Looking at the economic set up I have for Wyrlde and I wondered how other folks were handling the wealth and comparative impact of their Parties on their worlds — or even if they bother, lol.

I added a coin, played with the coin weights, reset the equipment tables, put in place some odd names, and the like. In the campaign laid out, they will generally hover around the same wealth as a lesser noble — and if they want to found a hamlet or village I am cool with that, or set up a keep somewhere, etc.  But they won’t likely be as wealthy (and therefore powerful in an economic sense) as a well placed Merchant or an upper Nobleman, or even a King.

The common folks (classed as Freemen) get around 18k pence a year. A pence is a copper piece, a Bit is the coin I added in with 8 of them equaling a Pence. Pence follow the 10 equals a Shilling (sp), 10 Shillings equal a Quid (gp) but five Shillings equals a Farthing (ep), and 10 Quid equals a Crown (pp). At least in about half the major cities. The other half uses Bit, Guilder, Buck, Florin, Eagle, and Sovereign. This shifts a lot of stuff down considerably, and I actually set characters up with a bit more wealth than average at start. Equipment tables were all shifted over to Pence and Shillings, and a lot of every day items are a bit or two (and “2 bits, 4, bits, 6 bits, a Pence” is a phrase used). The goal was to have a meal and a rough spot to sleep (a barn or such) for a single Pence. 

This means that players encountering a bunch of gold become extremely wealthy very quickly, and this is one of the reasons I talk about localizing official stuff a lot. For comparison, a typical Noble brings in about 1000 Crowns (pp) a year. The Imperial Tributes of each of the realms are reckoned in Crowns as well, so the Emperor is rather wealthy, despite the drain to support troops and provide maintenance and all that.

None of which is any kind of complex economics — this is just me setting things up so that they can be wealthy, but not so wealthy they could go to war with a kingdom once they get into the highest levels.  Not that I will stop them, but you know.

How much thought have others put into this weird ole query of mine?

Do you use encumbrance? If so, that is one way (at least at lower levels) to keep a party from getting too wealthy. Also, if you charge them for everyday expenses, that can start to add up. One thing one character of mine did that I liked a lot (as did the DM) was to give 100gp to a merchant/farmer/tradesman to get them set up in their own business. I set up a blacksmith, more than a few farmers, a tanner, leatherworker, etc.  When we became wealthy enough to buy a large mansion/small castle, they all moved and set their businesses up for us, so we had our own little village growing after a while. 

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Looking at the economic set up I have for Wyrlde and I wondered how other folks were handling the wealth and comparative impact of their Parties on their worlds — or even if they bother, lol.

I added a coin, played with the coin weights, reset the equipment tables, put in place some odd names, and the like. In the campaign laid out, they will generally hover around the same wealth as a lesser noble — and if they want to found a hamlet or village I am cool with that, or set up a keep somewhere, etc.  But they won’t likely be as wealthy (and therefore powerful in an economic sense) as a well placed Merchant or an upper Nobleman, or even a King.

The common folks (classed as Freemen) get around 18k pence a year. A pence is a copper piece, a Bit is the coin I added in with 8 of them equaling a Pence. Pence follow the 10 equals a Shilling (sp), 10 Shillings equal a Quid (gp) but five Shillings equals a Farthing (ep), and 10 Quid equals a Crown (pp). At least in about half the major cities. The other half uses Bit, Guilder, Buck, Florin, Eagle, and Sovereign. This shifts a lot of stuff down considerably, and I actually set characters up with a bit more wealth than average at start. Equipment tables were all shifted over to Pence and Shillings, and a lot of every day items are a bit or two (and “2 bits, 4, bits, 6 bits, a Pence” is a phrase used). The goal was to have a meal and a rough spot to sleep (a barn or such) for a single Pence. 

This means that players encountering a bunch of gold become extremely wealthy very quickly, and this is one of the reasons I talk about localizing official stuff a lot. For comparison, a typical Noble brings in about 1000 Crowns (pp) a year. The Imperial Tributes of each of the realms are reckoned in Crowns as well, so the Emperor is rather wealthy, despite the drain to support troops and provide maintenance and all that.

None of which is any kind of complex economics — this is just me setting things up so that they can be wealthy, but not so wealthy they could go to war with a kingdom once they get into the highest levels.  Not that I will stop them, but you know.

How much thought have others put into this weird ole query of mine?

 I’m not really that good at economics, but your version seems pretty simple and makes sense.

