I've always had a hard time pricing things. Traveller has straight up costs for most things, though Striker did introduce tech level adjustments. Which I've never used, but they do make sense in theory: a higher tech level can mass produce and have more automation to get the costs widely adjusted from the base price. But for gaming, I've just stuck with the base cost for the most part. Traveller's credit, and the mortgage rules for purchasing starships, does allow the game to become accountants in space. Most players would rather gloss over the details of money, but that is part of the pull for Traveller: it costs credits to do anything, so the players may take challenging jobs to get paid.
The Fantasy Trip uses the silver as the base currency, and according to the book is the equivalent of about one US dollar. Conveniently they use the $ symbol for the silver, so that $10 is ten silvers. They also have 10 coppers to the silver, and ten silvers to the gold piece. To use a nice metric system. And there are also taxes in Cidri: border guards may collect taxes. I actually did this for the Edge City game: newcomers had to pay a silver or something for a day pass. Merchants could get a merchant pass good for a year for a few gold. The rules on age 56 indicate that the players should pay about 2% per game month of their bank balance. Think I'll just stick with larger cities may charge an entry fee if you are not a native, and border guards may collect a fee. And of course, there are always the thieves on the road to collect their fees!
So to establish some base costs that are consistent is still a bit challenging. I've been re-reading the Hexagram and they do have some base prices for Skarg's Bar (which I did not get the playmat for, though a small tavern map would be handy, I have my ancient battlemap I can use with dry erase just fine!)
Costs are:
- $1 for a mug of ale
- $3 for a shot of popskull brandy
- $2 - $4 for some kind of meat
- $5 for a small room per night per person
- $1 to spend the night on the floor in the common room
- Single Tent…... $20 / night
- 4 Person Tent…$70 / night
- Barrel of water..$40 / barrel
- Rations, 1 day…$6 (book is $5)
- Wines
- River Amigo $12
- Vibrant Orb $14
- Fantasy Buzzer $16
- Strawberry Storm $18
- Capital Rum $20
- Blueberry Wave $22
- Yellow Horror $24
- Gingerroot Blitz $26
- Black Drop $28
- Potato Smash $30
- Light Ale Cooler $40
- Oaken Wave $60
- Tea Wonder $100
- Mad Blitz $200
- Food from Sarap Evi
- Dragon Toffee…….$5 / pound
- Coffee……………...$1 / cup (small cup)
- Water…………..….2 coppers / cup, chilled
- Dried Lance Coati.$3 / serving
- Glitocan Bread……$2 / loaf
- Cured Craka………$22 / serving
- Iron Garlic Ginger Milk $15
- Craken Steak……..$40 / serving (seared)
- Medusa’s Kiss……..$30 / serving (snake stew)
Links for the Ceawla write-ups. I may go back and apply the Spectacular Settlements to that little tent city, but as it is very, very small, probably not.
Third this one has the link to the PDF. Never know if anyone ever uses those other than me, but I enjoy creating them. Looking over some of the zines I've backed, I think with a bit of polish and an editor I could try to be a creator. Talked with one of my gaming buddies and he is all for that, and another is a great artist, so we could have something.
Finally, been a bit bad about Kickstarters lately! I decided to back the 6th season for Drawlab coins - they are really nice coins. I have enough fantasy money to buy a fantasy kingdom. But I do like how it adds some immersive game play. When we get back to the table! (In looking over my backed projects, I have stuff for the next year + showing up!)
Pretty sure I'll get the Cultist Coins
I also have the character coins, but have not figured a way to really use those. TFT requires facing so they don't work for tokens on the map. But I'll figure something out!
2 comments:
For costs based on Medieval Europe I've found the following site useful, though it has many gaps:
https://regia.org/research/misc/costs.htm
That's a nice find - thanks! I figure I just need to get a base cost for most things, then I can scale up/down based on where it is (hooch in a rundown tavern, 5 coppers; a "normal" tavern a silver, and a fancy place 2-5 silvers). Sometimes I feel it is hard for the players to understand the cost of things, which is also why I like to have the physical coins at the table. Notes on a sheet of paper don't translate to "I'm on my last gold piece and no job is in sight - where will I stay and how long can I last on this bit of money?"
Of course, a lot of players don't really care - they are there for the adventure and money should not be the focus of the game. But it can be a good prod for action.
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