How much money/gold does the average NPC make?
Stormvessel
Member Posts: 654
I noticed that 8 gold is considered a lot of gold at an inn.
How would you estimate the economy on the Sword Coast? How much would you say the average laborer makes?
How would you estimate the economy on the Sword Coast? How much would you say the average laborer makes?
Post edited by LadyRhian on
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At least in the 2e rule book
In money terms, one gold is worth 2 electrum pieces, 10 silver and 100 copper. And a platinum piece is worth 5 gold. Most farmers, unless they are really prosperous, aren't going to see that much gold in a year. Just to buy a plow could cost 2 or 3 years worth of profits (Which is why people take care of their things- it costs too much to replace!
A subsistence farmer may only make a few gold pieces in a year- most of their food goes to feeding themselves and their families. A More prosperous farm may make 15 gold or so. Really prosperous farms may make, say 30 to 50 gold. Merchants can make more money, but bear the cost of having to actually ship their goods around- and if their caravan is attacked by orcs or goblins, they bear the loss themselves.
So, when you say "average", what sort of "average" are we talking?
If 3-5 gold is the average yearly salary, then we can estimate that 3-5 gold is equivalent to $30,000 - $50,000 USD in real world money. That would mean the 500 gold Katana at the beginning would cost $5,000,000 USD, and some of the awesome items in the game, like the Mage Robes sold by Thalantyr, would cost about $100,000,000 USD!!!
It would also mean that a single night in an inn (8 Gold) cost $80,000 USD.
Surely 3 - 5 Gold is a daily average ($60 - $100 USD) and not a yearly average?
The game only have one currency because it would be confusing to have several and wouldn't be needed in a game like Baldur's Gate. But when you remove the lesser currencies and only have the highest and most valued one, it won't make much sense outside of the game. It's like if you removed all bills except the 100 dollar one, instead of having a room cost 80 dollars it would end up being 800.
A relatively prosperous small town or hamlet might have an "average" yearly income of, say 12 gp. That includes the farmer who is barely getting by and the merchant who lives in town and runs the local general store, plus the blacksmith, who does most of his work shoeing horses for the farmers and couldn't make a sword if his life depended on it (and if he tried, it would be crude and extremely unbalanced-useless for combat).
In a larger town on a main caravan route, it may go up a bit to 40 gp per year. The mayor may make closer to 100 gp, but there are also more people at the lower end, which brings things down a bit. In a city, higher still, may 200 gp. But you have nobles who live there, and the poor which eke out a living on charity- otherwise, they are destitute.
In all cases, keep in mind that most of this isn't going to be actual coins, generally. Some of it is payment in coins (goods and the like). So the merchant may be rich on paper, but his wealth is tied up in his merchandise to sell. For the farmer, his money will come in the form of the crops he's tending and the goods he owns to help him on the farm (Stock like horses and cows, or chickens, farm implements like hayforks, threshers and possibly a wagon to help him take his crops to town or to be sold). His stock of actual coin will be small and hoarded against the possibility of some form of failure or disaster (loss of an animal, breaking of something important). Really small or poor farmers may join together to own something that helps them all, like an expensive plow or a bull to impregnate their milk cows. Even joint ownership of horses to pull said plow can be pulled off- and rotated around to plow fields in the spring among the "owners".
In small towns, a mug of cheap ale or beer might only be a copper or two. In really small towns, there might not even be an inn, and farmwives will brew their own beer. Keep in mind that most of the drinks orderable in the game are generally from far away. Golden Sands Lager appeared in Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue and is from Calimshan. That's a fair piece away from Baldur's Gate and Amn. Dragon's Breath Beer is from Immersea, Suzale is from Cormyr and Shadowdark Ale is from Shadowdale. All of these are specialty brews- and yet, they are what you are drinking in Baldur's Gate. So it's no surprise that you are paying quite a markup for drinks.
"Suzale" is the ale made for the household of the Royal Family, and "Elminster's Choice" isn't really such. As Aurora's Whole Realms catalogue says, Elminster will drink "anything this side of Gorgon's milk".
Mercenaries earn 1 silver per day per level for low risk work, ie guarding a house, assuming they are Warrior NPC class. Any PC class levels cost 1 gold per level per day, so hiring a fighter costs ~10x as much as a warrior. Maintaining an army is expensive! Note, that price assumes you are supplying and replacing gear needed.
There was a definite attempt in 3rd to make economies kinda reasonable, but things fall apart when you count even mid to low level adventurers. An adventurer with 2k gp in disposable income is pretty wealthy, being wealthier than plenty of nobles (their assets wouldnt be liquid, and land has upkeep costs/nobles have to maintain a minimum standard of living). This is played straight when a 'retired' low level adventurer buys an inn.