As a DM, I believe my players expect a gold piece to be worth less. I feel as if they're equating a gold piece to a dollar. So when they beat up a significant creature but only come away with a couple hundred GP, they're disappointed. What's a realistic equivalent to a GP? I read once, many moons ago, that a silver piece was equivalent to $1. Is that right? How do you make monetary rewards seem worthwhile?
As a DM, I believe my players expect a gold piece to be worth less. I feel as if they're equating a gold piece to a dollar. So when they beat up a significant creature but only come away with a couple hundred GP, they're disappointed. What's a realistic equivalent to a GP? I read once, many moons ago, that a silver piece was equivalent to $1. Is that right? How do you make monetary rewards seem worthwhile?
Well, beyond the prices of various common goods that are listed in the Equipment section, you can point out that your average 1st level tradesperson (ability score 10, 1 rank in Craft or Profession, as a class skill, taking 10) makes about 7 GP for a week. 364 GP is about the annual salary for most of the population, if they're lucky enough to be able to work every week of the year.
As a DM, I believe my players expect a gold piece to be worth less. I feel as if they're equating a gold piece to a dollar. So when they beat up a significant creature but only come away with a couple hundred GP, they're disappointed. What's a realistic equivalent to a GP? I read once, many moons ago, that a silver piece was equivalent to $1. Is that right? How do you make monetary rewards seem worthwhile?
You might reference the 1st edition DMG for more information on this. The relevant passage follows. . .
It doesn't discuss *worth*, but it does address your player concerns. ;-p
"There is no question that the prices and costs of the game are based on inflationary economy, one where a sudden influx of silver and gold has driven everything well beyond its normal value. The reasoning behind this is simple. An active campaign will most certainly bring a steady flow of wealth into the base area, as adventurers come from successful trips into dungeon and wilderness. If the economy of the area is one which more accurately reflects that of medieval England, let us say, where coppers and silver coins are usual and a gold piece remarkable, such an influx of new money, even in copper and silver, would cause an inflationary spiral. This would necessitate you adjusting costs accordingly and then upping dungeon treasures somewhat to keep pace."
. . .
"While it is possible to reduce treasure in these areas to some extent so as to prolong the period of lower costs, what kind of a dragon hoard, for example, doesn't have gold and gems? It is simply more heroic for players to have their characters swaggering around with pouches full of gems and tossing out gold pieces than it is for them to have coppers. Heroic fantasy is made of fortunes and king's ransoms in loot gained most cleverly and bravely and lost in a twinkling by various means -- thievery, gambling, debauchery, gift-giving, bribes, and so forth. The "reality" AD&D seeks to create is that of the mythical heroes. . . When treasure is spoken of, it is more stirring when participants know it to be TREASURE[ed. Emphasis Original]!" -E. Gary Gygax
A gold piece doesn't equate to anything. Applying economics and conventional financial common sense to D&D/Pathfinder will break the game.
In both D&D and Pathfinder, wealth-by-level's very important. If the characters are level twelve with five hundred gold each, the Druid's probably not going to mind, as all her abilities are innate and she doesn't benefit all that much from lots of gear, while the Fighter's bread and butter is her magic sword. While five hundred gold is a phenomenal fortune to most civilians, it just doesn't cut it for level twelve characters, and if that's all they have, game balance shatters. The economics will explode past, like, level 3.
If the Paladin has a +3 sword, which she will need eventually... if she sold it, the proceeds could feed an entire thousand-person town for a year and leave enough left over for her to retire comfortably. And it gets worse from there. But thinking of a gold piece as a real, economic element doesn't work, because D&D economics don't work. A gold piece may logically be very valuable, and may be a fantastic prize to a commoner, but within the context of the game, it's squat.
Standard loot from a petty, CR 1/3 goblin is one hundred gold. In the context of the game, of loot, of adventures, a gold piece is nothing, even if that one hundred gold would be a godsend to ye olde peasant farmer.
There is also a section in the chapter on campaigns about cost of living. This can give you a guideline. For 1,000 GP a month you live like Donald Trump. For 100 GP a month you can have a set of rooms and great food at a high class inn every day.
So if they get a couple of hundred gold peices from one monster that can cover the basic room and board for a couple of years if they are content with the game world version of an apartment and fast food. Not many real world jobs can cover rent and food for two years off of one days worth of work.
Honestly, the fantasy prices aren't that far off. Think of the cost of a hotel suite at the fanciest hotel in, say, Miami. Then think of the earnings of someone in the Miami slums. Then think of that amount of money compared to an illiterate peasant in Haiti, not that very far away.
