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PapaNachos
2010-07-24, 09:55 PM
For a campaign I'm in my character would like to purchase some land for personal used. However I have no idea how to figure out how much it would cost for a plot of land (size undetermined) and any building that would be located on it.

PId6
2010-07-24, 10:08 PM
It costs the price of arranging a meeting with the current owner of the land + the price of one casting of Dominate Person.

Dr.Epic
2010-07-24, 10:11 PM
For a campaign I'm in my character would like to purchase some land for personal used. However I have no idea how to figure out how much it would cost for a plot of land (size undetermined) and any building that would be located on it.

I'd check the DMG or DMGII.

PapaNachos
2010-07-24, 10:18 PM
I'd check the DMG or DMGII.

I've been looking through the DMG, but haven't found anything.

FelixG
2010-07-24, 10:20 PM
Well you arnt giving us much to work with, where is the land? If its in a city there is an arbitrary amount given by the GM. But if you want to put up a structure out in the wilderness most of the land is unowned, its not like today where everything is cut into properties, its pretty much yours as long as you pay your taxes to whomever is the boss of the area

Dr.Epic
2010-07-24, 10:23 PM
I've been looking through the DMG, but haven't found anything.

Dungeon Master Guide II?

WarKitty
2010-07-24, 10:24 PM
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/medievalprices.html that might be a good starting guide. The prices are in pounds, but you should be able to work out a ratio based on some of the other stuff that the DMG does list.

PapaNachos
2010-07-24, 10:30 PM
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/medievalprices.html that might be a good starting guide. The prices are in pounds, but you should be able to work out a ratio based on some of the other stuff that the DMG does list.

Some back of the napkin calculations showed that, at least income wise, 1g is about equal to 1000 USD.

Edit: I see prices for renting land, but I'm looking to buy.

Noedig
2010-07-24, 10:33 PM
My cleric is a rich bastard then. Anyway, lke FelixG said, you could pretty much set up shop wherever the hell you want, as long as you pay your taxes. Or you can dominate person, to make the person you pay taxes to, give them back.

WarKitty
2010-07-24, 10:34 PM
Some back of the napkin calculations showed that, at least income wise, 1g is about equal to 1000 USD.

Edit: I see prices for renting land, but I'm looking to buy.

I think it's only the top 5 that are rented. So a small cottage would be about 2 pounds, a good barn could be 83 pounds, etc.

PapaNachos
2010-07-24, 10:37 PM
My cleric is a rich bastard then. Anyway, lke FelixG said, you could pretty much set up shop wherever the hell you want, as long as you pay your taxes. Or you can dominate person, to make the person you pay taxes to, give them back.
I would like to buy it inside a city, which means no free land.


I think it's only the top 5 that are rented. So a small cottage would be about 2 pounds, a good barn could be 83 pounds, etc.
Any idea how that would convert to either modern currency (inflation and whatnot) or D&Dland money.

Aroka
2010-07-24, 10:41 PM
I'd check the DMG or DMGII.

Never use the business rules in the DMG2 - whoever wrote them didn't do the math, and the rules actually literally make it impossible to recoup an investment into anything other than a high-risk business in decades.


Anyway, building prices are in the DMG. Land costs... well, land costs whatever the owner will take for it; or nothing, if the land isn't owned (you'll just have to stake your claim and keep others out).

What level of society are we talking here? Land ownership is always achingly vague in D&D settings, when it was the most important defining element of medieval (feudal) society.

Realistically, all cultivated land (not "unincorporated" frontier inhabited only by settlers) and all land within the borders of a nation is going to be owned by someone, usually a noble. In more late-period settings, merchants (or merchant houses, but they're practically nobles) may own land, especially in cities and around them, or in key production areas.

Nobles don't just sell land - first, because they don't actually own it (unless it happens to be an allodial holding), but rather hold it for their liege lord. The way feudalism works is that the people who own the most land parcel it out in smaller units to a bunch of other guys who administer it for them and pay taxes; these people can further parcel out smaller units to others; and so on.

To put it very roughly, the king gives land to the dukes/counts/barons/earls, who give land to the baronets, who give land to the knights; but really everyone has members of basically all the lower classes enfiefed to them, so the king has knights directly under them, and the duke has counts, and so on.

The knights - each of whom holds a manor (the smallest unit of land ownership, essentially) - either use serfs/villeins (peasants bound to the land) to work it, or may parcel it out in farms to tenant farmers (who are usually much more well-to-do than other types). Serfs essentially get substinence living, while tenants get to keep most of what they make (except for taxes), and usually pay for the privilege by working on the lands directly tied to the manor.

