Top Gold Piece

[Treebore]

I do it off the cuff, but the further out from main cities/trading centers the PC's want to buy something the more it is going to cost, and the harder it is going to be to find.

By the book prices are what the PC's find in trade centers. If they want to buy tea and I know the supply is 500 miles to the west/south/whatever your going to pay two to three times the book price. 2 times if its carried/delivered through peaceful lands, 3 to 20 times book depending on how dangerous the lands from source to market are. I only pay attention to the effects of demand when its an element of the adventure story.

Since I am pretty knowledgeable about effects of climate and geography on crop types available, and pretty knowledgeable about which geographical factors are most likely to have which mineral resources, I make pretty good off the cuff DM calls since I take note of these factors for the campaign world I am using.

 

[Treebore]

I guess I should mention why I do economics that way.

The players have gotten powerful enough and rich enough that they want to build a keep in the frontier area where they have been adventuring. I tell them the price is 180,000 gold and they freak out.

So when I point out to them that everything around here costs 3 times as much because of all the brigand bands between here and Nova's Pit drive up the costs that much. Then I mention that until those roads are made safe for travel and trade prices will stay that high.

Then I say, "So until some heroes make those roads safe, your keep is going to cost you 180,000 gold instead of 60,000 gold."

Now you guess what the next part of the campaign was about.

 

[jdrakeh]

Do retail and resale markets fluctuate in your game world or are prices, including resale prices, done by the book?

Usaually BTB, though I have tinkered with price adjustments based on wealth ratings of individual regions (e.g., Big City may have a +4 GP adjustment to all prices, while Little Hamlet may have a -8 SP adjustment to all prices). Ultimately, though, I go BTB. Otherwise, the bookeeping gets a bit intense.

 

[Imperialus]

Prices will flucuate only if something major happens. Usually one of the big 3, war, famine or plague. Even then I'll just say something like "weapons cost double and the inn seems praticularly expencive since it's crowded with mercenaries"