Slave prices

[Telperion]

3 gp for a pig
10 gp for a cow
15 gp for an ox

So how much for a human child?
How much more for an elven child (long life-span and all)?
For a grown woman?
For a healthy and strong man?

How much for a trained professional?

The point being that an evil slave caravan has arrived to an evil kingdom, and the PC's are evil nobles ready for shopping. Any suggestions for prices would be appreciated, since the DMG wasn't much help.

 

[ascendance]

3 gp for a pig
10 gp for a cow
15 gp for an ox

So how much for a human child?
How much more for an elven child (long life-span and all)?
For a grown woman?
For a healthy and strong man?

How much for a trained professional?

The point being that an evil slave caravan has arrived to an evil kingdom, and the PC's are evil nobles ready for shopping. Any suggestions for prices would be appreciated, since the DMG wasn't much help.

Think about how much you would have to pay that kind of NPC expert for 3 years, and you should have a pretty decent ballpark figure. For example, a laborer makes roughly 1 sp/day. So... 365 sp a year... roughly around 100 gp.

 

[Stockdale]

So how much for a human child?
How much more for an elven child (long life-span and all)?
For a grown woman?
For a healthy and strong man?

How much for a trained professional?

The economics of slavery are a little more complex than this. Check out Chains and Misery, a PDF available through rpgnow.com. I found that to be a great source for slavery information when I was looking.

 

[Trainz]

Well...

Slaves are seen like a commodity in your world, right ? So to find out the price of the commodity, it is a good start to see how expensive and difficult for the merchant to produce that. Often, slavers travel to distant countries (sometimes by boat) to capture slaves, sometimes suffering casualties in the merchant's men-at-arms. Breeding slaves takes years (if not decades), so that also increases the market price.

Based on your list, here's my ballpark:

Human child: 50 g.p.
Elven child (long life-span and all): 200 g.p.
Grown woman: 500 g.p.
Healthy and strong man: 700 g.p.
Trained professional: 1000-5000 g.p.


HTH

 

[Alenda]

Trainz wrote:

Based on your list, here's my ballpark:

Human child: 50 g.p.
Elven child (long life-span and all): 200 g.p.
Grown woman: 500 g.p.
Healthy and strong man: 700 g.p.
Trained professional: 1000-5000 g.p."

I'm running a campaign in the world of Freeport and this info. is particularly useful. Any ideas what a halfling might cost??

Just wondering,
Alenda

 

[hunter1828]

The point being that an evil slave caravan has arrived to an evil kingdom, and the PC's are evil nobles ready for shopping. Any suggestions for prices would be appreciated, since the DMG wasn't much help.

Green Ronin's Plot & Poison: A Guidebook to Drow contains a price chart for slaves of all sorts of races.

hunter1828

 

[LGodamus]

sean k reynolds said for forgotten realms areas with slaves such as Thay 50gp is about right for a slave with the sub elite array stats

 

[Hand of Evil]

Demand drives prices and while an average price is okay it is really just a maintenance fee for replacements.

 

[Nebin]

Trainz wrote:


Any ideas what a halfling might cost??

Just wondering,
Alenda

Depends if the Halfling is a Commoner/ Laborer or a fully trained sex slave, 25Gp for the first and I've got to check my records for the last.

 

[Hammerhead]

I'm sorry, but paying 700 gp for a human laborer is not an accurate price for a slave. According to the Core Rules, the average human laborer makes about 1 sp a week, right? It would cost a little more than 5 gold pieces per year to hire several of these laborers, and they would take care of their own food and shelter.

No one would ever buy a slave, they would just hire people instead. Even 50 gold pieces for a slave seems high, when you consider that it takes that same 1 sp a week to feed someone. Naturally, a slave can work in worse conditions and harsher hours than a freeman, and only the worst of jobs would be likely to be staffed by slaves if the price was 50 gp.