D&D 5E Gold for Villagers

[Kelimar]

Ok, so I am planning on running a homebrew D&D Next campaign starting partway through next month and as I have yet to be able to find a resource referencing this I felt it would be prudent to take my question to these forums, so here it is;

I think it can be safely agreed that the amount of gold an adventurer would commonly see and the amount of gold a villager or a noble would commonly see would vary fairly widely, particularly in the case of a villager when compared to an adventurer. So here is my question, what do you think would be a lot of gold to a villager, or a noble? What do you think would represent say a large expense or a years earnings to a non adventurer NPC in a D&D Next based world?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Does your world use a gold standard or a silver one?

 

[Kelimar]

gold standard. Silver would be for small things like torches, but most items of any sort of worth would be gold.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

If torches run silver, and most things are gold, then the number would be quite high. 1000 gold is 3gp a day, 90 gp a month. That doesn't go far if most things cost gold so 10k plus.

I'd vote 5 gp for my own campaign, where I prefer a silver standard.

 

[Kelimar]

The way I view it, silver would probably represent something equivalent to our silver, and gold would be equivalent to dollars.

 

[the Jester]

In my campaign I define the economic value of the gold piece as "enough money to feed a person for a year, albeit poorly".

So, 1 gp would be a lot for the average peasant to have in my campaign. He or she would prolly have about 1d8 cp in his pocket on the average.

 

[Kelimar]

I think 50gp would probably feed someone for about a year in my campaign.

hmm seems this is inciting some thought here and helping me figure out what exactly I want my monetary system to look like.

 

[jonesy]

Is there any gold hidden in the village? Silver, gems? Is there more food? Where is Lord Beric? How many men did Lord Beric have? Which of the village folk aided him...

Medieval English Wages And Prices

 

[Kelimar]

Medieval English Wages And Prices

very cool, thanks for the tip

 

[Jester David]

3e used the silver standard so an untrained labourer earns 1sp per day of work, and a gp represents two-weeks of work.
In this economy 1sp = roughly $50 (minimum wage for a day). And gold is $500. If someone handed you $500 it's a nice bonus but you won't be able to retire. Same with a gold.

If we're slipping up to the gold standard, just bump up all the numbers. Add extra 0s.