How much for a prostitute?

[danzig138]

Serious question. In a place like Greyhawk (the city), how much would a low-class prostitute charge? A high-class? I've been DMing for about 14 years, have become pretty good at on the fly stuff, but when this came up, I was stumped. Ideas?
Thanks,

 

[MonkeyBoy]

errr...

I'd go for 1sp (cheap, at the docks)

through 1gp or so (nicer, brothel etc)

on to gifts and town houses (for a proper courtesan...)

Make it up; I assume none of your players is going to be outraged by "unrealistic" tart prices

 

[Kichwas]

1SP is a day laborer's daily wage as well as the cost of a cooked meal at an Inn.

So it's probably about right for your average prostitute.

I've got some more detailed charts in an old Judges Guild suppliment and there was some information on this in the 1E DMG. So if nobody else does I can get back to you on this with more detail later.

 

[twjensen]

Um, no.

1 SP is the daily wage of a "kept" employee, that is, one who gets room and board paid for by his employer. So if you want to hire a prostitute, you'll have to pay her pimp the 1 silver for her wage + the cost of keeping her + the profit the pimp will want to make. So we're talking somewhere around 5 silver at a minimum.

(for a modern example of how this works, look at wage contracts in Thailand.)

A dirty street rat sort of whore can probably be had for the cost of a cheap room (1-2 silver) plus about a silver to get her interest, but your PCs will be coming down with diseases that the Cleric may have annoying questions about later.

On the other side of things are courtesans, who will charge anything from a few gold all the way to a few dozen in gold.

Any pricer than that and you're getting into wife territory.

 

[Romotre]

1 GP for a whore? What kind are we talking here, half-celesital? Remember the gold piece may be the unit of currency for an adventurer, but if a whore made 1gp/session, then thats about 30-50 GP/month. they could retire almost instantly after starting "work"

 

[Crothian]

1 GP for a whore? What kind are we talking here, half-celesital? Remember the gold piece may be the unit of currency for an adventurer, but if a whore made 1gp/session, then thats about 30-50 GP/month. they could retire almost instantly after starting "work"

Do you have any idea how much some of these high priced women get now a-days? A few thousand a night. Sure there will be street walkers that ask for a few coppers. But there will also be the high priced ones that cost 50+ gold. They live in nice places with silk sheets. And they don't work everyday cause they don't need to. THey take the clients they want (ussually have certain clients that come by once a week).

When it comes to prostitution there are many different kinds.

 

[Romotre]

I was talking about your typical, average on-the-street serving the middle class prostitute. Sure maybe ones that hang around places with tons of money (nobles, aadventurers) can charge such outrageous prices, but the majority will have to service the average person. I'd be like if crack costed $500 bucks a hit. no way crackhead could afford it. crack is cheap out of nessesity (just like whores, you pay for what you get though).

 

[Crothian]

THat's why you have the cheap ones. A few copper to a silver for a half hour of sort of bliss.

 

[Limper]

About two grand for a good one in Vegas.... Oh you mean in game, sorry.

What the market will handle keeping in mind what it costs to do business as well as a good standard of living, thus it would depend on your campaign economics but I'd start the prices at 1 gp with there being no uper end.

 

[Anabstercorian]

To get these figures, I divided the Upkeep values on page 142 of the DMG by 30 to determine how much money someone would have to make per day to enter them, then assumed a whore caught a certain number of marks per day. This is how much they'd have to charge per mark to make a living at each income level.

Meager (Miserable street rat, 10 marks per day): 1 to 2 cp per mark

Poor (Street walker, 5 marks per day): 8 cp per mark

Common (Brothel whore, 4 marks per day): 3 to 4 sp per mark

Good (High-class prostitute, 1 mark per day): 8 to 9 sp per mark

Extravagant (Contractual Courtesan, one mark every other day): 13 to 14 gp per mark

Of course, you should fiddle with this however you deem necessary. You know the formula now.