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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4824025" data-attributes="member: 4937">My thoughts usually run this way:1 sp = day's wages for a common laborer or about $50.1 gp = 10 (or 20) sp = $500 (or $1000)And starting character's average wealth to invest in adventuring gear is about 110 g.p.110 g.p. = $55,000 (or $110,000)That's a huge chunk of disposable income.  The only way to explain such wealth is inheritance and heirlooms.So what you start with in some fashion is an inheritance - either indirectly in the form of money, or indirectly as of the third son of a knight inheriting a horse, sword, and shield and being forced to go and earn his living as a sellsword.I guess I'm having a hard time seeing what you describe as being general and endemic to the game.  It's true that D&D has never required this in the core rules, but the 1st edition OA rules made it very explicit and there have been all sorts of optional rules over the course of the game for describing a character's origin.  Other gaming systems like C&S very much went in for minutia in describing a character's origins and role in society.  I seem to remember a whole 3rd edition hardback devoted in no small part to making inheritances a part of the game.The single biggest obstacle to making inheritances a significant part of the game has always been that anything that would be relevant in the hands of a 15th level character would be overpowering in the hands of a 1st level character.  Any reasonable inheritance granted to a 1st level character, would be of no practical value to the same character at 15th level.   Unlike the character's of stories, you don't generally get to inherit your father's +5 sword or an artifact level ring of invisibility at the start of the story.</blockquote>

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