Take questions of money and wealth.
“They had no shame!”
This was foolhardy behaviour, because all the objects in question were trash with little resale value.
Presiding over it all as games master, Aureus was bemused but also inspired.
“They never really needed this wagon,” he continues.
And sessions like that made me constantly think, what’s money actually worth to the player?
It isn’t something that’s set in stone.
There is often minimal sense that money really existswithinthe world, that it means anything to the residents.
It’s just a convenient framework for player progression - certainly, not the basis for a story.
In Roadwarden’s medieval wilderness, pretty much every coin you find has a story.
Some people barely acknowledge the world’s currency, preferring to barter for food, tools or favours.
There’s no generic “merchant” character for whom everything is worth the same.
And now you have made your mark in this world once again."
“But the culture is not something that’s shared by everyone who lives around them.
We allowed her to break a few pots as she was experimenting.
And it turned out that she was actually able to teach a few other kids how to cast spells.
It’s just something that helps us with very uninteresting, prosaic activities.
It’s just another bit of colour that makes that community unique.
“For example, having a priest caste that has guided the entire community for generations.”
There are, admittedly, traces of the usual class-based RPG magic systems in Roadwarden.
Again, many of Aureus’s ideas about magic spring from his experiences as a table-top player.
But she currently lives without any sort of fear.
She wants to follow the party even though she doesn’t know how to fight.
The same player decides to make it clear that her character doesn’t believe she did anything wrong.
She starts to influence animals.