Quote from Merigold00Yahoo >>

Do you use encumbrance? If so, that is one way (at least at lower levels) to keep a party from getting too wealthy. Also, if you charge them for everyday expenses, that can start to add up. One thing one character of mine did that I liked a lot (as did the DM) was to give 100gp to a merchant/farmer/tradesman to get them set up in their own business. I set up a blacksmith, more than a few farmers, a tanner, leatherworker, etc.  When we became wealthy enough to buy a large mansion/small castle, they all moved and set their businesses up for us, so we had our own little village growing after a while. 

Two of my current games have things like that going on right now. In another thread someone complained about encumbrance and I was sorta “eh, if it makes for a good story”. I do use it, and 35 coins equals a pound here (and they are kept on strings), so even a little bit of money adds up fast.

I do expect them to try and set up villages and get some titles and then ultimately collectively say screw it tot he major powers, but that will be long after the main adventure — and it will have an impact on future ones because that’s how I roll — there are even places on the map they can hunt up and do that, lol.

I do charge for everyday expenses. Not just the “lifestyle” bit, but also odds and ends that it doesn’t cover. And of course this world has an Adventurer’s Guild, and they can charge arms and legs, lol.But I also worry that if they find a chest and it only has 300 silver pieces, are they gonna whine a lot?

I do increase the coin by their — so they will find more Crowns at higher levels — but I set things up to make all of us happy, and too rich a group of players will be a problem.

I use promissory notes, and deeds for property for larger values, and created a magical banking system so that my PCs could visit a branch in large towns/major cities where they could deposit or withdraw money, and have their account balance updated magically across all branches.

Quote from OctoberGeek >>

I use promissory notes, and deeds for property for larger values, and created a magical banking system so that my PCs could visit a branch in large towns/major cities where they could deposit or withdraw money, and have their account balance updated magically across all branches.

 
I set up two banks that hate each other, one state run, lol. So yeah, this kind of system is very useful — especially if you reference the merchant bankers of the 14th and 15th century. Or the count of monte Cristo lol

The nature of high fantasy and magic is that the protagonists are going to discover things of unimaginable consequence: ancient ruins, dragon hordes, divine artifacts, etc... By their nature, these things are intended to be larger than life. The balance comes from the cost of achieving their goals. If the players find a dozen artifacts worth a total of 1,200,000+ gold, it's probably because they are getting ready to fight a god. Like many of the richest people in the real world, their wealth isn't liquid. It's tied up in their investments, and who but other nations could even afford to liquidate them? You can't buy partial stocks in Artifacts.

In general, I don't bother considering the financial impact of players in their world. The story has an end, and if the players want their epilogue to be about running the world, then so be it. Compared to the empires of the outer planes, they are still small fries. If they are a kingdom, then their enemies are famine, plague, war, and natural disasters.

No matter what, downtime is a bigger hurdle than their coin purse. Want to assemble an army? Go for it! It'll take 18 months for recruitment, 6 months for training, and 24 months to manufacture arms and armor to your specifications. In the meantime, Vecna is busy turning entire nations into a writhing mass of undeath. If you don't save the world now, you won't be alive to see the project finished.

I gave my party some unfinished magical items that one of the player's father bankrupted himself to finance.  They had some magical properties to begin with, but need some gems inserted into them and spells cast on them to finish. They had to go to Candlekeep 3 times to get the information on what items were needed each time, then purchase the gemstones or other items, plus pay for casting the spells on their items. Very nice way to suck about 1-5K gp out of them.

Quote from Merigold00Yahoo >>

I gave my party some unfinished magical items that one of the player's father bankrupted himself to finance.  They had some magical properties to begin with, but need some gems inserted into them and spells cast on them to finish. They had to go to Candlekeep 3 times to get the information on what items were needed each time, then purchase the gemstones or other items, plus pay for casting the spells on their items. Very nice way to suck about 1-5K gp out of them.

 
get that coin!

perhaps a bit off. I like to relate things to Medieval times around 1300.

A laborer would make £2 a year or 480 pence a year. 

My players do not tend to find a lot of gold while adventuring. Most of the money they make is from selling items they find, or doing a job for gold.

I did develop a semi complex system of economics and trade.  long story short most rare or higher magic items pretty much need to be found while adventuring. 

finding more rare items are more likely in larger towns.  But I give a dice roll to see if there is a chance.  On an item that is game changing they would need roll in a range on a 1d10000 roll.  At the end of the day probably not going to happen. 

I have charts for how much it costs to stay somewhere while in town, and the price goes up the larger the town.

