How much for a prostitute?

[Dispater]

Then again we must sort out the different costs for the different... uh, ok perhaps enough detail.

 

[Cloudgatherer]

Hm...this actually came up in a game I DMed. I charged 5 gp for an upscale, um, lady. Seemed fair to me...

 

[Gez]

1 GP for a whore? What kind are we talking here, half-celesital? Remember the gold piece may be the unit of currency for an adventurer, but if a whore made 1gp/session, then thats about 30-50 GP/month. they could retire almost instantly after starting "work"

Not really. Whores get lots of money, and expends even more. Because it's not a serene, enlightening and harmonious job. They spend a good part of their money on alcohol and drugs. Which are not always cheap, especially in large quantities. Plus, the meager money they get is stolen by their "protector" or "host" (or whatever the pimp name itself).


A cheap whore is usually young, starving, vermin-infested and disease-ridden, prostituting herself in the hope she could buy a half-loaf of bread to eat. A healthy whore working in a cosy place is expensive.

 

[danzig138]

To get these figures, I divided the Upkeep values on page 142 of the DMG by 30 to determine how much money someone would have to make per day to enter them, then assumed a whore caught a certain number of marks per day. This is how much they'd have to charge per mark to make a living at each income level.

This works for me. A little tweaking here and there, but this works. Thanks.

 

[Websclo]

Do you have any idea how much some of these high priced women get now a-days? A few thousand a night. Sure there will be street walkers that ask for a few coppers. But there will also be the high priced ones that cost 50+ gold. They live in nice places with silk sheets. And they don't work everyday cause they don't need to. THey take the clients they want (ussually have certain clients that come by once a week).

When it comes to prostitution there are many different kinds.

I'm looking at playing a male escort that supposed to of high quality but I have no idea on prices for him to charge as he'll be a PC and don't want be silly for DM, he does have two bodyguards to also pay so that it'll be split between the party but I'm unsure of what I should charge? Any ideas anyone?

 

[Eltab]

I'm looking at playing a male escort that supposed to of high quality but I have no idea on prices for him to charge as he'll be a PC and don't want be silly for DM, he does have two bodyguards to also pay so that it'll be split between the party but I'm unsure of what I should charge? Any ideas anyone?

Run this idea past your group; it may sound like hogging the spotlight. If your campaign features lots of downtime between adventures, the DM can review the section on lifestyle levels and adapt the 'self-supporting ranger' section.

 

[Yaarel]

This works for me. A little tweaking here and there, but this works. Thanks.

These prices for a sex worker by means of that formula seem problematically underpriced, within the context of the fictitious D&D "economy".

Im not sure how much a reallife sexworker charges for an hour or a night. I assume it varies regionally.

But suppose the cost is $500 per hour for a visit.

A reallife hand-forged weapon-worthy sword costs roughly $400. So, the price of a sexworker might be the price of one or two swords per hour.

So, in the D&D "economy", a sword costs 15 gp.

So, in the D&D "economy", a visit by a sex worker would cost say 15 to 30 gp.

Adjust this number accordingly if one happens to know the reallife cost.



In college, two friends are sex workers, but I never discussed the business transactions with them. One is an anthropologist whose thesis was about exotic nightclubs as a microcosm of Western gender constructs. Heh, she analyzed her customers as an exotic dancer at a nightclub. Also on a few occasions, she chose to work as a high class sex worker, such as on a yacht, to understand the dynamics. Her paper turned out brilliant and changed the way I think about sex work. Her main point is, the places that have the most liberal laws with regard to pornography and prostitution, also have the highest status of women, including personal autonomy. The places with the most criminalization and censorship, also have the lowest status of women, including the least personal autonomy. There is a direct correlation between society controlling images of women and controlling the actual living women. In other words: pornography = human rights. The reality is the opposite of what some religionists or feminists might claim.

 

[Websclo]

Run this idea past your group; it may sound like hogging the spotlight. If your campaign features lots of downtime between adventures, the DM can review the section on lifestyle levels and adapt the 'self-supporting ranger' section.

I mean, the party consists of my partner and housemate, we all came up with the idea together and they are all comfortable with the idea as they know I'm not a attention hogger, it's more of a explanation on why and how we are all together, my character has a very painful past, he's paranoid of being trapped and/or abused again so he hires protection and tags along with their adventures and in exchange all money made, including from his clients is split but just unsure what a good price point would be.

 

[Thommy H-H]

This thread is quite instructive in terms of how discourse on the topic of sex work has changed in the last 20 years.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Serious question. In a place like Greyhawk (the city), how much would a low-class prostitute charge? A high-class? I've been DMing for about 14 years, have become pretty good at on the fly stuff, but when this came up, I was stumped. Ideas?
Thanks,

I bet their is a Forgotten Realms supplement that covers it.