[Varyon]

It's certainly an interesting concept, a step removed from barter. It ultimately means that, if the party does work for or otherwise engages in trade with such a community, they basically have their payment be in the form of goods and services rather than cash. The advantage (in terms of roleplaying) of such a system over more typical cash economies is the characters need to be clever about what they ultimately leave with - general-use money isn't an option. The advantage over a bartering economy is they don't have to play a fetch-quest to get what they want - the shepherd gives you local currency you can use to buy whatever it is you need (or whatever is more generally fungible in the world at large, if the town doesn't have anything you need), rather than needing to trade the bale of wool he gives you for a crate of eggs that you then trade for a carpenter's services, which you then trade for the armorer to repair your weapons.