Now, you could be able to buy land from a noble - either by buying a title and the land that goes with it, or just buying acreage - but it's going to have big political repercussions for everyone. For one thing, a noble selling the land outright will be getting a one-time payment and permanently losing wealth (land, the most important income source; and any specific resources on it), and losing the ability to raise warriors from that land (the main feudal duty of the vassal is to provide a set number of warriors - usually one knight and entourage per manor - to your liege upon request). For another, you're going to be sandwiched between the holdings of various nobles, who may or may not like you - and if you bought the land outright, you've got no liege to lend you protection against anyone trying to take your land (the main feudal duty of the liege).

In medieval Europe, the church also owned a lot of land (that's actually why Catholic priests were eventually forbidden to marry: it was feared their sons would be grabbing up the lands their fathers held for the church as inheritance), which was divided into parishes, to which people belonged (usually parishes overlapped with lords' fiefs, but they could be their own holdings entirely).

If you want to get into the details of land ownership - and it can be very fun to roleplay with, if you're into political and social RP - I really recommend the books Fief and A Magical Medieval Society. The first is system-neutral, the second is d20 OGL in a heavy way (but that means lots of useful gold piece numbers for D&D).


And now I previewed and updated the thread, and see that the land would be inside a city. You can probably assume the ownership (or right-of-use) to any land in a city is included in the cost of the building that's on it. Why complicate it when it's just a matter of numbers of gold pieces?

PapaNachos
2010-07-24, 11:08 PM
*stuff*

Interesting points. Technically my character has knight status so I might be able to use that to my advantage.

Anyway, I doubt in D&Dland acreage is the biggest measure of wealth. It seems like access to magic would have a much greater impact on it. As you pointed out the reason land was so valuable was because of the people that lived on it. The introduction of magic make WHO lives on your land much more important than strictly how many.

Actually the very idea of a stable hierarchy really doesn't make much sense in D&D, unless your rank is equivalent to your power and the highest level wizard (who doesn't have better things to do) is king. How would a government work with D&D mechanics (assuming no RAW abuse)

FelixG
2010-07-24, 11:12 PM
What you might consider doing, is go into the DMG, look at the prices of buildings, and ask your GM if you can divide the cost by 10 to 50 if you want the land.

Though one thing you may consider is that there may be no land empty to buy in the city proper so you may just need to buy an existing building then upgrade to another, after all the buying a building part assumes you are buying the land as well.

Coidzor
2010-07-24, 11:19 PM
So, what, you're looking to buy a vacant lot in a medieval-style city?

Because if you're just looking to buy an inn or townhouse... the price of the land's going to be figured into the price of the place.

If it's an inn or shop, then how well the place is doing is going to have to be figured into the price at which the owner will sell out.

PapaNachos
2010-07-24, 11:20 PM
What you might consider doing, is go into the DMG, look at the prices of buildings, and ask your GM if you can divide the cost by 10 to 50 if you want the land.

Though one thing you may consider is that there may be no land empty to buy in the city proper so you may just need to buy an existing building then upgrade to another, after all the buying a building part assumes you are buying the land as well.

Wow, I just found that table. Those prices are absolutely absurd. A one to three room house costs $1,000,000? Forget adventuring, I'm forming a construction company.

Edit:

So, what, you're looking to buy a vacant lot in a medieval-style city?
Yes, though if I can't find one I would be okay with a building already being there.

Coidzor
2010-07-24, 11:22 PM
^: So do you have any kind of building in particular you want to buy or are you looking to tear an existing structure down regardless and build something wacky?
Wow, I just found that table. Those prices are absolutely absurd. A one to three room house costs $1,000,000? Forget adventuring, I'm forming a construction company.

Well, the reason they're so expensive is because, well, there's generally not a whole lot of new buildings being made in a medieval city. So the existing structures have an inflated value.

Your game may or may not have greater population growth and ease of transportation/access to building materials in order to make new places though, which would impact prices significantly.

PapaNachos
2010-07-24, 11:23 PM
Well, the reason they're so expensive is because, well, there's generally not a whole lot of new buildings being made in a medieval city. So the existing structures have an inflated value.

Your game may or may not have greater population growth and ease of transportation/access to building materials in order to make new places though, which would impact prices significantly.

I would guess that the prices were chosen arbitrarily rather than factoring in that many variables. Especially considering how much work was spent balancing the rest of D&D.

