"A reward beyond your wildest dreams!"

[Al]

My campaign world uses a silver peice standard.

I convey to the characters that each gold peice is worth the equivalent of $1000. Most people never own one. Some people may never have even seen one.

So, if the character's were to find 1000 gold peices, that would be like finding one million dollars. That 100k item is worth 100 million dollars.

One of the big problems of 3rd edition (at least IMO) is that they went ahead and adopted the gold peice standard officially. Not only does this screw up the economy, but this means that each gold peice is only worth about $50. That 100k item is only worth about 5 million dollars. Suddenly a 100k g.p. reward doesn't sound all that unreasonable - no different than hiring a high priced team of attorneys.

Whilst valuations vary considerably, the gold piece = $50 is extremely reasonable. One can calculate the weight of a gold piece, then work from that to approximate the equivalent value of gold. Of course, this would be highly variable to the supply of gold in your campaign, but this is a reasonable estimate.

The "gold supply" argument is thus trumped by the more universal purchasing power argument. This estimates the dollar equivalencies of common goods depending on the $:gp ratio assumed. It is also a far more reasonably estimate with regard to peasant's wages. Using a gold piece as $50 gives the average labourer an income of $5/day. This is still substantially more than pre-industrial societies and, indeed, more than in many poor countries today for unskilled labour. To conceive of a medieval serf earning $100/day - in line or even more than unskilled labour in the modern West (the UK minimum wage equates to about $9/hour at the current exchange rates) - seems excessive. The $1000 conversion entails, inter alia, a fishhook costing $100, an iron pot $500, a typical traveller's outfit costing $1000 and an oar costing $2000.

Though I fully appreciate that you have changed this to bring player's expectations in line, the problem is that you have essentially changed the world parameters to alter metagame expectations: to the PCs, as opposed to the players, the parity shift makes little difference, since their purchasing power is unchanged. In order to do so, I would argue that you have essentially generated incomes in excess of modern Western societies and created commodity prices which are, to say the least, exorbitant.

 

[S'mon]

I use 1gp = £50, roughly fits the PHB prices. So subsistence wage is £5/day, which seems about right assuming UK purchasing power parity. Many 3rd world countries have average wages under £1/day at international exchange rates but at true PPP you're looking at more like £5 or so. A Ghanaian won't be paying £2 for a bag of potatoes like I have to. Of course D&D is a medieval pre-industrial economy so some goods cost more than IRL - ironware, say - and some cost much more, notably clothing. I cost a basic peasant's smock at 1-2gp, not 1 sp.

Edit: At purchasing power parity, £50 = $50, more or less - poor US tourists in London.

 

[Darkness]

I have given the reward of marriage to a player.

IMO, a real-world reward like that is a bit much for most in-game achievements. But whatever floats your boat.

 

[Arnwyn]

But for a lot of players, when they expect a reward for a "crazy/daring" mission that could mean possible death, they demand a reward equal to owning a small planet!

How do you keep players grounded and reasonable when haggling out a reward for a mission? But for those times when wealth is involved, how do you deal with players that tell President Bush that he'll only hunt down bin Laden for 100 billion dollars (or an item worth 100 billion dollars)?

Hmm... I guess I'm lucky, as I've never really had this problem.

I suppose I give a good indication early (and often) in the campaign about "how the world works". I try to give the players a feel for what can be expected as the campaign is played.

Looks like I've been successful.

(Though "no" and "go to hell" have always served me well in the past... )