Lending in Eberron [Archive] - Wizards Community

Lending in Eberron [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Galnew Einhaw
04-21-07, 09:10 AM I'm trying to find info on moneylending in Eberron. It is mentiooned in the ECS the House Kundarik will lend money...but that's all it says. In Sharn CoT, it says they will normally only lend to Nobles, Royalty, etc. I sthere any other lending info I've missed, perhaps in Dragonmarked? (don't have it yet =)

Any thoughts on a lending mechanic? how can I do this?
Syltorian
04-21-07, 10:27 AM Dragonmarked does indeed mention it, if only as far as Favored in House benefits are concerned. Every house gives loans to its favored members, but only Kundarak offers the first month interest free to theirs.

Given that the interests are 10% per month for favored members, you can expect that normal people will be struck with far higher interests when they get money out of a Kundarak bank. I'd propose at least 25% per month.

Or a pound of flesh. :P

Other than that, yes: banks tend to lend money only to the rich. I.e. those they can expect will eventually pay them back, or at the very least be able to offer tremendous favours in return if they are royalty that has become insolvent. I've read somewhere that many nations, even rich Breland, are hopelessly indepted to Kundarak for taking money to finance the war effort.

However, individual members of the House, as opposed to the House as a whole might lend money to middle class people, adventurers (who might also be able to come to riches pretty fast, if they live), or others.

While slavery is outlawed by the Law of Galifar, the treatement of warforged in both Thrane and Karrnath would indicate that debt-bondage and indentured servitude does exist. You could get yourself some pretty cheap workers by pushing people into debts. You could even get something for a campaign there: the PCs must find money to help someone get out of debt-bondage of the worst kind, without being able to intervene with force since the entire thing is technically legal.

The basic idea would be to try and get the maximum out of it. If people are desperate enough, need the money to rebuilt, and there are no rivals (because the Aurum or Kundarak members have decided to offer the same interests), you can go very high indeed with your monthly interest. When the money is borrowed, the borrower has to sign a contract. They get the money for one year.

Then they have to pay back the sum with a, say, 50% interest per month, thus a total of 600% of the original sum on top of the borrowed money.

Or even beyond money. Perhaps necromancers are willing to buy bodyparts of those too far indebted to pay money back (as happens, for example, with organ trade these days). People might be forced to sell their ancestral farm, even sell themselves for sexual services (if your group is comforable with that; I wouldn't try that myself), sell secrets they have access to to third parties (enemy nation or one of the Houses of Shadows), take part in illegal operations (help criminal networks they are endebted to), and so forth. You can get into a pretty gritty world with this.

If your PCs want to borrow money, make sure you know what they could buy with it. Don't let them borrow with no limits. Your players might decide that they could borrow some millions of gold pieces - don't let them do that, it will obviously imbalance the game (and no lender is going to be stupid enough to give away that much money, if he can get his hands on it in the first place). Remember that a few hundred gold pieces are a tremendous amount of money already for the world economy. Obviously, they can borrow from more than one source, but the moneylenders will eventually catch onto that, and they'll not get any credit anymore.