Edit:

^: So do you have any kind of building in particular you want to buy or are you looking to tear an existing structure down regardless and build something wacky?
I'm looking to set up a personal workshop/headquarters. I'll be moving outside of the city in a few levels, since there is a fair amount of unclaimed land. I just don't want to have to worry about protecting it yet.

FelixG
2010-07-24, 11:30 PM
Wow, I just found that table. Those prices are absolutely absurd. A one to three room house costs $1,000,000? Forget adventuring, I'm forming a construction company.

Edit:

Yes, though if I can't find one I would be okay with a building already being there.

A three room house is 1,000 gp ~.~

a huge castle is 1,000,000

PapaNachos
2010-07-24, 11:31 PM
A three room house is 1,000 gp ~.~

a huge castle is 1,000,000

Yes, but as previously mentioned 1g = 1000 USD

EnnPeeCee
2010-07-24, 11:31 PM
Might want to look at the Stronghold Builders Guide. It lists land price as a percent increase or decrease on the final price of the entire structure being built.

FelixG
2010-07-24, 11:32 PM
Yes, but as previously mentioned 1g = 1000 USD

thats BS, by that an empty leather backpack of ordinary quality is 2,000 USD 1gp MAY equate to 100 usd

PapaNachos
2010-07-24, 11:35 PM
thats BS, by that an empty leather backpack of ordinary quality is 2,000 USD 1gp MAY equate to 100 usd

Which is why I said that it looked like priced were chosen arbitrarily.

Coidzor
2010-07-24, 11:37 PM
I would guess that the prices were chosen arbitrarily rather than factoring in that many variables. Especially considering how much work was spent balancing the rest of D&D.

Indeed, between that and the "Fun" that is the Stronghold Builder's Guide, I'd say you're better off working out something more or less reasonable with your DM. There was some discussion of some homebrewed guidelines for modifying the stronghold builder's guide at one point that were apparently well regarded, but I can't recall a link...


I'm looking to set up a personal workshop/headquarters. I'll be moving outside of the city in a few levels, since there is a fair amount of unclaimed land. I just don't want to have to worry about protecting it yet.

Sounds like you want at least a large town-house then. Though, if you're looking to move out of the city soonish, do you have a patron in the area? Or is that why you're looking for a place of your own, your patron's letting ya loose(er) and you need a place of your own before you're ready to go carve out a demense out of monster-country?


One thing though. Don't make the mistake of trying to convert from GP to USD. It's a headache that doesn't get you anywhere. Mostly because the conversion doesn't work due to things either having a vastly inflated or vastly deflated value depending upon what items you used to base the conversion off of.

FelixG
2010-07-24, 11:38 PM
Which is why I said that it looked like priced were chosen arbitrarily.

That may be so, but again DnD is not an economic simulator, the pricers were never intended to all match up perfectly, or even match to USD, and if you go by the conversions in some of the other D20 books that go from GP to profit check then from profit check to dollars its closer to 50 USD per GP

my source is the D20 mecha book where it shows how to find the cost of the same mecha in every form of currency and allows you to extrapolate a correct comparison

PapaNachos
2010-07-24, 11:42 PM
Indeed, between that and the "Fun" that is the Stronghold Builder's Guide, I'd say you're better off working out something more or less reasonable with your DM. There was some discussion of some homebrewed guidelines for modifying the stronghold builder's guide at one point that were apparently well regarded, but I can't recall a link...
Yeah, but we weren't sure how much it would cost. He actually suggested looking here for some info, just to get a decent idea of whether it would in the area of 5g or 500g


Sounds like you want at least a large town-house then. Though, if you're looking to move out of the city soonish, do you have a patron in the area? Or is that why you're looking for a place of your own, your patron's letting ya loose(er) and you need a place of your own before you're ready to go carve out a demense out of monster-country?
We have a place to crash in the mean time, but I want a place thats -mine-

Edit:

That may be so, but again DnD is not an economic simulator, the pricers were never intended to all match up perfectly, or even match to USD, and if you go by the conversions in some of the other D20 books that go from GP to profit check then from profit check to dollars its closer to 50 USD per GP

Unfortunately the 1g:$50 ends with most people being too poor to afford anything. I'm using the prices for hiring workers in the DMG for my calculations.

FelixG
2010-07-24, 11:57 PM
Poor by our standards yes, and in the setting most people ARE poor XD alot of them dont even own the homes they live in, they are indentured and only really pay for their food, they pretty much make everything else that they need.

Thats a general fallacy when doing such calculations, it is only natural to want to assume that our life styles and spending (and earning) habits are the same when the culture is quite different.

