To quote Gary (from another topic):
>>> Another issue that I`d like to see better developed is the monetary system
at the domain level. I know, I know, this is another highly discussed
topic, and positions seem to vary pretty widely, but 4GB=8,000gp=1 unit of
elite infantry and the 80GB castle(10) just don`t add up well without some
pretty funky rationalization. 8,000 gp is less than the inventory of a
standard D&D 5th level PC.
<<<

This issue bothers me as well and I tried to come up with a solution. I started on a huge equipment price list with a new monetary system, but the work soon bogged down. Thus, thew following are just some general considerations.

First, I wanted to make silver the standard unit of currency instead of the inflated gold prices D&D uses.
So, I divided all the prices in the PHB and elsewhere by ten. Makes a little more sense and gives a more medieval flair to the BR economy, IMO.

Of course, the treasures PCs find must be reduced accordingly. I hope this helps to counter the gold rush feel so often encountered in D&D campaigns. You won`t find several thousand coins anymore.

On the domain level, I tend to keep the ratio of 1GB=roughly 2000 gold pieces. This makes more sense with regard to mustering and maintaining armies, given the reduced equipment costs for each member of a unit, especially for the more expensive units, like knights. I have not played this through with regard to other aspects of the domain rules, so I may miss some serious difficulties here. The main problem might be that the question arises how the population of a given province can come up with these huge amounts of gold. For now, I favor an approach that slightly fiddles with the population levels, ruling that each province level represents about 10,000 people. This does not represent a major change in more developed areas, but raises the overall population of Cerilia and of lesser developed regions quite a bit. However, this figures are still believable, judging from the available information (that is: available to me at the moment) on medieval demographics. For example, the population of a province (3) now consists of roughly 30,000 people. These people pay/produce a surplus of 8 GB for taxes and holding income a season, using the BRCS rules. This amounts to 1.78 silver pieces per capita per month. Sounds reasonably, doesn`t it?

There are some exceptions to the rule, that all prices are divided by ten. I keep the costs for magic items as they are. PC Mages still need to pay the same amount of money to scribe a scroll. Generally, this makes magic items about 10times more expensive and thus more rare than compared to other campaign worlds. I think this is fitting for Cerilia. I also keep the value of gems at their current level. I read a similar proposal somewhere and I kind of like the notion of extremely valuable diamonds.

Comments?
Christoph Tiemann

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