For blog Friday, folks are doing currency stuff. I had two ideas, so I’ll be putting up 4 merchants you meet on the road next week too.

In my 5e home game, my players opened a university/vampire nightclub (naturally). On their many adventures, they will often end up hiring a professor or bartender along the way.

• Morgamelly, professor of alchemy
• The dad of one of the PCs (a human fighter farmboy), professor of agriculture
• Ellie the vampire, poached from the bar the Whirling Mummy in Barkeep on the Borderlands
• Yelena the vampire, the villain from one of the first dungeons they went into
• Gorobash (an orc monk my brother-in-law guest starred as), martial arts teacher

I regret not setting up a more robust system of domain management here. I just randomly determine whether they’re running at a profit or loss, but it’s not quite the focus of the game, so it is what it is.

The PCs of my fledgling Cairn(ish) open table campaign are fairly impoverished right now, but perhaps one day they will have to contend with my very robust banking and taxation system when they build their own university/vampire nightclub.

Banks

Banks and other lenders can safely hold onto your coin and important items. Certificates of Deposit or Bank Notes (petty) can be carried to cash out at other banks.

Any unsecured and unhidden caches of wealth will be targeted every downtime cycle by local thieves. Flashing wealth can attract unwanted attention.

Available Lenders

The following are lenders in my home game (which does feature Nightwick Abbey, so Hoppland and Froglings are a thing):

• De Sapo House, a Hopplander bank and merchant house.
• Grenouille Rouge, a Hopplander merchant and lending guild.
• Deep Rock, a Dwarven bank backed by the mines of the Anfwin Mountains.
• Gewisse Royal Treasury, the royal treasury which only issues loans and accepts deposits of over 5,000 sp.

Borrowing

Borrowing silver may be necessary for major activities or upkeep. Payments are collected monthly at an offered interest rate. Most banks won’t take on high-risk loans like those to adventurers. Some examples follow:

Pawn shops accept collateral for short term loans at 1/3 the value of the collateral.

Taxation

Tax farmers patrol the major settlements for coin and harass smaller settlements for tithes in livestock or produce. The Church and the state both extract wealth from the populace. When taxes are exacted, expect a flat rate of 5% of any wealth in a bank. Tax days occur quarterly on the first day of a season and can be ignored easily with little consequence to the game. Once adventurers gain renown and are rumored to have substantial wealth, tax collectors may become more of a problem. Bribes also go a long way.

Anyway, that’s how I plan to use banking and taxes when it comes up in my new campaign. We’ll see how it goes, and let me know if you try it out or have your own system.

Some other posts that came out today:

• Early Middle Ages Currencies
• Starting Equipment Packages
• Gold!
• Abstract Away Your Wealth
• It’s the Barter Economy, Stupid
• The Art of Bartering
• Money Sinks