Raw Ressource/Tradegoods prices

[PhilHibbs]

Sometimes it might be good to stick with the fiction of fantasy and make it cheaper and lighter. Too much realism can bog down a game. I've been caught in this trap before and sometimes too many rules adding new layers of realism take away the fun.

I think that PCs will probably have a mix of ready cash and jewelry or other portable valuables, but the players only needs to write down a nice big SP number on their character sheets and not worry about it. Once that number gets into the thousands, then I would start asking them to make arrangements such as investments, safe deposits, etc. or they'll attract nimble fingers with all that jingling.

 

[Mixster]

So you could say that Eberron is an intrinsic economy - just that the established values of the coins are worth roughly the same their amount of metal.

Which is why it is so completely silly. If selling my coins as raw metal is just as good as selling the coin, where does the guy who mints the coins get his money?

I'm welcome to use Targath, yeah. But it makes no sense why there isn't a large amount of people already doing it. A non-intrinsic system supports everything as an even currency, which means the smartest thing to make coins of would be the thing the had the highest price/Ib and didn't go old. In olden times in the real world this would be gold. In fantasy, there's load of things that are worth much more than gold.

Personally I still don't get Intrinsic Economies of this scale, but I largely accept them out of what Mwsasser said. It's just best not to think about the economy behind it after all. since you are in ebberron, aren't there rough good prices in the PgtE? If there is not I'm certain there is in the players handbook and the DMG which are the same as in Ebberron. Also those assume a 100% cleanness of the coins, which you can take as you want it.

 

[Dan True]

Which is why it is so completely silly. If selling my coins as raw metal is just as good as selling the coin, where does the guy who mints the coins get his money?

From the nations and dragonmarked houses who want a standard coin system to better accomodate trade - especially international trade.
Besides, I actually rounded the prices off a bit, so the coins are a bit more worth than the metal in them. Not nearly as much as a modern-day world though.

But, I also agree with your earlier statement - the economy of Eberron would completely break down without the control of the Dragonmarked Houses, especially Kundarak and Cannith (finance and production) and the support to these from the nations.
But again, this is true for any economy - just look at the mess in Europe right now Without the financial control from nation banks or the European central bank, the economy of Europe would either run amok or break down. So that the same is true for Eberron, doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I'm welcome to use Targath, yeah. But it makes no sense why there isn't a large amount of people already doing it.

Well, for a number of reasons. Perhaps Targath is harder to mint, perhaps it doesn't age as well -
But more importantly, if purchasing something from a Dragonmarked House or an official store, they wouldn't accept the coinage. It's presicely the same as if you want to trade in butter or fish.
Besides, the price of Targath isn't as strictly regulated as that of Silver, gold and platinum. So the price varies more depending on location.

A non-intrinsic system supports everything as an even currency, which means the smartest thing to make coins of would be the thing the had the highest price/Ib and didn't go old. In olden times in the real world this would be gold. In fantasy, there's load of things that are worth much more than gold.

And that is why there also exists platinum Dragons, as the highest type of coin available. You couldn't use platinum and/or mithral as they are hard to forge and therefore to mint... besides, it would be a waste to use them as coin when its so good for shield and armour...

It's like saying a modern day would should make money out of carbon nanotubes if we were still using a natural-value economy.

since you are in ebberron, aren't there rough good prices in the PgtE? If there is not I'm certain there is in the players handbook and the DMG which are the same as in Ebberron. Also those assume a 100% cleanness of the coins, which you can take as you want it.

Yes, there are. I'm just converting them pre-play, as converting prices from d&d to MRQ2 is not as straight forward as it might seem. For level 1 stuff you can roughly say that 1 gp = 1 SP, but this quickly gets out of hand when handling items that are meant for higher level characters. I have some rough guidelines, but I would much better do it beforehand, as I am doing now.

Besides, the economic system in D&D is completely screwed... Pricing is made with no regard to a common basis and with no realistic adherence to the average income of person - since it's so focused on characters, not people.

I'll take a look at the mentioned prices, because there's clearly some inconsistency with mithral and adamantine.

But yes, in fantasy you shouldn't go into too much detail about these things. I merely want an internally-consistent system, so that my warforged player can produce stuff.

- Dan

 

[Mixster]

It's like saying a modern day would should make money out of carbon nanotubes if we were still using a natural-value economy.

Complete sillyness this is, off course we would be using bottle caps!

Yes, there are. I'm just converting them pre-play, as converting prices from d&d to MRQ2 is not as straight forward as it might seem. For level 1 stuff you can roughly say that 1 gp = 1 SP, but this quickly gets out of hand when handling items that are meant for higher level characters. I have some rough guidelines, but I would much better do it beforehand, as I am doing now.

Besides, the economic system in D&D is completely screwed... Pricing is made with no regard to a common basis and with no realistic adherence to the average income of person - since it's so focused on characters, not people.

I'll take a look at the mentioned prices, because there's clearly some inconsistency with mithral and adamantine.

But yes, in fantasy you shouldn't go into too much detail about these things. I merely want an internally-consistent system, so that my warforged player can produce stuff.

I actually thought you had already made a conversion list. I usually convert from system to system over the price of the most common sword, so long sword from D&D to War Sword in RQ seems like a decent way of doing it. That makes 1 D&D gc into roughly 6SP.

Oh and yeah, the D&D economy is very screwed but that is not only because of the pricing. The fact that salt is half as expensive as silver is perchance silly. The fact that you can summon up 1,000,000 pounds of salt with a 4th level spell is perhaps worse. The fact that 10 feet ladders are cheaper than 10 feet poles is also a rather ridicolous thing. The worst thing is the crafting system, which explicitly allows you to craft 3 gold bars out of 1 gold bar. All at trivial crafting rolls that a level 1 expert can handle rather easily.

So I think you can grab some of the stuff from there, but only the stuff that actually make sense.
I find Adamantine being expensive in ebberron very likely. There's a huge demand for it, since any warforged I've ever met has been wearing it as armor. But the supply only comes from Meteors and some places in the Demon Wastes. This would indicate it to be rather expensive.

 

[cthulhudarren]

Gold 1 kg 200 GC
Mithral 1 kg 28 GC
Adamantine 1 kg 32 GC

If you are basing it off D&D prices, I'm pretty sure Adamantine and Mithral should be worth more than gold. IIRC

I agree with this, I thought it was a typo and that he mean 1kg gold was 20 GC. Mithral should be SUPER expensive, but of course I like Tolkien mithral, truesilver.

This is a great exercise Dan, I am very interested in your final results. I'd like to use this in a generic low magic world.

 

[Dan True]

Gold 1 kg 200 GC
Mithral 1 kg 28 GC
Adamantine 1 kg 32 GC

If you are basing it off D&D prices, I'm pretty sure Adamantine and Mithral should be worth more than gold. IIRC

I agree with this, I thought it was a typo and that he mean 1kg gold was 20 GC. Mithral should be SUPER expensive, but of course I like Tolkien mithral, truesilver.

This is a great exercise Dan, I am very interested in your final results. I'd like to use this in a generic low magic world.

My final results are found in the equipment chapter in the Eberron conversion (link in my signature).

- Dan