In the interim
since Ancient Toronto fell and the new world arose, governments began minting
coins anew, so that the standard silver, gold, and copper coins of the standard
DCC milieu are also found in Toronto Crawl Classics. Platinum and electrum also
exist, but these coins are extremely rare.
But that is
not all. Oh no, that is not all.
Caches of
ancient coinage also exist in Ruined Toronto. Some of these coins are ancient
indeed, coming from the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum that was, and
others are from foreign exchanges – these are curios, most often, of little
practical value. I wanted to give PCs reason to seek out Canadian coins, though
– loonies, toonies, and quarters in particular, but right down to the humble maple
leaf penny.
(Non-Canadians
should be aware that the Canadian dollar coin is called a “loonie” because it
has an image of a loon on it, and the two-dollar coin is called a “toonie”.)
Setting a
value for these coins had to meet three criteria: (1) that they be valuable
enough to search for, (2) that there is a real decision between keeping them or
turning them in for the monetary value, and (3) that the value still makes
currency conversion relatively simple.
To this end,
a Canadian loonie is worth 5 gp, a toonie is worth 10 gp, and a quarter is
worth a mere 1 gp. The reasoning is thus: You need Canadian currency to use the
vending machines scattered throughout the ruins. These vending machines are
generally priced at $2.00 per can of beverage. The vending machines can defend
themselves. Moreover, if the ritual of putting the correct change into the
machine is not followed, the beverage vended will lose any potential mystical
ability it has.
That’s right
– pay for it properly, and there is a good chance that your can of Dr. Pepper
is also a healing potion. And, as the abilities of any given potion are based
on the type of drink, once you learn the ropes, you can almost certainly decide
if you really want Coke or Pepsi right now. Don’t pay for it, and you have
carbonated sugar water and have to fight the machine even for that. Since the
time of the Ancients, the vending machines link directly to another plane of
existence, so you can’t even break them open to retrieve your change….
Quarters are
only worth 1 gp in this system because fully ¼ of them disappear into the
vending machine without being accepted as payment. Nickels and dimes are worth
1 sp and 2 sp respectively; fully 1 in 3 disappear into the void without
payment being registered. Finally, pennies are also worth 1 sp…in this case
because elves can handle the metal, which can be forged into pennysteel – a metal
like steel in all ways, but with no iron content. Every indication shows that
pennysteel didn’t exist in Ancient times; it’s very existence is a by-product
of the arcane forces set loose in the new world.
For some
reason, American coins don’t work in Ruined Toronto’s vending machines, and
cannot be forged into pennysteel here. Perhaps if you travel to Buffalo or
Windsor, things will be different?
