We
had a couple of questions from one of you on Grain Into Gold. Since he was curious, we figured some of you
might be too.
First
- 10 copper coins = 1 silver coin & 10 silver coins = 1 gold coin. Seems too perfect.
Yep! It is WAY too perfect. Not only should the percentages be far
different, at least if this was Earth, but they should fluctuate. A gold rush or a silver miner strike would
dramatically impact the value of commodities like precious metals. Further, different city states would likely
mint their coins from different purities of the metals, so a silver coin
wouldn’t equal a silver coin.
So
why? I like to use realistic situations
in games, but fluctuating foreign currency markets, and commodity markets, and
geological discoveries are just too much work and math. It is a game after all, and this level of
economics is too much even for me.
Second
- Does the cost of the materials factor into costs? How does skill and training factor into the
value of a craftsman?
Materials
absolutely factor into the cost of items, but the cost of the materials doesn’t
always factor into the amount paid to the craftsman. Sometimes it does, like a silver smith makes
more than a tin smith and less than a gold smith. Similarly, rabbit furriers are far more
common than fox furriers, so the fox furriers make more.
While
training does factor into what a craftsman makes, one of the major factors in
how much a craftsman makes is the cost of his tools. The more expensive the tools, the more the
craftsman can charge for his labor.
Third
- How does risk factor into the value of a craftsman? Coal miner vs. chandler
Does
risk factor in? Yes! But, life is cheap in a fantasy environment;
otherwise people wouldn’t be willing to face dragon fire to make some
coin. Similarly, miners make relatively
little money because it is not a highly skilled profession. Basic labor is cheap - look through Grain
Into Gold for all the jokes about longshoremen.
Is that a tough job? Sure, but it’s
not like they got a college degree to learn how to offload ship cargo.
Grain Into Gold had a lot of salaries in it as did 100 Professions. Those will give a great idea of how much
different professions make. It should be
pretty clear what I’m talking about with the tools and the training and how it
factors in. Pretty clearly we like to
answer the questions you folks ask us.
Posts
I loved Grain Into Gold and have actually recommended it to several of my gamer friends. My only issue comes from my relationship with a young woman who is a "textile engineer," and by that I mean if it is done with fiber (spinning, dyeing, weaving, crochetting, knitting, sewing, or tailoring) she does it. She's also researched the use of textiles throughout history. As a result we have had discussions over the place of textile technology in a High Fantasy setting and feel that the value of textiles and their rarity is not properly presented in any of the works now available. So I suppose my question would be: "Can we look to see an addendum to Grain to Gold anytime in the future to deal with textiles?"
ReplyDeleteP.S. This is where the whole "meme" of spinning straw into gold comes from.
WANTED: Textile engineer to give Board Enterprises advice on the history of fiber and its importance in high fantasy!
ReplyDeleteSeriously, we'd love to have a discussion about where either of you think we may have missed the mark. Maybe we've included an assumption that makes Fletnern different from Earth or maybe we just missed the boat on something. In any case, we're open to talking through it!
Maybe we made it worse, but there was extra fabric discussions in the Centaurs Small Bites edition - because they run sweat shops.