I'm writing a tabletop RPG called DRAKE and I'm willing to replacing coin counting with an abstract Wealth score. Coins still exist as an alternative, but this is the "loose" option i am likely to migrate to.

I'd love critical feedback: Is it intuitive? Where does it break? Can you exploit it?

Wealth

In DRAKE, money isn't counted in coins but as Wealth, a number from 0 to 12. Your character sheet has twelve boxes, and your Wealth is the number of boxes filled in. Wealth 0 means broke. As a rule of thumb, each point of Wealth means roughly twice as much fortune as the one below.

Every two points of Wealth form a Standing, which describes how you live.

Wealth	Standing	Settled	On the road
0	Broke	You have nothing left and live off what others give you.	You have only what you carry on your body.
1–2	Destitute	No roof, you live off alms and opportunities.	A few coins, you eat what you find.
3–4	Hard-up	A small room, simple work, every meal is counted.	The bare essentials for adventuring, you usually sleep on straw or under the open sky.
5–6	Comfortable	Your own home, a trade, enough for daily life.	Decent gear, a bed at the inn is a given.
7–8	Well-off	A house with servants, savings, reputation.	Your own mount, good gear, you can buy favors.
9–10	Rich	Several houses or a business that runs without you.	You travel with an entourage, your own wagon or ship.
11–12	Immeasurable	Lands whose inhabitants owe you taxes.	You travel like a royal court, wherever you arrive, people make room.

Income and Expenses. Anything that increases your Wealth is Income: wages, pay, loot, sale proceeds. Anything that decreases it is an Expense: purchases, wages you pay, shares you give away. Income fills in boxes, Expenses erase them.

Value. Every item, service and Income has a Value on the same scale as your Wealth. Nothing has Value 0, the cheapest things have Value 1. Something with Value 7 costs a person with Wealth 7 their entire fortune. If you can afford something casually, your Wealth is 4 higher than its Value. The tables in this chapter are guidelines, so that anything can be roughly sorted in. What Value something has is ultimately up to the GM.

Starting Wealth. A new character starts with Wealth 3 and the bare essentials for adventuring, unless their backstory says otherwise.

Expenses

What an Expense costs depends only on the gap between its Value and your Wealth. However, an Expense can never cost more Wealth than its Value.

Value of the Expense	Cost
Above your Wealth	not possible alone
Equal to your Wealth	everything, you're broke
1 below	3 Wealth
2 below	2 Wealth
3 below	1 Wealth
4 or more below	not noticeable

Example. Bors has Wealth 2. A club (Value 1) would cost him 3 according to the table. Since the club only has Value 1, it can cost him at most 1. Bors pays 1 and has Wealth 1 afterwards.

Example. Rhea has Wealth 7, her Standing is Well-off. Plate armor (Value 7) would cost her everything. Chain mail (Value 6) costs her 3 Wealth, leaving her with 4. A luxurious room (Value 4) costs her 1, a meal (Value 1) isn't noticeable.

Large quantities. Things that aren't noticeable individually (Value 4 or more below your Wealth) usually stay free. Only when you buy a conspicuously large amount does it cost 1 Wealth in total. How much counts as "a lot" depends on the gap. When in doubt, the GM decides.

Value below your Wealth	1 Wealth is only charged for	Example
4 to 6	supplies for a journey or a group	Bors (Wealth 5) buys torches (Value 1) for his whole group and their companions
7 to 9	a hall full of people	someone rich (Wealth 9) buys the whole tavern a round of beer (Value 1)
10 or more	an entire settlement	someone immeasurably rich (Wealth 12) feeds a village at the harvest festival

Multiple purchases. If you buy several things at once, you pay for each one separately, always from most expensive to cheapest. Every purchase lowers your Wealth, so the next one costs correspondingly more. Rhea (Wealth 9) buys something with Value 7 and something with Value 5. The expensive one costs her 2, leaving her at 7. The cheaper one then costs her another 2, and she ends at 5. Anything that wouldn't be noticeable on its own is handled by the quantity rule.

Splitting. If you split your Wealth with someone, you divide it into two halves, each with a Value 1 lower. Rhea (Wealth 7) gives half to Bors. She now has 6, and Bors receives an Income with Value 6. Each half can be split again. The same applies to Income that several people receive: tomb loot with Value 7 becomes two shares of Value 6 or four shares of Value 5, or 6, 5 and 5 for three people. Value 1 can't be split further.

Shared purse. What no one can afford alone, the group can pay for together. Whoever contributes puts their entire Wealth into a shared purse, for which they count as an Income of that Value (see Income). Two characters with equal Wealth make 1 more, four make 2 more. The purse pays like a character, and whatever remains can be split again. Four characters with Wealth 5 pool to 7. If they buy something with Value 7, they're all broke. If they buy a pack horse (Value 6), it costs the purse 3, leaving it at 4, which is split into four shares of Value 2.

Income

What Income gets you depends on where your Wealth stands compared to its Value.

Your Wealth	Result
Below the Value	your Wealth rises to the Value
Equal to the Value	1 more
Above the Value	not noticeable

Example. Bors (Wealth 3) completes a regular job with Value 6 and has Wealth 6 afterwards. The next job of this kind raises him to 7. A third one gets him nothing, he has outgrown that kind of work. If he finds loot from a tomb (Value 8), he rises to 8.