Then make sure that they have to pay. So, no contract for 10 years before they have to pay back, unless your campaign advances much faster than mine. And make sure that they are aware that running off and refusing to pay is illegal and no authority will help them.
Vharuck
04-21-07, 12:25 PM I'd have illegal organizations lend money as well, since they can feel free to collect late payments in any manner they choose. Loan sharks.
mahavira
04-21-07, 01:04 PM PCs represent an enormous risk for a moneylender, being both flight risks and likely to get killed. Unless they have collateral (and leave it WITH the lender), any lending deal would have to be really atrocious to be worth a banker's while (the one time I dealt with moneylending in Eberron, the dwarf demanded 30% of everything the PCs earned as interest, with none of it applying to the actual principal of the debt). On the plus side, collateral would be a great use for unwanted magic items, as a banker is probably in a position to do the marketing to sell at full price rather than the half that PCs typically do, and if the PCs repay the loan they can then sell the item and get their 50%.
Cifer
04-23-07, 06:40 PM For precisely the reason mahavira explained, I don't see moneylending to adventurers happening that much. What might happen is essentially questgiving - the PCs e.g. get an expedition financed or are paid for their expertise or their contacts.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Galnew Einhaw 04-21-07, 09:10 AM	I'm trying to find info on moneylending in Eberron. It is mentiooned in the ECS the House Kundarik will lend money...but that's all it says. In Sharn CoT, it says they will normally only lend to Nobles, Royalty, etc. I sthere any other lending info I've missed, perhaps in Dragonmarked? (don't have it yet =) Any thoughts on a lending mechanic? how can I do this?
Syltorian 04-21-07, 10:27 AM	Dragonmarked does indeed mention it, if only as far as Favored in House benefits are concerned. Every house gives loans to its favored members, but only Kundarak offers the first month interest free to theirs. Given that the interests are 10% per month for favored members, you can expect that normal people will be struck with far higher interests when they get money out of a Kundarak bank. I'd propose at least 25% per month. Or a pound of flesh. :P Other than that, yes: banks tend to lend money only to the rich. I.e. those they can expect will eventually pay them back, or at the very least be able to offer tremendous favours in return if they are royalty that has become insolvent. I've read somewhere that many nations, even rich Breland, are hopelessly indepted to Kundarak for taking money to finance the war effort. However, individual members of the House, as opposed to the House as a whole might lend money to middle class people, adventurers (who might also be able to come to riches pretty fast, if they live), or others. While slavery is outlawed by the Law of Galifar, the treatement of warforged in both Thrane and Karrnath would indicate that debt-bondage and indentured servitude does exist. You could get yourself some pretty cheap workers by pushing people into debts. You could even get something for a campaign there: the PCs must find money to help someone get out of debt-bondage of the worst kind, without being able to intervene with force since the entire thing is technically legal. The basic idea would be to try and get the maximum out of it. If people are desperate enough, need the money to rebuilt, and there are no rivals (because the Aurum or Kundarak members have decided to offer the same interests), you can go very high indeed with your monthly interest. When the money is borrowed, the borrower has to sign a contract. They get the money for one year. Then they have to pay back the sum with a, say, 50% interest per month, thus a total of 600% of the original sum on top of the borrowed money. Or even beyond money. Perhaps necromancers are willing to buy bodyparts of those too far indebted to pay money back (as happens, for example, with organ trade these days). People might be forced to sell their ancestral farm, even sell themselves for sexual services (if your group is comforable with that; I wouldn't try that myself), sell secrets they have access to to third parties (enemy nation or one of the Houses of Shadows), take part in illegal operations (help criminal networks they are endebted to), and so forth. You can get into a pretty gritty world with this. If your PCs want to borrow money, make sure you know what they could buy with it. Don't let them borrow with no limits. Your players might decide that they could borrow some millions of gold pieces - don't let them do that, it will obviously imbalance the game (and no lender is going to be stupid enough to give away that much money, if he can get his hands on it in the first place). Remember that a few hundred gold pieces are a tremendous amount of money already for the world economy. Obviously, they can borrow from more than one source, but the moneylenders will eventually catch onto that, and they'll not get any credit anymore. Then make sure that they have to pay. So, no contract for 10 years before they have to pay back, unless your campaign advances much faster than mine. And make sure that they are aware that running off and refusing to pay is illegal and no authority will help them.
Vharuck 04-21-07, 12:25 PM	I'd have illegal organizations lend money as well, since they can feel free to collect late payments in any manner they choose. Loan sharks.
mahavira 04-21-07, 01:04 PM	PCs represent an enormous risk for a moneylender, being both flight risks and likely to get killed. Unless they have collateral (and leave it WITH the lender), any lending deal would have to be really atrocious to be worth a banker's while (the one time I dealt with moneylending in Eberron, the dwarf demanded 30% of everything the PCs earned as interest, with none of it applying to the actual principal of the debt). On the plus side, collateral would be a great use for unwanted magic items, as a banker is probably in a position to do the marketing to sell at full price rather than the half that PCs typically do, and if the PCs repay the loan they can then sell the item and get their 50%.
Cifer 04-23-07, 06:40 PM	For precisely the reason mahavira explained, I don't see moneylending to adventurers happening that much. What might happen is essentially questgiving - the PCs e.g. get an expedition financed or are paid for their expertise or their contacts.