  1. Thumbs. Five makes a fist. 10 makes a will.
  2. Vaccines. Only valuable if unused.
  3. Fulfilled bounty contracts.
  4. .38 special hallow-points.
  5. Shares in Fortune 500 corporations.
  6. Sword hilts. Blades broken.
  7. Fresh whetstones.
  8. Wizards' tongues.
  9. Exhausted plasma cells.
  10. Soul coins meant for the ferryman.

Currency as shiny things.

  1. Edison light bulbs.
  2. Shells from corpse-eating beetles.
  3. County fair ribbons and boy scout badges.
  4. Wax candles.
  5. Steel, horn, and brass buttons
  6. Dusty legos from the before times.
  7. Rolls of lifesaving duct tape.
  8. Dapper Dan pomade tins.
  9. Strike-anywhere matches.
  10. Cans of Schlitz beer.

Currency of dubious value.

  1. Leaves from a tree. Hyper-inflation every Autumn.
  2. Coupons for back rubs.
  3. Favors from the local lord of no repute.
  4. Serfs. Currently organizing their labor.
  5. Live bees.
  6. Vintage baseball cards from the 23rd century.
  7. Lord Von Bizzlduff's NFT Self Portraits.
  8. Industrial patents for new maces.
  9. Coins from a country everyone hates.
  10. Dime novels. The last literature on Earth.

Well, that's 50 currencies that aren't gold. It's currently 11:54 PM on Blog Friday, so it's time to press publish.

Until next time, never stop exploring.

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