D&D 5E Easy realistic economy

[Li Shenron]

1 D&D gold piece ≈ $10 USD

I like it, the are quite a bunch of PHB items that seem too pricey or too cheap, but they can be explained as oddities of the market or technology.

 

[Yaarel]

I have a highly integrative thought process. I can't easily ignore inconsistencies. This means I'm forced to think through these sorts of things when planning my games/campaigns.

The conclusion I have come to is that if you reference all the various costs and wages for non-magical things, including PHB equipment, DMG real estate, and (very importantly) the living expenses for various lifestyles, the most satisfying simple interpretation that maintains the relative value of the various coins is 1 gp = $100.

This takes into account the relationship between the income of a commoner and the price of bread or livestock etc.

The further assumptions that need to be made to interpret it this way is that adventuring equipment, including weapons, is expensive premium stuff. A longsword is comparable to a state of the art military assault rifle. The idea that the divide between rich and poor is huge is well accepted enough that I assume people are thinking in those terms also.

You also have to accept that there are three categories of items that are incapable of being interpretively harmonized with the others: magic items, poisons, and top tier armors.

Doing it this way works. (It also serves as a standard that lets me change values of rewards and such in published adventures (from any edition). This usually means PCs get much less reward money, and I'm okay with that. They will become fabulously wealthy compared to the common man soon enough if they are raiding burial chambers and treasure vaults.)

Now pull out those books and see how this looks. If anyone can come up with a better number that takes into account everything I'm looking at (even better if you can fit in the poisons or armors), and preserves the value ratio of 1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp, I want to know your number so I can use it. But I think you'll have a hard time with it, without ignoring more given numbers than the few categories I did.

Some items look more reasonable if gp=$100 while other items look more reasonable if gp=$10. These seem the upper and lower limits. Initially, I was leaning toward the $10 value. It seems more reasonable, more often, and the D&D tradition (inconsistently) had a $20 value in mind.

But now I am appreciating the benefits of the $100 value with its larger denominations of coins, especially when thinking about the modern economy. Setting platinum at $1000, is useful for things that cost thousands − house, boat, etcetera.

Also, the poll in the other thread has gp=$100 as relatively more preferred.