Using Fantasy Themed Metal Coins in Your RPG

One of the inspirations for starting Dungeon Crate was a trip to GenCon in 2015. I loved the vendor floor and was fascinated by the fantasy coins I found on the tables of Shire Post Mint and Rare ElementsFoundry. I am proud to now have both companies providing fantasy coins to subscribers of Dungeon Crate.

How Do You Use Coins in Your RPG Games?

There are many ways to use real coinage at your gaming sessions. If you’re a fan of RPG accessories, you may already use tokens or other forms of tabletop notation. Bringing in beautifully struck, genuine metal coins offers a real-world element that enhances the gaming experience.

Below is a list of how you can incorporate metal fantasy coins into your game.

1.    Use as Inspiration tokens

2.    Flip a coin to make a heads or tails decision

3.    Offer a coin as a reward for outstanding play at the end of the session

4.    Gift coins to players and Dungeon Masters

5.    Use coins to mark treasure locations on a game table map

6.    Incorporate them into an adventure as a signet for safe passage

7.    Use coins as currency in tavern games of chance

8.    Have players use real coins to represent personal treasure

Using Coins as a Representation of Character Treasure

Something that I’m experimenting with in my own D&D group is using coinage to represent a character’s personal treasure. Maybe not their entire wealth, but what they carry on them. It makes for fun gaming as the players collect and exchange coins for everything from common items to magic weapons. They can exchange coins for jewels to gain more room in their coin purses. They can also wager them at the local tavern’s game table or even lose them to the occasional pick pocket or thief.

The Dungeon Master/Game Master acts as a sort of banker, coming up with an exchange rate, coin denominations, regions on where each coin is from, and other details. This does take a bit of work if you discard the standard PP, GP, SP, EP, and CP mechanic, and use a more universal mechanic. This can be as simple as using the word “gold” to represent something like how the English use the word “pound” for their dollar. Break it down from gold to half gold, quarter gold, etc., using existing denominations on the coins and coming up with your own with coins that don’t.

Coins Become Part of the Adventure

Doling out found treasure and splitting up party treasure becomes even more fun when comparing a variety of metal coins. I find this tends to make treasure more valuable to players. And of course, collecting and spending coins is simply fun.

Incorporating coins can be a pricey venture, but there are several coin manufacturers that make a wide variety of metal coins for game-play in volume, at affordable prices. Some manufacturers create thematic coins such as Dwarf, Elf, Spartan, and Pirate themed coins. Others like Rare Elements Foundry offer highly detailed artistic coins that have versatile fantasy themes. Shire Post Mint offers licensed coinage where you can buy coins from Conan the Barbarian, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones.

Whether you’re a collector or just want to add spice to your game, I hope you have as much fun as I do using real coins. If you subscribe to Dungeon Crate, then you’ll enjoy metal coins throughout the year. I encourage you to patronize our coin vendors and check out what else they offer.

Adventurers be warned! Collecting fantasy coins is addicting.