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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 2245901" data-attributes="member: 463">It is a large house that's being described - FWIW I live in a house on outskirts of London, maybe 600 square feet including stairwell, cost £225,000 3 years ago - at £20 = 1gp, that'd be 11,250gp!  A similar house in a different part of UK might cost £40,000, or 2,000gp at 20-1, or if you think 1gp = £50/$100 (probably more accurate these days) that'd be 800gp, which is about what it might cost in a D&D economy.  Depending on building materials, location, local labour costs etc I can conceivably see this merchant's villa costing up to 5,000gp to buy. My D&D EconomicsIMC I aim to keep the economics vaguely plausible - PCs may get overcharged, but usually for low-end stuff and stuff geared to the adventurer market, like tourists in 3rd-world countries pay a fortune for knicknacks and 3-star hotels.  The cost of a house won't vary much depending on the buyer, not more than 10% or so.  I base the following loosely off the OD&D Rules Companion rules.I treat 1sp/day, 7 sp/week, as what the DMG describes it - basic subsistence _for one person_.  Of course no one can feed a family or buy a house(!) on that income.  1. IMC a typical 5-person peasant family has income/production (mostly crops) of about 5sp/day, enough to feed the whole family.  They built rather than bought the 1-2 room hovel they live in, which is worth maybe 50gp if sold.  Of the 15 gp they produce a month, about 2.5gp is taken in taxes.This scales up:2.  The middle class family (minor merchants, skilled craftsmen) make maybe 5gp/day, enough for a family of 5 to have a comfortable lifestyle, they live in a two-story 4-6 room wattle & daub timber-frame house worth maybe 1000gp.  With 20% savings a middle-class family could save 360 gp/year and buy such a house in 3 years, more typically with 5% savings it would take 9 years, still doable.  Of the 150gp/month they produce around 25gp goes in taxes.3.  Gentry, landed knights and wealthy merchants make maybe 5 times again, 25gp/day, and may live in a 5,000gp brick or stone mansion, again buyable in maybe 9 years.   They produce 750 gp/month of which about 125gp goes in taxes.4.  Minor landed noble families may make 5 times again, 125 gp/day.  They probably live in an inherited 50,000gp stone castle which would take 18 years to buy.  They rake in 3750gp/month, mostly in taxes, of which 625gp goes in 'salt tax' to their own liege.Note: These figures don't scale perfectly with the real world & PHB prices (IRL a longsword was worth considerably more than most peasant huts) but at least they make sense in the D&D economy.Edit: To reiterate, the above family income figures are gross domestic product, including production by servants, serfs etc, not cash income. At a constant 5% savings rate the families would save the following amounts, second figure is what I suggest you let a PC living this lifestyle save monthly towards magi items etc without undue effort:Peasant: 0.75gp/5spMiddle Class: 7.5gp/5gpGentry: 37.5gp/30gpLanded Nobility (Barons): 187.5gp/150gpA great noble might earn 5 times the basic Landed Nobility figure, and a King or Emperor of a large nation 5 times again.</blockquote>

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