D&D: The Fractional Money System
What do your players go shopping for in a D&D campaign?
I want to start with this open question.
I'd imagine survey responses might include some standard items: potions of healing, extra torches and rations and ball bearings, a newly-smithed set of plate mail, or a restock on arrows and crossbow bolts. This is generally my experience with low level campaigns, a focus on survival elements and equipment upgrades.
But for a higher level campaign, your players' party enters a new city, makes their way to the market district, and then... what? Have you made available some magic item stores or artificer custom-craftsmen? Do your players go stock up on gemstones and other 1k gp-worth spell components? Do your players fund construction and manning and maintenance for a castle keep/fortress/guild hall?
I'm also curious, do your players' characters function very independently from each other? Do they just have different motivations, or do these differences devolve into intra-group conflicts? Do they split up when they get into town, or do they split up even when delving into a dungeon? And, of course, how do they split up money among the party members? Do they spend as a group or individually? Do they split up loot equally, or weighted on a merit-based system, or is there a rogue that always slips a few extra gp up his sleeve after disarming a chest's traps?
Let's take a step back. How much do things even cost in the D&D world? And how much money do you give to your players?
Regarding the standard non-magical weapons in the PHB, costs range from 5cp to 75gp. So, depending on the local economy and your players' ability to haggle, they may be looking at upwards of 150gp for a hand crossbow.
The price tags for armor, though, do get expensive quite quickly, and the pinnacle of protection, plate mail, adds up to a pretty penny at 1500gp. However, studded leather armor only sets the player back 45gp, and that's the end-game-tier non-magical armor option for rogues. Plate mail itself, too, isn't nearly as hard to get as the MSRP would suggest: it's available as a drop from creatures as early on as Duergar (CR 2, 6), Hobgoblin Warlord (CR 6), or Orc Orog (CR 2). There's a good discussion of this over on Mr Rhexx's YouTube channel, if you want some more depth on standard equipment and the meaning of money discussion.
And how do the standard retail values stack up next to standard quest rewards? Well, for reference, The Lost Mines of Phandelvar side quests offer 100 gp each, intended for 2nd-to-4th level characters. And the end-of-dungeon treasure adds up to 565gp, not including the various other treasures, magical items, mine equity, etc. along the way.
I have a mixed bag of experiences for running money in D&D campaigns myself.
Overall, I'm not strict on smaller costs like replacing or buying new standard equipment, adventuring pack items, inn stays, etc., so long as the party is not specifically flat broke at the time. Otherwise, I haven't really built up a lot of shopping infrastructure in cities, not made it key to campaigns, and my players haven't placed a lot of importance on shopping, either.
With the enemies my players fight there are regular high quality and expensive drops, including things like sets of plate mail and large-size or enchanted weapons. I also do on occasion make magical item shops or even customized magic item commission opportunities, usually in the ~1k-10k gp price range.
For high level spell components, if it's a gemstone, I usually allow the players to just spend that 1k gp instead, but for anything more specific, such as the sacred relic required for Holy Aura, I do enforce the material components as written.
Here are some specifics from various campaigns I've run:
The Island Resort and Casino and Spa
Most of the prices were in units of 1k gp. The primary purchases were randomized item enchantments, available at 5-15k gp for different tiers and on different days. And the party earned money in sums of ~1-5k gp between corporate sponsorship and the value of loot from battles.
The Lost Mines of Phandelvar
The big expense was an instance of needing to pay for a Raise Dead spell (priced at 1k gp) in Neverwinter after a party member died to the Young Green Dragon in Thundertree. This involved some makeshift sales, dragon-hunting finder's fees, and negotiations and ultimately served to get the party in more trouble later on.
The Central Bank of Babel
The party started with 3k gp and were given the option of paying it all to get referred to a contact in Babylon and gain access to the plane, though ultimately finding a different route. Since, there have been various opportunities for 10k gp bounties on debtors, ranging from a Dracolich to a Devil crime lord. There are various other prices along the way, as well, including 5k gp for a tip on where to seek a cure for Babel-speak, [undisclosed amount] (spoiler) cost for certain Guild entry, [undisclosed amount] (spoiler) quantities for betting in the Bank casino, and then, of course, [undisclosed amount] (spoiler) available from the Bank for personal and small business loans.
All of these prices are very general for a reason: I don't usually keep strict track of the party's current coinage.
What if? The Fractional Money System.
Instead of keeping track of party and individual gp/pp/ep/sp/cp, you set money and prices according to "fractional money." Think, "one half of the party's gold," "all of the party's gold," "a negligible amount of gold."
The Zoned Dungeon Terrain (Ultimate Dungeon Terrain 2.0) from Professor Dungeon Master's Dungeon Craft uses a similar principle. Instead of measuring 5/10/15/20/25 ft. across a grid map, this is a concentric circular map with far/short/near-range distances, each zone functionally being situated to require 1 round of movement to go between.
I talk about another similar application for overworld map travel that I used for the campaign I ran in The Shadowfell, the "Fractional Time" system. As a reminder, this functions on the basis that overworld travel, or the time required to complete a task, ritual, investigation, etc. can be quantized into negligible time, half a day, a whole day, multiple day spans. This is as opposed to keeping track of the specific minutes and hours, as well as in contrast to explicitly playing overworld travel.
So, what does Fractional Money look like in application?
