Have you ever run (or played in) a setting where the economy doesn't generally run on gp, sp, or cp, but on some totally different system (be it barter, or something weirder)?

What was it? How did it go?

i never throw out currency completly but i have made significant use of trade goods especially animals.

Always use coins but oftentimes trade is barter when characters get outside of big cities/planets. In fantasy or sci fi settings, anyway.

Decades ago, some RPG magazine - Dragon I think, but I'm not sure - had a fun article about running an Ice Age campaign. Tribes, pre-civilization, hunter and gatherers. It may have been Shadis though. Or Different Worlds. Definitely not Pegasus because I remember it being glossy.

I really, really loved the idea.

Wow. Maybe it was me, maybe it was my players, or maybe it was the concept, but the campaign fell flat especially around the issue of wealth. The players did not want to capture slaves (or sex slaves) as wealth, nor were they impressed with how many furs or shiny rocks they found.

The bastards wanted gold.

I run a more post-apocalyptic RIFTS than presented in the RAW, so there I encourage a barter economy, where "money" is only accepted in local areas. AKA, the Coalition State Credit is worth far less as you travel beyond its borders.

In Mechanoids Invasion, there is no economy because the freaking planet is being chopped up. So negotiations to borrow extra gear for a mission can be interesting. I've had PCs decide the "needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few" and go so far as to rob the local armory before a mission.

Barter barter and more barter.

I've had areas that traded with gems, one that traded in a wedge shaped piece, like the old pieces of 8. Barter for services and spells is common.

I ran Mythic Greece campaign that used barter. There were some nominal exchange rates for how many oxen a bronze bowl was worth which was kind of necessary for gifting. Travelers gave host gifts to their hosts and hosts gave guest gifts to travelers and that stuff needed to more or less balance else one would either insult or create an unwanted obligation.

Our Balazar Runequest campaign (Griffin Mountain) used skins, furs, bronze arrow heads, and beer as alternate currencies to the silver coins desired in more civilized kingdoms.

There's a reason money was invented.

Oh sure, you could play a game without it, but you could also play a game where you couldn't talk, you had to grunt or use gestures

Both my Vinland campaign and my Korean dragons campaign worked on abstracted barter. We didn't track how many cows someone had, but just had a measure of general wealth that was sufficient for certain needs, and could be reduced if they made purchases beyond their means. Here were my wealth levels, for example:

http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/vinland/rules/wealth.html

To me, this sort of approach seems pretty natural, since very few ancient or medieval trades worked on coinage.

Quote from: jhkim;823639To me, this sort of approach seems pretty natural, since very few ancient or medieval trades worked on coinage.

But they most definitely counted their cows and oxen along with any sheep, goats, and pigs.

Depends on the game. L5R, as run at the assumed social rank, runs on the gift system. VtM runs on boons, influence, & intel as modern human money becomes redundant after awhile. IN SJG similarly runs outside cash with Essence, relics, intel, and geases. Birthright runs on Realm Points and Gold Bars (2000 gp @).

I try to incorporate art treasures, awards, and trophies in my fantasy games. The currency often switches if you travel far, but items with good workmanship, stories, and prestige built-in become more valuable. Also becomes harder to part with them.

In my 5e PbP game here I am diversifying coinage into wampum beads, good medicine (tobacco), and baskets as much as pieces of silver ingots. That said, I keep the abstraction for player convenience, otherwise it might be too much at once. It's really up to the GM to make the economy feel alien and wondrous.

edit: Barter, however, is not that prevalent in my games. There is a standardized valuation to commute over long distances, essentially a concept of debt. Barter just doesn't work that far or for that long — it fluctuates too heavily from buyer to seller to work as a portable means of value and still game. Violence monopolized will eventually agree to a standard measurement within its borders, and as it encounters other spheres of power will negotiate terms of exchange rate.

Quote from: RPGPundit;823579Have you ever run (or played in) a setting where the economy doesn't generally run on gp, sp, or cp, but on some totally different system (be it barter, or something weirder)?

What was it? How did it go?

My Land of Ice and Stone supplement for Legend has no coins, as it is set in the Old Stone Age. It uses barter, but gives representative amounts, to make bartering easier.

Most of my games use coins, though, as it is far easier to operate in a coin-based economy. Even settings such as Glorantha, which has down-played coinage recently, I still use coins almost exclusively - No buying a sword with 10 cows, for me.

i would imagine coins are a lot easier to tax and in my games most goverments do not care that your money is loot they still want there share

of course if you wander from country to country you will be able to avoid tax for a while but word will get around that you dont pay your taxs and it may well come back to bite you in the arse

I had occassionally fantasy barbarian areas where coin-minting hasn't been invented yet. For easyness I usually have some quantifiable and homogenous standard trading goods that can be used in exchange for a relatively steady exchange ratio, such as glass pearls, certain rare dried herbs or live chickens.

Cyberpunk games of mine also often have barter, especially when cash has become suspicious and electronic money gets monitored by the government. Drugs make for the preferred trading good there by being light relative to their value, quantifiable and homogenous. Krügerrands and other quantified precious metals serve a similar purpose.

In the Tribulation setting from 218 Games! They use chip implanted electronic transfer of wealth.  And like any good post rapture setting, players who wish not to get the implant trade in goods and services.

In a test game we had a Merc providing protection to a convoy for a list of supplies the team needed.

It is harder without coins, but can work well with open minded players.

I haven't actually used this in any of my games but I imagine one could have loads of fun with special purpose money.