ECONOMY: More Costs for Gear

First, here's a chart that explains some medieval prices from some legit-looking sources:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/medievalprices.html
http://www.keesn.nl/price/en1_intro.htm
http://www.regia.org/costs.htm

I appreciate realism IF it can be made to square with rules. In a game, gameplay needs to be king. But, when things square up (as they do so nicely with the STONE enc system), I like to give a strong nod to historical flavor (dare I say accuracy?) when possible.

So, here are the makings of a fundamental game economy, grounded in real world history, but tempered by game realities.

HISTORICAL BASIC EXCHANGE RATE & COINS:

1 TROY POUND (12 ounces of mass) OF STERLING SILVER (L) =
1 SILVER SHILLING (s) = 1/20 pound sterling value = 4/5 troy ounce weight
1 SILVER PENNY or PENCE (d) = 1/240 pound sterling value

1 GOLD NOBLE COIN = 1/3 pound sterling in value = ~1/4 troy ounce weight

1 GOLD SOVEREIGN COIN = 1 pound sterling in value = 1/2 troy ounce weight

1 GOLD BAR = 800 pounds sterling in value = 400 troy ounce weight

1 QUID = 1 pound sterling in value = negligible weight (paper money)

N.B. the variation in weights for gold coins is due to differing purities. 1 pound sterling worth of nobles weighed 3/4 oz; in Sovereigns it weighed 1/2 oz.

Thus, 1 troy pound worth of silver was worth 1 pound sterling; 1 troy pound of gold sovereign coins was worth 24 pounds sterling! And actually, gold was worth more than silver, so the sovereigns often became worth 25 pounds in actual purchasing power. Gold was thus worth about 25 times more than silver.

LARGER SUMS OF MONEY:

Coins larger than a pound sterling in value were rare. There was some commemorative bullion struck but generally was not intended for popular circulation. By the 1600s, there existed coins worth 5 pounds, but they seem to have been rare. Gold bars weigh about 2 stone (a "quarter"), so that would be one way of transporting large wealth (a 400 oz gold bar weighing two stone is worth 800 pounds sterling!). As we will see shortly, 800 pounds sterling is more than the annual budget of a well-to-do baron -- it is a fantastic sum of money. Also, gems and jewelry are compact and valuable. Magic might be valuable and portable. Also, superior equipment (fine war horses, full plate mail, etc) is very expensive.

But, in general, I do not want obscene wealth to be easily portable. Players should be encouraged to sink money into what people historically did: landed holdings, retainers, donations to worthy institutions, and so on. This is because it enhances the player's investment in the game world.

ENGLISH MEDIEVAL INCOMES

Here are some English Medieval incomes to put things in perspective (annual/daily):
Laborer - L2 / 1d
Chantry Priest - L4.5 / 3d
Skilled Laborer (weaver, carpenter, thatcher, etc) - L8 / 4d
Skilled Armorer - L16 / ~1s
Man-At-Arms - L18 / 1s
Knight - L36 / 2s
Knight Banneret - L73 / 4s
Barons - L200-500 / ~L1 (N.B.: Traditional AD&D name level characters are roughly Barons)
Earls - L400-11,000 / L1-30
The Crown - L30,000 / L82

This isn't the full story, as many laborers received some food or board (payment in-kind). However, we start to get the sense of proportions. The vast majority of people would use pence for their day-to-day transactions; a commoner might make 1-4 pence every day, and one pence has the same purchasing power of about $2.50 USD today. You might spend a pence to get a cheap meal (two chickens were the Happy Meal of 1400!) or a pint of ale. A shilling was a sizable sum of money, perhaps equivalent to $30 today. And a pound would be a large sum of cash, $600 in purchasing power. So, for an adventurer to go and drop a few shillings as a tip at the pub is like slapping down a wad of twenty dollar bills at a bar today!

Note that most people had less purchasing power in 1400 then they do today; a pound is worth about $5000 using average earnings (rather than consumer price indexes for purchasing power), so that laborer making 2 pounds/year is banking about $10K. Today we would say that someone making $10K a year in England or the US is quite poor; but life sucked back then. Here's a cool calculator for getting a sense of prices: http://measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/

ENTER ARMS & ARMOR

In England in 1181, freemen having goods worth over L6.5 were required to have a mail shirt, helm, and spear (other free men substituted quilted armor for the mail shirt). By the 13th century, anyone with income over L2-5 were required to have bows. Going with the cost of mail given below, that means that either the figures below are inflated a bit, or that enforcement of the arms & armor rule was less than 100% (very likely).

STARTING MONEY

A dowry was supposed to be starting out money for a new family (among other things). It might be inherited by a son of the marriage, as well. Thus, it seems reasonable that a starting adventurer might have about as much money as a laborer's dowry. That ranges from 10-60 shillings (0.5 - 3 pounds).

