What's the value of D&D currency?

Geron Raveneye

Explorer
Something that irks me each time I ponder the prices is the relative value of D&D gold. Not in relation to modern currencies, mind you, but in itself. If I gather the price tables correctly, they're done after a "What can it do/What is the price" balance fashion. So I was wondering if the value of gold can be set after some more life-like necessities. And here's the question I would love to hear your opinon on: How much cash does a typical farmer in any given D&D world need to feed and clothe himself and his family (arbitrarily: one wife, 5 kids of various age, no helper on the farm)? I'd like to try and set this by the Equipment table one can find in the PHB (I'm working with 3.0, but I DO hope they didn't change that too much for 3.5 ;) ).

Any help is very appreciated. :)
 

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If you persist in trying to treat D&D item prices as a serious guide to in-game economic conditions, I will be forced to repost the example of the seven and a half billion chickens. And I do not want to repost the example of the seven and a half billion chickens. So don't do it, people!
 

Hmmm, don't get me wrong there, hong. I am aware of the fact that the prices in the PHB don't reflect a working economy, by any standards. I think I mentioned that in my first post..kinda?
What I'd like to try is get a common denominator for the "basic value of living" for the common guy, and adjust prices accordingly? I could as well try and adjust the value of a kingdom's currency by it's political power, or the relative frequency of gold deposits according to my d%...but I always thought the best way to demonstrate the value of a gold coin was to go and say "One farmer can live off this for a good week." or something like that. Get my drift? :)
 
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Today value of currencies are mostly based on the price of a hamburger or the simple question what does one hamburger cost.

The value of a gold coin is a gold coin or 10 sp, it is the unit of measure.
 

Wow

Hand of Evil said:
Today value of currencies are mostly based on the price of a hamburger or the simple question what does one hamburger cost.

The value of a gold coin is a gold coin or 10 sp, it is the unit of measure.

Do tell? Not really, huh? :rolleyes:
 

Geron Raveneye said:
What I'd like to try is get a common denominator for the "basic value of living" for the common guy, and adjust prices accordingly?

You might want to work that backwards - choose or determine how much the common guy gets paid, and set prices accordingly.

Hong's billions of chickens is a nice piece of absurdity, but it is based upon an absurd notion - that the prices listed in the book are suitable for considering large-volume cases. The price listings reflect end-consumer, low-volume purchases. That simply doesn't extend into the wholesale areana.
 

Geron Raveneye said:
Do tell? Not really, huh? :rolleyes:

Yes, really. :)

I don't think you will get a conversion. The GP is a gold standard that is equal no matter where you go in D&D. If you were to create different gold coins with different values you have to build your own exchange rate and then keep track of it, too much work. :)

Now if you are trying to work a relationship to todays prices I think I would work on the cost of a beer (common item) in D&D and in real life, build a conversion from that.
 
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Geron Raveneye said:
What I'd like to try is get a common denominator for the "basic value of living" for the common guy, and adjust prices accordingly?
It says this in the Equipment chapter; untrained labor gets 1 sp a day, which perhaps coincidentaly is equal to what a poor meal in an inn costs, or what a full suit of poor clothing costs. I think things work out pretty well on that basis, meaning that the poor will simply never afford most of what's on the equipment list. Being peasents and all.
 

I think you guys were missing the question. He wants to know how much gold it would cost average Joe farmer to feed and clothe his family for 1 year, I think. To make things easy I set 1 year equal to 12 months, each month having 3 10 day weeks.

So based on 7 people, say they each get 1 new set of clothes a year, that would be 7 silver.

Then saying they raise most of thier own food but still need to buy other things an average cost of about 2 silver per day for the whole family. That would be 720 silver for the year.

Then say they have 1 horse/mule to help with the plowing and what not, feed for that horse is 5 copper per day, leading to a total of 180 silver for the year.

So between food, clothes and feed it would be about 91 gold for the year or 2 gold, 5 silver per week.
 

Well, assuming he's a fairly self sufficient farmer-type, he's not gonna need much, but he's not gonna have much to spare. 5 people, and 3 are kids? What vegetables they eat can easily be harvested from their garden/crop. 2 pigs and 3 cows is plenty for meat in a year, and another, we'll say, 2 cows for milk and cheese, and maybe a goat for good measure. Throw in a bull to keep those cows around, and you're set. A good 5 chickens gives plenty of eggs, and a rooster means some poulty now and again, too. If they grow some grain, that takes care of all their bread (big part), beer, and wine (flowers and wild berries for flavor). We'll figure Farmer John isn't also a shephard, so he has to barter for his linen. That should be taken care of by spare beef and byproducts, not to mention all that grain he's not going to use.

Anyhow, I mean to say that it comes down to Farmer John not having any gold, but not needing any, either. I twitch in pain when a small village offers the PC's 150 gp to rescue the priest's daughter, or whatever. Why the hell do these people have all this useless gold sitting around? Anyway, I'm sure you're familiar with that rant.

If you wanted to sit around and buy all your stuff, assuming no level of self-sufficience, it'd be...
15 sp/day for "common meals", or 547 gp and 5 sp/year
2 artisan's outfits/year for Farmer John is 2 gp/year
1 cold weather outfit/year (everyone has one, but figure one outfit lasts 5 years) is 8 gp/year (!!!)
10 peasant's outfits/year is 1 gp/year

That all comes out to 558 gp and 5 sp/year, or ~1 gp and 5 sp/day

That doesn't include the price of broken tools, work animals, feed for those animals, repairing their roof every spring, local taxes, candles, crockery, etc.
 

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