Economy

[Sinna]

Synth:

I don't understand your argument.  You keep stating the coin is not power, yet you admit you prefer your characters have a lot of coin.  If your characters don't find coin an advantage for them, why do you prefer that they collect it and use it?

I'm pretty certain you don't have your characters roll around in it - you use it (and have some stockpiled for anticipated use).  Obviously you view coin as a means to worthwhile ends such that you spend RL time collecting it.

Power is the ability to achieve one's ends, therefore it would seem that coin is actually power.

[Synthesis]

Just because I find it worthwhile doesn't mean I think they translate into any substantial degree of power.  I like to buy stupid fancy, overpriced objects from Salarr, Kadius, and Kurac, and I like to be able to pay newbies to do stuff to keep them entertained and engaged in the game.  I've never tried to rival a noble or templar, and the only people I've ever tried to have assassinated were pretty much nobody commoners like my characters.

However, 9 times out of 10, coins accumulate for me because I play a lot, I go out and do stuff, and they just kind of happen.  I don't log in thinking, "Goddamn, I have to hit 1,000 'sid today...." More often it's, "Damn, I'm thirsty, so I better start foraging for water...(10 minutes later) Ah, that was refreshing...now what am I going to do with these 50 roots I turned up?  (30 minutes later) Damn, all that was worth 800 coins?"  Or of course, the eternal, "I went out to kill a couple of gurth because someone placed an order for gurth shells, but three raptors, two carru, and a tembo aggroed on me along the way, so I have a bunch of extra crap to get rid of because there's no point in just leaving the carcass there to rot."  And there's also, "Damn, every other PC in town knows my PC can get shit done, so they -all- hire me to hunt and greb for them."  And of course the, "Agent Soandso knows I can get shit done, so I get mad bonuses and tons of free shit from him because I'm a BAMF."  And I almost forgot the, "Sweet, a dead newbie with 800 coins still on him!"

As far as power goes, I never (seriously) said that coins do not generate ANY POWER WHATSOEVER.  I've pretty consistently maintained that they do not translate easily into power.  Yes, you can get small things done with coins, but you aren't going to accomplish anything worth talking about with the power of coins alone.  Further, I think there's quite a bit of conflation with the fact that usually you have to interact with PCs to generate a lot of coins over time.  The amount of power someone has who gets rich by interacting with PC crafters is vastly greater than the amount of power you'd gain by generating the same amount of coins merely by grebbing salt.  Personally, I think that's fine.  If Shadows McLongknife doesn't want to take that 5,000 'sid assassination contract against me because I've brought her 10,000 'sid worth of gems for her jeweling hobby over the past month, tough beans.

p.s. Shadows McLongknife is now trademarked for one of my future character concepts.