A party that suddenly comes into a life changing amount of could really result in a huge change of life. 

Wow! 

I originally went down that road, but it got nixed by players so I went to the “closer to now” thing. The point of reference I was told was anime, not my “old books”, lol.

I do have lots of trade goods as treasure, and I was told that at first glance I may have gone overboard on the equipment tables (which on my side have things like quality, durability, and variance in price).

I don’t really have a way to buy magic items except some potions, wands, salves, and such. Other stuff has to be custom ordered. Purchasable magic is “useful” and affordable on a day to day basis for regular folks. So I have magical plows around the cost of a tractor, lol.

I want that money to be life changing. 

I like what you did.

I mean, keep in mind the "average" PC party is exceptional, even by adventurer standards, particular as they start to move across the threshold from tier 2 to tier 3. They are the 1 in 1000 story of success against the odds. And yeah, as a few people have pointed out, their funds get plowed into materiel pretty quickly in most cases. Which is the thing to keep in mind with the concept of adventurers in general; yeah, even at low levels they might pull down a couple months worth of living expenses in one job, but those kind of jobs aren't going to crop up on a weekly basis, or even monthly, necessarily. For every one adventurer that is even just able to maintain the Comfortable lifestyle from the PHB doing classic adventurer stuff, you'll have a couple dozen who are essentially just sellswords putting on airs as they take whatever job they can get to get by.

Quote from The_Ace_of_Rogues >>

I mean, keep in mind the "average" PC party is exceptional, even by adventurer standards, particular as they start to move across the threshold from tier 2 to tier 3. They are the 1 in 1000 story of success against the odds. And yeah, as a few people have pointed out, their funds get plowed into materiel pretty quickly in most cases. Which is the thing to keep in mind with the concept of adventurers in general; yeah, even at low levels they might pull down a couple months worth of living expenses in one job, but those kind of jobs aren't going to crop up on a weekly basis, or even monthly, necessarily. For every one adventurer that is even just able to maintain the Comfortable lifestyle from the PHB doing classic adventurer stuff, you'll have a couple dozen who are essentially just sellswords putting on airs as they take whatever job they can get to get by.

 
it also doesn’t help that as they cross into the tier 2, they will have to deal with mirror rivals, lol. Recurring.

that should be good for a keeping up with the Jones’ bit of suck.

I do have a bit of a potential war brewing in the background. Hmmm. Perhaps some levies. Or, omg, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before! a Crusade!

oh, for crying out loud I need to set that up in the outline!

thank you!

I treat a cp as the equivalent of ¢10 in 1960 currency. A bear in 1960 cost about ¢30-¢40 at a bar. That falls in line with the PHB, and I just use circa 1960 prices (‘56-‘64) for things. It actually tracks pretty well for the most part. Now, adventurers end up with several thousand gp, so to drain that I have Magic Brokers, sort of pawn/consignment shops for magic. They aren’t like magic item Walmarts or anything, mostly they just sell the kinds of stuff powerful adventurers would unload and consumables. It’s a way for the PCs to purchase stuff without being able to buy anything they want, and it’s a great place for them to inquire about the kinds of stuff they do want in character so as to not ask me as DM OOC. There they can get leads on who might have what, and the brokers can act as quest givers for side quests. And every temple or church sells healing potions as a means of generating revenue for their institutions. But I also build encounters to try to kill PCs, since that’s what the baddies would try to do, so it all evens out.

I put together the breakdown below to work out bands of wealth and impact assuming somewhat standard D&D prices for things from the books. The TL;DR for me was - 10Ks of gold = minor noble/merchants, 100Ks of gold = major nobles/merchants. That being the case, I would be surprised if most parties were getting close to 100K+ gold before they hit late Tier 3 / Tier 4, at which point they're meant to be the kind of figures that shape the world so ... good?

Copper (1 - 10 copper wheels): < 0.1gp

• Household items: candle, bucket, jug, torch
• Cheap food: loaf of bread, mug of beer, bowl of broth
• Tips and tokens: tip a bratender, coins for a beggar's bowl

Silver (1 - 10 silver shields): < 1gp

• Simple goods: set of clothes, sheets, set of cutlery, tinderbox, deck of cards
• Food and shelter: meal at an inn, bottle of house wine, overnight stay, music at a barn or field
• Simple labour: dig a ditch, watch some horses, serve up a meal

