It is hard to relate money to a middle ages (or middle ages fantasy) economy the same as it hard to relate to a Mexican or 3rd world economy. In and around 2001 for example a 3rd World country might sell a Big Mac for $5 yet the average wage is a $1 a day. and a local hotel costs $5 a night but an American chain $50.
I use gold as $100 or so, but use the silver standard. Some regions have it at about $1,000 per and at the low end gold is about $10.
A potion of healing might indeed be several houses, an then it might not even be a night in a hotel:
"...what exactly do you get when you’re spending between $5,000 and $25,000 for a hotel room, which is the range of our list? Space is the most obvious. All of the rooms on the list are huge, averaging more than 5,000 square feet, and that is not counting terraces and balconies..."(1)
(1) http://www.forbes.com/2002/03/07/0307feat.html
Luxuries for the middle ages mean no rotten food, no lice, and no bed bugs, and fancy silk sheets and the rest.
But a suit of plate mail takes 3 months to make, so 3 months of wages plus materials. In Toronto a police officer makes $100,000 a year, so 3 months of labour would be about $25,000.
Potions only take a few days to make, but this excludes the time to make a 7th level mage who can make the potion and also the time to gather trolls blood and other such materials.
Modern equivalent of healing potions would be expensive modern drugs - some of which if need regularly pass the million mark. A healing potion gives instant relief and is quite the bargain.
College athletes are about the same as your average low risk adventurer, high revenue with some risk. The cost for a team about a million a year, assuming these examples are typical:
"According to The Birmingham News, these plans weren’t cheap. In the 2010-11 academic year, Alabama paid $1.96 million for medical expenses and insurance. Auburn paid $852,477."
So at $100 per gold piece a team (of twenty?) costs 8,500 gp -19,000 gp of healing potions a year, or about 400-800 gp a year per person. More serious injuries of military personal would be far more.
And of course a healing potion saves months of healing and works instantly, so an adventurer is on a premium plan.
But it certainly does not go neatly, but adventures seem to be a the low end college sports players and at the high end skilled Blackwater types with high salaries and incredible expenses.
Even the cheap RPG will ad up:
"The price of a good quality Russian AK-47 assault rifle has almost doubled in the past 10 months from around $1,100 to $2,100. A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher cost $900 last March and a single grenade was priced at around $100. Today an RPG launcher is worth $2,000 and each grenade $500."
The ammo at 5 gp (500) in a major battle might shoot off a 100 of things and be at $50,000 dollars.
The "horse" of today's world about 6 million:
"army's UH-60L Black Hawk is $5.9 million"
or 60,000 gp. Regardless a merc D&D unit would not think to go without armor and weapons, and the helicopter or some equipment is SOP for the modern adventure equivalent.
I use gold as $100 or so, but use the silver standard. Some regions have it at about $1,000 per and at the low end gold is about $10.
A potion of healing might indeed be several houses, an then it might not even be a night in a hotel:
"...what exactly do you get when you’re spending between $5,000 and $25,000 for a hotel room, which is the range of our list? Space is the most obvious. All of the rooms on the list are huge, averaging more than 5,000 square feet, and that is not counting terraces and balconies..."(1)
(1) http://www.forbes.com/2002/03/07/0307feat.html
Luxuries for the middle ages mean no rotten food, no lice, and no bed bugs, and fancy silk sheets and the rest.
But a suit of plate mail takes 3 months to make, so 3 months of wages plus materials. In Toronto a police officer makes $100,000 a year, so 3 months of labour would be about $25,000.
Potions only take a few days to make, but this excludes the time to make a 7th level mage who can make the potion and also the time to gather trolls blood and other such materials.
Modern equivalent of healing potions would be expensive modern drugs - some of which if need regularly pass the million mark. A healing potion gives instant relief and is quite the bargain.
College athletes are about the same as your average low risk adventurer, high revenue with some risk. The cost for a team about a million a year, assuming these examples are typical:
"According to The Birmingham News, these plans weren’t cheap. In the 2010-11 academic year, Alabama paid $1.96 million for medical expenses and insurance. Auburn paid $852,477."
So at $100 per gold piece a team (of twenty?) costs 8,500 gp -19,000 gp of healing potions a year, or about 400-800 gp a year per person. More serious injuries of military personal would be far more.
And of course a healing potion saves months of healing and works instantly, so an adventurer is on a premium plan.
But it certainly does not go neatly, but adventures seem to be a the low end college sports players and at the high end skilled Blackwater types with high salaries and incredible expenses.
Even the cheap RPG will ad up:
"The price of a good quality Russian AK-47 assault rifle has almost doubled in the past 10 months from around $1,100 to $2,100. A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher cost $900 last March and a single grenade was priced at around $100. Today an RPG launcher is worth $2,000 and each grenade $500."
The ammo at 5 gp (500) in a major battle might shoot off a 100 of things and be at $50,000 dollars.
The "horse" of today's world about 6 million:
"army's UH-60L Black Hawk is $5.9 million"
or 60,000 gp. Regardless a merc D&D unit would not think to go without armor and weapons, and the helicopter or some equipment is SOP for the modern adventure equivalent.
No comments:
Post a Comment