D&D General Does anyone else use a silver standard in their DND game?

[payn]

That makes much more sense indeed, thanks for the clarification. I remember that price of 1000 gp, which was not that odd for a complex piece of precision optics in a "medieval world", and I remember that it really gave bonuses to perception, which was cool as well.

Its just so much more expensive than any other good that it stands out as sort of silly in comparison.

That being said, I agree, D&D is really made for economics, especially for adventurers, it does not make sense and then, on the other hand, why would it need to ?

Thats a dangerous question because if the system doesn't need to make sense, its all rather arbitrary then. Some folks really want the simulation feel where rations, ammo, and carry weight are all tracked. They also want economies that make as much sense as the game will allow. If all thats arbitrary, than who cares what standard you use or the price of things? At that point, all that matters is availability and price to serve as limiters of PCs progress.

 

[Lyxen]

Thats a dangerous question because if the system doesn't need to make sense, its all rather arbitrary then. Some folks really want the simulation feel where rations, ammo, and carry weight are all tracked. They also want economies that make as much sense as the game will allow. If all thats arbitrary, than who cares what standard you use or the price of things? At that point, all that matters is availability and price to serve as limiters of PCs progress.

Actually, 3e had a fairly consistent system for pricing for adventurers, as it was used to check that they had enough equipment to face the challenges (as in 4e, powerful equipment was included in the power level of an adventurer, which is part of the problem with 5e where equipment is not mandatory, at least until people realise that powerful non-mandatory equipment should be counted in the difficulty setting of any encounter). So 1000 gp for something that allows you perception bonuses at long range is not silly compared to for example Eyes of the Eagle.

But it's only "adventurers economics"...

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

For myself I've always just done the base 10, where each coin up is worth ten of the previous (1pp = 10gp = 10sp = 100 cp). I always fluff the new Electrum as weird/odd currency that varies in value depending on where you trade it and is never actively minted anymore, so I save it for old fallen empires and whatnot.

I tend to assume that most commoners make about 1gp a day and set the world's expenses for a "meh" life as about that. The player's handbook actually has a decent cost of living amounts for about this. I just find ways for players to have gold sinks with their wealth. Castles and magic items don't build themselves, etc.

 

[Charlaquin]

I always fluff the new Electrum as weird/odd currency that varies in value depending on where you trade it and is never actively minted anymore, so I save it for old fallen empires and whatnot.

Tangential, but electrum isn’t new. It’s been around since the beginning, it just took a hiatus during 3e and 4e.

 

[Egon Spengler]

It depends on the setting. (For those of you playing the drinking game at home, go ahead and take a shot.)

If I'm running a game set in antiquity or a typical D&D sword & sorcery milieu, I'll use gold. In the latter instance, the fact that gold is common enough to be pocket-change for peasants begs for some explanation, and I like to suppose that magic item creation, the casting of powerful spells, petitioning deities for resurrection of the dead, etc. literally consumes gold — alchemically transmutes the gold into baser elements, or sends it into the aether or the heavens — making gold effectively a finite resource in the world, the presence of which roughly correlates with how magical that world is. In some future age, when the gold is rare, so are wizards and dragons and what-not.

If I'm setting a game in a realistic medieval, renaissance, or early modern milieu, I'll use a silver standard up to the 18th century, and a copper standard for 19th century (steampunk, western) or early 20th century (pulp, dieselpunk).

On a tangentially related note, I also tend to be more strict about encumbrance if I'm running a game with a more historically grounded milieu. I'll let sword & sorcery characters have more carrying capacity than in other genres, because, I don't know, the air in a high fantasy world just makes you tougher and stronger for no particular reason — like the Pevensie siblings feeling more vigorous and athletic when they're in Narnia than when they're on Earth.

 

[Lanefan]

In 3E rulebook items range from a few coppers to a few gold, then you have this weird stand out of spyglasses at 1,000 gold...

That sounds like a purely game-mechanical kludge to prevent PCs from acquiring a useful item at low level or at start-out.

Either that or - more likely - it's a straight-up typo, where an extra '0' snuck in there and wasn't caught in editing....

 

[Charlaquin]

That sounds like a purely game-mechanical kludge to prevent PCs from acquiring a useful item at low level or at start-out.

Either that or - more likely - it's a straight-up typo, where an extra '0' snuck in there and wasn't caught in editing....

It’s that way in the 5e PHB too, so if it’s a typo, it’s one they intentionally perpetuated for the sake of the reference, which seems like a strange choice (then again they’ve also consistently doubled down on the 2 lbs ration weight in the 5e PHB despite all evidence pointing towards typo there as well.) It’s also not a particularly powerful item, so I don’t think it’s meant to keep it out of the hands of low-level characters. I think it’s a misguided attempt at simulationism - historically, high-quality glass was difficult and expensive to produce, which would certainly make telescopes very expensive. Never mind that this sort of logic is not consistently applied throughout the rest of the equipment table.

 

[Lanefan]

It’s that way in the 5e PHB too, so if it’s a typo, it’s one they intentionally perpetuated for the sake of the reference, which seems like a strange choice (then again they’ve also consistently doubled down on the 2 lbs ration weight in the 5e PHB despite all evidence pointing towards typo there as well.) It’s also not a particularly powerful item, so I don’t think it’s meant to keep it out of the hands of low-level characters. I think it’s a misguided attempt at simulationism - historically, high-quality glass was difficult and expensive to produce, which would certainly make telescopes very expensive. Never mind that this sort of logic is not consistently applied throughout the rest of the equipment table.

All true; but if one expects things like glass windows, spectacles/monocles, glass-based mirrors, magnifying glasses, and other such refinements to be a part of one's setting then it naturally follows that quality glass-crafting at least for small-scale items would be (relatively!) common in that setting. Astronomers' telescopes and the like are a different question, but I don't mind these either as a rare and exotic element in the setting.

I also want spyglasses to be somewhat easily available for their main users: mariners and sailors.

Note that for lenses I'm not talking stupendous quality here: a 2x or 3x spyglass would be fairly common (and, depending on quality, might not even be all that well-focused), a 4x is getting up there, and by 5x you'd be talking a) bloody hard to find and b) that 1000+ g.p. price 3e has for them.

 

[Charlaquin]

All true; but if one expects things like glass windows, spectacles/monocles, glass-based mirrors, magnifying glasses, and other such refinements to be a part of one's setting then it naturally follows that quality glass-crafting at least for small-scale items would be (relatively!) common in that setting. Astronomers' telescopes and the like are a different question, but I don't mind these either as a rare and exotic element in the setting.

I also want spyglasses to be somewhat easily available for their main users: mariners and sailors.

Note that for lenses I'm not talking stupendous quality here: a 2x or 3x spyglass would be fairly common (and, depending on quality, might not even be all that well-focused), a 4x is getting up there, and by 5x you'd be talking a) bloody hard to find and b) that 1000+ g.p. price 3e has for them.

I agree. But D&D has a long and storied history of being weirdly selective with what it’s “realistic” about and what it handwaves.