D&D 5E "reasonable" gold rewards for PC calculated on village/city size

[Ancalagon]

This is a very interesting thread.

I think the OP's method of basing reward on threat level and town pop is as good as any, and quite quick to calculate. It also makes the DM consider how many people are living in this particular town, which is also useful when thinking about guard numbers, item availability, # of spell casters, and so on.

Thank you. When I did my estimates, and the number of taxed GP/individual came to around 21.9 gp... well a very straightforward guideline just leaped at me It's very easy to modify too - no need to recalculate everything, just take the basic 2 and make it bigger or smaller.

And yes, population size matter for # of guards, mages etc. As a general rule, agrarian societies could rarely manage more than 5% of the population in a standing army. This is why nomads like mongols ... or orcs... could be such a threat, as frequently most adult males were effectively warriors.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I like this kind of thread and figuring out this sort of thing - even if its nothing that the PC's will ever see or care about, it gives the DM some logic to his actions and informs the campaign. I think your numbers come out pretty close to what I've used in the past.

There are two things that I'd add - one is that there is bound to be some corruption in the tax collection process (egads! Corruption?) so you could knock the overall amount collected down by whatever amount you decide that should be (heck, it could explain why 22 gp/person is collected, but only 20 gp/person available to spend...). The second is that while a bigger city may have more money to pay for rewards to handle threats, it logically should also have more threats to handle. At the lower levels that might mean that rewards for most jobs would be comparable to small towns, and only in the case of really big existential threats do the numbers get large - which means the higher level PC's are attracted to those jobs.

 

[Ancalagon]

I like this kind of thread and figuring out this sort of thing - even if its nothing that the PC's will ever see or care about, it gives the DM some logic to his actions and informs the campaign. I think your numbers come out pretty close to what I've used in the past.

Why thank you

There are two things that I'd add - one is that there is bound to be some corruption in the tax collection process (egads! Corruption?) so you could knock the overall amount collected down by whatever amount you decide that should be (heck, it could explain why 22 gp/person is collected, but only 20 gp/person available to spend...).

I think 2 gp per person representing corruption but perhaps also the black market economy is fairly reasonable. So a city of 10 000 people has a budget of about 200 000 gp/year to play with, and the local thieve's guild has about 20 000 gp income in protection money, cuts from fencing deal, burglaries and smuggling etc... this gives the thieve's guild a fair amount of clout.

The second is that while a bigger city may have more money to pay for rewards to handle threats, it logically should also have more threats to handle. At the lower levels that might mean that rewards for most jobs would be comparable to small towns, and only in the case of really big existential threats do the numbers get large - which means the higher level PC's are attracted to those jobs.

Yup - or those small jobs are simply not available because the city has low-mid level employees on retainer who take care of the lesser threats.

You know, that could be the basis for a campaign right there

 

[GX.Sigma]

So how do you figure out how many people are in a town?

 

[Ancalagon]

So how do you figure out how many people are in a town?

That's purely up to you. How did you decide there was a town there? You as the GM put it there. So is it a small village? A booming metropolis?

I'm assuming you're not really sure how many people should be in a village etc? I looked at the DMG for guidance and on page 112 it says "you've determined the size" so ha, that's not help. So let's look at older editions because I feel like it.

2nd edition DMG is no help (that I could find) but did you know a common laborer used to make 1 sp a *week*? Now it's 2sp a day!?! Jesus the old rewards were totally out of whack were they?

I can't find my 3.0 DMG, but 3.5 has a table on page 137:

(these numbers are for adults. depending on the race, multiply by 1.1 to 1.4 to count for the children)

Thorp 20-80, hamlet 80-400, village 400-900, small town 900-2000, large town 2000-5000, small city 5-12K, lage city 12-25K, metropolis 25K or more. I will note that rome had about a million people, and Merv, an important trading town in central Asia (how come no one knows about Merv? Look it up it's awesome) has about a quarter million... before it was sacked that is. So 25 000 is *not* the limit, even for fantasy settings.

 

[Mathius78]

Some thoughts I am having on this.
Looking at a town of 1000 folks we have a total GDP of 220000. Since meals cost a third and half goes to lodging, that leaves 20 percent for taxes and other things. That supports 10 percent in taxes nicely.

What thoughts do folks have about how much currency and other art objects a town might have?
What furnishings might be worth taking?

 

[MarkB]

Why thank you



I think 2 gp per person representing corruption but perhaps also the black market economy is fairly reasonable. So a city of 10 000 people has a budget of about 200 000 gp/year to play with, and the local thieve's guild has about 20 000 gp income in protection money, cuts from fencing deal, burglaries and smuggling etc... this gives the thieve's guild a fair amount of clout.



Yup - or those small jobs are simply not available because the city has low-mid level employees on retainer who take care of the lesser threats.

You know, that could be the basis for a campaign right there

I'm just picturing a city whose Municipal Troubleshooters are currently on strike for better wages and working conditions, leading the authorities to hire low-level adventuring parties to take care of the low-level threats before they become medium-level. Not only do they have to contend with the threats of the job itself, they're also crossing the picket lines and may have to face angered Troubleshooters.

 

[guachi]

Since meals cost a third and half goes to lodging, that leaves 20 percent for taxes and other things. That supports 10 percent in taxes nicely.

To bring some numbers to the table, 1900 America (which is far more like the 1600s than it is the 2000s and makes a reasonable proxy) had expenditures divided thusly:

Food 43%
Housing 23%
Apparel 14%
Healthcare 5%
Entertainment 2%
Other 13%

In modern society, food and apparel spending has crashed (17% combined) and been replaced with higher housing and transportation costs. But a medieval, and perhaps fantasy medieval, society would be spending lots just to feed and clothe itself.

 

[Mathius78]

I was basing my numbers on the price of meals and lodging in the phb but I like your numbers better. All in all it leads me to think about 10 percent of GDP would be worthwhile loot.
The question that was driving me was "How much loot could be had in Greenest from Hoard of the Dragon Queen.