Should gold have weight?

[diablo169]

Gold weighing anything can easily be handwaved in a fantasty setting. This is a CRPG, i should be actively encourage to be filthy rich from all my dungeon plundering.

[Hypevosa]

I think it would just be more interesting to encourage the saving of loot that's worth far more in gold than its weight rather than its instant sale to the local merchant.

 

We could also just have a system of denominational coins, and going to a merchant automatically takes your coins and makes them the lowest number possible to preserve your weight.

[fkldnhlsdngsfnhlsndlg]

Short answer: no.

 

Slightly less short answer: use a barter system instead.

[Caerdon]

If we just give gold weight, we're only choosing the negative part of realism. If we really want actual realism, we also need the methods that are used to deal with the weight. We need bartering. We need gems as currency. We need banking. And we most definitely need to be able to hide our gold and loot.

 

So yeah, we might not be able to carry that dragon's hoard back with us, but we must be able to bury it so no one else finds it until we return with an ox cart.

[SGray]

Voted for weight, no matter the difficulty level. If gold has weight it should be for reason, there should be some interesting game mechanics, using it. For example storing your gold in some stash (bank?) you have access to it in every part of civilized world (magically verified transactions, bank checks, etc). Going somewhere off the civilization - you should rely only on what is in your pocket (shiny pieces of metal, gems, beads?). Same concerning black markets (park karts with gold at the back entrance , literally), dealing with rogues, helping poor - only cash.

 

If there isn't such mechanics - gold weight is just an annoyance. If there is - turning such part of a game off based on difficulty level would be wrong.

 

*Moments where you preserve small or not-so-small fortune in gold in your pocket after ship wreckage, being woke up by angry mob with torches, been suddenly teleported in the middle of nowhere, or preserving cash even in hell - were funny, but a little ruined the immersion. More so - when all your millions where taken from you somehow or even stealthily pickpocketed by someone small, while it'll take him a cart and few men to move it. Same to robbing whole royal treasury without bag of holding or dozen men to carry sacks.

 

That should be an interesting way to limit players wealth in certain locations or timeframes, while allowing him to be rich as Croesus still. Also that could be used to make player think twice before openly messing with law/government/banks(?)/mages(?). "Your account was arrested, apply to local authorities" - oops.

And above all - that'll perfectly fit in the late medieval setting.

Edited October 1, 2012 by SGray

[Loki Ador]

The idea that gold should have weight arose because some players felt it was wrong their character would carry millions Gold Coins without feeling any encumbrance.

 

But, as many posters have mentionned it, the very idean of traveling with thousands of GP (regardless of their weight) is ludicrous : Gold was an extremely rare comodity in medieval europe (the setting that is supposed to inspire PE)? In this regard, a single coin was very valuable.

 

A game that was quite realistic in this regard was Dragon Age : 20 gold coins was a very substantial amount, and the best items in the game would not cost more than 30 gold coins (which was a very big amount).

 

Considering that a gold coin would weigh from 5 to 10 grams (A "Louis d'Or", the standard gold coin issued in France in the 17th century was supposed to be 6,75 grams), that mean that carrying a fortune of 100 gold coins would be less than 1 kilogram...

 

Therefore, my question is : do we need the bother of extra inventory management features just to account for 1 kilogram in your equipment ?

[Wintersong]

Therefore, my question is : do we need the bother of extra inventory management features just to account for 1 kilogram in your equipment ?

100 gold coins = 1 Kg

10,000 gold coins = 100 Kg?

100,000 gold coins = 1,000 Kg?

 

DA was ok with a more tame pricing system. It had some autoconvert coins feature too if I'm right? But somehow D&D seems to assume that PCs must be swimming in gold at some point (altough in PnP, carrying large amounts of coins is not easy, weight or not) while the usual commoner is happy if he can keep a few copper coins in his pocket (if he has pockets!!). Hell, a bard I had used to buy meals for beggars of the city she was in by using a gold coin each day. And in D&D, economies seem to ignore the extra presence of (gold) coins in the market unless the DM is in the mood for inflation game.

 

The real issue with inventory is that a real one is limited by: carrying capacity of the character (Raistlin could carry less than Caramon), and the volume/space of the cargo (100 gold coins may not take that much space but those 100,000 gold coins sure are).

 

I'd give every item a weight and volume value (fraction values are valid). Strength (or similar) limits how much weight you can carry. The type of backpack/mule/whatever determines the maximum volume value that you can carry. Or something in those lines.

 

Not holding my breath for any of that stuff though.

[Loki Ador]

Remember BG : a room at the inn was priced at around 1-10 GP. Not to mention the plate armour at 10 000 GP.

 

 

Carrying 10 000 GP is just not realistic if we give gold the value it would have in the Middle Ages. All the more so as wealth was measured by land ownership rather than gold filled chests.

 

So, if GP have the value they should have, then their weigh is not that important any more.