{"id":502,"date":"2016-01-18T18:35:38","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T16:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ancient-architects.com\/?p=502"},"modified":"2020-01-05T10:34:15","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T08:34:15","slug":"draining-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ancient-architects.com\/?p=502","title":{"rendered":"Idea Collection: Draining Money"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gold-gold-gold\"<\/a>I must admit I never really thought about money in RPGs until I found the CRPG Addict<\/a> and CRPGs Revisited<\/a> sites and their rating category “Economy”. To summarize the Addict, a game would get a high “Economy” rating if there were lots of ways to make money and lots of ways to spend it.<\/p>\n

The first part of that statement is usually not a problem; the games that are really stingy with their money are few and far between. The second part is more tricky, as at some point you’re often winning dragons’ hoards and raiding royal treasuries – what would you do with that kind of money, buy an island or four?<\/p>\n

Thinking more about it, I realized that up to then, I had taken it for granted that just as I was definitely far more powerful than the general populace at that point – and wanted to feel that way -, I also was bound to be richer – and wanted to feel that way! But extending that line of thought: If there were still high-level challenges for my power, how about high-level challenges for my purse? In\u00a0Skyrim<\/em>, I was definitely annoyed that I would collect hundreds of thousands of gold coins, but had nothing useful to do with them. Buying the first house is cool, buying the fifth not so much.<\/p>\n

The only games that came to mind that would fit both of those criteria were Might & Magic IV<\/em> and V<\/em>, collectively known as the World of Xeen<\/em>. In the final stages, I would be carrying around something like 50 million gold coins (picture that), yet could have spent all of it on leveling. This would require going to a trainer, who would charge 100,000 gold for leveling in the 100 level range and several million gold in the 200 level range. Now while it was pretty irrelevant how far above an average level of 80 you had trained your party, spending your excess riches this way at least didn’t feel totally useless…<\/p>\n

In any case, it made me think about the various ways you could part a party and their money. If you really want to keep the heroes’ purse empty, just increase the recurring costs. The fact that we are used to those being negligible does not have to restrict us here… in Might & Magic III-V<\/em>, filling the party’s backpacks with food for fourty days would cost you a few hundred coins, almost barely noticeable, whereas the food stand in the desert oasis in Lords of Xulima<\/em> will charge about 5,000 gold for five days worth of provisions. Pretty greedy, but it’s not like you have a choice.<\/p>\n

Recurring costs:<\/strong><\/p>\n