Making a good economy in any RPG is a challenging affair. Many players have noticed how the current edition of Dungeons & Dragons has trouble providing things for characters to spend gold on.

So, what happens when you invent a new currency for an adventure that the players can spend on stuff? Well, what’s most likely to happen is that the designers don’t think through it enough. Because designing a good game economy is hard, and for an adventure, you probably don’t have the time

This is something I feel about Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus and the introduction of the soul coin.

Let’s be clear: I think soul coins are a great idea – the souls of evil beings, now used as currency. And more than a little problematic to carry around for non-evil characters.

But when I consider the adventure, they seem… a bit rare. And then the prices seem to be excessive. Though, to be fair, you probably won’t get to use them. But buying a meal at the Wandering Emporium? What’s up with that?

Assuming a group takes the Path of Devils, and don’t encounter optional content, there are 14 soul coins (total) on the main storyline. If you take the Path of Demons and slaughter everything, I guess you can get around 50?

I guess commerce doesn’t happen in Avernus!

Here’s a summary of what I found:

Purchases with Soul Coins

• Fuel an infernal machine for up to 72 hours
• Pay one to get directions from the Devilish Work Crew on the Path of Devils in Chapter 3.
• On the Path of Demons, Red Ruth sells potions for 1 or 2 soul coins, and commune for 3 soul coins
• Pay one to get a full meal at the Wandering Emporium, or 5 to 10 to get a special meal with the heroes’ feast effect. (I hope this is for the whole party!).
• At the Wandering Emporium, exchange them for 100 gp each.
• At the Wandering Emporium, spent 1 to courier an item up to 5 pounds, or 2 for up to 50 pounds.
• At the Wandering Emporium, buy larvae for 1 soul coin each.

How to Get Soul Coins

• An imp carries one soul coin in an Elturel random encounter
  
• Mad Maggie carries nine soul coins. (In the adventure-as-written, you don’t fight her).
  
• Mad Maggie does give the characters up to three soul coins.
• Raggadragga, a warlord, carries three soul coins.
• Three (optional) warlords carry 2d6 soul coins each.
• The Hellwasp nest contains 3 soul coins; the nest is only encountered if you fail to stop Lulu being abducted.
• On the Path of Devils, the fiendish work crew carry 5 soul coins that can be looted. (They are likely to attack).
• On the Path of Demons, Krull carries 2 soul coins. (The party are unlikely to fight him).
• On the Path of Demons, Torogar Steelfist carries 1 soul coins. (The party are unlikely to fight him).
• On the Path of Demons, Fetchtatter carries 6 soul coins.
• On the Path of Demons, the kenku have 6 soul coins. (The party are unlikely to fight them).
• Smiler the Defiler (a wandering encounter) has 1 soul coin.
• An abandoned lair has 3 soul coins in the Scab.
• In the Wandering Emporium, one character offers you 8 coins to assassinate the leader of the Emporium.

If you’re wondering why it’s so hard introducing new systems in an adventure, it’s because it requires a LOT more playtesting than you expect. No, more than that. Even that.

(Think of a new system/subsystem as being a board game inserted into an adventure. How much playtesting does a board game need?)

Now, how much playtesting is focusing on the nuts and bolts of your adventure?

Yeah, thought so.

Even in adventures that make more use of the system than soul coins, you probably won’t playtest them enough. I felt that was very true of Paizo’s Kingmaker adventure path. It had two new systems: City Building and Mass Battles.

City Building started off great, but then collapsed. Mass Battles showed every sign of being a late addition with little testing. (The way it didn’t integrate into City Building was a big red flag).

People do get these systems to work – but it generally requires more effort than it might initially seem.