I am about to start GMin my first 7th sea campaign. Unfortunately, I never played 1st ed. so I will probably have a number of questions that are quite stupid. If so, I apologize in advance. Here is my first question:
Coinage and Currency - what is the system used. How much do things cost in Theah. If a merchant gives a reward to the party for their good work and it contains 10 coins... is he being generous or cheap? If the Duelist wants to buy a new sword made of high quality Castillan steel (is that a thing?), how much will it cost? When the merchant captain wants to pay his crew their monthly wages, how much is he paying them? It the party finds a mysterious Gem in an ancient ruin and wants to sell it, what are they going to be looking at? The Pirate Sloop captures a Castillan merchantman... how much can they sell it for?
As this is a Renaissance/Age of Piracy type game, wealth is going to be fairly important unless I miss my guess. If it is discussed in the Main book, I must have missed it (admittedly very possible). So, I'm looking for some guidance, suggestions.
Thanks
Wed, 04/05/2017 - 09:31
#1
Jeff Childs
Economics and Currency
theah
In 2nd Edition they have put most of the nuts & bolts of the economy into a black box called Wealth. This was overall probably a good thing, as the balance was all over the place in 1E. Although there were some interesting economic things going on, like the Vendel trying to remove the Mark from existence by refusing to sell Marks, but being willing to buy them. Most things in 1E were priced in Vendel League Guilders.
That said, if you want it, my take on 1st Edition economics is in this file:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mD3_mK5ilTW-IS0L3PnHT5ml2ixmO6uYoX96...
i also worked out, somewhere, that the larger items were pretty substantial. An Avalonian pound was basically a pound of silver, and the shilling is still pretty good. A pint of Beer is about 5c: you could probably cover an entire night's drinking for you and your friends off a single Guilder.
Thanks, that looks great.
Also, if you want fictional inspiration, there's a great bit in Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. Newton hs bartered the price of a new lens [i think] with a trader. Then he has to barter exactly how much his coinage is worth!