Update - 07/02/2022
Hello! How was everyone's weekend? Before we begin, let's welcome our newest member: Ron! Thanks so much for joining us!
I took the weekend off and barely did any work, for which I feel terribly guilty, haha. I went out for dinner with my partner since she also needed a night out, and it was nice to walk around Madrid and enjoy the quite warm winter we're having! I also continued watching The Legend of Vox Machina, which is entertaining enough. I also did some work on Empire Undying, mostly working on the lore before I dive into the mechanics. I must admit I spent a stupid amount of time thinking about the Acavian Empire's currency, and I actually decided to go for an asymmetric (is that the right word?) currency system. We're all used to the standard 1 Gold = 10 silver = 100 Bronze, or variations thereof, but since I'm modeling quite a lot of things after the Roman Empire and they did things differently, I thought it would be cool to do so as well. So I present to you, the fascinating world of Currency!
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Currency
The Empire and all its provinces have used the same coinage for thousands of years, which makes it a common occurrence finding extremely ancient coins in the hands of beggars or nobles alike.
Aus
Aus (both singular and plural) is the basic gold monetary unit of the Empire. Most aus found nowadays have the Emperor’s effigy on one side, and Acanus’ torch on the other. Their shape is circular, with a diameter of approximately 10 cm.
1 Aus = 25 Dena = 250 Sereus
Dena
The dena (both singular and plural) is a silver coin of square shape of approximately 5 cm. On one of their sides an almost infinite number of famous noble faces can be found, but they all have an image of Theni’s ancient bay.
1 Dena = 10 Sereus
Sereus
A sereus (both singular and plural) is the least valuable of the coins circulating in the empire. Made of bronze and shaped as a circle with a hole in the middle, sereus usually have the seal of the town or city where it was minted on one side, and a prayer to Erbos, god of commerce, on the other.
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I haven't done this level of worldbuilding since I was a teenager; I suppose Across a Thousand Dead Worlds has a strong setting as well (as a matter of fact, it's rigid in some aspects, going to the extreme of influencing a lot of the game's mechanics), but the way I worked on it was completely different. Same goes for Disciples of Bone & Shadow or Seekers Beyond the Shroud; they all started from a strong setting and concept, but I didn't necessarily delineate it all clearly. In my head (and many notes) things have a clear direction and tone, but that is not completely visible in the published material. This is intentionally done this way, to give players room to create their own stories, and to see how things evolve organically. But with Empire Undying I want things to reflect the state of the world: this is an ancient place that has not changed for thousands of years, and everything in it is pretty much set in stone. This doesn't mean there isn't room for players to create their own stories; as a matter of fact, that is the focus of the game, to see you carve your own path within the cracks of a falling empire, but it does mean that the parameters and rules have been established, for thousands of years. At least, within the borders of the Empire... things are different out there.
So going back to ATDW, the pre-order page is up, I'm still working on refining the rules, thanks to playtesting feedback, and the random encounters with unique creatures are coming along nicely. I'm super excited to be able to include this because it's going to add a touch of curated content to a game that is largely randomly generated, and I think that's a good thing! Sometimes it's good to know what you'll be facing, and how to react to it (running is usually the answer). This week I'll continue working on all the stretch goals and fixing things left and right. It's really shaping up nicely!
So that's it for this week, hope you all have a great week!