Coidzor
2010-07-24, 11:59 PM
The peon economy works out okish, depending. Someone did a case study in examining how it worked out for them, but I'm having trouble finding it via google.

But, yeah, laborers are basically going to barely be making enough to feed themselves, IIRC.

PapaNachos
2010-07-25, 12:01 AM
Poor by our standards yes, and in the setting most people ARE poor XD alot of them dont even own the homes they live in, they are indentured and only really pay for their food, they pretty much make everything else that they need.

Thats a general fallacy when doing such calculations, it is only natural to want to assume that our life styles and spending (and earning) habits are the same when the culture is quite different.

I mean extremely poor, in the $1250 a year sense. Thats before expenses.

dgnslyr
2010-07-25, 12:04 AM
I would like to buy it inside a city, which means no free land.



You can just have the former owner, ahem, disappear.

Liberal application of Dominate Person is also fine.

PapaNachos
2010-07-25, 12:05 AM
You can just have the former owner, ahem, disappear.
I'm looking for a both legal and moral means of acquisition.

Coidzor
2010-07-25, 12:11 AM
Well, depending upon your contacts and the nature of your position, you could... *ahem* eliminate part of the thieves' guild (with or without the blessing/looking the other way of whatever elements are left) and arrange to either win the property at auction or be awarded it. Or even just get the deed and get them to sign it over to you in exchange for merely running them out of town without bringing them to the authorities.

PapaNachos
2010-07-25, 12:13 AM
Well, depending upon your contacts and the nature of your position, you could... *ahem* eliminate part of the thieves' guild (with or without the blessing/looking the other way of whatever elements are left) and arrange to either win the property at auction or be awarded it. Or even just get the deed and get them to sign it over to you in exchange for merely running them out of town without bringing them to the authorities.
That sounds suspiciously like a plot hook. I'll have to remember that when its my turn to DM.

nolispe
2010-07-25, 12:44 AM
I mean extremely poor, in the $1250 a year sense. Thats before expenses.

By medieval standards, that's good. Really good.

Ashiel
2010-07-25, 01:59 AM
Contrary to popular belief, the D&D economics aren't really as borked as everyone seems to think they are; nor are the analogs for value of the currency as amazingly inflated as some would suggest. I personally would liken 1 gp to about $100 dollars; but that is in general. It's not a conversion of gold values and weight, and it's not always 100% right, but follow wit me for a moment and I'll explain.

The first thing to note is that the one place that seems to err in the mechanical explanation is that untrained laborers earn only 3gp per week. According to the Profession and Craft rules, you should earn about 5gp unless you have a 6-9 intelligence; merely by taking 10. So let's go with this for a moment.

Now, it doesn't specify how the currency comes with craft and profession checks; just that you make a number of gold pieces. These gold pieces can come in the form of trade goods. For example, a typical farmer might gain 20-28 gold pieces per month worth of trade goods in the form of animals maturing, crop yields, and perhaps renting out animals and so forth.

Now assuming that the average person working an untrained job is pulling about 5gp worth of pay. The DMG suggests that most D&D families are self sufficient. Most commoners make or mend their own clothes, grow their own food, and generally put aside a bit of money for buying staples or for emergencies. Coming from a rural area where my family grows a lot of our own foods, this isn't unbelievable or surprising. We can generally collect several 5 gallon buckets of vine-grown beans, tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, potatoes, peanuts, squash, and then grow corn and watermelons which are slower but generally yield plenty of food; with enough to put up for the winter. We'll come back to this in a moment.

Now for a moment, let's look at what you can buy with your gold pieces. We're not talking magic items and such, we're talking about your everyday things. We'll start with services. Remember for a moment that we're assuming that 1gp = $100 roughly.

Poor meals, per day, are 1 silver piece or $10. That sounds about right for cheap food and cheap drinks. A modern example might be living off the dollar menus at restaurants, or eating appetizers and drinking cheap drinks.

Common meals are about 3 silver pieces per day, or $30. That sounds about right if you ate a regular meal at most restaurants if you're buying breakfast, lunch, and dinner; literally eating out every day for all meals of the day. It gets expensive quickly.

Good meals are 5 silver pieces per day, or $50. That also sounds about right given that would be like ordering a fine dinner for every meal of the day. These are the kinds of splurging meals that you would go out on your anniversary or once in a long while; where a meal might be around. Only the exceptionally wealthy could eat like this every day.

