Musings on the Economy in Carcosa

[tkdco2]

One of the things I take for granted in the campaign is the economy of the setting. In a standard D&D game, it's easy to assume a Medieval-style economy. But Carcosa is a different animal. There are no nations, just a bunch of villages. And neighboring villages are usually populated by a different race. As the races view one another with suspicion, trade may be difficult, if at all possible. But do the villages in Carcosa have anything to trade at all? They may be self-sufficient, if not wealthy.

I came up with a coinage system for Carcosa, but in retrospect, I'm not sure it was necessary. If coins are minted in this world, it means there is some form of commerce, at least locally. If all commerce is local, then coins from a village may be worthless in another. If there is some trade between villages despite racial tensions, then some form of coinage would make sense.

Of course, it's not a one size fits all scenario. Some villages would be wealthier and/or more advanced than others. Likewise, different races may put aside their differences and work together, if only to ensure their survival.

[burningtorso]

Other thoughts to consider:
* The base metals of some of the coins are elements that one race might be vulnerable or resistant to if turned into a weapon. Making it more valuable to one tribe than another.
* Groups in the same area would probably share similar trade items, even if they don't actively trade with each other, due to raiding of other settlements or imitation of their competitors. So you might see similar designed weapons/tools/armor in one area that you might not see elsewhere. Though the quality would differ greatly.

[jcstephens]

In my Carcosa, the most common exchange is food for slaves. Only places which are both fertile and defensible can grow enough food to be able to trade any of it. They send out caravans of food, which they trade for slaves to tend the fields back home. A secondary commodity is salt, Carcosans will strip the meat off any carcass that's not outright poisonous and salt it down for later (1D6 rations per HD). There's also a thriving scrap metal trade, every metal deposit on the planet has been long since mined out but scrappers can still bring out the occasional load from the ruins. The money system as such is based on scrap metal. There's no distinction between types, you can always do something with any sort of metal.

1 days rations=salt for 6 days of meat rations=3 days water at the village well=1 GP
1 pound of metal=10GP

Prices of other goods and services are negotiable.

[tkdco2]

Great ideas here. Barter makes more sense than minting coinage in Carcosa. And if some metals may be beneficial or harmful to a race that would be adjust the value accordingly, depending on the buyer.

[Malcadon]

In a world with only local economies and social isolation, there would not likely be a system of capitalism as we know it. Naturally, barter would be a common means exchange, with physical possessions (lent or given), services (your own or other's) and/or favors used in place of hard currency. After all, coins are just a means of portable wealth that allows people to purchase goods and services from place-to-place without lugging a lot of trade goods (livestock, bags of grain/spice, metal ore, etc.) around. Their system goes beyond the quick and simple “I'll buy X for Y amount of Z.”, as transactions would be based on trust, reputation and persuasion than on raw capital. Such a system could form a complicated interdependent network of countless little favors and exchanges that is so engrained in a community, that the locals go about their lives without thinking (or talking) about it, and outsiders are completely in the dark about how to go about anything within the community. As such, strangers would have to do things for the benefit of the community as a while, or for the members therein, in order to gain “social capital” (which is a fancy way of saying “earning good favors and reputation.”) before they can get do any kind of barter. After all, what is the value of favors from a transient adventurer who would likely leave before he/she would honor them?

You might make a Reaction Roll with some variables (reputation, high/low Charisma, unspent favors, etc.) thrown in as roll adjustments, to handle this. (Akin to my Know Language Roll system) Or, if you want to keep it simple, use some abstract point-based system of “social capital” that works like nonexistence gold pieces — called “[Whuffie, Status, Brownie, Blat, Wasta] Points” or whatever — but only usable at a local-level. I remember seeing a blog post somewhere called “I Was A Teenage Caveman” or something like it (its a homebrew Stone Age setting for D&D) that had a rule for equipment limitation based on Charisma, that could enhance the above system(s). Basically, the most things (tools, weapons, loincloth, etc.) you can clam as your own that others would not "barrow" and never return (including loincloths... ew!).

[tkdco2]

In retrospect, I can see some form of trade going on if villages have resources others need. If village 1 has a fishing industry and village 2 is a mining town, they will probably have some form of trade between them. Maybe they'll barter or have some form of currency that is only good within a certain region.

There may be different types of regional currency. Instead of metals, some coins may be created from ceramic chips with imbedded with different (cheap) gem stones. These coins will be considered currency only within a certain area.

[Deleted]

The problem with all of these solutions is that they make it much harder for the players. In spite of all the difficulties inherent in carrying 1000's of coins up from a dungeon doing so is much much easier than carrying livestock or other trade goods. I would just say that the coins of Carcosa were stolen from the various elder races so that most(say 90%) of gold pieces are actually medallions minted by the great race or the space aliens and the remaining 10% entered the economy through more esoteric means.

[tkdco2]

Nowadays, I'm more likely to give treasure in the form of items like alien tech and/or ornaments made from precious metals and jewels.

Edit: my currency and links to some unusual coins I use for Carcosa can be found in this thread.

[geoffrey]

While I don't sweat it, here's how I look at this topic:

Each village is basically self-subsistent. Often this self-subsistence is pretty weird, like the People of the Consumed God in the module "Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorcerer". If a given village needs something, they won't hesitate to steal it from others. Low-intensity raids are not uncommon, while full-scale warfare is pretty darn rare.

Coins, gems, and jewelry? Valued just because they are so cool. "But how do you eat a gold piece?" is not a question that comes up. This is a weird science-fantasy setting first and foremost. I doubt if ANY of it makes any real-world sense.

[funkaoshi]

My current thinking is that "gold" is ancient super hardy metal or plastic coinage from some bygone era. So it all looks pristine and new, most Carcosans don't have the tech to mint new coins or mess with the old ones. So they are a good hard to counterfeit common currency.

[tkdco2]

I use orichalcum instead of gold. But it was probably used by the Snake Men and found by the Men of Carcosa.

[geoffrey]

In general it is good to assume that men have stolen or otherwise acquired their stuff rather than that they invented it. After all, non-human intelligent life goes back BILLIONS of years on Carcosa. Why invent things when you can't swing a dead cat without knocking over pre-human stuff?

[tkdco2]

If all that stuff is easy to find, then no problem. But even then, certain things like suits of armor that fit the characters may be hard to find.