I'm strongly considering getting copies for the original equipment lists and using the original monetary system that use Ceramic pieces as the standard, but not really sure it's worth the effort.
Curious to hear anyone elses experience with this, if your using the original system.
The Primer I created also has my refurbished version of the weapon breakage rule which pretty much reads as follows:
If a player rolls a natural 1 or a natural 20 in an encounter while wielding a weapon that is not metal the player rolls the d20 once more and if the second roll would hit the target the weapon does not break. If the second roll is a miss then the weapon breaks. I use this because I feel it also reflects that a magic weapon has a lesser chance of breaking than does a nonmagical (i.e. magic weapons have +1, etc).
Anyways just my two cents on the what we have been using in my campaign and it seems to be working rather nicely and still reflects a lot of the old vision of Dark Sun as well as still keeping things 4e simple so to speak.
1 gold = 1 ceramic
100 ceramic = 1 gold
Metal= 100 X cost ( so a metal dagger would cost 400 ceramic)
makes metal very valuable but the coin system easy to follow without converting things.
I did not change the materials like 2nd edition but did change the weapon breakage rule to:
natural 20 roll for breakage- 1 to 5 and the weapon breaks
metal is imune to breakage rule ( unless monster or story demands it)
AC drops by 1 every time hit with a natural 20 until repaired.
I made a simple skill roll for weapon and armor repair with a little cost and all is good with us.
I think the keep it simple rules of 4th ed work ok but needed a little tweaking to get the old school feel for older players.
I'm also using Ceramic coins, but I've just told the players there are different ceramic coins worth: 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 copper.
Yea, I think this is what the default 4e settng is already. And I don't mind it, but I'm thinking I may use the old system.
@mhuggies, I'm gonna go out to athas.org check that out.
All I did wiht my group is this :
1 gold = 1 ceramic
100 ceramic = 1 gold
Metal= 100 X cost ( so a metal dagger would cost 400 ceramic)
makes metal very valuable but the coin system easy to follow without converting things.
I did not change the materials like 2nd edition but did change the weapon breakage rule to:
natural 20 roll for breakage- 1 to 5 and the weapon breaks
metal is imune to breakage rule ( unless monster or story demands it)
AC drops by 1 every time hit with a natural 20 until repaired.
I made a simple skill roll for weapon and armor repair with a little cost and all is good with us.
I think the keep it simple rules of 4th ed work ok but needed a little tweaking to get the old school feel for older players.
That's seems pretty simple, but I'm not sure I'm reading that first part right...
1 gold = 1 ceramic, but also 100 ceramic = 1 gold?? I get the latter part, but 1 gold = 1 ceramic? I'm guessing your saying the ceramic pieces are thier vaule in gold, but metal just costs more?
ok so something in the book cost 6gp--- that equals 6 ceramicIf they find 1 gold piece ( metal coin) it is 100 ceramic.
I did it that way so that they could buy stuff from the book ( non-metal) at book cost instead of having to do a bunch of calculating.
When they find treasure I always tell them that they find X ceramic or jewels worth X ceramic... sometimes I slip and say gold but they know what I mean. Now if I were to say they found gold coins they and emphasize "gold" then they have truely hit the jackpot ( which as they are all level 8 has yet to happen)
I created a sort of PC Primer for my Dark Sun campaign that I handed out to my players that incorporates a mix of the old stuff with the new. I use a conversion chart I got from Athas.org that seems to fit rather well into my 4e campaign. We use the Ceramic piece as the currency just as in the older incarnation and in the campagin guide for 4e it also mentions that is the form of currency used. As for the equipment charts I just use the conversion chart i mentioned earlier and with a bit of quick math figure up the price for an item in Dark Sun.
The Primer I created also has my refurbished version of the weapon breakage rule which pretty much reads as follows:
If a player rolls a natural 1 or a natural 20 in an encounter while wielding a weapon that is not metal the player rolls the d20 once more and if the second roll would hit the target the weapon does not break. If the second roll is a miss then the weapon breaks. I use this because I feel it also reflects that a magic weapon has a lesser chance of breaking than does a nonmagical (i.e. magic weapons have +1, etc).
Anyways just my two cents on the what we have been using in my campaign and it seems to be working rather nicely and still reflects a lot of the old vision of Dark Sun as well as still keeping things 4e simple so to speak.
OK, so thanks for the athas.org suggestion mhuggies. You know, when I went to the site, I realized I had been there before, but it's been a very long time. Very neat site and after looking at the 3.5 conversion books, yup, I decided I'm going with the old school DS monetary system.
Honestly, I'm not sure why the 4e version didn't just use that. I mean, I know they want to simplify things, but really, that wasn't that difficult and it was very flavorful and unique. Really just makes me think they got a bit lazy on that part.
@Ozmaodis, no worries, I gotcha! ;o)
We still use the ceramic coins and ceramic bits (on the 2e conversion scale and using the Athas.org 3e equipment tables), and track city minting since we've tend to have some focus on trade en mass around mid levels with merchant houses (either raiding them, starting a small merchant house, running goods for them, etc). Tracking city minting can be a hassle in many groups and I don't recommend going that far unless your group feels it would benefit their experience having the added layer of detail. Having a group with at least a passing knowledge in real world exchange rates and how they work is definitely a plus.