Selling. A sale is an Income with the Value of the item. Bors sells captured plate armor (Value 7) and rises to 7 if he's below that. Buying and reselling never makes a profit: Rhea (Wealth 7) buys chain mail (Value 6) and drops to 4. If she sells it again, she rises to 6, one point below where she started.

Multiple items. If you sell several items together, you combine their Value into a single Income just like with the shared purse, as long as it makes sense to offer them together. Two items of equal Value make 1 more, four make 2 more, eight make 3 more. Unequal Values are combined step by step. Bors sells two captured basic weapons (Value 3), that's an Income with Value 4. If he adds leather armor (Value 4), it becomes Value 5.

Relics are valued by their power. They can be bought and sold, but they're rarely found in a shop. Anyone looking for one, or for a buyer, needs contacts or an adventure.

Value	Income examples
1	alms, a tip
2	a day's wage, an errand, a small favor
3–4	a small job, loot from a highwayman
5–6	a regular job, loot from a hideout
7–8	a dangerous job, loot from a tomb
9–10	a treasure find, ransom, a bounty on a leader
11–12	a royal reward
Above 12	a dragon's hoard

Wages and Hiring

Wages are an Expense or Income that repeats at the end of each job period. Every hired person has a wage Value, as listed in the table below.

Whoever hires someone has an Expense of that wage Value at the end of each job period. Multiple hirelings count as separate Expenses. Rhea (Wealth 7) hires a mercenary (wage 4) and pays 1 per job period for it. A bodyguard (wage 5) costs her 2 per job period, a porter (wage 2) doesn't register in her Wealth.

Whoever works for wages receives an Income of their wage Value at the end of each job period. Bors (Wealth 3) serves as a mercenary (wage 4). After the first job period he has Wealth 4, after the second 5, after that his wages get him nothing more. Living off wages gets you at most one point above them.

Wage Value	Hirelings
2	farmhand, porter, messenger
3	guard, militia soldier, guide
4	mercenary, journeyman, scout
5	veteran, bodyguard, master craftsman
6	captain, mage
7	warlord, court mage

Edge cases

Broke. Your Wealth never drops below 0. With Wealth 0 you can't buy anything, since every Expense costs more than you have. You live off alms and favors until an Income lifts you up again.

Rock bottom. With Wealth 1, even a meal (Value 1) costs everything. You buy it and are broke afterwards.

The top. Your Wealth never rises above 12. An Income with a higher Value brings you to 12. Anything worth more than 12, like a castle, can only be obtained through a shared purse or as the goal of an adventure.

Coins and Wealth

DRAKE has two systems for money: coins, which are counted exactly, and Wealth, as described in this chapter. The group decides at the start of the campaign which one to use. Any equipment list with coin prices can be translated into Values using this table. Use the first row whose limit the price doesn't exceed.

Value	Price up to about
1	20 coins
2	40 coins
3	80 coins
4	150 coins
5	300 coins
6	600 coins
7	1,200 coins
8	2,500 coins
9	5,000 coins
10	10,000 coins
11	20,000 coins
12	40,000 coins
Above 12	more

Plate armor for 1,200 coins thus has Value 7. If a group switches systems, it converts its characters' fortunes into Wealth using the same table.

Value list

The entries are guidelines. Anything not on the list is sorted in by the GM using the Value rule or the coin table.

Value	Food, lodging, travel	Gear	Weapons and armor	Magic	Animals and property
1	meal, beer, simple room, passage on a wagon	torch, candle, rope, blanket, waterskin	club, sling	aether light for one night, fortune-telling at the market, reagents. A relic that only becomes useful with creativity.	chicken
2	a day with good food and a bed	backpack, lantern	dagger, spear, sturdy clothing		goat
3	a week of rations		basic weapons, gambeson	a relic of insignificant power	pig
4	fine cuisine, luxurious room, passage on an airship	work clothes, simple tools	leather armor	magical identification
5	a month at an inn	craftsman's tools	superior weapons, studded leather	simple alchemy like healing potions, a simple catalyst for a ritual	donkey, cart
6		luxurious clothing, alchemist's kit	chain mail, minor magical items	a relic that's desirable in specific situations	pack horse
7			masterwork weapons, plate armor, scale armor, magical weapons and armor	complex alchemy, an anchor focus like a rune blade or aether staff, having a curse broken	riding horse, covered wagon
8		a fully equipped workshop		an aether core as a catalyst, commissioning a magic trap. A relic that's desirable in many situations.
9	a month of luxury				warhorse
10	your own kitchen with staff	library, laboratory	powerful magical weapons and armor	a master focus, a permanent enchantment on a building such as a ward line, a ritual by a court mage	townhouse
11			legendary weapons and armor	a relic the wrong people would kill for	ship
12	a royal household		equipment for an entire troop	an aether core for an airship	estate
Above 12		academy, temple construction		a ritual affecting an entire island. A relic that can tip the balance of the world for a moment.	airship, castle, dominion

What I'd especially like feedback on:

• Is the expense ladder (everything / 3 / 2 / 1 / not noticeable) intuitive at the table?
• Do you see exploits, especially with splitting, shared purses or selling?
• Is starting at Wealth 3 too harsh?
• Would you use this over counting coins? Why or why not?

Thanks in advande!

P.S.: translated via AI