A cheap inn is about 2 silver pieces per night, or $20. You might as well be renting this by the hour, but the SRD says it doesn't even offer you a bed, so much as a roof over your head. Ok, this is super economy rooming; and it would be about $140 per week.

A common inn is about 5 silver pieces per night, or $50. This is about like a cheap motel. It's a bed, heating, blankets, pillows. Not much else. About $350 per week if you wanted to rent it for a vacation.

A good in is about 2 gold pieces per night, or $200. This is a nice hotel with nice furnishings, and likely good service compared to the norm. This is a luxurious room by the standards, and would be about $1,400 per week; so normal people cannot hope to live in a hotel like this for any permanent time.

A gallon of ale is 2 silver pieces, or $20. This is like a small keg or something you can tap for a lot. A mug is 4 copper, or $4, which isn't surprising if you check the prices of drinks at bars or the like.

A single commoner outfit is about 1 silver pieces, or $10. This is little more than a cheap off-brand shirt, pants, and maybe some dollar store sandals or something. Cheap, but it's clothing.

Now, these are mostly services. All are fairly easily analogized; and aren't as difficult to compare based on supply and demand economics such as the price of bread and cheese; where cheese is likely a fairly luxurious item, while bread is likely a staple of most medieval economies. Ok, so keep following me here...

Now let us return to our commoners and profession and craft checks. Let's take a typical family. Say 2 parents, 2-3 children. One parent likely works a standard job, earning around 5 gold pieces per week. Meanwhile, the other parent is taking care of the children, and both the stay-at-home parent and the children are taking 10 on craft and profession checks to generate a few GP worth of food, clothing, and similar from working with the family garden, sewing clothes, collecting eggs, and being self-sufficient as the DMG suggests. Excess produce generated by the family can be traded or sold for a little more money to help get bye.

So the family can put aside a few gold pieces a week for a while, and occasionally purchase some special items or services, such as paying a healer if someone gets hurt or sick. They're not rich by any means but they're not entirely destitute either. So the commoner family can survive.

While they could eventually save enough money to invest in increased lifestyle by purchasing better tools, or other conveniences, most won't, because most people naturally will spend excess money on drinking at the tavern with the locals, and other entertainment things as people do.

Professionals (those trained with ranks in professions or crafts) tend to earn about 2 gp more per week (or $200 more per week) than lower folks. People with masterwork tools earn an extra $100 per week. People with hirelings and apprentices can use their labor to make more money. In fact, this could be where the 3gp per week standard comes in (assuming your profession check is worth 5gp, 2 of which goes to your employer's pockets and 3 into your own); but ultimately the professionals and trained businessmen will be much more affluent than the average person or family; and may even be able to afford the luxury of buying most of their stuff without having to grow it or craft it themselves.

Now step back and think of country living in rural communities. Very similar.

As to to the cost of housing, consider barn raising parties. In most communities, villagers would often chip in and help people build houses, barns, and other buildings under the understanding that you would do the same for them. Dividing the market price of a house by 1/3rd, and then setting a pack of commoners to working on it will raise it in a surprising amount of time for much less money (333gp vs 1000gp). Since you can willingly increase the DC of the house-making, and using aid-another checks to get the craft check really high can help. Alternatively, you could assume everyone is taking 10 and generating about 5gp worth of completed work on the building per commoner (so if 30 commoners were working on a house, it would be complete in about 1.5 months).

As for the cost of land, ehhh, hard to say. It'd depend on a lot. Personally, it'd probably be easier to assume that you can build or buy for the cost of the house or building you want; then also begin paying taxes and upkeep as described in the DMG. Just a suggestion for simplicity, of course.

:smallsmile:

PapaNachos
2010-07-25, 02:27 AM
Unskilled laborers earning about 5 gp/week would make for a much more stable system and allow for much more sane calculations.
The problem I have is that both the DMG and the PHB list unskilled workers earning about 1sp/day which means about .5g/week. My claim that its 1000:1 is based off of this.

For some reason they don't take into account people simply using skills they don't have any ranks in and earning money that way.

Edit:
Using skills to make money assumes that you have someone paying for materials and taking your product.

Ashiel
2010-07-25, 02:37 AM
Unskilled laborers earning about 5 gp/week would make for a much more stable system and allow for much more sane calculations.
The problem I have is that both the DMG and the PHB list unskilled workers earning about 1sp/day which means about .5g/week. My claim that its 1000:1 is based off of this.

For some reason they don't take into account people simply using skills they don't have any ranks in and earning money that way.

Edit:
Using skills to make money assumes that you have someone paying for materials and taking your product.