This magical cape costs "more money than you have" and may require additional haggling, stealing, or fundraising in order to acquire from the shop. Does it cost only "slightly more than you have"? Then haggling or a short side quest worth of loot, and you're set. Does it cost "a lot more than you have"? Then this magical cape may not really be available for purchase, and the party may have to rely on planning a heist or that the cape be a reward for a quest later on. The "a lot more" option is ultimately the same price as a bicycle in Pokemon. A bike costs 1 million Pokebucks, which is more digits of money than the player is even able to get in the game. But, in every Pokemon game, the bicycle is received readily as a reward for a quest.
That's how it works. But, then, what is the point of Fractional Money?
Firstly, I find it very tedious to keep track of money, especially for small purchases, and think that it distracts from playing the game more than it contributes. After 3rd or 4th level, a stay at the inn or replenishing rations, or restocking arrows functionally costs "negligible money" for the player characters.
And secondly, ask yourself, in D&D what quantities of money are meaningful?
Compare an early-game shopping trip totaling 25gp from a purse of 50gp to a late-game shopping trip totaling 2.5k gp from a pool of 5k gp. Both instances amount to 50% of the party's gold. It's the same RPG scaling principles you see in any video game, that, after a certain point, numbers just get big for the sake of big numbers. I would argue that instead of listing 25/50 or 2.5k/5k numbers, that the purchasing decisions are more impactful to frame directly as "half your money." And of course, this personal finance principle has its own roots and applications, advantages and drawbacks in the real world, as well.
Fractional Money also serves to clearly define financial obstacles for the party.
Does the party need to make "a little bit of money"? I think that this makes more sense for a challenge than the classic video game task of needing to sell off inventory items or go complete a collection quest in order to accumulate that extra 23gp+4sp+7cp for the new sword you want.
Does the party need to take a break from the main quest for fundraising? Or do financial straits make this purchase route a dead end, and the party has to make the decision to move on from this town or obstacle and pursue another, more profitable quest. This brings character motivations and problem-solving to the forefront, if the DM is able to define the challenge and obstacle in plainer words than sums of coins.
Does the party want to plan a heist and steal this item? Or, in the case of a toll road cost, passport fee, guard bribe, etc., are they going to plan a stealth mission to get where they want to go? If the price is defined as an unobtainable "much more than you have" amount, then the party is immediately faced with the impasse. Do they steal from the shop, or sneak past customs&immigration, at the risk of creating longtime NPC enemies or becoming wanted and fugitive individuals, do they give up on paying altogether and find a new quest, or do they succeed in their mischief and get away consequence-free?
So, I have tried this out in a limited setting. I wrote and ran a desert-set one-shot twice recently. The premise is, the party starts out by fighting and killing a group of aggressive baby Kruthiks and provoke an imminent monster attack from the vengeful hive mother, for which they have a limited amount of time to prepare.
The time is quantized, and I've run it as either 3 or 4 available people/place visits around the oasis town that the party has time to complete. And then there's the Fractional Money. Healing potions: cost "all the party's gold." Resist Poison potion: costs "more gold than the party has." Any other equipment, tools, items: "half of the party's gold." It's a pretty simple implementation but does set up some direct decision-making questions for the party to figure out.
Considering a one-shot, too, I think that simplifying the party's budget into Fractional Money makes everything easier, especially considering that the players didn't even play through the implied previous quest where some specific amount of money would be earned.
When doesn't fractional money work? I won't claim that it's a perfect catch-all system for fantasy finances, and there are situations and scenarios in which it would definitely be of detriment to the game.
There is the argument for individual money. Some players I've run games for, as well as players for other DMs I've talked to, really enjoy tallying and keeping track of money for their individual character. It definitely can be disengaging when the party gets their treasure, and it's just a Final Fantasy post-battle sequence prescribing "the party gets 33gp" for defeating this group of monsters.
Individual money includes, as well, individual purchases. Low level characters may need to put a lot more effort into saving up specific sums of money for that set of plate mail, that magic black belt, or for a case of healing potions after the healers couldn't keep up last encounter.
There is also the case of intra-party disputes and the RP and mechanical methods for resolving these conflict. If this is a dynamic that works and isn't purely self-destructive for your players and games, it can be a pretty involved portion of gameplay. The Web DM YouTube channel offers some advice and resources both ways.
This isn't to say that Fractional Money can't be applied to individual money. But when money is defined relative to both the retail prices AND other party members, the premise as I presented here very quickly lacks the nuance to become usable in any meaningful way.
And then there's the shopping-forward parties and campaigns. These can be conceived a number of ways, whether it be a survival-oriented campaign and the stock of rations and torches and wear on equipment matters, or it be a situation in which a party is investigating and preparing for a monster hunt , or it be a campaign of humble beginnings, and the party needs to be progressively buying their way up armor and weapon tiers. These are just a few scenarios where gameplay would benefit from retaining tallied coin-specific money very precisely.
I won't deny, I am weak at DMing when it comes to market infrastructure and shopping opportunities, either that they be available or that they be important to any story element in a campaign.
And, with regards to my DMing style, it ultimately isn't worthwhile to get caught up in the weeds of specific money quantities and keeping track of small-cost items.
There are enough details going on in running a session that, if a nuanced money system isn't key to the story and relevant challenges, it's worth simplifying instead. I think that PDM's "no initiative" argument is valid for reasons like this. If you're not running a highly-technical TRPG-forward game, then rolling intiative and maintaining precise turn order probably slows down the game and provides opportunities for your players to disengage more than it benefits play. (For the record, I still do use default initiative in all the games I run.)
What do you think?
Poll your players: how do they feel about the idea of "Fractional Money"?
And then try it out with your players, even just for a one-shot, and report back with results.