D&D 5E [Homebrew] For an easy realistic economy, what gp conversion rates do you prefer?

[Yaarel]

A realistic economy for D&D is easy.

Forget mimicking medieval economies. Forget the nonsense magic item prices. Just use todays prices. Have an item, just Google it.

Say, 1 D&D gold piece ≈ $10 USD

You can buy a reallife full plate armor for roughly $3000.

Therefore it costs 300 gp.




Modern prices diverge sharply from medieval prices for certain items. But so what? We use technology to produce these items, D&D uses magic to produce these items. Assume casting a spell like Fabricate impacts the prices in the D&D economy.

Most important of all, it becomes transparent how much a magic item would cost. If there is a hi-tech item that resembles the magic item, then you already know how much the magic item costs. If there is nothing to compare too, well, how much reallife money would you pay to have an item like that? Now you know how much it costs.

Personally, I dont allow merchandizing magic items. Because magic. They can only be given or received to further their magical purpose when created. But, it is still useful to estimate the value of what one does.



The value of a consistent D&D economy, within which a DM can consistently adjudicate prices on the fly, is priceless.

This thread is part of an other thread, that seeks to use todays reallife prices, in dollars USD, for the D&D economy. Using reallife prices helps the DM get a feel for how much the money is worth to adjudicate various prices that show up randomly during the game, from hiring workers to build a house to buying a meal at the pub.

(Currently, the British Pound Sterling, as well as the Euro, is worth roughly 75% of a US Dollar. It is ok to round up to 100%, so if you as the DM are more comfortable thinking in pounds or euros, substitute that wherever you see dollar. It is close enough, and will function the same as you assign prices for your game economy.)

Because one can adjust the size of each coin, it is even possible to make the amount of metal exactly equal to a dollar value. But the point is simplification, so which round numbers are most helpful when guesstimating prices?

This poll is for D&D players who want to refer todays prices.



For simpler economy, where items and services in the game have todays reallife prices, ...

What conversion rates for the standard gold piece coin do you prefer?

(You can choose one or more systems that you feel comfortable with.)



• gold piece = $100 ... silver piece = $1
... electrum = $10 ... platinum = $1000 ... copper = 10¢

• gold piece = $100 ... silver piece = $1
... platinum = $10,000 ... copper = 1¢

• gold piece = $100 ... silver piece = $10
... platinum = $1000 ... copper = $1

• gold piece = $10 ... silver piece = $1
... platinum = $100 ... copper = 10¢

• gold piece = $20 ... silver piece = $1
... electrum = $10 ... platinum = $100 ... copper = 10¢

• gold piece = $50 ... silver piece = $1
... electrum = $10 ... platinum = $100 ... copper = 10¢

• I am interested in reallife prices, but have a different coin system in mind.

 

[Shiroiken]

Lemon Curry. I see no need to try and model modern costs to a fantasy medieval Europe.

However, based on my research during 1E, the gp was much closer to $20. Coins were not on the metric system back then, being based on general relative value of the metals during medieval Europe. According to Troll Lord Games, using the d20 metric system of coinage with Gygax's original intent, 25 gp is about $500, which backs up my original assumption (1gp = $20). If you want to use such a simpler system, I'd highly recommend that.

 

[Yaarel]

This thread is an extension of an other thread that seeks to simplify the D&D economy, with realistic consistency, and make it more intuitive for DMs to adjudicate prices that come up.

This vote thread is for players who want a simpler, more intuitive, economy.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

To me, silver is interchangeable with dollar, for etymological reasons.

Likewise, there are always one hundred cents in each dollar. Pennies are made of copper.

The only real question is how gold relates to silver. From what I recall, the historical trade rate has been much closer to 20:1 than 10:1. There's also a well-known gold coin - the golden double-eagle - which compares well against the standard silver dollar (although gold coins have also come in other denominations, of course). But then, it's not very satisfying from a metric perspective if there are only ten silver to the gold, while there are a hundred copper to the silver. In the end, I usually go with the familiar 100:1, for the sake of consistency, and it prevent characters from needing a wheelbarrow for their cash.

 

[Celebrim]

1 g.p. = $1000

But, I also have a silver piece standard where everything is priced in silver pieces.

So if you want to pay wages in gold, then 1 g.p = $50 (20 silver pieces to the gold).

 

[Yaarel]

1 g.p. = $1000

But, I also have a silver piece standard where everything is priced in silver pieces.

So if you want to pay wages in gold, then 1 g.p = $50 (20 silver pieces to the gold).

I should have thought of gp=1000 for an option.



• gold piece = $1000 ... silver piece = $10
... electrum piece = $100 ... platinum piece = $10,000 ... copper piece = $1

 

[JonnyP71]

None of the above.

It's nigh on impossible to equate early medieval goods and services with modern equivalents. And the D&D I run is solely 'early medieval' in feel.

Plus we use £, not $ here

 

[jodyjohnson]

When I try to give a player a reference for in-game currency I start with the Living Expenses table and the Backgrounds/Crafting rules for earning potential.

For the price list I treat most items as the masterwork versions, the main oddity I see is the price of glass items which I assume are especially durable (tempered glass or Coke bottle glass) or exotic (spyglass).

2gp ($200) per day for comfortable lifestyle and Guild craftsman status (corporate middle-class). 1gp ($100) per day for moderately skilled or self-employed. 2sp ($20) for the odd-job guy/household worker.

Assuming adventurers mostly pay their way instead of home-making $100-200/day in costs seems reasonable with the Inn and food costs coming close to middle America. For actual commoners they effectively work a second job called 'home life' where they do their own housework, cooking and chores instead of paying someone else and shave half off the living expenses.

I'm not a medieval scholar and my fantasy world isn't the historical past. Relatively speaking I let the rules determine the economy. 1 skilled worker takes $250 in resources and creates $250 or so in additional value per day with a take-home of $100. Whereas the guild craftsperson can take the same resources, create the same value but take-home $200 because of efficiency and stock management that the guild can bring over the lone craftsperson dealing with extra expenses and loses outside their control. I'd also assume the miners, farmers, gatherers, etc. create 5sp ($50) in value from 'natural resources' and get paid $20/day.

So for every craftsman there might be 5 unskilled workers creating raw materials. Together they create 5g or $500 in value per workday. Gold and platinum coins are smaller than dime-sized. Silver at penny sized. Coppers at Nickel sized and the non-adventure's Steel coins might be quarter sized. With trade bars filling in when larger currency is desired.

But I account it all by GP value. For the most part adventuring parties end up more like corporations/guilds or small governments rather than individual workers. I'd never drop $500,000 (5,000gp) on a piece of equipment but the company I work for does. And sometimes they pay much more than that for key pieces of machinery.

 

[Horwath]

For current prices of metals it could be

1Gp=100Sp=10000Cp=500$

Silver standard, 1Sp=5$, 1Cp=5cents

and as you can buy very good plate armour these days for 3000$, that would be 6GP or 600SP,

 

[Yaarel]

Note, a couple of years ago, I investigated reallife medieval prices. The costs in the Players Handbook compare unfavorably to a realistic medieval economy. (In reallife, chain armor was ridiculously expensive, both for production and for maintenance − plus a horse with barding − only the feudal elite could even consider such an expense. And even many of the elites were unable to afford it! It defined conspicuous wealth.) So in the Players Handbook, some prices are weirdly low, and other prices are weirdly high, but mostly it is because D&D just makes stuff up with little regard to actuality.