Money, Money, Money

One of the bigger Realm of Runes playtest changes since the last time these design blogs were being posted regularly involves money... or rather, the complete removal of it from the core rules. Which is to say that nothing in the rules uses any specific forms of currency as a default assumption. Whereas the early formulation of Realm of Runes codified a sort of "universal currency" system built around copper, gold, silver and platinum pieces, and items in the Equipment chapter were listed with prices referencing this monetary system, now the game does not know or care how much things cost.

This change dramatically opened up the possibility space for Realm of Runes as a whole, and has a whole suite of fantastic knock-on effects that we'll be discussing today. But the reason behind the change is interesting in and of itself, and is two-fold. First, this is something conceptually different from the other tabletop RPGs that dominate the space. Second, and more importantly, it better allows the base rules of the game to be setting agnostic. Whatever setting a group uses, and its economics, are easily supported by Realm of Runes. Whether you like the universal currencies of other settings, or you play in a world where every civilization has its own unique money, or one where money itself is simply not a thing, Realm of Runes slots in easily.

Availability

So, if Realm of Runes doesn't incorporate money into its base assumptions, what does it do instead? How does the game prevent characters from just grabbing whatever they want, whenever they want? How can rewards for story completion even make sense? Is this some sort of equipment anarchy?!

Even when the rules did use money as a part of the assumption, price was not the only thing keeping the best equipment from lower-level players. Being able to afford equipment is only half the battle when it comes to acquiring new gear and, to be perfectly frank, it's the less interesting half. All the money in the world won't help you get that magic ring you want if it isn't available, and availability itself is the primary gatekeeper in Realm of Runes.

The basic structure of availability was already there from the beginning. All items have an item level between 1 and 10. All items have a quality between poor and exquisite. All items have a rarity between common and unique. It is these properties that form the basic structure of item availability in Realm of Runes. When you're looking for an item in a settlement, every item has an "effective item level" for the purposes of availability. This effective level is based on the item's actual level, but is increased by quality (or reduced for poor quality!), and may be further increased by its rarity.

But how does this fit into an actual game? The other half of the puzzle is settlement size. One certainty is that characters can only go shopping where there are shops, and what can be found in a particular settlement scales based on the size of that settlement. Settlements range in size from a tiny Thorp to a vast Metropolis, based on population, and each tier has its own availability profile for what can be found in that settlement, and how much of it, based on the effective item levels. Of course, this is easy to override for a GM if it is important that certain items are more or less available in particular places. "They don't have that here," was always a way to keep items from characters that could otherwise afford it in systems that use money, and that's no different here.

As settlements increase in size, the highest item level that can be generally found in that settlement increases, but it increases slowly. Settlement sizes naturally fall into a few categories. For a given category, such as villages, the highest-level items available in those tiers remain the same, but the difference between a small village and a large village is instead how frequently they refresh their stock. Just because an item might be available in a settlement does not mean that they have an arbitrarily large amount on hand to part with. The largest settlement size, Metropolis, only has a default effective item availability of level 5, including any adjustments for quality and rarity. Beyond that, higher-level items (or items with a higher effective level) must either be found through adventuring, given as story rewards, or made by the characters themselves through crafting.

Crafting

One of the most noticeable knock-on effects of removing money from the game's base assumptions is with crafting. Whereas before the Parts Cost for an item was a percentage of the purchase price for that item in the rules, now Parts Costs are simply listed in quantities of materials. This change seems small, but it is immensely freeing for both players and GMs alike. Instead of having a price for an item listed in the rules, an item lists its Parts Cost specifically. For example, a Greataxe has a parts cost listed of two bulk of steel and one bulk of wood.

This level of abstraction makes understanding the Parts Cost much easier, whether you use money or not. It also makes it much easier to understand how to craft using more exotic materials. Say you want to make your Greataxe out of something else, such as stainless steel. It's clear that to do so you would need two bulk of that material instead of the steel. You could leave the handle as wood if you want, or freely swap that out as well if you have a different material in mind or on hand.

Even before the removal of money from the base assumptions, the materials themselves had a level adjustment and a rarity. These are now used to govern the availability of those materials. Most common, level 1 materials can be found in any settlement, but more exotic materials can only be found in bigger cities. Because the level adjustment of a material is included in the overall item level of the finished product, the availability of an exotic material in its raw form is always less than the availability of an item made from that material. You might not be able to find a mythrilite weapon in your town, but you might be able to instead acquire a few bulk of mythrilite itself and either make it yourself or find someone else to do it for you, perhaps a party member or from an NPC as a reward for performing a task for them.

Character Creation

Perhaps the first interaction with the equipment chapter that players will have is during character creation, and this interaction is much more streamlined and intuitive under these new assumptions. Whereas before, characters were given a universal stipend of 150 silver pieces with which to purchase whatever starting equipment they could afford, now characters can simply begin the game with whatever equipment they want, so long as the effective item level of that equipment is within a certain range.

