In this article, we'll explore the main monetary system in TOWR, as well as the system of favors that is a secondary currency that is supported - but not really called out - for Contacts and possibly some other NPCs. Then I will suggest some ways to make these systems interact, and how to handle certain situations like loans and debts, trading, monetary rewards and mercenary player characters.
Note: If you know the systems of TOWR very well and just want to view my expanded house rules, feel free to jump down to the Expanded Rules section.
Introduction
Almost any RPG needs a system to handle the purchasing power of the Player Characters, and traditionally in WFRP, this has been done by tracking how many Crowns, Schillings and Pfennigs a PC carries around etc. (I'll admit not being overly familiar with 3rd and 4th edition on this point.) TOWR does away with this, however, and goes for a more abstract approach, including Coins that each represent a substantial purchase for someone of a given social tier.
It also introduces a system of Favours owed to or being owed by Contacts, important NPCs that the PCs have some connection to. While not purchasing power per se, Favours and Coins clearly have a sort of informal exchange rate - some contacts are listed as being able to provide financial aid, or to be willing to give aid for some material reward. And both Coin and Favours can be used for similar things: Some contacts will provide weapons to PCs with their favors, which could also be bought, for instance.
Lets look at some details:
The Expense system (Status and Coin)
Every character belongs to a social Status: Brass, Silver or Gold. They also carry a number of Coin of value corresponding to each of these three tiers. At the end of each downtime, a characters Coin is reset to 3 of the same tier as their social status - except when some rule says otherwise, usually as the result of an Endeavour (a downtime activity). The Prolonged Labours endeavour for instance, can let you end a downtime with 4 or 5 coin of your status, instead of 3.
A single Coin represents a substantial Expense for someone of the corresponding social status. Expenses of lower tiers than a characters social status are in effect free for such a character - meaning that a Silver tier character will never track Brass coins - they have what amounts to an infinite supply of them. (Though attempted misuse of this should probably lead to the GM stating that a silver expense has been accumulated.)
There doesn't seem to be any rule against a character carrying Coin more valuable than his social tier would indicate if he's able to find that much money, except that it will be lost during the next downtime if not Spent or successfully Banked or Invested.
Characters of a higher social tier than their peers can pay the way for them, and it seems natural they would - though it's not given that they'd want to. The Players Guide suggests that this will lead to the characters of lower social status being viewed as underlings - and that may well be, but it seems like it would usually be a small price to pay for a Brass character to access Gold equipment.
There is no exchange rate between coins - no amount of brass coin can buy a silver coin. These are abstractions, representing a "substantial expense" for someone of the corresponding silver tier. However, there are mechanics where you can turn one into the other, and while I don't think it's particularly useful for the game, I'll explore how we can extract possible exchange rates from those rules in a future article.
It is important to note that characters clearly aren't meant to only have equipment corresponding to their social tier. For one, many careers have starting equipment beyond their apparent means. There are also two downtime rules that will easily allow characters to gain more expensive equipment over time:
The Craft Trapping Endeavour
With the input of skilled labour, it is possible to get items of a higher tier for lower value Coin.
The Craft Trapping Endeavour can be taken over several downtimes, and consists of an Exacting crafting test (requiring the corresponding Crafting Lore). Two successes can create a Brass item, four successes a Silver item and eight successes a Gold item - though to create a gold item each test costs a Silver expense, and to create a Silver item each test costs a Brass expense.
The Invest Money Endeavour
The Invest Money Endeavour allows you to spend three coins to take a risk to generate a return. If the Coin invested are not of the same tier, the lowest tier is used - so we will assume three coins of the same tier. A test is then made, and on a success an item of the tier above the least valuable coin is gained. On a failure, all is lost.
Generating a success is really easy here for a skilled character, meaning that a party who can save up three coin during an adventure (not hard if they pool their resources) can fairly reliably buy items of the next Social tier during downtime.
This Endeavour can also be used to invest into Assets, which works similarly to the Craft Trapping Endeavour - though in this case the Asset is created at the same tier as the coins invested, and each test costs 3 coins as well as taking the Endeavour.
Conclusions on the Coin system
The coin system is meant to abstract away cost-of-living expenses, and to create an easily managed resource that limits how much money characters can throw around during an adventure, without bogging down the rulebook and the character sheet with what amounts to an economic simulator.
Crucially, it is clearly not meant to limit what equipment are available to characters in the long run, though it gives GMs a clear mandate to apply theft to particularly valuable items that aren't kept safe - this makes assets like secret hideout potentially much more attractive than they might initially seem.
While characters in the long run are likely to get the equipment they want, even if they do not have Gold tier characters in the party, the coin system is likely (in lieu of said gold tier characters) to make the more expensive trappings seem at least a little bit harder to get than others, which is fine.
However, I do think some particular Gold tier trappings like repeater guns should probably be treated as assets (like Plate Armor) instead of as simple trappings.
The Coin system is tightly knit to the rhythm of one-to-three session adventures interspersed by one-to-three Endeavour long downtimes, and is meant to support only out-of-pocket expenses as part of that. As such, it cannot reasonably be expected to support high value trading and the like, though the Invest Money Endeavour gives a way of handling it in an abstract way assuming Assets with suitable rules can be created.
