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D&D game world economy, wages and modelling the ancent world
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<blockquote data-quote="Garthanos" data-source="post: 7644763" data-attributes="member: 82504"><p>I have rarely been satisfied with D&D economies they often seemed driven by things like creating a motivation to adventure and similar things, I never quite bought into the rationales presented for the prices. So I periodically look at historical sources and I am not sure i seen this one before so I thought i would share</p><p></p><p>There was a fairly long history in the ancient world where 1 silver drachma ( a handful of 6 metal sticks) equalled a standard workers days wage and traditional 15 silver as 1 gold coin also.(that is super simplified such that a historian might give me the stink eye). A horse considered a luxury good was effectively worth a few weeks labor. </p><p></p><p>An interesting snap shot of ancient prices. </p><p><a href="https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/research/monetary-history-of-the-world/roman-empire/chronology_-by_-emperor/tetrachy/diocletian-284-305-ad/diocletians-edict-of-maximum-prices-issued-in-301-ad/" target="_blank">https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/research/monetary-history-of-the-world/roman-empire/chronology_-by_-emperor/tetrachy/diocletian-284-305-ad/diocletians-edict-of-maximum-prices-issued-in-301-ad/</a></p><p></p><p>My brain wants to translate the above prices back to the Drachma units 24 of them to equal drachma. And 4 of them an obeloi... and give a soldiers yearly wage at 641 drachma counting expected bonuses and such. A more elite soldier is then 796. The soldiers wage is then twice the typical wage in the above scenario where warcraft was a premium.</p><p></p><p>Note there are indications in other times the average soldier only received half a drachma (perhaps offset by a death price where families received a compensation for if their member died in service of another I have read of this in the past but cannot find the amount in a modern world we can call it 5 years wages) - it was likely still not a consistent utterly predictable amount even if a Roman leader wanted it that way.</p><p></p><p>The above might be useful for when you hirelings? I always hated that word and henchmen or just in world building exercises.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Garthanos, post: 7644763, member: 82504"] I have rarely been satisfied with D&D economies they often seemed driven by things like creating a motivation to adventure and similar things, I never quite bought into the rationales presented for the prices. So I periodically look at historical sources and I am not sure i seen this one before so I thought i would share There was a fairly long history in the ancient world where 1 silver drachma ( a handful of 6 metal sticks) equalled a standard workers days wage and traditional 15 silver as 1 gold coin also.(that is super simplified such that a historian might give me the stink eye). A horse considered a luxury good was effectively worth a few weeks labor. An interesting snap shot of ancient prices. [URL]https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/research/monetary-history-of-the-world/roman-empire/chronology_-by_-emperor/tetrachy/diocletian-284-305-ad/diocletians-edict-of-maximum-prices-issued-in-301-ad/[/URL] My brain wants to translate the above prices back to the Drachma units 24 of them to equal drachma. And 4 of them an obeloi... and give a soldiers yearly wage at 641 drachma counting expected bonuses and such. A more elite soldier is then 796. The soldiers wage is then twice the typical wage in the above scenario where warcraft was a premium. Note there are indications in other times the average soldier only received half a drachma (perhaps offset by a death price where families received a compensation for if their member died in service of another I have read of this in the past but cannot find the amount in a modern world we can call it 5 years wages) - it was likely still not a consistent utterly predictable amount even if a Roman leader wanted it that way. The above might be useful for when you hirelings? I always hated that word and henchmen or just in world building exercises. [/QUOTE]
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