I want to start a thread to discuss how to gauge the value of coinage in a game.
Now, I am aware of the exchange rates, living expenses, and value of items based on the listing in the different source books. That is not what I want to discuss.
My focus is how your game(s) equate(s) these values to the world that your campaign resides in. The objective is to establish some baselines for the value of a coin and how different class systems value it. Consider things like negotiations, bidding on jobs, bribing, and evaluating the worth of items. I am struggling to grasp proper value for products and services from an NPC; and I think the game is not clear in defining (I admit, I could be wrong) a way to gauge how value of an opportunity in the game.
The game will use the gold piece (GP) as the basis for value of products. But consider the following:
1) The interactions of how an NPC's lifestyle will influence the type of coinage they may come across 2) The separation of classes in the game will result in characters having a skewed or margined interpretation of the value of coin 3) The price of items reflects the availability and frequency of purchase.
I sometimes think as adventurers we lose focus on these things. For example: take a job offer for 100GP that is counter with a request for 250GP. I feel that is crazy. But I could be wrong.
So what is the proper range? Watching movies based in different eras and filmed at different times one sees a wide range of interpretation of value. It is not a simple scale and cannot be simply explained as a result of inflation. There many factors to consider and this does matter because it sets a precedent in the game. BUT....there isn't a wrong answer. It is to understand how the community can interpret value and work to make a game more balanced.
So, is one additional GP a deal breaker? How much does silver pieces influence a character's life? Should a character dealing with copper pieces all day consider an electrum piece a godsend; or maybe an opportunity to pay off their debts? Do nobles just not care? I am not looking for a solution here; looking for opinions and theories; and how you like to play the game. Feel free to discuss and thank you.
1 Copper Piece in D&D is roughly equivalent to $1 USD at its current value. The pricing on some items gets wonky, but this is a decent baseline for things that either don't have official prices, or the prices aren't at hand when needed. Weird pricing in the game can be explained as there being higher or lower availability or demand for the items in the setting. In the D&D world, diamonds have innate value because they're expended components for some really important spells, whereas their value in the real world is largely the result of marketing and artificial scarcity created by the suppliers who limit how much they release.
Most Commoners would rarely if ever deal with gold coins. If you order a meal worth 5 copper and pay with a gold piece, telling them to keep the change... you just tipped the equivalent of $95 USD for a $5 USD meal. That'll definitely change that character's near future. Keep in mind, Adventurers are a rare breed, and are by far the exception in that thousands of gold in both coinage and magic items pass through their hands.
So 100gp payment is roughly equivalent to $10,000. That's a hefty sum. So if the party are offered that and they ask for more than double that, the potential employer may take significant offense to that, or pretend to if the initial offer was intentionally a low-ball offer relative to the danger involved.
Villagers would likely have to pool their resources to get a reward high enough to get their attention, and that reward would likely be a rough chest filled with copper and silver coins, and probably a few heirlooms of monetary value, for up to a few dozen gold in total value for exceptionally dire requests (such as rescuing the village's children from a monstrous race before they're either killed or sold off to never be seen again).
A Knight or lesser noble would have larger coffers to pay adventurers, potentially up to a couple-hundred gold depending on the task.
Monarchs or other individuals with further-reaching influence and aspirations (like well-established wizards or former adventurers) may give the party quests with greater risks and rewards.
I think most of the party's wealth accumulation will be from the treasures they acquire on their adventures, be it from dragon hoards, enemy adventurers, evil wizards, etc.
I hope this answers your question, or at least gives you some ideas.
Regarding adventurers, even among them the type who can keep a couple hundred gold on hand are pretty rare. Most adventurers will be tier 1 types who would be out of their league going up against things like giants, dragons, and fiends. A party of PC's will typically end up being the equivalent of major leaguers, while the vast majority of people who go into adventuring stay in the bush leagues. Or die horrible deaths because they don't have a DM curating their encounters to ensure they're at least survivable.
Handling money in D&D is definitely something DM's can easily have run away from them; a basic ale at a regular tavern shouldn't be more than a few copper pieces, so dropping a few gold on something is a big deal at that kind of level among common folk.
Items costing several gold are a big deal; a potion of healing at 50 gold is like 10 week's wages in a pretty good job. These are specialist items that are not easy (or cheap) to make, which is why not everyone you encounter will be loaded up with infinite bottled hit-points, and why it's still possible for people to die from injuries.
When an adventurer finds a rare magic item in a dungeon, that's a big deal, because that's something worth 500-5,000 gold. If a copper piece is roughly $1 USD, then you've just found a $50-500k USD item; ambitious/unscrupulous people will want to try and steal it, most shopkeepers won't be able to buy it (or know what to do with it even if they could) and so-on. These are things you trade to someone extremely wealthy so you can save up to build a castle.
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If you want real world equivalents then your going to have a hard time of it.
For several thousand years the cost of basic items was fully controlled by the king. No mater what a gold coin was worth or what a commoner earned a day. You see this today in dictatorships and communist nations.
Two hundred years ago a hand made mens suit cost about one once of gold. Its just about the same today.
Commoners earn coppers, merchants and low nobles earn silvers and upper class merchants and high ranked nobles earn gold. A day. Kings earn those platinum. Each level in the economic stratum pays the one above it for goods and services.
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I want to start a thread to discuss how to gauge the value of coinage in a game.