What can one purchase for that sum? Likely, a shield, some poor armor (or rented high quality armor), a helm, some simple weapons, and other essentials.

What's the bottom line:
- To come close to modeling a medieval economy, Tier 0 (zero level types) folks need to make a few pennies each day. Tier 1 (level 1-4) types make 1-4 shillings/day. Tier 2 would likely be ~10 shillings/day. Tier 3 (name level) types make L1-4/day. Tier 4 (above name level; Earls) make up to L30/day. And Tier 5 (Kings of the mightiest known nations) make L100/day. A pile of 500 gold pounds is a sum equal to a Baron's annual budget! And a Dragon's hoard with thousands or tens of thousands of coins is the Crown's annual budget!
- Prices varied widely. However, if you could afford a few cows or a horse, you could likely afford a sword, too. So, high quality swords were likely a few pounds. Chain Mail was very expensive, being equal in price to a year's labor for a skilled laborer, so most soldiers just starting out had lower quality armor and would not be above either renting higher quality protection, looting the dead, or accepting service of a more powerful lord who would equip them.
- This suggests that the base unit should be a shilling. Its likely not worth tracking things in Pence, as that will just be obnoxious as all get out. For items that cost <1 style="font-weight: bold;">Here's some quotes from an above index:
CLOTHING & ARMOR:
Craftsman's Tabard & Tunic: 3 shilling
Leather or Quilted Armor: 5 shillings
Helm: 3-5 shillings
Shield: 20-30 shillings
Chain Mail: 5 pounds
Squire's Armor: 5-7 pounds
Full Plate Milanese Armor: 8 pounds/6 shillings
Renting armor for a campaign was possible; costs were high though, one could expect to pay 25% of the value of the armor for a single campaign.

WEAPONS:
Peasant's Sword: 6 pence (1/2 shilling)
Wood Axe: 6 pence (1/2 shilling)

ACCOMODATIONS:
Cottage (1 bay/2 stories): 2 pounds (or 5 shilling/year rent)
Craftsman's House (shop, work area, room for workers, 2-3 bays, tile roof): 10-15 pounds (20 shilling/year rent)
Stone Gatehouse 40' x 18': 30 pounds
Merchant's House: 33-66 pounds
House with Courtyard: 90+ pounds
Guild Hall: 136 pounds
Stone Church: 113 pounds
Tower for Castle: 333 pounds
Castle & College: 450 pounds/year for 13 years

TRAINING:
University or Monastary Education: 2L/year tuition (minimum) + 5L/year board + books
1 Book: ~1L
Month of Fencing Lessons: 10s/month

MOUNTS:
Work Horse: 10-20s
High quality riding horse: 10L
Knight's 2 Horses: 10L
War Horse: 50s - 80L

Consumables

This DF thread made me think about consumables:
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=35533

In the past, we've handled it a few ways. One method is to track everything, with laborious detail. While this can be fun in a resource-management intensive adventure, it is the anti-heroic. It is also a lot of P&P/epic bookkeeping to deal with.

The other method is to handwave it, perhaps with a few initial expenses costs and then an occasional upkeep. In fact, some of the games I've played with have featured The Spikes and Oil Club, a plane-spanning organization that allows members to draw mundane equipment such as spikes, lamp oil, and ammunition for personal use for no fee once either a life time membership fee (say, 500 GP) or a monthly membership fee (~50 GP) are paid. They conveniently open branch offices in many frontier towns and at the entrances to megadungeons. Sure, its a bit silly (and started as a joke), but it basically rationalizes upkeep.

Thus, players can opt to track everything, in which case they'll probably save some dough, or they can just pay another 50 GP (which a mid-level character can basically ignore) to just handwave the whole thing.

The problem is that trying to track everything becomes unrealistic and unfun. So, you end up just handwaving the whole thing, or engaging in a masochistic episode of papers and paychecks for an hour every session while everyone goes back to town to restock on arrows, biscuits, dried bat guano (can't forget our casters, here), and iron spikes for themselves, their henchmen, and their hirelings.

Here's the solution I propose. Reduce the granularity of the system.

Why are we tracking ammunition expenditure at the 1.6 oz level (that's 1 GP)? Its the same problem as tracking ENC at this level. Above the lowest levels (I'd daresay, before the first succesful adventure -- after even one successful dungeon dive, a character can likely afford nigh infinite spikes and oil) its absolutely meaningless and just encourages characters to carry an absurd amount of supplies.

Instead, it seems better to give a chance that an item is depleted. For example, a case of 20 quarrels might be expected to last two-three encounters or so. After all, that's about 10 solid rounds of shooting per encounter! So, in any encounter where a PC uses their crossbow, they roll a D6 at the end of the fight. If it comes up 1-2, the case is expended. If they didn't take many shots, they get a +1 bonus to the roll. Easy.