The Favour system
The Favour system in TOWR isn't explicitly explained, but if you read between the lines it is clearly there. Some NPCs called Contacts, are able to owe Favours to and be owed Favours by the Player Characters. Any "influential" NPC can be turned into a contact (with GM approval) if you get into their good graces and then take the Aid Contact Endeavour as an exacting test.
For the Player Character to do the Contact a Favour (either to get in them in their debt for the future, or to repay a "Favour debt"), the Aid Contact Endeavour will be used, although not as an exacting test. If you owe a Favour, you could be forced to take this Endeavour or risk losing the contact altogether. Note that the Aid Contact Endeavour requires a test, and you do not repay the Favour if you fail that test.
For a Contact to do a Favour for a PC, all the PC has to do is ask them - and have them agree. What Favours are available depends on the contact, but can include them risking their safety, or spending resources on the PC - including getting trappings (probably trappings characters can't afford themselves, thus being another way to get trappings beyond those easily available to your Social status) or paying other expenses, granting bonus dice on an Endeavour, give you Clues or Insights, and much besides.
Expenses and Favours
As mentioned before, while there isn't an "exchange rate" between Favours and Coin, they can clearly be used to obtain the same things - but the exact value will depend on the contact you have. It should be noted that the richest Contacts detailed seem to discriminate a bit against Brass tier characters - meaning that maybe they wouldn't get a Gold Tier gun for a labourer, but might do so for a soldier. It's hard to tell exactly, but my gut feeling tells me a favour from a rich NPC is generally about as useful to you as a coin of the next tier up from your current social status (though it could be much more in some situations), but poorer NPCs are worth less in coin but more in utility.
In other words, there aren't too many direct comparisons or interactions between the two economic systems - but they both interact with the Endeavour economy - endeavours is likely to be the dearest resource of all players in TOWR, especially as they govern skill advancement as well as in-universe development and how they let you gain Favours and higher tier trappings than you have coin. The two systems compete for your Endeavours.
This makes Endavours the true economic unit of TOWR, and if we want to expand on the rules in a meaningful way, that means we have to hook up to that mechanic.
Expanded rules
Lets look at how certain simple economic mechanics can be done in TOWR without houseruling too much. The goal is to adapt the rules, not replace them.
Loans and debts
The Invest Money Endeavour mentions loans sharks if you can't scrape together enough money, and how they don't like failed investment. There are no specific rules given, but the intention seems clear: If you want to invest money, a moneylender will give you the coin - but you will be in trouble if the investment doesn't pan out.
To make this clearer, let's say: When taking the Invest Money Endeavour, you may loan 1 or 2 Coin from a loan shark - you always have to supply at least one yourself for each time you take the Endeavour. If you do, the investment returns have to both pay for the high interests and pay off enough that you get whatever you wanted from it. This means we have to consider how many successes you rolled on the test during the Endeavour: If you rolled at least as many successes as the number of coin you borrowed (one or two), you manage to pay loan shark back. If you rolled more you also get the trapping you wanted. If you are working towards an asset, only successes in excess of the number of coins you borrowed are added to the Exacting test progress.
If you rolled fewer successes than the number of Coin you borrowed, you didn't manage to pay them back, and interest is accumulating at a rate you cannot hope to pay back. Debt collectors of the worst kind are sent after you. If you have a publicly accessible asset, such as a shop or workshop, of at least the same status as the Coin you owe, it is seized - you lose it, but the loan shark is off your back.
Otherwise, you may try to reason with the Loan Shark - this requires meeting with their representatives and making a Charm check. If you succeed, you now owe them a Favour that must be repaid with a successful Aid Contact Endeavour as soon as possible - a failure to do so lands you back in the same problem, and each time you reason with them the Charm check becomes 1 die more difficult.
If you can't or won't successfully reason with the loan shark, they will try to make an example of you. This could be anything from an ambush, to kidnapping to arson. GMs should check out the tables in the GM guides for how the various enemy groups respond to threats for inspiration on what a crime lord or noble moneylender might do. These attempts will continue until you've successfully taken the Lay Low Endeavour to convince them you've gotten the point - or possibly until you've made it clear that making an example of you is going to be a very expensive enterprise - though if you do that, no loan shark is likely to do business with you ever again.
Other loans
If you need money for something that isn't an investment, the easiest way to handle it is that you must ask a Contact to provide you with it for a Favour, or use the Invest Money endeavor to make the purchase anyway. If you need it right now during a campaign, the GM might possibly let you have it - against rolling the Invest Money endeavor first thing next downtime. Now, if you aren't able to do so (don't have a coin, or you're injured and have to take the Rest and Recovery Endeavour), you automatically fail to pay back the loan, with the same results as outlined above.
Trade
Thanks to Death on the Reik, trading has long been a staple in some WFRP campaigns, and considering the group can easily end up with both a Merchant and a Riverboat in TOWR, some GMs and players may want to try to have at least a little bit of that Berebeli action.
