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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 9397339" data-attributes="member: 12731">Inflation doesn't matter much if the loot you gain is also magnified (and thus the cause of inflation).I mean, in a gold rush town a pick axe could cost you <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gold-rush-california-was-much-more-expensive-todays-dot-com-boom-california-180956788/" target="_blank">thirty times</a> as much as today. The best hotel rooms would cost five thousand monthly wages, or in today's money $300,000 which I think even rich people would find steep (it's still <a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/inside-the-most-expensive-hotel-room-in-the-world" target="_blank">three times as much</a> as a night at the Royal Mansion in Dubai). This would have been a problem if it weren't for all the gold prospectors brought back.So whether a +1 Sword costs 1 gold or 1 million gold doesn't matter. What matters is how much loot PCs can be expected to haul away at any given level. The crucial decision is "at which level should a PC be able to afford item X?" Most well-done efforts split this into two questions:- at which level will a PC be able to purchase item X assuming he pours ALL his wealth into this item?as opposed to- at which level will a PC be able to purchase item X for a reasonable portion of her wealth (say 20%)?This, in conjunction with how exponential the wealth progress through levels is, is the fundamental parameters you need. (If you gain ten times as much loot each level there's never any point in saving up money*. If each new level provides only 10% more than the previous level, the decision whether to splurge now or save for later becomes much more relevant).*) Or, indeed, if you showcase inflation by, say, doubling all prices each week. (That's not a lot of inflation by the way. If something costs $1 the first day, it will cost $8 four weeks later which is only 700%. In comparison, something that cost $1 in Zimbabwe in November 2008 would cost approx. $800,000,000 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Zimbabwe" target="_blank">four weeks later</a>. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" />Or in other words, someone needs to think about the magic item economy, since WotC clearly haven't. In my previous 5E campaigns, I've relied on a mixture between Sane Magic Item Prices and 3E's Magic Item Compendium. I would have loved it if WotC updated this book for 5E. It easily tops my list of needed supplements.Anyway, if you take any price list and increase prices tenfold that doesn't matter as long as you also award ten times as much loot.</blockquote>

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