I was thinking about this the other day, and wondering, what kind of ransom would a noble or a knight bring in Golarion, and what nations would the practice of ransoming make the most sense in?
Obviously Taldor seems like a obvious choice for the type of place where ransoming nobles and knights and the like would happen.
How much would a noble or a knight ransom for? On one hand, rewards are generally tied to CR, but at the same time, it seems a bit metagame-ish to say that Sir X is worth 250 gp/CR, especially since a noble's sworn bodyguard could end up being worth more than the noble in that circumstance.
Just kind of wondering if anyone else has pondered this.
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I was thinking about this the other day, and wondering, what kind of ransom would a noble or a knight bring in Golarion.
I'd say that the way to approach this is to think what the people holding the knight think that the people paying the ransom would be willing and able to pay. It wouldn't surprise me if there was an actual going rate per noble rank that was adhered to in civilised realms.
Your rate of a few thousand gp seems about right to me.
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I think it would also be dependent upon the rank of the said noble. Not just the level. Say Chuckie is a Aristocrat level 2 but he is the son of a powerful Duke his ransom is going to be a lot more than say the 10th level knght who was his bodyguard simply because Chuckie is the son of a higher nobleman. So I would say tying the reward to the CR is not always the right thing to do either. Just my 2 cps.
Ransoms were generally based upon title, yearly income and renown. Thus think more about how much the ransomed noble recives yearly.
Also if you want to link ransom to CR then don't take into account nobles solo CR but the ECL of the encounter in optimal situation for the NPC. E.g. The king might be 2nd level aristocrat but to capture him in battle you have to overcome his elite guard of 4 10th level Cavaliers, Battle Wizard of 9th level, personal champion (Paladin 12), veteran unit of 20 4th level fighters and a few hundred 1st-2nd level warriors.
The Mongoose RuneQuest rules (p.32, though I have the 1st ed) have a list of ransoms for nobles and commoners. They seem to be based on reality (Pendragon also covers this, but my copy is in storage):
Knights: 600 sp
Nobles: 1200 sp
Upper nobility: 2400 sp
Lesser rulers: 64,000 sp
Kings and Royalty: 250,000 sp
Emperors: 1,000,000 sp
Silver pieces are roughly the same as in PF in buying power, but there are 20 to the gp.
Ransoms, particularly of rulers, seem to be not cost effective for high level games but very much so for lower level adventures.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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It would also depend on the family itself. I mean noble or not, would anyone really pay to take the iconic cavalier back?
More seriously, say the party captures the 5th born son of baron such-n-such. He's not going to be worth as much to baron such-n-such, he has 4 other heirs.
Theoretically yes, but mortality amongst the barons and their heirs can be quite high. The more sons alive the better. At least until they start to feud between themselves but it is another story.
Of course (N+1)th son of a noble will be less valuable than Nth son with value dropping with each increase of N... Unless it happens to be baron's favored son (or his wife favored son or his uncle, the Duke, favored nephew, etc.). However, unless subject is disinherited, his family always will *try* to negotiate ransom. There might secretly try to make the negotiations fail if they don't want him back but such attempts will be secret.
The Mongoose RuneQuest rules (p.32, though I have the 1st ed) have a list of ransoms for nobles and commoners. They seem to be based on reality (Pendragon also covers this, but my copy is in storage):
Knights: 600 sp
Nobles: 1200 sp
Upper nobility: 2400 sp
Lesser rulers: 64,000 sp
Kings and Royalty: 250,000 sp
Emperors: 1,000,000 spSilver pieces are roughly the same as in PF in buying power, but there are 20 to the gp.
Ransoms, particularly of rulers, seem to be not cost effective for high level games but very much so for lower level adventures.
I like that table, but I'd equate sp to gp. PF/D&D have such highly inflated numbers of gp floating around that those prices come out low. A ransom, to be profitable, should net more money than the price of a warhorse, for example.
I'd also perhaps approach it by backing into the number. Several of the PF sourcebooks show cost of living for people living in city wards. Assuming a noble can afford a townhouse or mansion in such a city, you could extrapolate their annual cost of living. From that number, you could assess a ransom demand. Some will pay the ransom, some won't, and some will want to pay but can't afford to do so.
If you're looking at 3PP stuff, sourcebooks like a Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe work out manorial (& higher levels of nobility) economics, which would again, provide a frame of reference.
I would NOT encourage one to base it off the character's level.
I like that table, but I'd equate sp to gp. PF/D&D have such highly inflated numbers of gp floating around that those prices come out low. A ransom, to be profitable, should net more money than the price of a warhorse, for example.
So much true. With 50 gp to a pound, 180 lbs king would yield a mere 9,000 gp with his weight in gold so this method of calculating king's ransom is rather out.
I'd also perhaps approach it by backing into the number. Several of the PF sourcebooks show cost of living for people living in city wards. Assuming a noble can afford a townhouse or mansion in such a city, you could extrapolate their annual cost of living. From that number, you could assess a ransom demand. Some will pay the ransom, some won't, and some will want to pay but can't afford to do so.
This is very good idea.
I would NOT encourage one to base it off the character's level.
This option is viable only for the total hack-n-slash dungeon crawls... Er, court crawls, or something like that.