Gold (1 - 10 gold crowns): < 10gp

• Tools and weapons: artisan's tools, lantern, camping gear, magical foci, axe, sword
• Entertainment and supplies, a feast out, fine bottle of wine, 2 weeks rations, week at an inn, attend a play or concert
• Skilled work: Fix a wagon, cook a meal, drive a coach, performs blessings and rites

Platinum (1 - 10 platinum thrones): < 100gp

• Fine gear and arms: chain armour, bow, musket, fencer's blade, rare books, alchemical preparation, riding horse
• Parties and luxury: feast for the table, rare vintage of wine, week's stay for entourage, private box for a performance
• Expert services: veteran bodyguard, expedition scout, scholar's research, simple magic performed, staff for an estate

Bag of gold: < 1,000gp

• Rare and fine items: enchanted blade, armoured breastplate, rifle, warhorse, chariot, cannon, basic potions, printing press, telescope
• Style and prestige: expensive jewellery, wardrobe of fine clothes, fine painting, valuable statuette, cost of an expedition
• Rare Services: summoned servitor, revive a fallen friend, powerful divination, travel by teleportation circle, troop of mercenaries, staff for a palace

Chest of gold: < 10,000gp

• Unique or extensive purchases: enchanted armour, plate armour, outfit a garrison, trained griffon, magical wands, amulets of power
• Homes and vehicles: townhouse, merchant guildhall, riverboat, longship, Watch caravan
• Grand endeavours: patron of a grand theatre or stadium. military campaign against a neighbour, voyage of exploration, travel to another plane, petition a dragon

Bag of gems: < 100,000gp

• Fabulous items or vast purchases: weapons of legend, magical staves, dragon-scale armour, transformative wonders, outfit an army
• Estates and vessels: warship, trading galley, Watch airship, temple, college, castle, country estate
• Spectacular patronage: found a settlement, golem servitor, hire an extraplanar being, wage a war, create a new trade route, bribe a guild or brotherhood

Chest of gemstones: < 1,000,000gp

• Incomparable rarities: arms blessed by the gods, foci of arcane mastery, tools of endless power
• Highest of the high: palace, fortress, arcane vessel
• Feats of legend: found a new colony, petition the gods, hire a dragon, bribe a sovereign

I've not put a colossal amount of thought into the money side of the game (something I need to work on!), currently I have level 10 PCs with over 90k gold between them, following a dragon hoard of even more which was stolen by giants.

I tend to work it that 1gp is £1, and so a pint costs about 2-3gp (I am basing this off what pints should cost, not what they do now!). I haven't delved too heavily into silver and copper but I consider 1 copper to be 1p and 1 silver to be 10p, so it sort of reflects what english currency looks like anyway!

I will be revising my prices and such in the future, making a cheat-sheet of stuff prices to keep me in line!

I actually tend to keep my players pretty poor, in D&D terms. When I ended my campaign at level 11, the wealthiest character had about 200 platinum on her, which was maybe middle class in-universe. What I did instead, however, was let them accumulate wealth in magic items and, more importantly for an intrigue game, influence. They may not have been liquid enough to buy whatever provisions they wanted, but when you're on good terms with the ruler of the city whose armory includes a sample of magical plutonium, all you need is a conversation. And who needs a keep if you've befriended a dragon who will let you crash in his lair? Who needs a vault when you have gone through a trial of worth to gain access to a magically shielded monastery known only to a trusted few?

I don't like the bookkeeping of coin and shopping, so I tend to eliminate it in my games as much as possible. $100 as a kid was a lot of money. I like to make coin in D&D feel kind of the same.

What I do is this: You cannot buy magic items.

Oh, you can get potions and the occasional scroll, but the basline is this: Gold does not equate power. 

It does wondrous things. Players invest their money in things that make sense - homes, ships, businesses, food and drink and clothes. And mundane equipment, which obviously you can buy.

Magic has an entirely different means of exchange: Story. So maybe an ancient elemental will swap you a flametongue sword for a song, or something. 

This principle isn't always received well by players. There are some who feel it takes away their 'agency'. I don't really care - those players shouldn't have too hard of a time finding other games that don't do this thing.

Quote from IamSposta >>

 A bear in 1960 cost about ¢30-¢40 at a bar. 

 I want to drink at this bar... I would soon own all the bears...

Quote from Merigold00Yahoo >>

Quote from IamSposta >>

 A bear in 1960 cost about ¢30-¢40 at a bar. 

 I want to drink at this bar... I would soon own all the bears...

 I am so glad I was not the only one who thought this, lol.

I mean, I *instantly* thought of Bunkhouse..