SnailSong OSR Blog

Two simple systems for moving large quantities of money in OSR games

Player characters have a lot of money, and sometimes they need to move this money from place to place. Whilst there’s always a place for a good old-fashioned cart full of coins, I found more and more questions recurring within my game of ways to store value when travelling long distances.

These two systems are loosely historically inspired and present options for both the Lawful and Chaotic ends of the alignment spectrum. I leave the minutiae of trade politics up to individual GMs, I certainly don’t keep a big table of different tariffs between kingdoms, but it’s easy enough to come up with something that makes sense on the fly from context.

The main advice I can offer if you’re going to use these systems is to remember that players hate paying taxes and will do whatever they can to get around fees on their notes or jewels. Allow creative smuggling solutions to work but don’t hesitate to smack them with a hefty fine if they get lazy, perhaps offering a hook into an adventure from a local ruler as a way to get out of it. Willingly paying taxes is also a way that Lawful aligned PCs can show loyalty to their alignment.

Notes of Credit

Notes of credit are issued by significant institutions with the resources to finance cross territorial financial operations (usually Lawful religions or banks). A note of credit indicates its value in writing and bears the seal of the issuing institution alongside any other security measures.

Getting a note of credit issued costs a flat fee of 50gp for every 1000gp of value the note has, rounding to the nearest 1000. Institutions will not issue notes of credit for values below 500gp. Therefore, a note valued at 4125gp costs 200gp to issue, and a note valued at 6999gp costs 350gp to issue. This represents the increased security measures (sometimes magical) that go into creating these higher valued notes.

A note of credit can be fully or partially redeemed for its value in coins at an institution which honours it. A note of credit that is partially redeemed is either amended or reissued without charge at its remaining value by the honouring institution. Large redemptions, usually those in excess of 1000gp, may require the redeemer to wait days or weeks whilst the money is transported and prepared for them. Which notes of credit an institution will honour is highly dependent on political factors. You can safely assume most of the banks within an individual kingdom will honour each other’s notes of credit, but take one of those notes two kingdoms over and heavy fees may be imposed on redemptions or the note may be refused outright! Even in stable times, it generally costs about 10% of the value redeemed in fees when redeeming a note of credit outside the territory it was issued in. Religious institutions are more lenient on fees, but generally only acknowledge notes written by their own church, and will not deal with those who are clearly opposed to the tenants of their faith.

Notes of credit bestow their value onto the bearer, which means they are technically as good as cash. However, honouring a note is ultimately at the discretion of each institution. A shabby individual showing up in the city with five different bloodstained notes of credit from around the continent is likely to experience significant delays to redeeming funds whilst investigations are performed into any missing merchants known to be carrying notes from the institution. Whilst carrying the note itself may not be a crime, the person may have to answer some awkward questions from the guards if the situation looks suspicious. This may seem unfair to the spirit of the note, but financial institutions are far more interested in keeping merchants happy as opposed to your typical brigand.

It’s important to remember that a note of credit is ultimately a promise from an institution that those coins exist in a vault somewhere. Therefore, if political events cause the institution to fall into disrepute or become unreliable, it may become harder to redeem its notes of credit. Furthermore, if an institution is destroyed entirely, any outstanding notes of credit will become worthless without the intervention of a third party to take on the responsibility of honouring those notes.

Jewellery

Those who distrust Lawful institutions may place more faith in jewellery as a store of value. Skilled craftsmen can, for a fee, turn raw materials into items which are substantially lighter than the sum of their parts.

Jewellery as discussed here is assumed to be bespoke and of negligible weight. A character wearing large amounts of valuable jewellery will attract attention, both good and ill.

A skilled jeweller costs 50gp for every 1000gp of value a finished item has, rounding in the same manner as a note of credit, with a minimum fee of 50gp. Creating jewellery also takes time, requiring 1 week for every 1000gp of value, rounding to the nearest 1000. Particularly high value items (in excess of 5000gp) require tracking down master jewellers, many of whom seek to form long term working relationships with clients.

Jewellery cannot be partially redeemed for its value. Given enough time, it will usually be possible to find a buyer at full price within a decently sized settlement, but in desperate times it may be required to settle for less. Every day spent searching, there is a 10% chance a buyer can be found. This chance can be increased by a further 10% for every 5% off the full value a character is willing to accept.

The value of jewellery is not hurt by political factors, making it an excellent hedge against institutional instability. Indeed, the vaults of many institutions offering notes of credit are in fact loaded with jewellery. However, many realms seek to levy taxes on valuable imports, placing taxes of 10-20% on jewellery at the border. Harsh penalties exist for dodging these tariffs, but those who can evade the dogs of the customs officials can find eager buyers for their foreign jewels. Jewellery from foreign lands has its base chance of finding a buyer at full price increased by 10%.