For my Pulp game (WIP) 1930-1950 ish, one dollar = 1 XP.

So far so good, BUT, there's some settings where getting the dollar would be REALLY difficult:

Land of The Lost, Pellucidar, Hollow Earth, etc.

So, I'm thinking I'll need a table to determine the value of certain items among the people's of the setting and back home.
Say you kill some prehistoric beast, well, the meat might have some value among the inhabitants, but the bones/skin would have some value back in civilization.

So, to get your XP you need to transport those items back home.

Of course granting the XP WHILE in Pellucidar might be a good idea, but you don't get any buying power unless you can trader with the locals and can only buy what the locals produce.

Thoughts?

Have you played Pulp in those types of settings? How did you manage the treasure?

Is this 1930 to 1950 era inflation?  So a skilled carpenter might make 50 cents a day?  Not that it matters exactly for your question, but it does have some side effects on how to view the XP/money relation.

I had a similar problem with my (fantasy, not pulp) system.  I wanted a hint of XP from gold, not to tie it 1:1, and not to worry about small change.  So what I did was say that treasure hauls are rated in "tiers".  (Conveniently for my purposes, so are monsters and characters, but that's not required for this topic.)  In other words, maybe instead of 1 dollar = 1 XP, put a layer of indirection in there, such that X dollars at a given tier = N XP.

You can set the numbers in ways that work well for your system.  So you could even set it so that in the usual case, it collapses to work out to 1 dollar = 1 XP.  In the special cases, you decide what the criteria is.  The characters kills the prehistoric beast.  In the sense of getting famous, getting the interview, getting contacts, getting free meals, etc., it's worth about a Tier 3, say.  You know that Tier 3 is dollars/xp in some range.

It may be worth more or less depending on how you dispose of it.  Selling it local is Tier 2, but you get it right now.  Taking it back to civilization is Tier 3, you get it later.  Taking it back and spinning some elaborate con game using the  bones is worth Tier 4, but later and with some risk.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on March 21, 2023, 02:41:02 PMSo, I'm thinking I'll need a table to determine the value of certain items among the people's of the setting and back home.
Say you kill some prehistoric beast, well, the meat might have some value among the inhabitants, but the bones/skin would have some value back in civilization.

So, to get your XP you need to transport those items back home.

This looks to me like you're adding an extra, unnecessary step. Instead of assigning a dollar value to a particular task and then converting that dollar value to XP, just decide what XP value certain accomplishments should yield. That way you don't need to really worry about the absolute dollar cost of things like dinosaur bones.

Quote from: hedgehobbit on March 21, 2023, 03:07:30 PM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on March 21, 2023, 02:41:02 PMSo, I'm thinking I'll need a table to determine the value of certain items among the people's of the setting and back home.
Say you kill some prehistoric beast, well, the meat might have some value among the inhabitants, but the bones/skin would have some value back in civilization.

So, to get your XP you need to transport those items back home.

This looks to me like you're adding an extra, unnecessary step. Instead of assigning a dollar value to a particular task and then converting that dollar value to XP, just decide what XP value certain accomplishments should yield. That way you don't need to really worry about the absolute dollar cost of things like dinosaur bones.

Well that's pretty easy but then you run into the problem of how to get equipment? I mean once you get back to Kansas you need to buy more bullets, some clothes because the trip left yours shredded, etc.

So you still need a way for the PCs to make bank.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on March 21, 2023, 03:02:08 PM
Is this 1930 to 1950 era inflation?  So a skilled carpenter might make 50 cents a day?  Not that it matters exactly for your question, but it does have some side effects on how to view the XP/money relation.

I had a similar problem with my (fantasy, not pulp) system.  I wanted a hint of XP from gold, not to tie it 1:1, and not to worry about small change.  So what I did was say that treasure hauls are rated in "tiers".  (Conveniently for my purposes, so are monsters and characters, but that's not required for this topic.)  In other words, maybe instead of 1 dollar = 1 XP, put a layer of indirection in there, such that X dollars at a given tier = N XP.

You can set the numbers in ways that work well for your system.  So you could even set it so that in the usual case, it collapses to work out to 1 dollar = 1 XP.  In the special cases, you decide what the criteria is.  The characters kills the prehistoric beast.  In the sense of getting famous, getting the interview, getting contacts, getting free meals, etc., it's worth about a Tier 3, say.  You know that Tier 3 is dollars/xp in some range.

It may be worth more or less depending on how you dispose of it.  Selling it local is Tier 2, but you get it right now.  Taking it back to civilization is Tier 3, you get it later.  Taking it back and spinning some elaborate con game using the  bones is worth Tier 4, but later and with some risk.

