I’m running a campaign in a desert where water and food is scarce.
Ive added a cactus juice PCs can purchase and drink during adventuring day that gives them +2 to Con Saves for exhaustion.
I still feel like water should be more expensive so do you think 1 gp is reasonable for a days worth of water for one person?
Also some of the meals I made were around 50 sp each which seems a little on the higher side. Some of the fine meals which give benefits are around 10gp. Should I drop the prices at all?
I guess what I’m asking is whether the prices seem ok. I want water to be more expensive to make Extreme Heat more prevalent, and food can’t easily be grown so does this seem reasonable?
You'll just encourage someone learning create or destroy water, unless you modify the spell. However, bear in mind that poor people exist (even if they aren't PCs), and unlike food, it's hard to save much by drinking lower quality water.
In practice, the main way to have water be a problem for PCs is not by making it expensive (at least, in locations with large populations; that individual water hole in the desert might be charging arbitrarily high rates), it's by tracking encumbrance and making sure water holes are significantly separated -- one gallon of water requires 2 waterskins (10 lb when full), forty requires a barrel (400 lb when full).
Generally speaking I’d say 1GP is extremely expensive already for simply drinkable water in any game, but my opinion of economics and currency runs to the idea that common items might be less expensive. A days worth of clean drinking water shouldn’t cost more than maybe 3 silver or probably less in your average Medieval Europe styled campaign, and drinking water in the desert shouldn’t be ridiculously expensive, unless everyone’s rolling in gold. Are people in the desert really richer than the temperate climes?
Well, based on your ideas of how food should be treated, I’d probably just double the price of meals, so a comfortable meal would be 10 SP. Note that those prices cover the full meals for 1 day. I’m not spending a lot of time thinking about this by the way, these are just some quick estimates based on a balance between my own idea and the prices as listed and then your own reasoning for availability. You might also consider lowering the amount of food available for the region, so that no one but literal royalty could afford a wealthy meal.
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I’m running a campaign in a desert where water and food is scarce.
Ive added a cactus juice PCs can purchase and drink during adventuring day that gives them +2 to Con Saves for exhaustion.
I still feel like water should be more expensive so do you think 1 gp is reasonable for a days worth of water for one person?
Also some of the meals I made were around 50 sp each which seems a little on the higher side. Some of the fine meals which give benefits are around 10gp. Should I drop the prices at all?
I guess what I’m asking is whether the prices seem ok. I want water to be more expensive to make Extreme Heat more prevalent, and food can’t easily be grown so does this seem reasonable?
You'll just encourage someone learning create or destroy water, unless you modify the spell. However, bear in mind that poor people exist (even if they aren't PCs), and unlike food, it's hard to save much by drinking lower quality water.
In practice, the main way to have water be a problem for PCs is not by making it expensive (at least, in locations with large populations; that individual water hole in the desert might be charging arbitrarily high rates), it's by tracking encumbrance and making sure water holes are significantly separated -- one gallon of water requires 2 waterskins (10 lb when full), forty requires a barrel (400 lb when full).
Generally speaking I’d say 1GP is extremely expensive already for simply drinkable water in any game, but my opinion of economics and currency runs to the idea that common items might be less expensive. A days worth of clean drinking water shouldn’t cost more than maybe 3 silver or probably less in your average Medieval Europe styled campaign, and drinking water in the desert shouldn’t be ridiculously expensive, unless everyone’s rolling in gold. Are people in the desert really richer than the temperate climes?
Not really I guess @Appellion.
Thanks for the input I think I will lower the water price by a decent amount. I think 10 or 20 silver would be good for a gallon of water.
What would you recommend for the food price. Now it seems a bit high. Should it be 2-3 sp per meal?
And does the cactus juice seem somewhat decent? I think it should be possible to live off of that for a decent amount of time?
Well, based on your ideas of how food should be treated, I’d probably just double the price of meals, so a comfortable meal would be 10 SP. Note that those prices cover the full meals for 1 day. I’m not spending a lot of time thinking about this by the way, these are just some quick estimates based on a balance between my own idea and the prices as listed and then your own reasoning for availability. You might also consider lowering the amount of food available for the region, so that no one but literal royalty could afford a wealthy meal.