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Vapourware Interesting currency in a cRPG?

Joined
Jan 14, 2018
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50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
I was watching a video about Olympus 2207, which uses batteries as currency. The guy narrating the video said it would be cool if they were actually used to power things, and... yeah, it probably would be.

Are there any games where the currency is more than just arbitrary money but has actual uses?
 

J1M

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
14,616
Older versions of D&D treated gold as a crafting reagent. (But that was just a simplifying element to represent purchasing mundane ingredients.)

FFXI had beast coins that could be melted into ingots. But those were basically just resources with an interesting name.

Diablo 1 allowed you to convert gold into permanent stat points via a purchased item.
 

King Crispy

Too bad I have no queen.
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Staff Member
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Strap Yourselves In
When I played Fallout for the first time I scoffed at the notion of bottle caps being currency in the post-apocalyptic world. But as I played the game more and began to understand its subtle statements about society and what led to the nukes falling, and to the subsequent nature of the world afterwards, I realized that implying so much soda had been consumed before the bombs fell was just another (brilliant) commentary.
 

randir14

Augur
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
641
I used money in Everquest to troll people. Back then it had actual weight, so when noobs begged for money I'd give them thousands of copper. They became overloaded and couldn't move, but were too greedy to drop it.
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
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Jun 8, 2018
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5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
I was watching a video about Olympus 2207, which uses batteries as currency. The guy narrating the video said it would be cool if they were actually used to power things, and... yeah, it probably would be.

Are there any games where the currency is more than just arbitrary money but has actual uses?

Yes!
Most blobbers have gold coins as currency.
Round shiny coins and you can make jewelry out of it.
 

Kruyurk

Learned
Joined
Nov 16, 2021
Messages
320
9PtdpRq.jpg

Smurf world turned to shit the time one of them decided to use money. Maybe we should follow the wise teachings of the smurfs once in a while.
 

deuxhero

Arcane
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Jul 30, 2007
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11,324
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Flowery Land
Strange Journey uses an demon currency that's easily converted to energy. I thought this was a good excuse for why you need money to get stuff from the expedition you're in charge of.
 

lukaszek

the determinator
Patron
Joined
Jan 15, 2015
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12,618
Not RPG, but I think the Metro games use ammo for currency.
not a rpg but there was a movie where you use time left to live as currency

there is obscure gun in cp77 that fires currency instead of regular ammo, turning your game into metro... sort of
 

Aemar

Arcane
Joined
Aug 18, 2018
Messages
6,055
King of Dragon Pass (hey, it's in the top 101 RPG list here):

Exchange Rates
The basic exchange rates for various commodities seems to be:

  • 1 good = 1 cow
  • 2 food = 1 cow
  • 1 horse = 4 cows
  • 1 treasure = 50 cows (approximately)
These rates can vary depending on your market.

It is worth noting however that cows are always more valuable than other types of goods in the sense that a cow is a unit of wealth, meaning that the perceived wealth of a clan is the number of cows it possesses.
 

Scrounger

Educated
Joined
Mar 26, 2018
Messages
85
Underrail has Stygian coins which could be melted and used to infuse the various animal leather parts. Also melee weapons so you could crush and slice your opponents...
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
Thought of two:
FNV, bottlecaps are used for ammo
Caves of Qud uses water, which is also a resource that is consumed and used for crafting.
 

FriendlyMerchant

Guest
Underrail has Stygian coins which could be melted and used to infuse the various animal leather parts. Also melee weapons so you could crush and slice your opponents...
It also had fiat currency which is unrealistically represented. A Stygian should be worth much more than an united stations fiat bank note due to being made of something that has value.
 

Saravan

Savant
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
926
Underrail has Stygian coins which could be melted and used to infuse the various animal leather parts. Also melee weapons so you could crush and slice your opponents...
It also had fiat currency which is unrealistically represented. A Stygian should be worth much more than an united stations fiat bank note due to being made of something that has value.

There is no need to be upset just because crypto is tanking.
 

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
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Joined
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Messages
11,756
In the Demon's/Dark Souls series, currency and experience points are identical; the player earns souls by defeating enemies, and these souls are both used to level up (increase an attribute) and to make purchases. The same is true for Bloodborne and Elden Ring, although souls were renamed to blood echoes and runes. :M
 

FriendlyMerchant

Guest
Underrail has Stygian coins which could be melted and used to infuse the various animal leather parts. Also melee weapons so you could crush and slice your opponents...
It also had fiat currency which is unrealistically represented. A Stygian should be worth much more than an united stations fiat bank note due to being made of something that has value.

There is no need to be upset just because crypto is tanking.
I'm fine with that. I don't own any crypto. I only have real money. Not that fake shit.
 

Kev Inkline

Arcane
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Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Messages
5,072
A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Not an rpg, but Star Citizen has an interesting amount of dollars.

As for the actual uses, they bought an espresso machine for 20K usd.
 

mondblut

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
22,205
Location
Ingrija
I was watching a video about Olympus 2207, which uses batteries as currency. The guy narrating the video said it would be cool if they were actually used to power things, and... yeah, it probably would be.

Are there any games where the currency is more than just arbitrary money but has actual uses?

Man of Prey uses actual 5.45 ammo as a main unit of currency. No abstracted money of any kind. You do shooting spree, you literally waste your riches.
 

buffalo bill

Arcane
Joined
Dec 8, 2016
Messages
1,004
Caves of Qud uses water, which is also a resource that is consumed and used for crafting.
Yeah, but not used for crafting that I remember

Not an rpg, but the damage output of the transactional rifle in cruelty squad corresponds to your financial assets (sort of the inverse of what the OP is asking)
 

Binky

Cipher
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Messages
453
Not an RPG, but Transarctica is an interesting case. Lignite is the currency and can also be used to fuel your massive train. You're literally burning cash.
 

Fowyr

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
7,671
Merchant in ADOM has a lot of bonuses to throwing gold coins.
 

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