Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="3catcircus" data-source="post: 4016144" data-attributes="member: 16077">Granted, the prices aren't realistic, but there is no reason why your D&D economy can't be self-consistent, no?Saying "A longsword costs 15 of these coins..." is fine, but my point is that the equivalent of the "copper piece" will be the most heavily traded coin, not the equivalent of the "silver piece," so most of the time, the longsword that costs 15 "silver pieces" really means that the purchaser is going to hand over 150 "copper pieces" (assuming 10:1 like we do right now in D&D).I guess a more concrete example would be that the blacksmith says that the standard noble's sword costs 4 shillings.  What this means is that most of the time, a buyer is going to hand over 80 pence, not 4 shillings.  For a comparison of wages, the average daily wage for a thatcher between 1261 and 1520 was about 4 pence (starting a 2d in 1261 and ending up at 5.25d by 1520).  The average knight earned about 2s/day in 1316.  (This is all from the medieval price list on Fordham Univ's website.)So - the hero makes 40 pence/day - 10x what the commoner makes.  Very similar to D&D, but unlike D&D, the knight in the real-world is most likely actually carrying around 40 coins instead of 2.</blockquote>