On creatures giving gold...

[DoctorOctopus]

Okay, I will admit- I do think too hard about the worlds I play in. It's one of the banes of my co-writers' existences. But I have to wonder- what's the rationale for 'clicking a creature earns you gold' in-story? Are we in a sense getting paid for our interactions by the keep owners? Then where does the gold come from? Certainly not our accounts. Do we get hairs, feathers, scales, etc, from the creatures that are essentially sold for the price of 1gc? Do these creatures just randomly carry around ever-refilling caches of gold? Admittedly that might work for the dragons and gryphons, who are known for hoarding...

Speculate!

[Morgaln]

All that glitters is not gold; I wonder what could come out of a creature that you could pick up...

[PossessedFae]

All that glitters is not gold; I wonder what could come out of a creature that you could pick up...

...Ew?

It's a fairy that gives you gold. Whenever you visit a critter, s/he comes and gives you a reward. I know so; my critters told me.

[GoblinShark]

They all have a "Gold Gland" that produces a special liquid which solidifies into a piece of gold when it comes into contact with air. This gland is also what helps the animals grow, and is removed when an animal is being frozen, which explains why frozen hatchlings/eggs neither grow nor give gold.

[wolfeyedangel]

Or the gold is representative of what income the keep makes off of the various creatures and their own adventures. Selling alpaca wool, the molting from crystal wings, the fee from a Xand bear helping a village get through a harvest with enough to go through the winter after a devastating storm... Some of it would be the odds and ends of worked picked up by the young students, scrubbing out a class room for an instructor, helping Belmos in the nursery... Since these things are not played out they can be represented by other things OOCly, such as clicking. Our magi probably work a lot harder for the gold than we do. *shifty eyes*

~Wolf

[Keolah]

A Magi Did It.

[Wynterborne]

I agree with Wolf, the click is just a representative of some larger action, such as caring for a hatchling, or grooming a minicorn. Perhaps the Magi who created the keep also left behind a horde to provide a salary of sorts, to ensure the survival of those who who came to live here?

[Piney]

I think Wolf's idea was the closest I had in mind. But what about the creatures that don't have very many uses, like gryphons, krakens, and kitsunes?

And why do clicks grow creatures anyway? It'd mean that eggs and hatchlings less interacted with would grow slower or not at all. Aging doesn't work that way, creatures grow at the same rate no matter what's happening. Right? <<>>

[sammythethief]

They all have a "Gold Gland" that produces a special liquid which solidifies into a piece of gold when it comes into contact with air. This gland is also what helps the animals grow, and is removed when an animal is being frozen, which explains why frozen hatchlings/eggs neither grow nor give gold.

This.

[Aneira]

I think Wolf's idea was the closest I had in mind. But what about the creatures that don't have very many uses, like gryphons, krakens, and kitsunes?

And why do clicks grow creatures anyway? It'd mean that eggs and hatchlings less interacted with would grow slower or not at all. Aging doesn't work that way, creatures grow at the same rate no matter what's happening. Right? <<>>

You must poke a creature to get them to grown in this world. And your poke transfers maturity to them somehow.