Hello!
I'm a fairly new GM and in one of the following sessions, the PCs will most likely encounter a brothel. I have no idea of what costs to put up for the girls-for-hire there (the players are definitely going to inquire about this, no doubt here).
Will be greatful for any thoughts or suggestions on the gp range for such a purchase :)
Thanks!
You can't charge more than 1 GP. 1 GP is a week's worth of hard working.
If you're charging more, those ladies/boys wouldn't have any reason to keep doing it, they'll be filthy richEDIT= from profession
You can earn half your Profession check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work
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...can players pay more?
You can't charge more than 1 GP. 1 GP is a week's worth of hard working.
If you're charging more, those ladies/boys wouldn't have any reason to keep doing it, they'll be filthy richEDIT= from profession
You can earn half your Profession check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work
Try reading the Perform rules.
Personally, I would like 2-3 for 3d6.
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I suppose it'd vary based on the "quality" of the establishment and uh... "skill" of the professional... A prostitute trying to attract sailors by the docks would charge much less than a prostitute from the city's most exclusive brothel selling their services to the wealthiest men and women in the city .
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Hello!
I'm a fairly new GM and in one of the following sessions, the PCs will most likely encounter a brothel. I have no idea of what costs to put up for the girls-for-hire there (the players are definitely going to inquire about this, no doubt here).
Will be greatful for any thoughts or suggestions on the gp range for such a purchase :)
Thanks!
You can't charge more than 1 GP. 1 GP is a week's worth of hard working.
If you're charging more, those ladies/boys wouldn't have any reason to keep doing it, they'll be filthy richEDIT= from profession
You can earn half your Profession check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work
earning a decent amount does not mean they'll be filthy rich.
Also all you need is to earn 14 gold from your check and you could easily only have two clients a day and make a gold from each.
It's all a matter of quality over quantity.
Or have it be a performance check as The Mortonator suggests.
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I disagree, just because the players use the profession check rules does not mean NPCs do (otherwise everyone would have equal wealth).
To me this is like any other quality service, you get what you pay for. A 50 gp hooker is way better than a 5 gp one, or at least will seem that way. Also it depends on what they want out of it.
In other words, make it up, put it at a level they're willing to spend and go with it.
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I disagree, just because the players use the profession check rules does not mean NPCs do (otherwise everyone would have equal wealth).
To me this is like any other quality service, you get what you pay for. A 50 gp hooker is way better than a 5 gp one, or at least will seem that way. Also it depends on what they want out of it.
In other words, make it up, put it at a level they're willing to spend and go with it.
Just because PCs use skill points/hit points/save throws/spells doesn't mean NPCs do!
I mean I get it a GM can do what they want but still that's a horrible basis for any argument.
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Yeah, the default assumption of the game is that the same rules apply to everyone.
Now, since we know that the price for engaging a prostitute's services range from 5cp to 10gp, we can have some fun.
According to the GMG, a prostitute has a +8 check in Profession (courtesan), which is the skill with which the prostitute earns money. Such a prostitute is a 2nd level character, and will earn 9gp per week.
However that prostitute is just an average one you might meet on any street corner. The ones you find down by the docks with bad breath and disfiguring conditions probably don't have more than +5, so they earn 7.5 gp per week. At 5cp a go, that's 150 clients a week serviced, or 30 per day in a 5-day week. Long hard days.
Now, I don't mean to imply that all prostitutes charge 5cp. Higher-skilled, higher-class, more inventive, more niche prostitutes will charge more.
And while a given prostitute would be hard-pressed to actually earn more than 15-20gp per week, pimps/madams are a thing.
I disagree, just because the players use the profession check rules does not mean NPCs do (otherwise everyone would have equal wealth).
To me this is like any other quality service, you get what you pay for. A 50 gp hooker is way better than a 5 gp one, or at least will seem that way. Also it depends on what they want out of it.
In other words, make it up, put it at a level they're willing to spend and go with it.
Just because PCs use skill points/hit points/save throws/spells doesn't mean NPCs do!
I mean I get it a GM can do what they want but still that's a horrible basis for any argument.
In some things that would be true, but in economics it is self evident that NPCs don't work by PC rules, otherwise every merchant would lose money.