OPTIONS

If you want to increase granularity at the expense of complexity, you have a few options.
- Use a more precise die. For example, you could use a D20 and assign very exact chances that an item will be expended (Perhaps rolling equal to or under the number of shots you fired on a D20 expends the consumable).
- Use more states than "full" or "out." For example, in the above case, you could say that a result of 1-4 reduces a full quiver to "depleted" and a "depleted" quiver to "empty." This also reduces implausibility and gives players a warning before key supplies are all gone.

You can also expand it to other classes of items that deplete more slowly. Want to impose a cost for wearing heavy armor? Make them roll for depletion after every week or quest. Want to check on social status? Make a check every quest that you don't pay your living expenses. Etc etc. Just vary the time interval of the check and the replacement cost.

This system should work nicely with the quick and dirty enc system I've discussed.

Abstract Wealth

In my current crusade against Big Numbers and Obnoxious Math, I am attempting to try out a new system to replace the CP/SP/GP economy as we all know and love it. Here's a few brainstorming ideas.

ACTUAL COINS

In this system, player wealth tops out around 7-10 actual physical coins. The standard coin for each tier of play varies; starting out would be CP (pennies), then you move up to SP (nickels), and finally topping out at GP (quarters). You could retain a 1:10 ratio, so if someone gets really rich, they can swap in some pennies for nickels. Prices need to be fixed so that they fall from 1-10 coins of the appropriate tier. Each coin represents 1/3 of a stone worth of cash for ENC purposes, same as a one-handed weapon.

Just like with the stone ENC system, we sacrifice granularity for ease of use by rounding prices to their nearest chunks.

Variant: For items that cost <1>nothing, roll a die. For example, a widget might cost 1 + 50% coins. The purchases definitely spends 1 coin, then they have a 50% to spend a second one on the item. Using a D6 that lets you get down to 16% gradations. Notation for this system might look like X/Y, where X is the number of coins and Y is the number on a D6 that must be rolled to not spend a second coin (so 0/2 means that only on a 1 does the purchases spend a coin).

HISTORICAL VALUE

Here are some historical units of British currency.

• Half crown (2/6)
• Florin or two shillings (2/-)
• Shilling (1/-)
• Sixpence (6d)
• Threepence (3d) (usually pronounced "throopence", "thruppence" or similar)
• Penny (1d)
• Halfpenny (½d) (usually pronounced HAY-p'nee)

So you could measure wealth in pennies, shillings, and pounds. As much flavor as this might have, it lacks ease of base 10 conversions, which is a problem if dealing with large amounts of cash in non-granular units.

ABSTRACT WEALTH

In this system, players have a wealth score from 1-7.
- If the item you want to purchase is < is =" your"> your wealth score, you can buy it, but your score decreses by the difference between your current score and the price (so if you have wealth 3, and want to buy Cost 5 armor, then your score is reduced by 2 -- to 1).
- If your wealth score is zero, you have no funds on hand. If your wealth score is negative, you are taking out loans to pay for your expenses. The DM may not allow you to take out a loan or may impose other restrictions.
- Starting wealth is determined randomly, by rolling 1d6.

Whenever you come across significant treasure, roll 1d6. If it is equal to or greater than your wealth score, your wealth score increases by one. Particularly valuable treasure may give a bonus to the roll -- for example, a hoard of gems might be 1d6+2.

The system is roughly geometric in absolute terms. A character with wealth 7 has about 6 times more wealth than a character with wealth 6, but a character with wealth 2 is only a little richer than one with Wealth 1.

Anyone else seen any other systems that work well?

ADDENDUM

Here's a system that retains the "precision" of more complicated ones with less math/bookkeeping.

10 CP = 1 SP
10 SP = 1 GP
10 GP = 1 PP

At TIER1 of play, the primary monetary unit is the Silver Coin. So, the only wealth that the player tracks is that in SP (or perhaps GP if they manage to acquire many silver coins, but this should be rare).

If anything which is priced in Coppers is purchased, then there is a percentage chance that a silver will be expended. So, say a Tier 1 character buys an item costing 4 SP. They roll a D10 and on 1-4 they lose 1 SP. On 5-10 nothing is lost. If you want to stick to purely D6, you can round off and estimate (1 = 1-2, 2 = 3-4, 3 = 5-6... 6 = reroll) the percentages.

One would need to revise prices (downward) and treasure (downward) so that getting a coin from the current tier is a significant and useful reward. Basically, get rid of inflation.

When you go up a tier, the primary monetary unit shifts up as well. So once you hit tier 2, anything that costs CP is considered widely available "for free" (unless bought in bulk), items costing SP now have a % chance to expend a GP, and items costing GP are the standard purchase. An occasional rare item costing a PP could be saved for or purchased by a group.