"Renown" matters in Fable games, because you've got to be well known for people to give you certain quests.

Which, honestly, isn't a terrible idea. I like the idea of a character having to build a reputation, and given that most quests in Fable games are completed with violence, getting XP from defeating enemies and renown from quests wasn't a bad system.

Getting gold, meanwhile, was quite odd. Defeated enemies dropping items was decided to be unrealistic at some point, which could have been a fair point if more of the enemies were monsters lacking in pockets. Given all the bandits and vaguely humanoid monsters wearing trousers, however, it seems like you should have been able to get at least some gold that way.

Instead, the player was expected to do job mini games in which they could potentially earn significantly more gold than the businesses could ever possibly earn as a result of their work.

Because realism.

One was, however, unlikely to do odd jobs for long. As mentioned, there was another way to make fat gold, and in Fable 2, it could easily make gold no object whatsoever for you.

And with that, and the mention of potions, we have reached the actual specific Fable nonsense that inspired this storyline...