Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Value of a copper piece
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5902581" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>Excellent topic of conversation.</p><p></p><p>Yes, there are differences in the modern and premodern economy due to industrialization, but the cost of handmade goods hasn't changed that much, so hand made goods can be seen as a pretty good marker of price even in today's economy.</p><p></p><p>The thing to keep in mind is that D&D has historically had two contridictory economic systems: gold based for PC's, and silver based for NPC's. I personally believe every DM needs to standardize behind one.</p><p></p><p>If you assume a gold based economy, which is easiest, then gold in the D&D universe is much more plentiful than in the real universe (which is plausible), and the average labor earns 1 g.p. per day in wages. Thus, a g.p. is worth about $50 (or so), and then a c.p. is worth about $0.25. </p><p></p><p>But if you assume a more realistic silver based economy, then a silver peice is a days wages and 1 g.p. is worth about $1000. In this economy, a c.p. is worth about $5. Note that if you go to a silver peice based economy, you have to fix the prices of everything because most everything except labor is priced in the gold peice economy. The gold peice economy isn't based strongly on labor, materials, or realistic economics, but on gamist assumptions about how useful the item is in D&D's default game of going into dark underground places, killing things, and taking their stuff. (To make matters worse, spotty information about historical prices was used to inform D&D price lists from time to time, so that some of it is randomly actually on a silver economy. One way to break the game is to buy on the silver economy, perform labor, and then sell on the gold economy. Profits will be staggering, and generally better than going into dungeons. Equally, labor saving magic is generally priced at its dungeon utility, and not at its economic utility. Again, profit is absurd.) The gold peice economy is sufficient if your game stays focused on that, but will be wildly dysfunctional if you game starts developing a real economy based on labor, trade, and so forth. Simply translating D&D price lists into understandable modern coinage is enough to reveal that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 5902581, member: 4937"] Excellent topic of conversation. Yes, there are differences in the modern and premodern economy due to industrialization, but the cost of handmade goods hasn't changed that much, so hand made goods can be seen as a pretty good marker of price even in today's economy. The thing to keep in mind is that D&D has historically had two contridictory economic systems: gold based for PC's, and silver based for NPC's. I personally believe every DM needs to standardize behind one. If you assume a gold based economy, which is easiest, then gold in the D&D universe is much more plentiful than in the real universe (which is plausible), and the average labor earns 1 g.p. per day in wages. Thus, a g.p. is worth about $50 (or so), and then a c.p. is worth about $0.25. But if you assume a more realistic silver based economy, then a silver peice is a days wages and 1 g.p. is worth about $1000. In this economy, a c.p. is worth about $5. Note that if you go to a silver peice based economy, you have to fix the prices of everything because most everything except labor is priced in the gold peice economy. The gold peice economy isn't based strongly on labor, materials, or realistic economics, but on gamist assumptions about how useful the item is in D&D's default game of going into dark underground places, killing things, and taking their stuff. (To make matters worse, spotty information about historical prices was used to inform D&D price lists from time to time, so that some of it is randomly actually on a silver economy. One way to break the game is to buy on the silver economy, perform labor, and then sell on the gold economy. Profits will be staggering, and generally better than going into dungeons. Equally, labor saving magic is generally priced at its dungeon utility, and not at its economic utility. Again, profit is absurd.) The gold peice economy is sufficient if your game stays focused on that, but will be wildly dysfunctional if you game starts developing a real economy based on labor, trade, and so forth. Simply translating D&D price lists into understandable modern coinage is enough to reveal that. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Value of a copper piece
Top