Money, money, money.

[Gary V. Foss]

Something occurred to me when I arose bleary-eyed and poverty stricken
this morning. Why are GBs worth 2,000gp? Is there some particular
reason? Why not 5,000gp or 10,000gp? If a GB was worth 10,000gp, I
think that would satisfy a lot of the cost differences noticeable in the
BR rules when it comes to how much a regent must spend on things like a
unit of knights or a castle.

As several people have pointed out, the minimal equipment for a unit of
knights is around 104,200gp. That is for purchasing a heavy warhorse
and tack, plus the plate mail, long sword, and heavy lance for the
riders. (A mace is also included in the description of basic equipment
for heavy cavalry in the DMG, which would raise the cost of such a BR
unit 500gp. I am inclined to forget about the mace, however, as they
already have long swords.)

If GBs are worth 10,000gp then that would make the cost of raising a
unit of knights around 10GB. If you throw in things like a 10% discount
for buying in bulk and another 10% discount for royal personages, you
still come up with around 8GB at 10,000gp each. This is still higher
than the BR cost of raising a unit of knights, but is a bit more
accurate.

As for castles, those come rather cheap as well if a GB is worth
2,000gp. If they are worth 10,000gp that raises the cost of a castle
(10) from 200,000gp to 1,000,000.which seems a more likely cost for a
castle of the greatest possible size. A medium castle with four
medium-sized, round towers, a gatekeep and 350 feet of standard walls
will cost around 115,000gp. That's without any inner buildings or
anything else.

Most often this discrepancy is explained by saying that a unit of
knights often has their own equipment and the muster cost is just that
cost of bringing them all together, etc. or that they cost of a castle
is so much less because the bloodline of the ruler somehow gives him a
discount when it comes to ordering his workers around. I don't think
either of these arguments really hold up all that well, especially when
faced with the basic AD&D rules which contradict them. Making GB worth
10,000gp would help to close this gap quite a bit.

One last argument I'll try to preempt is that making GBs five times more
valuable with throw out game balance. As far as I can tell GBs are
practically a different form of currency from standard coins. They are
regency money rather than regular money. There are rules for converting
them, but I've rarely seen those used. Player regents can equip
themselves with just about any standard equipment they like, so making
GBs worth more won't have much of an effect on that. Plus, GBs are
already ill-defined in the game. Are they actual gold bars or are they
just monetary units used to describe bags of coins? Several people have
expressed differing opinions on this subject on this message board. It
is safe to say that in either case, players aren't running around with
GBs in their pockets when visiting the local tavern.

My second to last point is that I think making GBs worth 10,000gp is
more accurate when it comes to taxation and the


Lastly, I think making GBs worth 10,000gp will help translate the BR
domain rulership rules into the core rules of AD&D (hint, hint Ed &
Carrie and any other TSR folks listening) which would greatly aid the
translation of the BR system into the standard rules of the game. I'd
dearly love to see this happen in a 3rd edition of AD&D as I feel it
would be a perfect way to reintroduce the BR world and release
additional materials with it....

"What a great marketing idea," he said with not a hint of irony in his
voice. "Release the BR domain rules as core AD&D information and
accompany that rerelease with a brand new BR tome that lists all the
information of Cerilia in it. That'd be fantastic! It'd sell like
snowcones in summer! They'd be lined up around the block! They'd go
mad for it, they'd go crazy for it, we'd all be heroes and the BR system
would live on forever!"

(This is also reason #36B why TSR/Wizards should hire me on as a game
designer, but that information is for my resume....)

Gary

[TheMotive@aol.co]

My only solution to this is:

Maybe in Cerilia, gold is less abundant? Like, maybe gold is very rare and
therefore worth more. 2,000 GBs on Cerilia is worth, say, 10,000 in the
Forgotten Realms.

- - The Motive

[Gary V. Foss]

TheMotive@aol.com wrote:

> My only solution to this is:
>
> Maybe in Cerilia, gold is less abundant? Like, maybe gold is very rare and
> therefore worth more. 2,000 GBs on Cerilia is worth, say, 10,000 in the
> Forgotten Realms.

Wouldn't that change the enitre price system though? You'd have to divide all
the prices of materials in the PHB by 5 to get a standard system.

Gary

[Dom]

At 16:20 14/09/98 -0700, Gary wrote:
Quite a lot about a GB being 10,000gp instead of 2,000gp

I would just like to note that the prices quoted in the
PHB are quoted as prices for the "adventurer". In as much
as they have heaps of treasure, in general, and have created
a large amount of inflation.

A regent would have access to craftsmen who could make the
items at a much cheaper cost.

PHB 2nd Edition p65
Material cost of Longsword is 10sp whereas it is 15gp in
the list price. You would have to add wages and the cost
of the workshop, but overall the price would be very much
cheaper.

This would likely work for items such as Armour

The 1st Edition DMG gives some figures for hiring weaponsmiths
and armourers and how many such people you need for your army.

A workroom costs 310gp to 400gp.

One armorer is required for every 40 soldiers

Base cost of an armorer is 100gp per month, plus 10% of the
cost of the equipment that they produce. So an armorer making
a suit of platemail will add 40gp to this cost.

Weaponmaker- 1 per 80 troops, 100gp per month.


Someone may wish to elaborate on these and correct me if I have
listed wrong figures, however it does appear to me that if a regent
is too stupid and buys his armour at list price from the Guilders
then they will not have much of an army.




Dom
- ---

mailto:dominicreynolds@dial.pipex.com or mailto:dominicr@bigfoot.com

[TheMotive@aol.co]

In a message dated 9/14/98 8:52:19 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
GeeMan@linkline.com writes:

>

Good point. =)

- - The Motive

[Mark A Vandermeulen]

On Mon, 14 Sep 1998 TheMotive@aol.com wrote:

> My only solution to this is:
>
> Maybe in Cerilia, gold is less abundant? Like, maybe gold is very rare and
> therefore worth more. 2,000 GBs on Cerilia is worth, say, 10,000 in the
> Forgotten Realms.

Just as a side note, in the BROCP we decided to make the silver piece,
rather than the gold piece, the standard unit of monetary exchange in the
Imperial City. Thus, all costs for items in the PHB in Cerilia cost in
silver pieces rather than in gold pieces. Thus, in Cerilia, we have made
gold pieces an order of magnitude (x10) more "valuable" in terms of its
purchasing power.

Now, not everyone has to use this system, but it suited those of us who
are working on the project. It is also possible that coins from the
Imperial Mint are more pure than your run-of-the-mill Goerean or Diemed
coins, and therefore more valuable (or just bigger).

Mark VanderMeulen
vander+@pitt.edu