While of course it is a fantasy world, it takes more imagination than I have to believe that it wouldn't have high price (and low price) call girls.
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I disagree, just because the players use the profession check rules does not mean NPCs do (otherwise everyone would have equal wealth).
To me this is like any other quality service, you get what you pay for. A 50 gp hooker is way better than a 5 gp one, or at least will seem that way. Also it depends on what they want out of it.
In other words, make it up, put it at a level they're willing to spend and go with it.
Just because PCs use skill points/hit points/save throws/spells doesn't mean NPCs do!
I mean I get it a GM can do what they want but still that's a horrible basis for any argument.
In some things that would be true, but in economics it is self evident that NPCs don't work by PC rules, otherwise every merchant would lose money.
While of course it is a fantasy world, it takes more imagination than I have to believe that it wouldn't have high price (and low price) call girls.
The only place I'm willing to bend on this is the selling price of items. That part is an obvious "screw the PCs" position, however as the thread I linked to above shows, the economics of pathfinder work rather fine.
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otherwise every merchant would lose money.
PC's sell stuff at half money because they are trying to sell it quickly, if they setup a shop, wait for an interested buyer, they will most likely earn more.
Mummy Mask does give us some insight about what happens when the market doesn't want your goods, prices will drop even lower than 50%.You also have to consider that valuables, art and goods will sell for full price, regardless if you are PC's or NPC's. That's because their value hardly goes down if they are stolen or illegal.
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Hello!
I'm a fairly new GM and in one of the following sessions, the PCs will most likely encounter a brothel. I have no idea of what costs to put up for the girls-for-hire there (the players are definitely going to inquire about this, no doubt here).
Will be greatful for any thoughts or suggestions on the gp range for such a purchase :)
Thanks!
You can't charge more than 1 GP. 1 GP is a week's worth of hard working.
If you're charging more, those ladies/boys wouldn't have any reason to keep doing it, they'll be filthy richEDIT= from profession
You can earn half your Profession check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work
Well, you also have to consider the 'costs of doing business'.
That can mean different things depending on the work environment. It either means that you have to hand of 9 silver of that 1 gold to the guy in the purple fur coat with the wide brimed hat that has a feather in it, or else he will use an unarmed strike (back hand)...
Or you are talking about a nice, high class brothel that needs to spend money on all the expensive decorations, wine, pretty dresses, etc. And you have to pay various support personnel, such as guards against 'rowdy customers', bartenders, cleaning staff, fluffers, etc. You will see this much more often in places dealing with rich businessmen and nobles.
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You can't charge more than 1 GP. 1 GP is a week's worth of hard working.
If you're charging more, those ladies/boys wouldn't have any reason to keep doing it, they'll be filthy rich
Based on what they show in that HBO show, the entertainers in real life are making as much in a session (however long that is, they don't really say) as an auto worker is making in a week.
So, not really all that unreasonable.
Hell, look at real life values.
Since I don't know much, I would expect '$500' to be a normal value. But that is a week's pay for a lot of people.
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In real life there are drug addict hookers who would hook you up for $20 or less, and then there are high end "escorts" charge thousands of dollars to rich men.
The sex trade is like any other product. People will charge what people are willing to pay, and that ability/willingness to pay ranges very far.
You can literally charge anything in-game for such a thing. If it is a seedy red-light basement of a tavern, have the girls cost a few silver pieces.
If it is a high end establishment, have them charge 5-10 gold pieces.
If it is a free-willed succubus with a hankering for mortal love and that is willing to sell her talents, she could charge hundreds or even thousands of gold coins for a night.
As a rule of thumb, a prostitute visit costs the same as a pair of shoes.
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Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......
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Other rule of thumb: a copper piece is a dollar bill. A gold piece is a hundred-dollar bill. If you need to convert prices, that works pretty well for a lot of mundane things.
Other rule of thumb: a copper piece is a dollar bill. A gold piece is a hundred-dollar bill. If you need to convert prices, that works pretty well for a lot of mundane things.
Like, on one-to-one value? Because that doesn't make very much sense.
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Other rule of thumb: a copper piece is a dollar bill. A gold piece is a hundred-dollar bill. If you need to convert prices, that works pretty well for a lot of mundane things.
