dumb ideas about banks

Reyl

I was going through the gmcp stuff we get sent to us and noticed the bank balance field, I was about to incorporate it into my little system until I realised banks aren't really good for anything lmao. Partly because of the 2% withdrawal fee, but also because the only advantage to them is protection against theft, which is (thankfully) rare enough that you would most likely lose much more gold to bank fees than you would save.

Whenever something is in the game but useless I get sad, so it would be really nice if maybe one day they could give banks a little more usefulness? Perhaps certain expenses could be drawn from a bank account? The only thing that I can think of maybe being appropriate is beast stabling fees, but there might be other things too? 

Perhaps we could add the ability to deposit into other player's accounts rather than handing/mailing them gold? This might be preferable to sending gold in letters (which can be mixed up, or lost, or go unnoticed)? And exchanging "letters of promise" etc seems to be somewhat of a staple of fantasy banking so I don't think it would be out of place, in fact for me at least it would add to immersion. 

Other than that, my train of thought gets a little more far fetched... like imagining a world where the commodities market was global and we could place buy/sell orders, hehe (it would only be fair to require a merchant's ledger artifact). On a more serious note the credit market could be switched to a buy/sell order system, thereby evening the playing field with those people who have triggers to buy every cheap credit the minute it is advertised for sale... 

Maybe shops that were physically within a city could deposit profits directly into shopkeeper's account? Or maybe shopping within a city where you had a bank account would allow you to pay with letters of credit? Either of these would add convenience compared to aethershops and maybe make the city markets a little livelier. Maybe cities could even offer loans (with the limit based on cityrank) which would help less wealthy characters make important purchases? And maybe once all these transactions were taking place they could somehow contribute to the city itself, ie via fees perhaps, or if some kind of "commerce" score was derived from the volume of transactions?

I know all this is pretty silly but it's fun to think about, anyone else have any ideas as to how we can make banks not a total waste of time and resources?

Iasmos

Yes to depositing into others' accounts. Yes to paying stable fees from the bank.

No to loans. How do you recover what was loaned when they refuse to pay?

Reyl

I'm pretty sure in Magnagora it would involve a lot of unpleasantness and exile as a bare minimum. But no, if they just stop playing then the gold is gone. I was thinking of pretty small amounts by most people's standards, though - enough for a full set of gear for a novice/new combatant, perhaps a mount at most - not enough to buy credits to trans skills or buy artifacts or anything.

Daraius

Debit cards! (Which would allow payment at shops directly from bank account. Never carry gold again! Optional new identity theft mechanic?)

Reyl

Why stop at debit cards, just transfer the gold with your Hallifaxian crystal ipads lmao

Iasmos

If you want to shop in a city using your bank credit, you should transfer your money from your home bank to that city's bank, for a modest transaction fee.

Reyl

Rather than replicating all the conveniences of 21st century life, however, I was thinking more along the lines of enabling Renaissance-era banking-related storylines and intrigue lol. Merchant princes/princesses rising high in the world of commodities trading, short selling steel only to have their supply cut off by the loss of Angkrag to an enemy org, that kind of thing hehe. Idk if it's medieval-fatigue but I have always loved fantasy set in a medieval world that is in the process of modernising, exploring the origins of things like banking, or international trade, or industrialisation, or whatever. Fairly niche compared to swords-and-sorcery, I know :P

Mainly it would just be fun RP to make large purchases via bank - the truly rich don't dirty their hands counting out base currency! It really feels very silly to have a stylish purse bulging with a few million imaginary gold pieces. When paying tradespeople I'd rather imagine Reyl elegantly producing a quill to sign a promise note than dumping a few tonnes of gold on them.

Munsia

I wouldn't mind a 1% bank interest or something like another game or two has.

Arimisia

first and foremost ew ew ew NO to gold the shop earns going straight to the bank. I do not use the bank for a reason, I bought a safe for the reason that is does not take my gold from me and is just as secure, I am not paying the bank to hold my gold when I can do it myself. As for my beast, I do not pay stable fees so that is no an issue. My shop is basically the only thing I pay yearly in game and I rarely if ever let that build up.

As for the line of credit, not a terrible idea but you are going to have to make the shop owner eat the cost if the player does not pay it back thus do you need to let the shop owner decide it they want to take that gamble or not. maybe a simple policy on weather or not they will accept credit and up to how much?

Reyl

oh in terms of credit between players/player shops I more meant 'credit' as a fantasy handwave for an instantaneous transfer, like the predecessor to a cheque - Person A notifies their bank that they owe some gold to person B, the bank deducts it, and adds the amount to the account of person B. It's only really an RP difference from handing over the miraculously compact and weightless gold sovereigns, only the added bonus is that it would allow transactions to be associated with cities - like, it would be possible for Glomdoring to know that more gold in total was coming in from its citizen's deals with Hallifax than Magnagora, potentially influencing diplomatic decisions.

Lavinya

I would use a bank account if it did something other than charge me to access my own money, without offering a single incentive. Gold doesn't decay, and theft is almost completely unheard of, so there is literally no reason to have a personal bank account.

I would use one if I could pay all my bills from it without cost (stable fees, shop fees, unenemying fines, shop purchases etc), if we could deposit directly to player accounts (this would be incredibly handy for orgs paying out rewards etc), and if there was a small annual interest, or at least a complete removal of the charge to withdraw.

Daganev

I really like the idea of putting buy orders for credits from banks.