Dragonlance steel currency and gold pieces.

[Oryan77]

I've never played Dragonlance, but I own the 3e books. I didn't realize that the currency was in steel pieces.

I know there is a currency chart in the campaign book that puts gold at one-fortieth of a steel piece. But is it safe to assume that the gold value of items in the core D&D rules is equal to a steel piece value in Dragonlance? So a +1 weapon in Dragonlance is worth +2000 steel rather than +2000 gold? Or if I didn't play Dragonlance, but I used a magic item from a DL book, would I value a 1000 steel magic item as a 1000 gold piece magic item in core D&D?

 

[DMZ2112]

I've never played Dragonlance, but I own the 3e books. I didn't realize that the currency was in steel pieces.

I know there is a currency chart in the campaign book that puts gold at one-fortieth of a steel piece. But is it safe to assume that the gold value of items in the core D&D rules is equal to a steel piece value in Dragonlance? So a +1 weapon in Dragonlance is worth +2000 steel rather than +2000 gold? Or if I didn't play Dragonlance, but I used a magic item from a DL book, would I value a 1000 steel magic item as a 1000 gold piece magic item in core D&D?

That is the intention, yes. gold-piece values from other books are converted directly into an equal number of steel pieces on Krynn.

 

[Jester David]

The idea is that soft less useful metals like gold and silver would be devalued by the Cataclysm, without nations propping up artificial values.
So prices for all things are swapped from gp to steel.

The catch is that most metal items in the core books contain more steel in weight than their steel piece value, so be warned. I explain that as steel pieces being high quality steel while most metal equipment is low quality iron.

 

[DMZ2112]

The catch is that most metal items in the core books contain more steel in weight than their steel piece value, so be warned. I explain that as steel pieces being high quality steel while most metal equipment is low quality iron.

The old Dragonlance Adventures book actually specified that most metal weapons on Krynn were made of iron, and that steel weapons were prized, although it didn't indicate any sort of mechanical impact. I would think the masterwork rules from D&D3 should stand in nicely and not be too far off in terms of logical pricing (except for the larger two-handed weapons).

 

[M.L. Martin]

DL fans have been trying to make sense of the whole 'steel pieces' thing for 30 years, and it's never quite worked out. Tracy Hickman is on record as saying "I wanted to make a point about the ephemeral nature of wealth, but the concept never did come across well ... or work in the game either, for that matter." (Annotated Chronicles, 141)

Either ignore it--it really doesn't make much of a difference--or don't think too hard about it. Like so much of DL, thinking too much about it is the path to madness.