Saturday, February 1, 2014

Random Coinage Generator

One of the things which I'm sort of tired of in fantasy RPGs is that typically the different coins don't have names.  I don't think there has ever been a society where people used money called Gold Pieces, Silver Pieces, and Copper Pieces.  Well, okay ancient Chinese coins were just called "money/钱", but that's a bit unusual.  Anyway, for my games I like to give the coins names, but I try to keep them easy to remember.  In my current game I'm using gold Marks, silver Shillings, and copper Pennies.  It's a lot more favorful to have the innkeeper tell the PCs that a room is "one shilling and sixpence" for the night or that there is a reward of "fifty marks" for the capture of a bandit.  Along with that goes physical details of currency.  As I was jotting down ideas of what to put on the coins for my game I thought that I could easily expand the notes into a simple random coinage generator.  So here it is:

Coin Shape (1d6)
  1. round
  2. square
  3. triangular
  4. rectangular
  5. polygonal (roll 1d12 + 4 for number of sides)
  6. trade blade  (a stylized miniature of a: 1) axe, 2) knife, 3) arrowhead, 4) plow, 5) scythe, 6) spade)
Hole (center for most, appropriate place near edge for a trade blade; 1d6)
1-4: no
5-6: yes (optional: roll 1d6 for the number of holes, usually placed symmetrically)

Design (1d12; roll for each side)
  1. bird or bat
  2. sea creature
  3. land carnivore
  4. land herd animal
  5. magical beast (griffin, etc.)
  6. fortification (tower, castle, gate, portcullis, etc.)
  7. plant
  8. weapon or shield
  9. humanoid  (usually a ruler, legendary person, or deity)
  10. dragon
  11. musical instrument
  12. writing (usually about the ruler and/or country of origin, or a prayer)

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