Yes, 1930-1950 ish era inflation, I already have the prices for stuff in civilization.

That sounds like the D20Modern system, not exactly but similar.

Look at livestock and bushmeat prices. If the animal is edible that is a village feast, which would be much glory if not $, and thus able to call upon local support. And to have Glory yet call upon help is a form of expending one's majesty, so it can subtract in a simplistic abstraction.

In fact, check out a few games that have a Glory track along with a Money and XP track. Create a molar conversion unit, most likely XP. And to differentiate Glory from Money, give each a different purchase menu. So Western Goods and some Local Goods might track on the Money pricelist, however more Local Goods and especially Hireling & Village Elder Favors track on the Glory pricelist. Further you can have items and services :a) track equally on both, b) track divergently on both, c) be exclusive to one list.

So a rich Western novice hunter might have the Money but unlikely to attract the best guides, hunters, and territorial assistance due to their lack of Glory. Whereas a local hero may have much glory to rapidly draw up a posse and gain territorial assistance yet it takes more glory to part with mining town's dynamite.

Quote from: Opaopajr on March 22, 2023, 12:16:48 AM
Look at livestock and bushmeat prices. If the animal is edible that is a village feast, which would be much glory if not $, and thus able to call upon local support. And to have Glory yet call upon help is a form of expending one's majesty, so it can subtract in a simplistic abstraction.

In fact, check out a few games that have a Glory track along with a Money and XP track. Create a molar conversion unit, most likely XP. And to differentiate Glory from Money, give each a different purchase menu. So Western Goods and some Local Goods might track on the Money pricelist, however more Local Goods and especially Hireling & Village Elder Favors track on the Glory pricelist. Further you can have items and services :a) track equally on both, b) track divergently on both, c) be exclusive to one list.

So a rich Western novice hunter might have the Money but unlikely to attract the best guides, hunters, and territorial assistance due to their lack of Glory. Whereas a local hero may have much glory to rapidly draw up a posse and gain territorial assistance yet it takes more glory to part with mining town's dynamite.

That sounds good and workable, know of any game that tracks what you call Glory?

Quote from: Opaopajr on March 22, 2023, 12:16:48 AM
Look at livestock and bushmeat prices. If the animal is edible that is a village feast, which would be much glory if not $, and thus able to call upon local support. And to have Glory yet call upon help is a form of expending one's majesty, so it can subtract in a simplistic abstraction.

In fact, check out a few games that have a Glory track along with a Money and XP track. Create a molar conversion unit, most likely XP. And to differentiate Glory from Money, give each a different purchase menu. So Western Goods and some Local Goods might track on the Money pricelist, however more Local Goods and especially Hireling & Village Elder Favors track on the Glory pricelist. Further you can have items and services :a) track equally on both, b) track divergently on both, c) be exclusive to one list.

So a rich Western novice hunter might have the Money but unlikely to attract the best guides, hunters, and territorial assistance due to their lack of Glory. Whereas a local hero may have much glory to rapidly draw up a posse and gain territorial assistance yet it takes more glory to part with mining town's dynamite.

I think I'd like to take a look at some of these Glory systems.  What games have them?

Quote from: Mishihari on March 22, 2023, 02:19:22 AM
I think I'd like to take a look at some of these Glory systems.  What games have them?

Werewolf the Apocalypse had a renown system that awards points for positive behaviors and allows a PC to grow in reputation or rank within the pack.

Quote from: JackFS4 on March 22, 2023, 10:32:16 AM

Quote from: Mishihari on March 22, 2023, 02:19:22 AM
I think I'd like to take a look at some of these Glory systems.  What games have them?

Werewolf the Apocalypse had a renown system that awards points for positive behaviors and allows a PC to grow in reputation or rank within the pack.

Yup, and Vampire has Prestation (Vampire renown & favors). L5R has Glory tracked along with Honor. Fasing Suns if I can recall. There's some variant somewhere I came across in the AD&D 2e and D&D 3e splat library (IIRC Masque of Red Death Ravenloft, and L5R d20, though I am sure there's more).

There's a lot of examples out there. But instead of fretting system conversion why not Keep It Super Simple and just register it as a linear "dollar & cents" base-ten decimal accounting?  That way the Money $ and Glory are easily accounted similarly and thus purchasing menus are easy to adjust between them. It'd save a lot of translation time.

Glory, like Money, becomes a spur to adventure, especially since you are attaching it to XP. An adventure may not have any treasure involved but if the experience enhances respect it can be equally worthwhile!

I once used 1 XP = one (unskilled) day's work, or the cost of maintenance (food+shelter) for one day, which might apply to any setting.

Nowadays, I just use milestones.