Mining metals in 3.5

[godawful]

Just as kind of an update to my "Age of Empires" style game i'm running now, my players have begun mining, and based on how much they invest, there is a chance of discovering ore. So i assigned some random metals to a d20 roll if the mining is successful. I have everything from iron to adamantine. the thing is, i failed to take into consideration what most metals are worth (oops) when brought out of the ground in raw form. like iron? how much should a pound of iron ore be worth? or anything else for that matter?
if anyone has some ideas or anything, please throw them out, it would help.
thanks

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

Just as kind of an update to my "Age of Empires" style game i'm running now, my players have begun mining, and based on how much they invest, there is a chance of discovering ore. So i assigned some random metals to a d20 roll if the mining is successful. I have everything from iron to adamantine. the thing is, i failed to take into consideration what most metals are worth (oops) when brought out of the ground in raw form. like iron? how much should a pound of iron ore be worth? or anything else for that matter?
if anyone has some ideas or anything, please throw them out, it would help.
thanks

Don't go by weight, go by price. Mining is a "Profession"

Under the Profession skill it says

PROFESSION (WIS; TRAINED ONLY)
Like Craft, Knowledge, and Perform, Profession is actually a number of separate skills. You could have several Profession skills, each with its own ranks, each purchased as a separate skill. While a Craft skill represents ability in creating or making an item, a Profession skill represents an aptitude in a vocation requiring a broader range of less specific knowledge.

Check: You can practice your trade and make a decent living, earning about half your Profession check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work.

So after a week of mining they get a profession check 1d20 + skill mining + wis bonus devided by two. (For example roll of 10 +2 skill +2 Wis=14 /2 = 7. That would mean they got 7gp wourth of raw ore.)

 

[godawful]

Don't go by weight, go by price. Mining is a "Profession"

Under the Profession skill it says

So after a week of mining they get a profession check 1d20 + skill mining + wis bonus devided by two. (For example roll of 10 +2 skill +2 Wis=14 /2 = 7. That would mean they got 7gp wourth of raw ore.)

hrmmm. well i hope i haven't screwed up too much, cuz i set it up way different already. like, here's how i did it so far... (using a 10 dwarf mining crew) 5% chance per 2,000 gp investment in materials (tools, carts, man hours etc.) of finding ANY ore. if a roll is successful, then i check to see what kind of ore is found. roll a d20... then let's say silver is the result, then roll 3d6 times 500 to see how much coinage value is extracted per month (they will have to construct a mint soon) then lastly, i roll to see how long it will produce, like 2d12 months.

so, they may blow 8,000 gp for a return of 1,000 sp per month off a particular mine for 9 months. but i put iron in the list of possible ores. and i was thinking of adding others. since this is for the town they are building, they certainly need ore to supply the blacksmiths and such, but they suggest setting up trade with other towns. so what the heck is a pound of iron ore worth? or whatever else i add to the list. i dunno, lead maybe? heh or heck even minerals... phosphorous, sulfur, whatever.

even if there is no set answer, maybe give what you think you would say it was worth then i could average several answers.

thanks again

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I don't have it to hand, but the DMGII has some nice rules for running businesses.

Might help you out.

--fje

 

[Tonguez]

did a google search on medieval yeilds from raw iron mining

"In Staffordhsire circa 1583, brittle Iron cost 9 pounds Sterling silver to the ton whereas tough iron fetched 12 pounds (Salzman 33)."

So anyone got a conversion rate from pounds stirling to DnD gp standard?


Personally I'd have given a fixed yeild value to each successful identified mine and then determined a DC from that

eg you've used a base of 3d6 x 500 permonth so max yeild would be 9000gp
I'd then work yeild/investment to determine the DC eg 9000/2000 = 4

(ie by spending 2000gp a month the mine has a good chance of yeilding 9000gp in finished imetal - thats until you add modifiers)
...

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

hrmmm. well i hope i haven't screwed up too much, cuz i set it up way different already. like, here's how i did it so far...
thanks again

My suggestion was how to do it simply, you are welcome to make it more complicated if you wish.

 

[Imperialus]

for broad based mining operations and the profit that they produce check out Magical Medieval Socity by Expedious Retreat Press.

 

[interwyrm]

In response to the original query, PHB p 112 contains prices for trade goods. On this list are iron, silver, gold and platinum. Iron is 1sp per pound, Silver is 5gp per pound, gold is 50gp per pound, platinum is 500gp per pound.

Btw... funny story. Casting wall of iron creates permanent nonmagical iron for the cost of 50gp. I performed some arithromancy involving the volume of iron created, the density of iron, and the trade value of iron, and found that this spell has the possibility to disrupt economies. It creates more gp value of iron than it costs, even at the lowest caster level for the spell... which is... 9 or 11, I can't remember.

Finding gp values for mithril and adamantine, and other rare materials is tough. You could try to extrapolate it based on the cost for creating weapons or armor and their weights... but that's not really going to work. An adamantine dagger costs roughly the same amount as an adamantine greatsword. Besides, you have to figure in the costs for working such a difficult material. You could find in one of the faerun sourcebooks (I think) the cost for creating armor from gold or platinum, and compare it to the cost for creating it out of adamantine or mithral.

Of course, as the GM, you can just assign arbitrary values to the market value for each mineral.

 

[RuminDange]

If you've got the old 2ed book Wilderness Survival Guide or Dungeoneers Survival Guide (Can't remember exactly which one off the top of my head ), it had some stuff in it about mines, types, and how much would be produced, over how long, and it was all based on how many man-hours the mine would last, etc.... Wasn't a bad deal, even handled gem mines.
Only reason I remember is that I wrote a old program to handle all the charts and stuff a long time ago...too bad I never updated it....maybe one of my future projects.

RD

 

[Vascant]

Q. Dwarves from Mongoose Publishing also had mining rules.