Reasonable Prices

[Friend Computer]

So the Spyglass thread got me thinking: What is a reasonable price? But then, of course, to find a reasonable price, we have to go through everything... So, this is pretty much a question for the wonderful historians of this board:
Assuming that coins are as large as they are in D&D, and that they are debased to a level appropriate for, say northern Italy in 1453, what would be the prices of the mundane items/services in 3.5?

[tahu88810]

Convert the gold price to the number of chickens, convert to 5$/chicken (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_a_chicken_cost)

Adjust for real world prices if necessary. Voila.

So... http://cgi.ebay.com/Nautical-Brass-SPYGLASS-TELESCOPE-New-BOX-/360276142176?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53e221a860

A spy glass is worth 25$~
10cp = 1gp
1 Chicken = 2cp
Therefor, 1 chicken = 0.02gp
25/0.02=1250
A spyglass is worth 1250 chickens
1250 chickens = 2500cp = 25gp = 1 Spyglass
There should be a lot of room for error there, I was never very strong in math, it's the middle of the summer (so my brain has atrophied), and I'm sleep deprived.

[drengnikrafe]

100 cp = 10 sp = 1 gp.
The most interesting part of that mistake is that you didn't make it in any other line. Although, these numbers you put up just keep making no sense somewhere in my head.
If 5$ = 1 chicken, then 2.50$ is = 1 cp. Thus, if a spyglass is 25$, and 1 cp is 2.50$, then a spyglass is 1 sp, if it behaved like a modern spyglass. The part I don't understand is where you declare 1250 chickens are worth a spyglass. My mind may also not be working (it is summer, like you said).
EDIT: I figured it out. You're making a leap somewhere that my mind rejects, I just don't know where it is. I'm more apt to believe what you say, though. It seems reasonable, to some degree.

[tahu88810]

Yeah, I saw the error but I couldn't quite place it. I think the 0.02gp part is correct, and the main error is that the beginning with the conversion from CP to GP. But even then, something just feels wrong. Let's try again:

25$ = 1 spyglass = 1,000 gp
1,000/25 = 40gp
and
100 cp = 10 sp = 1 gp
100 cp = 1 gp
2 cp = 1 chicken = 0.02 gp (1gp/100cp=0.01gp)
0.02 gp = 5$

So therefor 0.08 gp = 8 cp != 40gp != 25$ != 1 spyglass

O_o

[Haarkla]

Convert the gold price to the number of chickens, convert to 5$/chicken (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_a_chicken_cost)

Adjust for real world prices if necessary. Voila.

So... http://cgi.ebay.com/Nautical-Brass-SPYGLASS-TELESCOPE-New-BOX-/360276142176?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53e221a860

A spy glass is worth 25$~
10cp = 1gp
1 Chicken = 2cp
Therefor, 1 chicken = 0.02gp
25/0.02=1250
A spyglass is worth 1250 chickens
1250 chickens = 2500cp = 25gp = 1 Spyglass
There should be a lot of room for error there, I was never very strong in math, it's the middle of the summer (so my brain has atrophied), and I'm sleep deprived.
A $25 spyglass is pretty crappy. A decent spyglass costs around £100 ($150).

[kamikasei]

Convert the gold price to the number of chickens, convert to 5$/chicken (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_a_chicken_cost)

This gives you prices based on today's economy. The OP wants prices based on the historical basis for D&D.

Of course, it's at this point that the question becomes unanswerable since D&D has a) no historical basis or b) about fifty different ones and the myths and misperceptions based on them, all chucked in a blender.

[Aroka]

Lisa J. Steele's absolutely astounding systemless sourcebook, Fief, has price lists culled from historical documents, mostly for the 13th and 14th centuries, but for other times as well. Unfortunately, any cursory perusal will show that these prices varied tremendously by both time and location. And how do you convert medieval coinage to D&D money anyway? Which object's price do you pick as the correct exchange rate? There's no way to make a "right" decision there, it'll always be arbitrary.

For instance, Steele's Fief measures money in livres, sous, and derniers (1 livre = 20 sous = 240 derniers). How does that convert to gold?

Using the lists assembled by Steele:

The price of a calf in Pistoia, Italy varied from 17 livres to 30 livres between 1326 an 1376. The price of an ass in the same period varied from 11 livres to over 20 livres.

A courser (warhorse) in England around 1300 would cost from 10 to 50 livres; the price recorded for France is 60 livres.

An ox in England in the 14th century cost 13 sou. In Pistoia, Italy, during the 14th century, an ox cost from 20 livres to 50 livres.

The price of a bascinet (a helmet) in England varies from 3 sou to 13 sou between 1337 and 1350. A warhorse goes from 10 sou in 1160 to 40 sou in 1171, and 14-50 livres in 1216.

An English soldier's wage in 1277 and 1300 was 2 dernier per day; a French soldier's in 1295 was 12 dernier a day.

It's all about supply and demand in the local economy, which is affected by countless factors, and the sum is impossibly complex to ever model accurately in a game.


In short, the question is impossible to ever answer. The best you can ever come up with is "good enough", and "good enough" for D&D is "any random numbers we care to throw in there, the PCs can afford it all after a few treasures anyway."

Edit:

Perhaps a better answer: the price for anything is what you can get away with.

I use this a lot in my Gloranthan games, where wealth is practically never in coin (and if it is, the coins are weighed and treated as their weight in the metal they're made of, allowing for the merchant's ability to detect impurities, often by magic); indeed, in the culture dominant in my games, the base unit of wealth is the cow. A sword will probably cost one cow, but may cost two or three, depending on the gullibility of the PCs, the guile of the merchant, and the condition of and demand for the cows and the sword. Plus, of course, it's never the PCs' own cow - it's their extended family's cow.