Gold is precious
I have only very briefly played the 1st edition D&D, but what I remember of it was that gold was something we would do anything for. Throughout the editions, however, I have always felt that the atmosphere and excitement of a ‘pot of gold’ diminished considerably for players. When I switched from 3.5 to Pathfinder2E, late January 2020, I was confused about the prices in the core rulebook. I soon realised they had, in fact, based their economy on silver rather than gold. Intrigued, I started comparing it with D&D and found that prices had been converted in a simple way which is smart from a game designer’s point of view. My conclusion was that the focus was, nonetheless, still on Gold (albeit with smaller numbers).
I dived into the fabric of time and space that is ‘our Internet’ and started doing some research. Soon after, I discovered that a Greyhawk community member, Anna B. Meyer, had also crossed over into a silver economy system and her conversion table had a direct influence on mine. I concluded that the aim of the game was to make silver the coin of the middle class, which included the player characters, the copper common the coin for commoners and the gold coin the currency of the nobility.
The Silver System
Let me explain the silver system you can use in your D&D or Pathfinder 2E campaigns. First of all, here is the conversion: 1 GP = 1/10 PP = 10 EP = 100 SP = 1000 CP
The copper common piece is not only the coin used by the lower class, but it is the main coin used on markets, taverns, craftsmen… and from the commoner’s point of view life uses a copper piece economy. The silver piece, used by the middle class, is the main coin in all the adventure stores and high-end establishments.
These two coins, when implanted consistently will make sure that players feel that gold coins are rarely used or seen by commoners and lower middle-class people. To strengthen that idea, You allow gold to only be encountered in cities, where it is used by the nobility and royalty. Small towns, villages and hamlets will not have a single gold piece, besides perhaps the local lord. You could even say that hamlets and similar poor economies do not even have silver pieces.
That takes us to two coins that are widely used in our Tabletop Roleplay Games but not always encountered: the electrum and platinum piece. There are varied opinions about the use and existence of these two but in the silver economy system presented here, the platinum piece is a unique coin that is unlikely to be found. In fact, to make a platinum piece, a civilization needs to have the technology to be able to melt it, which makes it unlikely that it is used in a coin economy across a globe. This opens the coins up for other uses such as currency that has come from other planes or perhaps from a mysterious (and often lost) civilization, and players are unlikely to encounter any at all (depending on the campaign you are running).
The electrum piece, a silver-gold alloy, was historically used by ancient Greeks, where it was concurrently used next to the silver piece. This influenced the decision to keep it in the silver coin economy be it as a rare coin that would be found in treasure hoards or amongst the high nobility.
The coin economy in The Grey League campaigns thus consist of 3 + 1 different coins.
What about gems and art?
Not only will gold be something players will crave, gems and art even more so. The value of gems is reduced but the smallest gem, for instance, is still worth 1 gp, which in this system is still very valuable. Giving gems that value and keeping them uncommon, or even rare, makes them THE treasure players hope to find. A pouch with four gems makes a character rich in an instant, under a silver coin economy. Not only that, but the weight of 4 gems is considerably less than 400 silver pieces or 4000 if the gems are worth a whopping 10 gp a piece. A player’s eyes will pop out his or her skull when they finally come across that urn filled to the brim with gems.
* DnD Gems are worth (per category) 100 sp, 200sp, 500 sp, 10 gp, 30gp 50gp
* Pathfinder2e Gems have tables and the conversion is listed below:
Lesser semiprecious 1d4x 5 SP
moderate semiprecious 1d4x 25 SP
Greate semiprecious 1d4 GP (adjusted)
Lesser precious 1d4x 3 GP (adjusted)
moderate precious 2d4x 5 GP (adjusted)
Greater precious 2d4x 50 GP (adjusted)
Art is still encountered just as before, but likewise reduced in value similar to gems, which makes quality artwork very valuable indeed. A DM must think twice when dropping too much art in an adventure or you will blow out the wealth balance in an instant.
What about magical items
That will depend on you running a low or high-magic world. In my Pathfinder 2e campaign for instance, scrolls, potions, alchemical items, talismans and any other one-shot item is converted in the same way as any other item, where 1 GP (PF rules) becomes 1 SP (silver economy). Other, more permanent magical items are converted like this: divide /10 or (1 Gp = 1 SP) * 10. This makes them worth so much that one will not be all to sell it in a regular town, as they wouldn’t have the huge amount of coin resources needed to buy them. (At the time of writing, this works out quite well in my own campaigns.)
Some last notes
❊ Players can sell items just as before but can only hope to gain a maximum of 25% of the original price. This stops them from dragging every armor from a fallen enemy and helps out the poor shop owner/ craftsman, who also needs to make a living.
❊ Every country has its own currency type and a player cannot just use coins from another country. When they go to another country and stay for some time, it would be wise to head over to a Currency Exchanger and pay the 5-10% fee to convert the coins.
❊ No Dragon’s hoard? Sure there is, but it will not consist of solely gold pieces. A hoard would include immense amounts of silver with some electrum and gold patches, not to forget an urn of gems and an extremely valuable gems under his scales. Do not forget that a dragon might even have an eye for art, maybe even an art critic.
❊ Converting tips: If you a running Pathfinder 2E, convert equipment by substituting the written GP in SP and the written SP in CP. You will have to make your own decision when you see a written CP, I usually reduce that price to 1 CP. Running an adventure of d&d 3.5 (or any other edition)? Convert it the same way. I do want to stress that you only change the currency letters and leave the amounts alone.
Conversion table
Feel free to comment and share your thoughts.
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