This is one of those things where it’s basically impossible to make a game with more accurate economics that is actually fun. The fact of the matter is that medieval wealth inequality was just too big for most people to wrap their heads around and would make gameplay really weird. Adventurers would in fact need to be buying equipment with the equivalent value of gold coins, but such wealth would dwarf the costs of pretty much any “normal” stuff you could buy and would cause weird balance issue. For example, a pound of cheese in medieval England cost half a penny, but a good sword could cost 480 pennies. Think about how many swords you encounter in a video game. Even if you sold them for a 100th of the high end price, you could still buy 9 lbs of cheese for a single sword and if cheese is meant to be a healing item then it probably has to be total trash to balance how cheap it is compared to adventuring gear. Or you could say a low quality sword can be sold for 5 gold and a cheese is 1 gold and make it a normal healing item. It’s just hard to balance if the economy is realistic. As for credits, it’s just hard to imagine what the hell trade will look like in the future and everyone kind of understands credits as a concept.
Also, depending on where and when in the middle ages, currency would vary hugely and work with several dozens of different coins. Travel to another region would involve money changers, scales, entirely different systems of coinage with (by modern standards) absurd breakdowns of coins and wholly new names and words.
And having pure coins would be easy, so obviously you’d have fun stuff like “new dollars” being worth 7/16th of an “old dollar” because they have less silver in them.
that would be an interesting concept for a game with different regions. even if you limit it to two different currencies it could be interesting to see how it would affect gameplay.
As a gameplay abstraction, it’s fine IMO to make everyone accept standard silver coins. It’s not that far from reality, certainly closer than using gold as the base currency.
Also consider that on top of money being different, most people weighed goods against the local currency because coins were the most standardized objects they had access to. So not only does the local currency change, but as a result, the system of weights and measures does too.
Or just don’t give common items like cheese healing properties. Healing potions are perfectly normal features of fantasy games, and even in a more realistic setting you can use herbs, bandages and disinfectant to heal instead of standard food items. I don’t think many players are going to complain that common things like food or staying at an inn are practically free if you’re strong enough to kill one well-equipped bandit.
I don’t see the problem with that balance. You shouldn’t be hoarding cheese as an adventurer for healing or for selling. Something like a potion should be used for healing and should be appropriately expensive.
That said, I agree gameplay is more important and economic simulation, I just don’t think the example was the best. It’s already off that in games like Skyrim we collect random trinkets until we can’t carry anything else and sell it all to any random shop keeper. It’s weird and, to be honest, not actually fun. (Mildly hot take.) Finding and selling things that are actually rare is fine. Like weapons, gems, etc.
Because as an adventurer you’re not a peasant. You’re an adventurer. It’s a high risk high reward profession that’s difficult to get into.
This is one of those things where it’s basically impossible to make a game with more accurate economics that is actually fun. The fact of the matter is that medieval wealth inequality was just too big for most people to wrap their heads around and would make gameplay really weird. Adventurers would in fact need to be buying equipment with the equivalent value of gold coins, but such wealth would dwarf the costs of pretty much any “normal” stuff you could buy and would cause weird balance issue. For example, a pound of cheese in medieval England cost half a penny, but a good sword could cost 480 pennies. Think about how many swords you encounter in a video game. Even if you sold them for a 100th of the high end price, you could still buy 9 lbs of cheese for a single sword and if cheese is meant to be a healing item then it probably has to be total trash to balance how cheap it is compared to adventuring gear. Or you could say a low quality sword can be sold for 5 gold and a cheese is 1 gold and make it a normal healing item. It’s just hard to balance if the economy is realistic. As for credits, it’s just hard to imagine what the hell trade will look like in the future and everyone kind of understands credits as a concept.
Also, depending on where and when in the middle ages, currency would vary hugely and work with several dozens of different coins. Travel to another region would involve money changers, scales, entirely different systems of coinage with (by modern standards) absurd breakdowns of coins and wholly new names and words.
And having pure coins would be easy, so obviously you’d have fun stuff like “new dollars” being worth 7/16th of an “old dollar” because they have less silver in them.
that would be an interesting concept for a game with different regions. even if you limit it to two different currencies it could be interesting to see how it would affect gameplay.
I’m sure there’s a fun game for someone in there where you play as a money trader
As a gameplay abstraction, it’s fine IMO to make everyone accept standard silver coins. It’s not that far from reality, certainly closer than using gold as the base currency.
Also consider that on top of money being different, most people weighed goods against the local currency because coins were the most standardized objects they had access to. So not only does the local currency change, but as a result, the system of weights and measures does too.
Or just don’t give common items like cheese healing properties. Healing potions are perfectly normal features of fantasy games, and even in a more realistic setting you can use herbs, bandages and disinfectant to heal instead of standard food items. I don’t think many players are going to complain that common things like food or staying at an inn are practically free if you’re strong enough to kill one well-equipped bandit.
I don’t see the problem with that balance. You shouldn’t be hoarding cheese as an adventurer for healing or for selling. Something like a potion should be used for healing and should be appropriately expensive.
That said, I agree gameplay is more important and economic simulation, I just don’t think the example was the best. It’s already off that in games like Skyrim we collect random trinkets until we can’t carry anything else and sell it all to any random shop keeper. It’s weird and, to be honest, not actually fun. (Mildly hot take.) Finding and selling things that are actually rare is fine. Like weapons, gems, etc.
Because as an adventurer you’re not a peasant. You’re an adventurer. It’s a high risk high reward profession that’s difficult to get into.