Top Gold Piece

[el-remmen]

When players want their characters to buy mundane equipment they usually ask "Can I pay the book price for that?" And I think about where they are and what they want and either say "Ok" or quote a price that is higher or lower than the book's.

 

[Torment]

My whims, most of the time, when a PC is looking for something, I won't even look into the book, so theres alot of haggling to be had.

 

[buzz]

Another thing to keep in mind is that prices in D&D are set according to considerations of game balance, not an economic simulation. Make too drastic a change to a price and you're possibly messing with a given item's intended availability.

This is certainly true with magic items. With mundane items, well... they tend to be so dang cheap in comparison to wealth-by-level that I'm not sure why it'd be worth bothering.

 

[painandgreed]

Another thing to keep in mind is that prices in D&D are set according to considerations of game balance, not an economic simulation. Make too drastic a change to a price and you're possibly messing with a given item's intended availability.

This is especially true for food. Often, just to make prices relevant to PCs, food is priced to the point that most people would just starve (or eat only wheat which is the cheapest of all possible grains). Arms & Equipment guide was especially bad for that where fish from the local river cost more than a commoner made in a week. My pet peeve is marzipan which is 20 gp/oz when the only two ingredients, sugar and almonds, which are mixed in equal parts are 2 and 3 gp per pound.

 

[buzz]

Basically, gold is not currency in D&D. It's a point-buy system for character abilities. Keep that in mind, and you don't have to be worried by economic realities.

 

[el-remmen]

Basically, gold is not currency in D&D. It's a point-buy system for character abilities. Keep that in mind, and you don't have to be worried by economic realities.

But some of us don't want that to be the case and thus don't play it that way. . .

I have had the economy of a town destroyed by adventurers spending gold too freely. . .

 

[buzz]

But some of us don't want that to be the case and thus don't play it that way. . .

As far as I can tell from what I've read by the WotC staff, it's how the game has been designed. Ryan Dancey, in his Fear the Boot interview, said outright that D&D is not an economic simulation and that prices are based on game balance, not realism.

Granted, adventurers destroying a local economy sounds like a pretty fun adventure seed...

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

My pet peeve is marzipan which is 20 gp/oz when the only two ingredients, sugar and almonds, which are mixed in equal parts are 2 and 3 gp per pound.

Labor?

Apparently grinding sugar and almonds into a paste is "one of those jobs ______ won't do."

They need some cheap immigrant labor.

Or zombies.

 

[el-remmen]

D&D is not an economic simulation and that prices are based on game balance, not realism.

And it doesn't have to be - I only want it to have the illusion of being so. . . Just like we have the illusion of complete cultures, governments and religions, for example. . .

 

[buzz]

And it doesn't have to be - I only want it to have the illusion of being so. . . Just like we have the illusion of complete cultures, governments and religions, for example. . .

Hey, it wouldn't be D&D without illusions...