Performing and prosperous cities

[incog64]

Performance rewards (dancing, tumbling etc) seem to only be profitable in a prosperous city. Is there a definition for a prosperous city, I couldn't find. Additionally, we are playing in Greyhawk, is there a list of prosperous cities? If not, what cities do yall think would qualify?

Perform DC Performance
10 Routine performance. Trying to earn money by playing in public is essentially begging. You can earn 1d10 cp/day.
15 Enjoyable performance. In a prosperous city, you can earn 1d10 sp/day.
20 Great performance. In a prosperous city, you can earn 3d10 sp/day. In time, you may be invited to join a professional troupe and may develop a regional reputation.
25 Memorable performance. In a prosperous city, you can earn 1d6 gp/day. In time, you may come to the attention of noble patrons and develop a national reputation.
30 Extraordinary performance. In a prosperous city, you can earn 3d6 gp/day. In time, you may draw attention from distant potential patrons, or even from extraplanar beings.

Thanks

[Telonius]

I don't think it was ever specifically defined, so that's mostly up to DM interpretation. I think the "prosperous" tag is supposed to be there to give the DMs wiggle room for sanity. If the city is supposed to be under attack, or (for plot reasons) in the middle of a drought or a plague or something, people aren't going to be tossing money to a random Bard on the street, even with a super-high Perform check.

[Biggus]

I don't think it's a specifically defined term. Sometimes books note a country or city as being wealthy or having an economic boom at a particular time but I think in general it's left up to the DM to decide.

[tyckspoon]

Any place that is A: Large enough to actually deal in silver/gold pieces as a part of their economy and B: peaceful enough that you can have quiet downtime and take some days off to go randomly play music at people instead of needing to be part of war councils or something. Basically the default assumption - if you aren't in a 'prosperous city' you'll know it, because stuffs on fire or there's an Ominous Portal in the sky or you're out in a dirt-farming village in the sticks.

[incog64]

Thanks yall.

[Chronos]

And the size of the city mostly doesn't matter, because your audience isn't going to consist of the entire population of the city, anyway (unless it IS just a dirt-farming village in the sticks).

[SangoProduction]

I agree with the notion of "If it's not prosperous, you will know."
Do consider that (skilled) music is something that can very much be gotten by without, though a farmer is going to have a hard time getting by without a hoe - even if it's of the lower grade, rapidly-made quality. So the argument can very much be made that prosperity entails at least enough people and pocket change that they will throw it around at some stranger who simply sings well enough. Especially as, unless you're doing private shows, or venues, then even if they enjoyed it, they can just... not give you money.

But, yeah, "moderately prosperous" basically describes the default town in D&D. So I'll simply restate the point of, 'If it's not prosperous, you will know," because there tends to be a reason it's not. And that reason also tends to be (at least tangentially or in part) the same as why you are there to begin with.

[Biggus]

But, yeah, "moderately prosperous" basically describes the default town in D&D. So I'll simply restate the point of, 'If it's not prosperous, you will know," because there tends to be a reason it's not. And that reason also tends to be (at least tangentially or in part) the same as why you are there to begin with.

I don't think this is true.

Firstly, it doesn't say "moderately prosperous", it says "prosperous".

Secondly, prosperous means "rich, doing well" not "doing ok". The average city can't be doing well by definition, that's like saying that the average man is of more than average height. So at most half of all cities can be described as prosperous.

Some cities, mostly those which are on major trade routes, will have properity as their default state. But while many cities are sited on trade routes, there are plenty which are not; some are placed because they're in a highly defensible position, for example.

Finally, wars, plagues, monster invasions etc are fairly common occurrences in most D&D settings I'm aware of, which as well as being expensive in themselves often lead to large-scale deaths. If a substantial proportion of working-age people are killed, it will take an entire generation for the city to reach full prosperity again, so many cities at any given time which are not currently facing a crisis will still be recovering from the last one.

[rel]

If the party can immediately upon entering town, find a vendor willing to trade the literal ton of gold they were somehow carting around in their pockets for an assortment of extremely specific magical gear, then the city is prosperous.