We already have a real world with the ultra rich and the ultra poor, with bits of royal bling that would still make a fantasy great wyrm drop their dragonbone dentures out of object-lust. Here, look:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/73022/photo838.html
I have personally put on a mithral chain shirt. Okay, it was a sterling silver chain shirt made by the jewelers at Chrome Hearts and on display at their store in Vegas--and it can be yours for a paltry 10K!--but it exists and can be bought if you have the bucks. And someone probably will.
A magic sword can be sold for enough to feed peasants for a year only if you find someone to buy it. However, there's probably some king with well stocked grain silos who wouldn't mind draining them a bit if it meant he got a magic sword.
After a certain point, most things in a fantasy economy are barter. Much like the real world.
There is also a section in the chapter on campaigns about cost of living. This can give you a guideline. For 1,000 GP a month you live like Donald Trump. For 100 GP a month you can have a set of rooms and great food at a high class inn every day.
So if they get a couple of hundred gold peices from one monster that can cover the basic room and board for a couple of years if they are content with the game world version of an apartment and fast food. Not many real world jobs can cover rent and food for two years off of one days worth of work.
Think of panning for gold during the California gold rush, or just running around with a metal detector in the present day.
Here, look:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/world/europe/25treasure.html?_r=1&emc =eta1
I usually consider 1 gp = 50 dollars. And generally it works quite fine.
There is also a section in the chapter on campaigns about cost of living. This can give you a guideline. For 1,000 GP a month you live like Donald Trump. For 100 GP a month you can have a set of rooms and great food at a high class inn every day.
So if they get a couple of hundred gold peices from one monster that can cover the basic room and board for a couple of years if they are content with the game world version of an apartment and fast food. Not many real world jobs can cover rent and food for two years off of one days worth of work.
There was a 3.0 article in Dragon at one time (at least I believe it was, about the time as the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook if memory serves me correctly) that saying that 2 CP = a 2x4x8 piece of lumber. That's about $2 today. So, 1 GP would be approximately $100.
At 3 GP a night, that would be $300 a night and $3K a month. I think we should have paid $300 a night for a Staybridge suite in Indy during GenCon (2 singles, a double, and a hide-a-bed for 2 rooms, a living room, and a kitchenette) and a real breakfast. So, I think that's pretty much on par.
If that's the case, I've been overtipping my bar wenches! ::visions of Euro Trip's nickel scene dancing in my head::
Urban Arcana/D20 Modern sets the rate at 1gp = 20$, as far as I know.
Could work out, I'd personally say anything between 20 and 50 $ might be alright.
The problem is more than just finding an exchange rate, though:
Not everything has the same ratio in Pathfinder as it has in the real world.
Let's assume 1gp to be 30 dollar: That means you pay 30 cents road toll, but a 300-miles ship passage costs 900 dollars. A pitcher of common wine costs 6 dollars, a set of outdoor clothes (explorer's outfit) is 300 bucks. Manacles cost 450$, a dagger can be yours for 60. A well-crafted sword is will about 10000$, and a full plate armour will come in at 45000 dollars. The mightiest magic swords go for over 6 millions dollars!
The main issue is: How do things translate? Does a set of armour in that world cost the same as an expensive car (I know, stuff like Ferraris are expensive, but 45000 dollar cars aren't exactly a steal)? Does that compute? What about that masterwork sword?
And what would a magic sword cost in our world, if there was magic? What else would we have that would be magic? For the low-low price of 120.000$, you can make yourself smarter to have a better chance to get your degree, but who can afford that? Not to mention the really smartifying item that goes for over a million.
And finally, even if we didn't compare our world with a fantasy world, we'd have to remember that adventurers don't fit into the regular economical system.
when they beat up a significant creature but only come away with a couple hundred GP, they're disappointed.No way to solve this when Full Plate costs 1650 gp and +2 magic weapon is over 8000 gp.
Give them more gold is the best solution.
My thought is different. Hurt them so they need a few potions of cure light wounds. Suddenly a couple hundred gold is meaningful.
Really, what I'm getting at is that we don't know what level these characters are. At first level, 200gp is a big deal. At fifth, no so much. At tenth, 200gp is what you throw away to enhance a Gather Information check.
The American economy is stupidly inflated in some areas, while certain luxuries are abnormally cheap; so a 1-to-1 comparison of goods and services won't really be accurate. But yeah, a good way to gauge the general "feeling of wealth" the characters will have is to say that 1cp = $1, 1sp = $10, 1gp = $100.
And "platinum" rhymes with "bling."