Drakevarg
Troubadour
Been inwardly debating with myself about what I should use as the basic currency of the realm in my current project. Since gold is cliched, personally unappealing, and simply lacks much practical use, I figured I'd look into more practical alternatives. The two most obvious ones that came to mind were salt or silver.
Now, this project is in fact a game and not prose, but I don't want that factor to become too much of a distraction since I'm fully aware that most posters here think from a novelist's viewpoint. Suffice to say that things like the need to physically transport it and potential concerns of open-ended narrative are highlighted concerns but in the end it still boils down to how effective it comes across in the story.
Anyway, the surrounding situation:
The time is set roughly 200 years after human civilization was essentially reset by a volcanic cataclysm that wiped out about 99% of the population. The global headcount is somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000. The story is focused on a small island where three factions vie for control - a nomadic tribe, a vigilante cult, and a band of pirates. Since the PC will have the option of throwing their lot in with any of them, for practical reasons any currency would need to have universal appeal.
Fortunately, both salt and silver have functional application - both are known for their effectiveness against spirits and have importance in various rituals. That said, there are pros and cons for both.
Salt, on top of the supernatural application, is simply a practical commodity. It's a crucial survival resource and can be used to preserve foodstuffs and so forth. This gives it additional appeal in a post-apocalyptic scenario such as the story's setting. On the downside, salt is also heavy and can be produced by anyone with access to brine, which makes it a poor currency for valuable commodities.
Silver, on the other hand, has little practical function outside of the arcane or alchemical but as a precious metal is easy to store, transport, and divide. Its comparative rarity also enhances its usefulness as a currency, since it's significantly harder to produce and might not even be obtainable on a small island without import.
Any thoughts? I'm open to other alternatives as well but those are my thoughts on the issue. Thinking on it from a Doylist standpoint, salt has appeal simply from departure from fantasy adventure cliches, but sometimes cliches exist for good reason - because they just make more practical sense, and the sheer bloated pricetags of valuables on a salt-based currency seems balk-worthy. Anyway, please give your thoughts and feel free to offer up historical counterpoints or other factors I might not have thought of.
Now, this project is in fact a game and not prose, but I don't want that factor to become too much of a distraction since I'm fully aware that most posters here think from a novelist's viewpoint. Suffice to say that things like the need to physically transport it and potential concerns of open-ended narrative are highlighted concerns but in the end it still boils down to how effective it comes across in the story.
Anyway, the surrounding situation:
The time is set roughly 200 years after human civilization was essentially reset by a volcanic cataclysm that wiped out about 99% of the population. The global headcount is somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000. The story is focused on a small island where three factions vie for control - a nomadic tribe, a vigilante cult, and a band of pirates. Since the PC will have the option of throwing their lot in with any of them, for practical reasons any currency would need to have universal appeal.
Fortunately, both salt and silver have functional application - both are known for their effectiveness against spirits and have importance in various rituals. That said, there are pros and cons for both.
Salt, on top of the supernatural application, is simply a practical commodity. It's a crucial survival resource and can be used to preserve foodstuffs and so forth. This gives it additional appeal in a post-apocalyptic scenario such as the story's setting. On the downside, salt is also heavy and can be produced by anyone with access to brine, which makes it a poor currency for valuable commodities.
Silver, on the other hand, has little practical function outside of the arcane or alchemical but as a precious metal is easy to store, transport, and divide. Its comparative rarity also enhances its usefulness as a currency, since it's significantly harder to produce and might not even be obtainable on a small island without import.
Any thoughts? I'm open to other alternatives as well but those are my thoughts on the issue. Thinking on it from a Doylist standpoint, salt has appeal simply from departure from fantasy adventure cliches, but sometimes cliches exist for good reason - because they just make more practical sense, and the sheer bloated pricetags of valuables on a salt-based currency seems balk-worthy. Anyway, please give your thoughts and feel free to offer up historical counterpoints or other factors I might not have thought of.