Yup.
Given that exchange rate, this article suggests that there might be companions available in the 400 gp per night range.
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Other rule of thumb: a copper piece is a dollar bill. A gold piece is a hundred-dollar bill. If you need to convert prices, that works pretty well for a lot of mundane things.Like, on one-to-one value? Because that doesn't make very much sense.
Actually, it does.
For example a "bedroll" costs 1 sp; I can get a cheap sleeping bag (its modern equivalent) at Target for around $10. A 1 cp candle can be found in the next aisle over for $1. A "poor meal" at a restaurant is 1 sp, which sounds like the $10 special at Denny's, but if I want to impress my date with a 5 sp "good meal," I can probably count on dropping $50 or so.
A peasant's outfit is $10 (1 sp), which today would probably be a wifebeater and cheap trousers, while a professional ("scholar") can expect to drop 5 gp on a $500 suit. (Ask any lawyer, that's a pretty cheap suit, actually -- but you can always go upscale from there to a courtier's outfit (30 gp) if you want a $3000 designer suit.) Or buying piecemeal, eyeglasses are 5 gp ($500, which is almost exactly the price I had to pay last week for a set of replacements), a kilt is 2 sp ($20), and a pair of skis is 5 gp ($500).
Staying at a poor inn costs you 2 sp ($20) per night -- I've stayed at that motel, and it wasn't pleasant, but I've stayed there. I try to stay at the common inns (5 sp, $50) instead, but sometimes I'm in expensive cities or on an expense account, and a good inn at 2 gp ($200) a night is not out of the quesiton.
Visiting the doctor at the local clinic usually costs around 1 gp ($100), and I can easily get myself a car ("carriage") for 100 gp ($10,000), although that's not a high-end model.
It's not a bad conversion, as it goes. Sure, some things (spellcasting services) just can't be converted, and some things break the scale because the worlds are different -- books, ink, and paper are much more expensive in a pre-Gutenberg universe. But 1 cp == $1 is the system I use when someone asks me how much it would be for a ceramic cup, or an ostrich feather for a hat, or a bearskin rug, or whatever.
Actually, it does.
For example a "bedroll" costs 1 sp; I can get a cheap sleeping bag (its modern equivalent) at Target for around $10. A 1 cp candle can be found in the next aisle over for $1. A "poor meal" at a restaurant is 1 sp, which sounds like the $10 special at Denny's, but if I want to impress my date with a 5 sp "good meal," I can probably count on dropping $50 or so.
A peasant's outfit is $10 (1 sp), which today would probably be a wifebeater and cheap trousers, while a professional ("scholar") can expect to drop 5 gp on a $500 suit. (Ask any lawyer, that's a pretty cheap suit, actually -- but you can always go upscale from there to a courtier's outfit (30 gp) if you want a $3000 designer suit.) Or buying piecemeal, eyeglasses are 5 gp ($500, which is almost exactly the price I had to pay last week for a set of replacements), a kilt is 2 sp ($20), and a pair of skis is 5 gp ($500).
Staying at a poor inn costs you 2 sp ($20) per night -- I've stayed at that motel, and it wasn't pleasant, but I've stayed there. I try to stay at the common inns (5 sp, $50) instead, but sometimes I'm in expensive cities or on an expense account, and a good inn at 2 gp ($200) a night is not out of the quesiton.
Visiting the doctor at the local clinic usually costs around 1 gp ($100), and I can easily get myself a car ("carriage") for 100 gp ($10,000), although that's not a high-end model.
It's not a bad conversion, as it goes. Sure, some things (spellcasting services) just can't be converted, and some things break the scale because the worlds are different -- books, ink, and paper are much more expensive in a pre-Gutenberg universe. But 1 cp == $1 is the system I use when someone asks me how much it would be for a ceramic cup, or an ostrich feather for a hat, or a bearskin rug, or whatever.
A knife costs $200, a wooden holy symbol costs $100, a common musical instrument is $500.
There are plenty of prices that are crazy when converted. Economy in Pathfinder is an abstraction, it tends to break down when you seriously start quantifying it.
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A knife costs $200, a wooden holy symbol costs $100, a common musical instrument is $500.
Yes, yes, and yes.
