Geas

it needs fixing, much of that and urgently

I guess there is a long list of things-to-do or fix. :>

Should better read through the whole thread first before I start blurting out ideas, right?

Writing down ideas should not be a problem, you could "resurrect" older ideas later anyway, or extend on older concepts. And the thread title here is pretty general "Economy in GEAS" so any idea towards the economy may be useful to have. I don't think having too many ideas would ever be a problem. But at the end of the day someone has to add/implement it.

Economy in Geas? It'd be really cool to see different coins for the different cities. I.E, Arborean coins are heavier, but worth more, Elvandar coins are lighter or made out of silver or such, and Asador's coins are really heavy and made of gold. But they're still associated with Asador and considered just a touch taboo. Wouldn't say it'd be against the law to own 'em, since they are gold, but too many and people may start questioning your loyalties.

The advantage (or problem, many people see it) of coins made of precious metal is that they're pretty much worth the value of the metal they're made out of, so I might support Skragna's idea as a way of adding RP colour, but in terms of economics, a gold coin should be worth something very similar to its weight in gold - not because Elvandar's seal is on it, but because it is made of gold.

Fortunately in Geas we have code-enforced 16:1 price ratios between the various precious metals, currency which is actually worth something, and it is impossible to melt coins. Without this we would have clever entrepreneurs exploiting the fluctuation of precious metals prices relative to one another, which could only end up causing the same sort of inflation that meddling with currency has done to the rest of planet Earth.

But don't mind me, I'm only a little bitter about today's state of affairs.

Own coinage for humans and elves and such sounds really, really good!

While it does sound good, it might complicate things unnecessarily and probably be a lot of work to code, I'm not sure. The currency we have already has 4 types of coins (which I love because of its realism and wouldn't want to exchange for a city-based currency as Skragna suggested).

So the most realistic alternative would be to have several coin types per currency (not necessarily five, and of course not the same metals everywhere), different exchange ratios (both inside and between currencies), shops that don't except all kinds of currency, banks that exchange money for a fee etc.
It does sound work intense, possibly the coolness factor of having "a dwarven iron coin" or "an elven silver coin" might not be worth it?

That was more or less the idea I had in mind. Each city has its own mint producing coinage, and there could even be something like chits for the guilds. I.E, one hundred Crusader chits could buy someone who's in the guild something nice, or maybe help with unicorn purchasing.

I'm glad I know one currency well enough...

Own coins would be nice, but I'd go for paper money. Arborean bank could change coins into cheques that would be valid only in Arborea. Elvandar's bank would give out cheques that would be valid only in Elvandar. (And perhaps traveler's cheques that are ok in both cities, but cost more.)

Cheques should cost e.g. 6% of the sum wanted to be written on the cheque; traveller's cheques e.g. would take 9%. So, if you want a cheque for 100 gold, you'd need to pay 106g for one that's ok only in the town, or 109g for one that's widely accepted.

These cheques could be changed back to money in the bank.

Dunno if this would work and increase the moneyflow between players...

I don't like the thought of paper money in a fantasy world, although I admit it's not for practical reasons, just because it feels too close to the modern system.

Perhaps not paper money but how about "paper" with value?

It might even fit into a medieval theme, i.e. see the commerce relationship of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanse

One could also use debentures (or certificate of indebtedness), or trade with goods or sell them at a later time, or do contract business. (At second thought ... I guess trading with goods should be thought more about after ships are more readily available?)

Another idea could be to use things already made of precious metals, cut chunks off of them, and use the raw metals to barter with, like the Vikings of eld.

Skragna wrote:Another idea could be to use things already made of precious metals, cut chunks off of them, and use the raw metals to barter with, like the Vikings of eld.

Hacksilver Ftw

Also give a reason for nuggets to exist besides weapons, be able to have rings, statues, and such cast from them. Could also allow thieves and other unsavory folk the ability to try and shave some precious metals off of coins, maybe give them a die machine or something? Be really cool.