I've likewise been playing RPGs for a while now without gold or defined currency of any kind – it's less so been an intentional choice on the part of myself or my players, but more so that acquiring or spending currency hasn't felt particularly important or exciting in our campaigns. I've had good times employing something very similar to what you describe here: basic needs are basic enough that they can be abstracted, and bigger things can be resolved with some kind of favor system. Thanks for articulating this so neatly!
Thanks for reading! I think you nailed it when you said that those basic/routine purchases and stuff just aren't ever memorable interactions at the table.
I love to see the desire of world that works different slip into our fantasy worlds, and I'm totally on board with the "question your world through fantasy" kind of approach to the hobby, it can led to insights that are very necessary for rethinking our world. And coin/currency/economy is a big one to think about, it is weird/enlightening to see how different approaches to it can quench or boost relations with NPCs, and it's scary to think how much of our lack of community in the real world is driven by the same process. I would love to explore something beyond barter, like gift "economy" or a full library economy (I have been thinking on putting library economy as the main mode of economy in one of my games to see to where it takes the players, but we will see where that games ends up).
Thanks for the post and sorry for the long comment!
I've likewise been playing RPGs for a while now without gold or defined currency of any kind – it's less so been an intentional choice on the part of myself or my players, but more so that acquiring or spending currency hasn't felt particularly important or exciting in our campaigns. I've had good times employing something very similar to what you describe here: basic needs are basic enough that they can be abstracted, and bigger things can be resolved with some kind of favor system. Thanks for articulating this so neatly!
Thanks for reading! I think you nailed it when you said that those basic/routine purchases and stuff just aren't ever memorable interactions at the table.
Great post!
I love to see the desire of world that works different slip into our fantasy worlds, and I'm totally on board with the "question your world through fantasy" kind of approach to the hobby, it can led to insights that are very necessary for rethinking our world. And coin/currency/economy is a big one to think about, it is weird/enlightening to see how different approaches to it can quench or boost relations with NPCs, and it's scary to think how much of our lack of community in the real world is driven by the same process. I would love to explore something beyond barter, like gift "economy" or a full library economy (I have been thinking on putting library economy as the main mode of economy in one of my games to see to where it takes the players, but we will see where that games ends up).
Thanks for the post and sorry for the long comment!
Ooo, the library economy idea seems really interesting! Thanks for reading and for the comment!