For first-level characters, the maximum effective item level is 1, though this ceiling increases for character creation at higher levels. Brand-new characters can take whatever they want, and however much of it they want, from level 1 items. Or, to be more precise, from items with an effective item level of 1. Because poor quality reduces the effective item level, and some archaic materials have a negative item level adjustment, this means that characters have some tricks that they can use to gain items that might otherwise be out of their level range. An arming sword is a level 2 item, but your character can start with one if you're willing to let it be bronze instead of steel.

But wait! Did I say characters can start with however much equipment they want?! Yes, but actually not quite. While there is no restriction on the number of items that a character can start with in theory, there are some limitations in practice when you actually look closer. The first limitation is bulk. All items have bulk, and there's only so much bulk that a character can carry before being maxed out. While characters may freely exit character creation encumbered by their gear, they may not exceed their max bulk during this step. So you can certainly grab a lot of things, but you have to fit it within your carrying capacity. There's also been some adjustments to the bulk system that are relevant here, but we'll discuss those in more detail in a future installment.

The second limitation is not quite as extrinsic. If the items that first-level characters can take are so readily available that cost is no object during character creation, then those items are probably not going to help you much if you decide to grab a horde for "resale" purposes, even if you're playing in a setting that adds the concept of money back in. So if there's no real benefit to hoarding items during character creation, players are likely only going to dedicate carrying capacity to the things they actually will want and use.

Spell Foci

Another area in which this change paid massive dividends was somewhat unexpected. Some spells have a specific focus, and sometimes these foci were meant to be something expensive. Although a spell focus is not consumed, and can be reused, these expensive foci were meant to be an additional "gate" on the use of that spell. Before, an expensive focus was listed in terms of its price. For example, this might have been something like a diamond worth 1,000 silver pieces.

But what is a diamond worth 1,000 silver pieces? Is that how much you had to pay for it? Is that how much you would get if you sold it? Because those are two different diamonds. Can you get a terrible diamond and simply pay someone 1,000 silver pieces for it? Is it now worth 1,000 silver because someone paid that? The whole concept is a bit strange, and surprisingly vague.

Now, though? Now that spell focus requirement might instead be an "exquisite gemstone" with the additional requirement that it be diamond specifically. This is far more elegant and unambiguous. An exquisite diamond gemstone is the same thing no matter who is looking at it, it can be identified as such by anyone, and there's no wiggle room to try to play around the requirement. A gemstone is a level 2 item listed in the adventuring gear chapter, with a Parts Cost of precious stone. Precious stone is a composite material representing several different types of precious stones, including diamond. It always has a level adjustment of +1, and its rarity varies depending on the specific type of precious stone. Amongst these, diamond is one of the rare types.

Let's use this as an example of how the availability system works. A gemstone is a level 2 item. Its default material is precious stone, so the item level adjustment for that material is not used, meaning that the actual item level of our gemstone stays 2nd. But now we need to determine the effective item level. The quality is easy to figure, simply add the quality modifier directly to the effective item level. Exquisite has a modifier of +3, so the effective item level is increased to 5. We also need to factor in the rarity, though! Uncommon increases the effective item level by 1, rare by 2. So the total effective item level is actually 7th.

Since the base availability of a metropolis tops out at an effective item level of 5th, this means that a character is unlikely to simply find a readily available exquisite diamond gemstone, even in a big metropolis. There are some tricks on offer, though. A character might leverage their Diplomacy skill to find an item that's higher-level than is normally available or might use black market connections unlocked through the Society skill to do something similar. A crafty character might much more easily acquire a lesser quality diamond gemstone and improve its quality themselves or get some raw diamond and make it from scratch. Another possibility is a character's prestige in that settlement, a newly added concept that deserves its own future blog entry all to itself.

Adding Money Back In

So, Realm of Runes doesn't assume that money is going to be used in order to function. But what if you still want it to be? Adding money back into Realm of Runes is super easy. If an item is determined to be available in the first place, then it also has a price. What this price is becomes subject to GM discretion based on the item's nature. Not having a specific price listed in the rules, however, allows the GM great freedom to adjust it to reflect other considerations. A gemstone might be less expensive in a settlement where they mine them, as opposed to one where they don't.

The other, even more important, aspect of this change is that the price can be in whatever currency or form of exchange that fits the setting. If you look at the real world, there are many different currencies. By having the rules themselves not care about money, this allows money to instead become a feature of the setting. Does your world have one universal trade currency? Great! Does every country have its own unique money? Also great! This does add a little bit more work to the setting designer, which might also be the GM, but the payoff in variety and flexibility is worth it. And, often, thinking about the details of a setting like money is something the GM is probably already doing. If you're using a pre-existing setting, though, some of that work is likely already done for you, and that is certainly the case for Rimukyr, the setting for first-party adventures in Realm of Runes.

Parting Thoughts

Overall, the removal of money from the base assumptions of Realm of Runes turned out to be a strong case of addition by subtraction, and makes the system better adapt to many more settings than it could have otherwise. At the same time, however, it remains flexible enough that just because the rules don't care about money, that doesn't mean that you can't use it if you want. But it also gives your group the freedom to do without money altogether if that sounds good to you instead. The choice is yours, as it should be. Next time we'll pivot to the proper introduction for the first supplement book of Realm of Runes, so stay tuned!