Technically, according the the rules you effectively pop 5gp+ out of your butt at the end of the week; but we must then interpret logically. In a rural environment for example, a family could use profession and craft checks to represent trade goods. Some economies or families may never even deal in actual coins, producing only a certain amount of equivalent trade goods; including (but not limited to) hunted meats, vegetables, animals, clothing, firewood, and various combinations thereof.

I recall my PHB saying that untrained laborers make 3gp a week, as 1sp per day is kind of dumb. I believe that is found on the hirelings page; IIRC. I could be wrong, but I think hireling costs assume you're supplying them with needed items or paying retainer fees; in which case it would mesh together better (since you'd theoretically be paying them in staples as well as money). Otherwise, I would use the DMG notes in the campaign chapter, as well as the PHB; which both say 3gp, I believe. Mind you, it says they make 3gp; which would include the upkeep costs for taxes and living conditions (I think); and if memory serves once more, the meager upkeep cost is about 2gp, which - ka-ching - is the magic number for 5gp per week.

:smallsmile:

PapaNachos
2010-07-25, 02:47 AM
Technically, according the the rules you effectively pop 5gp+ out of your butt at the end of the week; but we must then interpret logically. In a rural environment for example, a family could use profession and craft checks to represent trade goods. Some economies or families may never even deal in actual coins, producing only a certain amount of equivalent trade goods; including (but not limited to) hunted meats, vegetables, animals, clothing, firewood, and various combinations thereof.

Certainly a fair assumption to make. However don't see anything about 3gp/week. I'm using the table on page 105 of the DMG as my primary source where it lists most jobs as costing 1sp/day to HIRE. The skill descriptions in the PHB confirm that an unskilled laborer (someone without ranks in a skill) cost 1sp/day.

At those prices it could be assumed that whoever is hiring them has to pay room and board and most other expenses as well, but I don't see anything in the book that mentions either.

Ashiel
2010-07-25, 02:55 AM
I'm currently out of town, but I'll see if I can look up my references when I get home to my books. :smallsmile:

PapaNachos
2010-07-25, 03:40 AM
Lets see, the text above the table says these are the prices for long term employment. Short term employment will be more expensive. It goes on to mention that this doesn't include the cost of materials, tool, or weapons needed for the job.

So lets say I open my new restaurant McTacoHut. We'll ignore the cost for initial setup.

Lets say I have 7 employees and a manager that in total cost 1gp/day (1sp/employee and 3sp/manager)

Lets say no ability score modifier and a +2 bonus from the manager 'aiding another'. If everyone takes 10 that gives me 6gp/(week * person)* 7people in profit . So take 42gp/week and subtract wages and you get 37gp/week. We'll take off another 2gp as a tax and we're left with 35gp/week. We can treat this as pure profit (income - expenses) or we can treat it as income. If we treat it as income then raw materials cost '1/3' of the base price, so 42gp/3 gives 14gp which gives a profit of 21gp/week.

Now lets say that 1gp:$50
That means that my employees each earn $25/week and my manager earns $75/week. My profit on the other hand is either $1750/week or $1050/week depending on how we interpret the skill check.
Whereas 1gp:$1000 has each employee earning $500/week and the manager earning $1,500/week. I however am rewarded with $21,000-$35,000.

Yes I realize I made some assumptions in that, sue me. Clearly neither option is terribly reasonable and we're probably better off ignoring what the PHB and DMG say about it.


Anyway, </rambling>

Edit: Yes I understand I'm mixing the wage and skill check mechanics. I just guessed at how you might figure out a business's profit.

FelixG
2010-07-25, 03:57 AM
from the DMG, page 139, under "Coinage"

"The economic system in the D&D game is based on the silver piece (sp). A common laborer earns 1 sp a day. Thats just enough to allow his family to survive, assuming that this income is supplemented with food his family grows to eat, homemade clothing, and a reliance on self sufficiency for most tasks (personal grooming, health, animal tending and so on.)

Ormur
2010-07-25, 09:39 PM
Considering the medieval standard of most people barely being able to keep themselves alive on their income supplemented by their own crops and handwork most of the prices aren't so ridiculous, adventurers just live on a completely different level, similar to the nobility of medieval times in comparison to mud farmers.

It's more problematic that the medieval standard in a world of D&D magic is ridiculous.

Foryn Gilnith
2010-07-25, 10:21 PM
http://www.d20source.com/2008/04/how-much-is-a-gold-piece-worth has interesting ruminations on the topic.