The easiest, though perhaps boring, way of doing this is with a combination of Prolonged Labours and Bank Money endeavours. Combined perhaps with Help Ally endeavours, and dice bonuses from the River Boat asset, this will make it possible to amass a fortune through river trade, with no change to the rules.
However, it is extremely abstract, and may not be very fulfilling. More enterprising players may want some more risk in their endeavours. In this case, allowing the use of the Invest Money endeavour to buy more risky cargo, and the result being starting the next adventure with a Coin of the next tier instead of a trapping, is an easy way to let players do some "all in" trading.
Describing the journeys taken, the dubious cargoes and people encountered is encouraged, groups who lean into this may want to have small "mid-downtime" cameo adventures to spice things up. But the general trade should be handled by the Endeavours.
Rewards
Some commenters on TOWR have said that they find it hard to give out minor rewards. Now, to Brass or even silver tier characters, this can usually be done by simply giving them a Coin of their tier. Gold tier characters are (suitably) less likely to be impressed by minor monetary rewards.
This can be a problem even for Brass and Silver tier characters, however, if they haven't anything to spend the money on. But introducing too many things of Brass and Silver tier that can be bought makes higher tier characters too powerful, as they get them for free.
The easiest fix here is to give Favours instead. You can exchange that favour for a coin suitable for the NPC giving it, but if you don't need money, you might still need the favour. Now, a Favour owed by a farming community three miles outside the city may not be immediately useful, but it is a lot more interresting than a Brass Coin you have no use for.
To make minor favours like this more valuable as rewards, consider making them exhangeable for Favours with certain contacts: Those farmers may not be able to do anything useful for you, but you could offer that favour to one of your contacts in exchange for a favour from them. Luitenant Danya might well have use for some strong backs to build a new barracks for her troops, and if you have your farmers do that for her, she might do something for you, possibly giving you valuable information or the like.
Greed or subsistence as PC motivators
Many old WFRP scenarios depend on the Player Characters needing money to live and therefore taking jobs that seem okay (the very first WFRP adventure, the Oldenhaller Contract, being a prime example.) or being greedy and wanting to get rich fast and therefore trying to enact various schemes (good old Mistaken Identity and the first part of Shadows over Bögenhafen for instance).
These things don't work out of the box in TOWR, as even Brass tier characters are assumed to have stable personal economies, and getting rich fast isn't just a matter of money.
Subsistence-driven campaign
If you want a subsistence-driven campaign, you should make sure all characters play Brass tier characters, as they're the only ones likely to have such problems. Then, introduce a house rule where you start with no Coin after downtime unless the Prolonged Labours endeavour was taken (it grants extra coin as normal, but those will be the only coin you get now). Furthermore, at the end of downtime but before the Coin Reset, unless you can pay at least 1 Brass coin for each endeavour you took, you immediately suffer one Festering Wound due to malnutrition.
This means that every adventure will be about getting coin, unless the players are able to make use of the Prolonged Labours endeavour to make ends meet - but they'll certainly want to use their endeavours for more exiting things, meaning they will be very receptive to rewards that give them a Brass coin or two.
I would expect the Bank Money endeavour to be used a lot in these campaigns, as saving up for a rainy day can suddenly become very important. I would possibly allow making withdrawals without taking the Bank Money endeavour again (I might possibly do that even without this rule, as it seems an unnecessary Endeavour tax).
Changing careers to Silver tier careers (they still start with no Coin, but suddenly Brass expenses to stay alive isn't a problem) will likely be the main goal of every character, and if you don't want that to happen too soon, you may have to put some limit on it. You could say it just isn't possible, but that removes the motivator, and in most campaigns of this type it is more fun if you could break out of the problems you're in. Simply saying that being Silver Tier requires 10 silver coins in the bank and having at least one Silver tier asset and one The Great and the Good Contact should be more than difficult enough. Going to Gold tier of course requires two such contacts, 10 gold coins in the bank and a gold tier asset.
Greed-driven adventures
To be honest, the "get rich fast"-adventures have never really worked for my groups. I remember getting my first group of players to go Bögenhafen due to the get-rich-fast scheme suggested in The Enemy Within being a lost cause the first time I ran it, and as an inexperienced GM, it nearly derailed the campaign. But I guess it could work for some groups, especially if money is hard to come by, such as in the subsistence-driven campaign above.
The first thing then, is to consider using the Subsistence Campaign rules above, particularly with the requirements for changing social tiers.
That will make large sums of money have a real value for the future of the character. It will also mean you can tempt them with assets and opportunities to make contacts.
But you may not have to go that far. A much easier way of doing this is to just promise them an automatic increase in social tier. (If they're Gold tier that won't work, but they shouldn't be interested in Getting Rich Fast in the first place - if this is your problem, then just don't allow Gold tier careers as starting careers.) Or to offer them Favours from very powerful people. Even just offering some Gold coins could tempt some players.
Summary
Hopefully this gives you some ideas on how to run the abstract economy of TOWR in interesting ways. Let me know your thoughts on this, and if you have any other ideas on how to get the most out of this system. For the way I lead games, it is probably the best monetary system I've encountered in a Roleplaying Game, and I'm really looking forward to leading longer campaigns with it.
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