So I've been thinking about the role of money in my game recently from a gameplay perspective. What role should money play in the eyes of the player? How should I manage it? Of course I could make it nontraditional and not have money at all, but I love economics too much to do that, so I mulled my thoughts a bit.

I like money in games, and not even just RPGs. However, there are some common pitfalls. One situation is that the player never makes enough money, or never acquire the means to make enough money to feel comfortable spending it, so that player hoards it. Another situation is having too much money than you know what to do with (I'm looking at you, FF8), and not having anything meaningful to spend it on. A cash flow is important, earning it, spending it, and having it.

Here's some things I'm doing in my game revolving that.

-Only 15 consumables are possible to have in the inventory at one time. This, combined with the fact that healing items must (generally) be crafted instead of bought (they can still be found) avoids the entire "buy 99 potions and call it a wrap" scenario. There are still some consumables that may be bought, but not basic healing agents. Don't worry, there are other ways to heal in the game, this doesn't make it especially difficult. This is more of a financial decision.

-Enemies don't drop shitloads of cash. Enemies DO drop money, but not enough to live on. You won't be able to make all of your purchases on cash that enemies drop, but it'll be enough to mean something.

-Cash is also acquired through chests and mostly selling loot. While there are some items that are purely loot, this isn't FFXII's Bazarr; mostly what I mean by 'loot' are items that also double as crafting items. So you have to make a decision, do you want the 500 gold for that Dragon Scale, or do you want to use it as one of the ingredients for that armor you're salivating over? You can't have both.

-Equipment can bought, or if you have the ingredients, crafted for a nominal fee. The crafted stuff is usually a step above what you can buy, but it costs you the components if you have them. Equipment is expensive enough where you will not be able to completely outfit your team every time in one shopping trip.

More or less, I want cash to be a useful tool to supplement the player's gameplay decisions on how to progress through the game. I don't want it to be a handout, but I don't want it to be rough going, either.