A good knife, the sort you'd actually be willing to rely on in the wilderness, is typically in the $50-150 range.
An actual holy symbol affiliated with a church is usually a little cheaper, but normally in the $20-50 range (among other things, it's a church fund raiser, and the community enjoy supporting their local parish. They're a little harder to find on-line, though, because you need to know which community you're looking at.
Oh, and a common musical instrument? The cheapest guitar by Martin is over $600. A "standard student trumpet" is about $200, but a good one will run you $500-600 or more. A Yamaha "student" flute is $436.
So, yeah, that conversion rate is looking pretty good.
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A knife costs $200, a wooden holy symbol costs $100, a common musical instrument is $500.Yes, yes, and yes.
A good knife, the sort you'd actually be willing to rely on in the wilderness, is typically in the $50-150 range.
An actual holy symbol affiliated with a church is usually a little cheaper, but normally in the $20-50 range (among other things, it's a church fund raiser, and the community enjoy supporting their local parish. They're a little harder to find on-line, though, because you need to know which community you're looking at.
Oh, and a common musical instrument? The cheapest guitar by Martin is over $600. A "standard student trumpet" is about $200, but a good one will run you $500-600 or more. A Yamaha "student" flute is $436.
So, yeah, that conversion rate is looking pretty good.
Recall that "dagger" also covers kitchen knives or the 15$ crap I can get at safeway. A masterwork knife, y'know the "good stuff", would be somewhere in the realm of $30,000.
A wooden holy symbol also covers some twigs tied together or something carved in ones free time. $100 is steep at best.
Common refers to quality. You can pick up a crappy aucostic guitar for less than $100. What you're describing could be considered masterwork which jumps suddenly to $10,000.
I'm fine if we want to keep cherry-picking cases for both our sides but things are going to keep breaking down and looking weird the more we examine them.
Actual musical instruments that professional people actually use, $500 is on the low end.
Pretty sure they don't mean kazoos when they say 'common musical instrument'.
A kazoo would be about $80 based on the price of the cheepest of the three whistles that I saw.
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Actual musical instruments that professional people actually use, $500 is on the low end.
Yup. When you walk into the live music night, even if it's just amateur night, at the Pig and Whistle, you probably won't see anything on the stage that costs less than $500. Except possibly some of the groupies.
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Didn't it equate to 1 sp = $1 in 3.5e? I swear I saw that somewhere.
And it makes more sense in the economy like this.
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I kind of eyeballed the prices, and what you were getting, and 1 cp = 1$ worked out pretty well. It's a good rule of thumb, not much more.
Of course, the magic item economy still makes no sense when compared to the everything-else economy. Mass production and computers, in particular, make big big differences. ("Yes, my Stone Of All Recorded Knowledge and Hypnotic Pattern Generator costs 6 gp"... fondles iPad...)
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Hello!
I'm a fairly new GM and in one of the following sessions, the PCs will most likely encounter a brothel. I have no idea of what costs to put up for the girls-for-hire there (the players are definitely going to inquire about this, no doubt here).
Will be greatful for any thoughts or suggestions on the gp range for such a purchase :)
Thanks!
You can't charge more than 1 GP. 1 GP is a week's worth of hard working.
If you're charging more, those ladies/boys wouldn't have any reason to keep doing it, they'll be filthy richEDIT= from profession
You can earn half your Profession check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work
Being filthy rich has never stopped anyone from working before. Just look at all the rich CEOs out there.
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An actual holy symbol affiliated with a church is usually a little cheaper, but normally in the $20-50 range (among other things, it's a church fund raiser, and the community enjoy supporting their local parish. They're a little harder to find on-line, though, because you need to know which community you're looking at.
I'd half justify the price with the need for sacred rights and such.
All I am saying- I can't channel energy out of the crucifix I bought at wall mart for $10. Maybe it needs sanctifying with holy rights, particular to the deity:
-generic holy water/oils/whatever for most good deities
-cayden- soak in booze, preferrably made from the wood of a keg that was used in a great party
-rovagug- soak in blood, and then break it a bit
-asmodeus- it actually costs that much with gold trim and such since you better show off that ill gotten wealth; also, bribes to higher level clerics.
