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Originally Posted by The Colonel
That and its time limited - if you don't spend it today, you can't come back next year and spend it then on your next trip through.
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Of course, the time when it's worth the most - right after harvest - is also when you're going to have a lot more goods and services available than is typical for a farming town, thanks to all the merchants that are going to come for the post-harvest markets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Colonel
I'm also not sure if it's a system thing or a cultural one - there's an old quote that says that in D&D five barrels of tallow is set dressing, whilst in Harnmaster it's the treasure...
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Clever players of the former can often treat it like the latter, resulting in
much more monetary gain from a quest than the GM (or module designer) intended. The famous story is about doors made of an incredibly resilient and/or magic-proof material to force characters to get in the way the module designer wants them to, and the PC's opting (once they find a way in, probably still in a manner the designer didn't anticipate) to remove the doors and take them back to town, selling them for more than the dungeon's treasure was worth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin
Not necessarily. They can vote with their feet and go to a locality with better money. PC groups usually possess exceptional mobility compared to common peasants.
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Depends on the scope of the campaign. In a full-on sandbox setting, PC's can probably restrict themselves to dealing exclusively with communities who use the type of currency the PC's prefer (although they may need to actively reject work - "Yes, I know you've traveled far from home looking for heroes to deal with your goblin problem, and I know you're willing to pay handsomely, but your people don't use
real money. Find someone else"). For something more plot-driven, characters will have to deal with the economic realities of wherever the plot takes them. Of course, unless you already know your players would enjoy such a diversion, it's best to talk to them before putting something like this into play - it would be rather annoying to spend time developing such an economic system only to have the PC's completely bypass it, and arguably worse if you force your players to slog through a system they hate.