GB Gold value

[akalars]

I have looked at the value of a GB and as many before me have
discovered I also found that a GB can not be equal to 2.000 gp.

If you look at what it cost for army units. The cost of the equipment
alone is much more worth than what you pay for it, even if you take in
to consideration that a regent might get it cheaper than regular
people.

For instance regular infantery with medium armor cost 2gb to muster.
If they have the following equipment, Hide Armor, Short Sword, Dagger
= 27gp. For 200 soldiers this ends at 5400. In this example the
cheapest of each equipment was chosen.
Well for 1.5gb you can upgrade these infantery to have heavy armor, so you sell the hide armor for 15 and buy a new splint mail for 200. This amount to 37.000gp or 24.666gp per gb.
These where just a few example choosing always the cheapest equipment in each category. I did several more where you could get as much as 80.000 gold for each GB.

I have made system to handle Finance, and would like to ask your opinion about it.

A gb is worth 5.000 x 1d10 gp. Each gb's value is calculated seperate even if
a bunch of GB if converted at the same time. When you have started a finance action you can NOT abort if you roll unfavorable on the d10.

So if I have 2 gb and want to use finance to transforme them in to gold i roll 2d10. First I get 1 and then I get 5, So I get 5.000 x 1 + 5.000 * 5 = 30.000 gp.
Then say I spend 10.000 and want to do another finance to converte
back in to the realms treasury. I rolle 1d10, gets 2. So my first gb
cost 10.000, then I roll again and get 10. So my next will cost
50.000, which I can not afford with my remaining 10.000 so I get 0.2 GB.
In the end I will have 1.2gb, had fun for 10.000 and spent two court actions on finance.

This system would to a larger degree work with the PHB values for
equipment, and it takes in to account that finace back and forth is a
unreliable thing to do. You can both make and lose large amounts of
money on it.

A addition requested by one of my players is that you are allowed to do a administrate (domain) check against DC 15 to modify the d10 roll by +/- 1, or DC 20 for +/- 2. You have to decide before rolling what target you are aiming at, if you fail you get no modification. So it is more risky to attempt to manipulate it with +/-2 han it is to attempt +/-1

[gazza666]

I have looked at the value of a GB and as many before me have discovered I also found that a GB can not be equal to 2.000 gp.

I ran the numbers a while back and came to much the same sort of conclusion you did. On the other hand, I then decided that it didn't really matter that much.

The whole "1GB = 2000gp" is really only for the purposes of the Finance action. You can't use gp to build armies, and you can't use GB to equip your character. For the vast majority of cases they are, in effect, completely separate units of currency - the only exception is when you use Finance.

Given that in 3rd edition (much more so than in previous editions) the wealth of your character has a direct effect on how powerful your character is, there are good reasons to keep a very careful eye on any uses of the Finance action. Regents - even poor ones - have access to resources that non-regents cannot possibly match (at least at low levels); on the other hand, a high level character who decides to convert their vast wealth into GB could easily be far more dominant than their tiny domain should be. I wouldn't actually complain too hard if the ability to convert disappeared completely from the 3rd edition rules.

But I realise that isn't likely to happen. That being the case, it's potentially more dangerous to convert GB to gp than the other way around (a 1st level character with 4000gp worth of equipment, for example, is going to virtually the equivalent of a level 3 character). It would get much worse if you pump up the conversion rate to what is arguably more "correct"; I'd rather see it go down than up.

If the realism issues are a burden, assume that the bureaucracy required to do the conversion means that you get a lousy exchange rate; in other words, a GB might be technically "worth" 5000gp, but you only get 2000gp after it passes through the Finance action due to expenses.

