How many gold pieces does it take to fund an expedition?

[ElyasRavenwood]

I am just curious...

How expensive would it be to finance an expedition of exploration? Lets say as an example the Segang expedition?

What do you all think?

As a real life example:

:

15 years ago I was the photographer on a Smithsonian expedition to Brazil to study and record a Native American Indian Tribe for 3 months. There was the senior anthropologist, a curator at the National Museum of Natural History, and three other anthropologists, 1 American and 2 Brazilian, and myself, the photographer. I was told that the expedition cost $40,000

[BigNorseWolf]

Something seems off there. Even with no costs there you're looking at 26,000 a year on salary

[John Compton]

The answer's going to vary pretty heavily depending on where the expedition's headed, much as it would in the real world. Local economy could dramatically reduce the cost of hiring additional help, regional infrastructure and distance from major ports could greatly complicate logistics and escalate costs. Even weather patterns could reduce the viable exploration/excavation season to a narrow window, especially if a solid chunk of that time were dedicated to getting to the site and then leaving before the monsoon rains hit. That's not even getting into the range of personnel compensation that ranges from "lots" to the equivalent of an apprenticeship or undergraduate working to gain practical field experience.

Here's some back-of-a-napkin math that'll involve plenty of estimation.

A very rough calculation:

Let's assume that an expedition's going to involve a three-month span of travel, cartography, and other such activity. I'm also going to assume that the site is distant enough that it requires our traveling by ship with plenty of supplies. To cover the basics of maintaining a camp and helping with labor, I'm also bringing a crew of 10 hirelings of varying skill sets. Finally, I'll assume that due to a combination of hazard pay, limited supply, and shipping costs, all of my expenses are increasing by 25%.

Ultimate Equipment shows the daily wage of a hireling as being anywhere between 1 sp to 25 gp depending on the skill set, so for my team of 10 people, let's just assume it'll cost me 25 gp a day to keep everyone happy. Given it's a 90 day trip, that comes to about 2,250 gp in wages.

Transport upon a ship is going to run us about 40 gp per passenger (I'm assuming we're going about 400 miles), so we're up to around 500 gp there (remember that a few PCs are traveling, too). Add another 500 gp because I hope to transport these assistants back home, too.

Equipment is really hard to calculate without itemizing an inventory, which seems unnecessary for this discussion. Let's slap down 500 gp in expenses, which should cover everything from picks to mules to rations to basic medical supplies to paper. For the Deluxe Explorer's Package, which includes a case of antitoxins and antiplagues along with a few minor magical oddities and other contingencies for when bad things happen, let's assume it'll cost 3,000 gp.

This brings us to somewhere around 4,000-7,000 gp, and remember to add that 25% surcharge for inconveniences, bribes, and unforeseen emergencies, bringing us closer to 5,000-8,500 gp. Boost that as high as ~11,000 if you went with the deluxe alchemical contingencies kit.

Keep in mind that organizations that launch such expeditions regularly can do so at a lower expense because they buy in bulk, reuse equipment and similar assets, maintain favorable deals with service-providers, can cut costs through efficiency, and other means. Exactly how much that would save is anyone's guess.

Ultimately, Pathfinder RPG does what it can to facilitate such calculations but is not designed to be a robust economics simulator; there's just not much point to complicating the math any further for a game that's more about going on adventures. If you want to launch an all-expenses-paid expedition with a dozen capable hirelings to a fairly remote destination for a season, though, ballparking 5,000 gp would be a fair starting point.

[Neriathale]

ElyasRavenwood wrote:

I am just curious...

How expensive would it be to finance an expedition of exploration? Lets say as an example the Segang expedition?

What do you all think?

There's a chapter somewhere near the start of King Solomon's Mines where the narrator describes all the equipment and personnel needed for a hunting, shooting, treasure looting expedition into darkest Africa. I haven't read it for years but I do remember it goes into detail about all the weaponry the heroes stock up on.

That seems like a good model for the Segang Expedition.

[ElyasRavenwood]

John Thank you for taking the time to answer this post.

I was simply curious. Having done a little "exploring" earlier in my life, I was curious how much a Pathfinder Society expedition might cost in gold pieces.

Perhaps the other reason that I was wondering what the cost of an expedition would be is because I have been reading some of David Gross's fiction. I have just finished "a lesson in Taxonomy", an enjoyable read, "the fencing master" also an enjoyable story. I am about to start reading "Husks" and I am about to read Lord of Runes. Previously I have read Hells Pawns in the Council of Thieves adventure path, and Prince of Wolves, Master of Demons, Queen of Thorns, and King of Chaos.
I am looking forward to Lord of Runes.

Big Norse Wolf

:

I remember the senior scientist told me that the three month expedition to the remote part of Brazil we went to cost $40,000. I don't know how the costs broke down.