Now, I am aware of the exchange rates, living expenses, and value of items based on the listing in the different source books. That is not what I want to discuss.
My focus is how your game(s) equate(s) these values to the world that your campaign resides in. The objective is to establish some baselines for the value of a coin and how different class systems value it. Consider things like negotiations, bidding on jobs, bribing, and evaluating the worth of items. I am struggling to grasp proper value for products and services from an NPC; and I think the game is not clear in defining (I admit, I could be wrong) a way to gauge how value of an opportunity in the game.
The game will use the gold piece (GP) as the basis for value of products. But consider the following:
1) The interactions of how an NPC's lifestyle will influence the type of coinage they may come across
2) The separation of classes in the game will result in characters having a skewed or margined interpretation of the value of coin
3) The price of items reflects the availability and frequency of purchase.
I sometimes think as adventurers we lose focus on these things. For example: take a job offer for 100GP that is counter with a request for 250GP. I feel that is crazy. But I could be wrong.
So what is the proper range? Watching movies based in different eras and filmed at different times one sees a wide range of interpretation of value. It is not a simple scale and cannot be simply explained as a result of inflation. There many factors to consider and this does matter because it sets a precedent in the game. BUT....there isn't a wrong answer. It is to understand how the community can interpret value and work to make a game more balanced.
So, is one additional GP a deal breaker? How much does silver pieces influence a character's life? Should a character dealing with copper pieces all day consider an electrum piece a godsend; or maybe an opportunity to pay off their debts? Do nobles just not care? I am not looking for a solution here; looking for opinions and theories; and how you like to play the game. Feel free to discuss and thank you.
1 Copper Piece in D&D is roughly equivalent to $1 USD at its current value. The pricing on some items gets wonky, but this is a decent baseline for things that either don't have official prices, or the prices aren't at hand when needed. Weird pricing in the game can be explained as there being higher or lower availability or demand for the items in the setting. In the D&D world, diamonds have innate value because they're expended components for some really important spells, whereas their value in the real world is largely the result of marketing and artificial scarcity created by the suppliers who limit how much they release.
Most Commoners would rarely if ever deal with gold coins. If you order a meal worth 5 copper and pay with a gold piece, telling them to keep the change... you just tipped the equivalent of $95 USD for a $5 USD meal. That'll definitely change that character's near future. Keep in mind, Adventurers are a rare breed, and are by far the exception in that thousands of gold in both coinage and magic items pass through their hands.
So 100gp payment is roughly equivalent to $10,000. That's a hefty sum. So if the party are offered that and they ask for more than double that, the potential employer may take significant offense to that, or pretend to if the initial offer was intentionally a low-ball offer relative to the danger involved.
Villagers would likely have to pool their resources to get a reward high enough to get their attention, and that reward would likely be a rough chest filled with copper and silver coins, and probably a few heirlooms of monetary value, for up to a few dozen gold in total value for exceptionally dire requests (such as rescuing the village's children from a monstrous race before they're either killed or sold off to never be seen again).
A Knight or lesser noble would have larger coffers to pay adventurers, potentially up to a couple-hundred gold depending on the task.
Monarchs or other individuals with further-reaching influence and aspirations (like well-established wizards or former adventurers) may give the party quests with greater risks and rewards.
I think most of the party's wealth accumulation will be from the treasures they acquire on their adventures, be it from dragon hoards, enemy adventurers, evil wizards, etc.
I hope this answers your question, or at least gives you some ideas.
Regarding adventurers, even among them the type who can keep a couple hundred gold on hand are pretty rare. Most adventurers will be tier 1 types who would be out of their league going up against things like giants, dragons, and fiends. A party of PC's will typically end up being the equivalent of major leaguers, while the vast majority of people who go into adventuring stay in the bush leagues. Or die horrible deaths because they don't have a DM curating their encounters to ensure they're at least survivable.
I tend to consider that 1 silver is £1, so 1 gold is £10, and 1 copper is 10p.
I have been prone to vastly overprice things in the world, so I have to reign it in and print myself off a cheat-sheet!
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Handling money in D&D is definitely something DM's can easily have run away from them; a basic ale at a regular tavern shouldn't be more than a few copper pieces, so dropping a few gold on something is a big deal at that kind of level among common folk.
Items costing several gold are a big deal; a potion of healing at 50 gold is like 10 week's wages in a pretty good job. These are specialist items that are not easy (or cheap) to make, which is why not everyone you encounter will be loaded up with infinite bottled hit-points, and why it's still possible for people to die from injuries.
When an adventurer finds a rare magic item in a dungeon, that's a big deal, because that's something worth 500-5,000 gold. If a copper piece is roughly $1 USD, then you've just found a $50-500k USD item; ambitious/unscrupulous people will want to try and steal it, most shopkeepers won't be able to buy it (or know what to do with it even if they could) and so-on. These are things you trade to someone extremely wealthy so you can save up to build a castle.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
If you want real world equivalents then your going to have a hard time of it.
For several thousand years the cost of basic items was fully controlled by the king. No mater what a gold coin was worth or what a commoner earned a day. You see this today in dictatorships and communist nations.
Two hundred years ago a hand made mens suit cost about one once of gold. Its just about the same today.
Commoners earn coppers, merchants and low nobles earn silvers and upper class merchants and high ranked nobles earn gold. A day. Kings earn those platinum.
Each level in the economic stratum pays the one above it for goods and services.