[Thomas_Percy]

I have count it some time ago. It's an excerpt of upcoming "Barony" pdf containing various forms of mustering troops in D&D, among them buying them equipement and trainging them from Com1 to War1:

MUSTERING

The third method of recruitment is called training or musters and is accessible to everyone.
Levies Com1 are drafted, trained (they gain abilities of militia War1), equipped (with: tents, rations, ammunition, wagons, oxen, weapon, armor, mounts and uniforms) and hired as men-at-arms. They “advance” at experience levels typical for “Stronghold” series (Ftr2 or Rgr2) after a few skirmishes with low level enemies (as you will see this is a simplification when compared to SRD, see sidebar Optional Rule: NPC Class Level Replacement).
In the feudal land almost every commoner serves a lord or lords. Having musters means transferring part of the commoners to the pay of another employer which, naturally, does not please the former master. Musters of 10 and more commoners without a local ruler’s agreement is illegal and can provoke  III, 12, ATTACK WITHOUT PREPARATION. If the recruiter has the ruler’s agreement, or he is a ruler himself, or is more powerful than local ruler, those who are willing are free to report to the aforementioned recruiter.
Not every potential commoner enters immediately – many of them have duties commissioned previously. No more than 400 levies can be enlisted under your banner within a three months period in any single barony.

TABLE 6–4: CONSCRIPT MUSTER COST

Type of unit/ Muster Cost
Squad/ Mounted Squad/ Company/ Mounted Company
Archers/ 1300gp/ 3600gp/ 13.000gp /36.000gp
Artillerists /4600gp /6900gp /46.000gp /69.000gp
Elite Infantry /3600gp /5900gp /36.000gp /59.000gp
Infantry /2600gp /4900gp /26.000gp /49.000gp
Knights /always mounted /31.000gp /always mounted /310.000gp
Levy /200gp /never mounted /2000gp /never mounted

These soldiers are ready for battle within 1 year.

Sorry for this slashes, but I can't past a table.

[dalor]

Try looking at it like this:

A gold bar is probably just that...a pure gold bar (or
more correctly about 92% pure). And at 2k, weighs
about 40 pounds.

Coins are debased by lesser metals nearly always. An
example being:

The English Pound versus its French "equal" in the
middle ages.

The base coin in the Pound was the penny (d.) which
contained about c. 1.3 grams of fine silver. Its
French equal the denier did not. 1d. = 3&1/4 deniers
parisis.

The reason was simple...and everyone knew it. Where
the Penny had about 1.3 grams of fine silver; the
denier had only about 0.39 grams of fine silver.

Applying this to Birthright Economics (however loosely
we have to do it!!!) means that while a Gold Bar is
truly worth a solid 2,000GP; maybe we should start
looking at it as actually being 2,000GP that are PURE.
When translated into common currency, the GP take
less value as they are made into coins with debased
metal content.

This way your 2k Gold Bar can equal whatever amount of
currency you wish it to be when turned into actual
Coins of the Realm!

Just as an aside the English Pound was equal (roughly)
to about 2,500-3000 U.S. Dollars today.

The Shilling was roughly equal to $100 and the Penny
equal to about $10...all U.S. currency.

Back then (around 1300) the following yearly wages
were common:

Duke: 5k pounds
Earl: 1.5K pounds
Baron: 200 pounds
Knight: 20 pounds
Priest: 2-10 pounds
Educated tradesman: 12 pounds
Common tradesman: 4.5 pounds
Soldier: 4 pounds
Servant: 2.25 pounds
Laborer: 3 pounds
Woman or Child: 1.5 pounds

A sword then cost about 2s or 24d...about $200 to $240
U.S. currency.

Which brings us full circle back to the Gold Bar. If
a Gold Bar is worth 2k; then it would be able to
purchase roughly only 83 swords...but if you debase
the metal like the French did...you get more.

Hope any of this made any sense...as I was only trying
to remember loosely where I got this information. I
think it was out of a book called "Daily Life in
Medieval Europe" but I can`t remember the author. I
wrote it all down when I figured out a realistic
monetary system for my D&D game in Birthright. :-)

Again...hope it helps.

Anthony Edwards

--- "Birthright.net Message Boards"
<brnetboard@BIRTHRIGHT.NET> wrote:
>
> wrote:
> I have looked at the value of a GB and as many
> before me have
> discovered I also found that a GB can not be equal
> to 2.000 gp.

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