Economics & Small Urban Settings

[taliesin15]

roguerouge writes

Quarterstaves, clubs, and slings with rocks should be within the price range of a commoner: free.

Great point. Always has seemed spurious to me that adventurers would have to buy these things. And with a few skill points in say leatherworking and tailoring, they couldn't just make their own waterskins, backpacks and saddles too.

 

[Andor]

That was the point of the BBC article? I thought the point was to make modern people feel guilty about their sugar consumption and sendentary lifestyles by contrast the diet against some over-generalized and unsubstantiated statement about the middle ages. I think the reader was supposed to say "gee - I thought serfs would all be dying of scurvy, but it turns out they're healthier than I am because all I do is eat twinkies" or something like that.

I meant that was the point of the article as it is relevant to this discussion. I could care less about authorial intent.

At any rate I think nobody here seriously proposes that crippled beggars in the streets of Bumblescum Port should have 900gp worth of phat lewt.

OTOH I think it's a reasonable estimate of the total value of a modest household including land, livestock, food stores and some valuables buried in a secret spot.

But I do think that the 'NPC wealth by level guidelines' is more intended to portray adventuresome NPCs with either PC class levels or Aristocrat/Expert levels that the PCs are likely to interact with in the course of adventureing. The generous level 1 cash is (IMHO) to allow a young lordling to have his warhorse and shiny armour, it slacks off rapidly after that or adventurers would be too prone to mugging NPCs rather than going after dangerous beasties.