Monetary system for pirate games

[Patrice]

Some of you who organize pirate games can be interested to know the economical system we are using (still in development) for negociations between players in the game. It worked well in our big game last week-end.

Accounts are made in "livres" (pounds) ; for simplification we consider that French pounds and British pounds are equal (no very exact historically), and:

One copper coin = one pound (simplification!)
One silver coin (called "piece of eight" or "rixthaler") = two pounds.
One gold coin ("doubloon") = 4 pounds.

These small sums may be used for small purchase, or to bribe poor NPCs, etc. Coins are accepted in all countries in the game.

Precious gems, etc, can be worth one hundred pounds or whatever the organizer decides.

Exemple of actual prices : in the early 18th century in France, recruiting one sailor cost 60 £ (or more if shortage of men); a fully equiped ship with guns and crew etc cost about 200 £ PER TON.

For large sums we made paper "lettres de change" (promissory notes / banknotes). These notes are only accepted in towns of the country which issued them; if in another colony, the player must deal with NPCs or other players who could accept them (probably less than their value).

You can have an amused look at the banknotes we made here (heavy file! 3.2 Mb)
http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/mega/lettres-de-change.pdf

Perhaps some of you will laugh when you see what we've awkwardly done to your native languages in the upper part of these banknotes. These letters are devised for use by French-speaking players, so all have the same subtitle in French to be easy to understand. The two last banknotes are from countries which do not often appear in the games, so are another challenge to players who find them in the booty.