-abadar- standard filing fee to register a holy symbol with the church- takes 3-4 weeks for the symbol to take effect after processing of the paperwork
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We are talking about prostitute.
And sometimes these discussions take on a life of their own.
To dwell on the negative origin detracts from the enlightenment of the subsequent iterations and derivations thereof.
I personally prefer getting away from the rather distasteful origin point and the extrapolation of all goods/services/etc based on the conversion factors.
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A peasant's outfit is $10 (1 sp), which today would probably be a wifebeater and cheap trousers, while a professional ("scholar") can expect to drop 5 gp on a $500 suit.
We know that it's common vernacular in the US to refer to white tank tops as "wifebeaters", but given the terms roots in domestic abuse stereotypes, we'd really prefer if folks avoided the term on our site. If you have feedback on this, feel free to ping us at community@paizo.com.
As an aside: we're kinda giving this thread the stink eye. Please keep this respectful and civil folks!
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Being filthy rich has never stopped anyone from working before. Just look at all the rich CEOs out there.
It surely stopped someone at some point... At least for as long as they could stay rich without working. :P
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Time for some more number-crunching, this time using our average CR 1 prostitute with +8 in Profession (courtesan).
The details for a "companion" note that an hour's service is typically "a few silver", which could be anything from 3-5 sp, so we'll use 4sp for this, plus the price of a room, which will be of the order of another 3 sp (minimum good accommodation for a private room, 1/8th of a 2 gp night can be rounded up to 3 sp).
So, a one hour service call with a typical prostitute sets an adventurer back 7 sp, of which she sees 4 sp. Since the prostitute is earning 9 gp profit per 5-day week, 22.5 of the customers are covering that, but there's rent and meals to pay for, too, so let's assume a poor lifestyle at 1sp per day, 7sp per week, which would be another 2.5 customers (if the prostitute has an average lifestyle it's another 6.5 customers).
Still a busy person, but not too overworked.
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A knife costs $200, a wooden holy symbol costs $100, a common musical instrument is $500.Yes, yes, and yes.
A good knife, the sort you'd actually be willing to rely on in the wilderness, is typically in the $50-150 range.
An actual holy symbol affiliated with a church is usually a little cheaper, but normally in the $20-50 range (among other things, it's a church fund raiser, and the community enjoy supporting their local parish. They're a little harder to find on-line, though, because you need to know which community you're looking at.
Oh, and a common musical instrument? The cheapest guitar by Martin is over $600. A "standard student trumpet" is about $200, but a good one will run you $500-600 or more. A Yamaha "student" flute is $436.
So, yeah, that conversion rate is looking pretty good.
Recall that "dagger" also covers kitchen knives or the 15$ crap I can get at safeway. A masterwork knife, y'know the "good stuff", would be somewhere in the realm of $30,000.
A wooden holy symbol also covers some twigs tied together or something carved in ones free time. $100 is steep at best.
Common refers to quality. You can pick up a crappy aucostic guitar for less than $100. What you're describing could be considered masterwork which jumps suddenly to $10,000.
I'm fine if we want to keep cherry-picking cases for both our sides but things are going to keep breaking down and looking weird the more we examine them.
Um.....a "Dagger" is most certainly NOT a kitchen knife. It specifically states in the description that it is a "Fighting Knife". It does not represent grabbing your cheese knife and going after a Goblin with it. In the past (2.0-3.5) there were clear distinctions between "Knife" and "Dagger", with the former being far cheaper and doing less damage.
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Didn't it equate to 1 sp = $1 in 3.5e? I swear I saw that somewhere.
And it makes more sense in the economy like this.
Inflation
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I had my PC in RotRL bail on the other PCs as soon as she learned planeshift (stranding them inside Runeforge), and she proceeded to go on a week's long bender in the planar city of Galisemni, including spending much of the time in and out of various brothels or arm in arm with hired escorts.
I never bothered to look up or set a price since it was all stuff happening in-between game sessions, largely as a bit of email RP and my writing a story to convince the GM to let my PC back into the game after she abandoned with the other PCs. Because she had a Wisdom of 5, little to no self-control, and being flush with gold, I just had her drop a ludicrous amount on it all. Something like 2k gold in the space of a week on flesh and largess, more or less.