idea of "randomiser"

[engelfire]

heyah

i thought of something today [distant cheering]

usually when you buy and sell stuff, you often transfer large amounts of gold coins. i was wondering how people of that age where the setting is situated, handled that kind of things, whether it was copper coins, wooden nickels or whatever. did they count every coin they were going to give, did they figure out the close amount by the weight of the money bag.

like here you buy sword from merchant who says, that the price is 2000 coins, ok you give exact 2000 coins. im just wondering do your character count every coin he gives, does he have bags with certain number of coins in those ?

i was thinking, what about a simple small randomiser that would give or take coins from the amount you set ? like if you buy that sword for 2000 coins, you would give that 2k but script would roll like simple d20 and would randomly determine whether it takes or adds.... so it would like i.e roll 13.. you would "accidentally" give 2013 or you would give 1983 coins. even if your character would count, theres always mistakes, after few you start to make skips, add more, get lost in the counting.

its almost somewhat funny ... "oh whats the price ? ... 7500 eh ? ok here *gives exact amount*"

[Elo-EF]

I think that's one of those things you need to ignore for the purposes of game play. I don't know if adding a randomiser is going to positively effect the verisimilitude either. Besides, any decent merchant is just going to give the coins a quick inspection, then weigh them to determine the value of the coins, rather than count them. In fact, I assume that the scales Murnu has on his counter are for just that.

[engelfire]

yeah i guess you are right.

[kenpen]

We're dealing in the amount of gold coins they would have never seen, anyway. So, best not to deal with people shaving coins and all that. Hell, we start doing that, and then people won't be able to carry around thousands of gold coins, which weigh a goodly amount.

[tzaeru]

Mmh.. For RP reasons it could always be assumed that single GP is always the smallest medium of exchange. E.G. 1 gp = 1 copper.. 10 gp = 1 silver etc..
(The silver and copper thing is just an example, not very "Ravenloftish". Wolf-fang, raven-claw and that third one, I guess?)

That'd put down the weight a little.

[engelfire]

wasnt about amount of gold or how the gold would divide into smaller portions. i threw this topic in the air becouse everytime player deals with other player and gives money people give exact number of coins, which is ok as it is i dont mind. was just wondering what people would think to give randomly on either side of the amount. becouse you cant know how many coins you have in that bag when you toss it to someone.

again for example so everyone understands yeah  ? merchant asks 50 coins for something, you toss a bag at him which would actually contain 54 coins... you see... or it could contain 46 aswell .. but this was just something ive been wondering, no need for dr. Phils to come and analyze this any more than this

and this wasnt about selling to npc's, this was specifically about players selling to players

[Knas]

When you buy a car for 10 k don't you count to make sure it's the right ammount? And doesn't the seller check? :p

[engelfire]

no, i toss him bag of wooden nickels and run with the car

[ThAnswr]

no, i toss him bag of wooden nickels and run with the car

Who knew you came from my old neighborhood in NY.   

[Tprime]

Now they have credit cards and shit. back then(As in the medieval/fantasy/gothic horror setting) you could get away with a lot of stuff, include shaving off a few coins a large purchase.
btw, Here in WInnipeg, you wouldn't even toss the guy the nickels. you'd try to smash the window of the car and steal it. lather, rinse and repeat.

[ethinos]

Ok, what if a guy wants to buy a longsword of uberness. It costs 5000 fangs. He saves up, exactly, 5000 fangs. The randomizer determines that he needs 5001 fangs. Does he go negative? Does he get denied, only to see the next guy come in and purchase that sword for 4999 fangs?

Somethings don't need to be messed with.

Torgan though, has seen folks "randomize" their payments for steel and gilded gear. He'll require something like a 200 downpayment or purchase, and get 234 fangs instead. Lets leave randomizing to PC to PC purchases.

[kenpen]

If things were randomize, I imagine a lot more people would be getting killed for shorting each other.

[Jaguar]

Even if the system is best left alone as it is, there's nothing stopping you from "randomising" the amount of fangs you hand to another PC when barteing.

I often throw out an unexact amount of coins when paying another PC, though usually more than the agreed price. It's just symbolic... one - three fangs more or less. 

[Kaspar]

Lol.. Kaspar always shaved a few hundred gold off of Julias deals with him. She never -actually- counted them, just snatched 'em, so how's she to know he gave her every last fang? 

[solgursky]

What about this: If you decide to try to short-change somebody for more than 5% of a purchase, you could use your Charisma check ("Oh yeah, that's 1200 fangs) vs their Wisdom check (Seeing thru their lie) or their Dexterity check (spatial skills- understanding weights of coins by hand).

That could be one option, though really these are things that should be agreed upon between players, in my opinion. Putting in a randomiser would make it impossible for a particularly meticulous and mathematical merchant to do things their own way.

[eyeofpestilence]

Appraisal goes in here as well.

[ethinos]

You'll usually see Torgan emoting counting coins, so better not short him. If you really are short, try and bargain instead. It'll save you a headache and probably some bruising.