The Value of Money

[Persell]

I'm having a little difficulty determining the value of Jade and Silver...  In Mantacle and Coin it gives you an idea of how much a weapon may cost, or how ,much to furnish a palace, but not so much as to how much it may cost to live coin-wise.


The reason I'm asking is because I feel my players tend to blow through thier resources far faster than I think they should so I was considering using the coin and paper method and force them to keep track of thier expendatures.  Thing is it kinda doesn't tell ya what is ALOT of money and what TO LITTLE... a few examples...


How much is a warm bed and a meal for the night?


How much would a night of LIGHT drinking cost?


How much would a night of REAL drinking cost?


How much would the guild pay for a minor/major bounty?


How much to bribe a guard?


How much would a typical month of road travel cost if you ate light?


Mind you, in resources Dots I can pretty much guess... but I'm kinda lookin for the pay out in actual coin/paper.  Can anyone help?

 

[Jakk Bey]

The guides are in the descriptions in the book, but if you want a handy reference guide, here goes. Remember that most common folk aren't throwing jade coins around all that often--script is much more common, as are copper coins.  Jade is limited, and the Empire doesn't like a lot of it being used or leaving the Realm, or in the hands of commoners--and the limits on what script will buy is listed.


1 Talent--A ship. A house. More whores and ale than anyone could possibly ever want, and then a few more for your friends.


1 Bar--A carriage. An elephant.  A month's rent on a fine estate with a few servants.


1 Minae--A horse. A good sword.


1 Sheckel--A cow. Keeping a slave for year.


1 Obol--A year's earnings for a farmer.


1 Bit--A spear. A year's clothing for the farmer from above.


1 Koku--A month's wages for a well off peasant. That's food, rent, and all the basics.


1 Quian--A week's wages. Think of what you can put down for the typical $250 for yourself and your friends.


1 Siu--Your typical Sunday dinner costs for the whole family. Think of what you could put on the table for $100+ dollars, or stash in the back of your house.


1 Yen--A day's wages for our peasant. Think of what you could roll with for  $20-$50. When they say 'peasants' that means your typical fast food earner style wages for our lifestyle. The value ideas are relative to your experience, not what folks in Chinese sweatshops earn.


1//2 Yen--Food for a day. Think big ass pizza, drinks, and a bag of chips.


1/4 Yen--A meal. Not a great one either.  


1/8 Yen--A drink. A dessert. Kick the begger a buck, you cheap bastich.


Your examples might break down like this, depending on how cruel you feel like rolling with.


1)--One Yen to One Quian, depending on how posh you want to go.


2)--One Yen to One Quian, depending on how posh you want to go.


3)--One Siu to a couple of Koku, depending on how post you want to go.


4)--Minor bounty--A couple of obols to a couple of sheckels. Good bounty, worth travelling for: 10-20 sheckels. A great bounty--3 bars to a talent. More than a talent, and you're talking putting things into the realm of legendary.  You put a couple of talents on someone's head, and their own Granny may think about turning them in.


5)--Depends on the guard, and what he's guarding. Slip into a city past the watch after curfew--one that doesn't have an alert or a war on--and you could go a few Yen, to getting past a Guild payroll guard, you could be talking sheckles to minae. Maybe more.


6)--Depends on how rough you travel, and how well you eat. A couple of koku for one person,  to a couple of obol, if you eat well, and want the best.

 

[Persell]

Thanks, that does actually help.  This will give me a rough idea of where to start from.  I think I'll be able to make things a bit more manageable.


I appreciate the help Jakk.

 

[Flagg]

Moved from Game Mechanics.


-S

 

[Master of Malfeasance]

The worth of money


A good way to make yourself look like a god-like ST when it comes to money is to use economic themes that are all interrelated.


I live two hours north of my gaming group and have to cart my books back and forth for our weekend gaming sessions.  Two weeks ago, I forgot my copy of Mannacle and Coin.  No biggie, my players ask for prices of gear in Skullstone, and I start slinging numbers at them doing my best to remember what talents, obols, and dinars are worth.  My players, who have a great deal more spare time than I, notice immediately the disparity in items for which they have been paying versus things they are currently buying.  The only solution is invoking my "Resplendent Excrement Blast" charm.


I tell my group that a pirate fleet (maybe Lintha, maybe not) has been scouring the waters near Skullstone and eroding the trade that the Bodhisattva Anointed By Dark Water allows into and out of his ports.  The resulting economic recession has driven the prices of everything haywire (usually up; players will buy a straight sword that is more expensive than every other straight sword in Creation simply because it's more expensive and they're hoping for an edge).


Now you have not only created a subplot or sidequest to get the ball rolling, you have turned your own mistake into a game manifestation of your own perceived infallibility.  This will make pulling the wool over your players' eyes much easier in subsequent scenarios.

 

[psychoph]

The other thing you have to remember is that the Realm economy is going to the crapper, with the scarlet empresses gone people don't trust in the script anymore, think stock market crash and the depression in America.


People have started bartering for stuff.  If you really want to have your players feel the turoil of the Age of Sorrows make the players trade something for a nights stay and have them be told that their script is no good at this inn or that shop.  Have them trade that precious sword or something for the horse that they have to ride.