Converting GP to Wealth

[Salamander Napolean]

The wealth system is abstract, so don't worry about exactly how many gp can be converted into a wealth bonus. Just tell them they find a bag of gold coins that equals a +1 wealth bonus.

A trickier way to do it would be giving each world a different "price list" for the items' purchase DCs. In a D&D world purchasing a sword wouldn't be as expensive as it would be in a modern setting, but buying a rifle would be very expensive. Of course, this would encourage the players to make a number of interdimensional shopping trips...

 

[Sixchan]

The complicated way sounds best to me (i.e. find the value of gold, convert to dollar value, convert dollar value to Wealth), but that's only because I'm really pedantic and stuff...

EDIT: Okay, one bar's current asking price is $364.10, and one bar is 27 lbs., so 1 lb.--and therfore 50GP--is $13.49. This makes 1 GP equal 27c. Which seems pretty unimpressive.

 

[JoeCrow]

Okay, one bar's current asking price is $364.10, and one bar is 27 lbs., so 1 lb.--and therfore 50GP--is $13.49. This makes 1 GP equal 27c. Which seems pretty unimpressive.

Ah, no. $364.10 is the price for one ounce of gold. So that's about $116.51 for a gold piece, by my reckoning. Bit more impressive, that.

 

[Sixchan]

Ah, no. $364.10 is the price for one ounce of gold. So that's about $116.51 for a gold piece, by my reckoning. Bit more impressive, that.

Ohh...well yes, that would make more sense. See, looking on the net turned up that 'London Good Delivery Bars' are traded internationally. That was the only reference I could get.

Yowza. And considering it will be high level characters planeshifting in...what happens to the world economy when an epic level character with more money than Bill Gates planeshifts onto a planet?

 

[drothgery]

Yowza. And considering it will be high level characters planeshifting in...what happens to the world economy when an epic level character with more money than Bill Gates planeshifts onto a planet?

Figuring 1 gp = $100 (if a gp is pretty nearly pure gold, which it probably isn't), I'd say you don't need to worry about even epic-level characters having Gatesian wealth. A 20th level character would have a net worth of ~$760 million, but depending on the value of Microsoft stock (and whatever he's diversified his portfolio into), Bill has between $35 and $50 billion.

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

Figuring 1 gp = $100 (if a gp is pretty nearly pure gold, which it probably isn't), I'd say you don't need to worry about even epic-level characters having Gatesian wealth. A 20th level character would have a net worth of ~$760 million, but depending on the value of Microsoft stock (and whatever he's diversified his portfolio into), Bill has between $35 and $50 billion.

I'm not going to get into a boring discussion on economics (which I'd be woefully unqualified for ). However...

The question isn't how wealthy they'd be, but what impact all that gold would have on the economy. A lot of people, countries, etc. measure their wealth in gold. If a group of adventurers come to our world with a wagon full of gold it devalues the gold that we already have. Heaven forbid that the adventurers are actually carrying 760 million in say, diamonds. Whoops, there goes the diamond market. Heck, diamonds are common enough already that many diamond companies are withholding large amounts of product.

So let's say that Bill Gates has converted a large amount of his wealth into gold as a precaution. This way if the US dollar collapsed, he'd still have his gold. Its value is a lot more real than government backed paper (I still have some Silver Certificates, dollar bills that state right on them that they are backed by silver).
The PCs drop all that gold on us, the value of gold drops, and suddenly Bill Gates is less rich than he was before even though he still has a stack of gold bars in his basement.

Not that I would worry about this in a game, it's just fun(?) to speculate.

 

[Sixchan]

Figuring 1 gp = $100 (if a gp is pretty nearly pure gold, which it probably isn't), I'd say you don't need to worry about even epic-level characters having Gatesian wealth. A 20th level character would have a net worth of ~$760 million, but depending on the value of Microsoft stock (and whatever he's diversified his portfolio into), Bill has between $35 and $50 billion.

Ahh...but the characters could maximise their wealth by converting into finished goods. How much would ~$760M in Magic Items be worth (assuming, of course, that the items don't cease to function when in the modern world)?

 

[drothgery]

Ahh...but the characters could maximise their wealth by converting into finished goods. How much would ~$760M in Magic Items be worth (assuming, of course, that the items don't cease to function when in the modern world)?

Most magic items would be valuable only as curiosities, either because modern equipment does the same job, there's no use for the magic item, or because using them in public would look very out of place (especially weapons and armor). And then there's the difficulty of convincing someone that it really works.

 

[drothgery]

The question isn't how wealthy they'd be, but what impact all that gold would have on the economy. A lot of people, countries, etc. measure their wealth in gold. If a group of adventurers come to our world with a wagon full of gold it devalues the gold that we already have. Heaven forbid that the adventurers are actually carrying 760 million in say, diamonds. Whoops, there goes the diamond market. Heck, diamonds are common enough already that many diamond companies are withholding large amounts of product.

So let's say that Bill Gates has converted a large amount of his wealth into gold as a precaution. This way if the US dollar collapsed, he'd still have his gold. Its value is a lot more real than government backed paper (I still have some Silver Certificates, dollar bills that state right on them that they are backed by silver).
The PCs drop all that gold on us, the value of gold drops, and suddenly Bill Gates is less rich than he was before even though he still has a stack of gold bars in his basement.

If you're using finished goods, though, 1 gp is worth a lot less than $100 (and it depends what you bought), but that's not really important.

The thing is that for gold, precious gems, and the like in the modern world there is a global market. So things that are extremely disruptive in a quasi-medieval economy, like unloading a few hundred thousand gp worth of one thing in a city, aren't anywhere near as big of a deal. If Joe Adventurer pops into the modern USA with $10 million in gold or gems, it's really not all that significant in the general scheme of things.

 

[Sixchan]

Most magic items would be valuable only as curiosities, either because modern equipment does the same job, there's no use for the magic item, or because using them in public would look very out of place (especially weapons and armor). And then there's the difficulty of convincing someone that it really works.

Really? You don't think that the majority of people (especially teenagers) would sell their grandmothers for a Ring of Invisibility? I'd sell my soul for one of them (which would make no difference, as I imagine my actions with it would send me straight to hell anyway). Boots of Speed? Belt of Flying? I mean, come on! A belt of frickin' FLYING! It takes coolness to a whole new level (literally)! A couple of Decanters of endless water could virtually end world thirst (and hunger through irrigation)!

But if no-one else would want them, that'd be even better for me, then.