Skip to content

Money & the Economy

"A purse of coppers in Greenweald is a purse of coppers. Carry it to where the buyers are hungry and it's something more. The coin doesn't change - the place does."

Ghelmyon runs on coin, and the economy is a real one: prices move, vendors run out of money, and what's worthless in one town is wanted in the next. You don't need a spreadsheet - but knowing how the money works turns a grind into a living.

The coin

Four denominations, a hundred of each to the next step up:

equals
1 silver (s) 100 copper (c)
1 gold (g) 100 silver
1 platinum (p) 100 gold

Prices show in the highest sensible denomination - a price of "1g 5s 20c" is one gold, five silver, twenty copper. Small everyday things (a bandage, a torch) cost coppers; serious gear runs to silver and gold; platinum is for the truly valuable.

Earning it

Money comes from honest work, clever trade, or the quiet professions:

  • Shifts - the steady earner. Sign on at a venue for a working block and collect a purse plus skill and standing. See Making a Living.
  • Loot & selling - take it off a downed foe, find it in the world, and sell it to the right vendor.
  • Quests & bounties - notice-board jobs and wanted-poster turn-ins pay coin (and reputation).
  • Crafting to sell - a finished good reliably beats its raw materials in value; craft, then sell.
  • Trade & arbitrage - buy where a good is cheap, sell where it's dear (below).
  • The underworld - steal, pickpocket, rob and fencing stolen goods. Faster, riskier, and the law remembers (see Crime & Stealth).

What drains it (the sinks)

Coin flows out about as many ways as it flows in - that's by design, and it keeps the world honest:

  • Gear, supplies and consumables - weapons, armor, bandages, potions, reagents.
  • Training - paying a trainer to teach a skill (cost rises as the skill climbs). See Skills & Training.
  • Repairs - keeping equipment from degrading to useless.
  • Healing - a temple or healer's fee for serious wounds (see Wounds & Healing).
  • Living costs - rent, upkeep, wages, the occasional fine or bail when the law catches up with you.
  • Donations - to temples and faith, for standing.

The trick to staying ahead isn't hoarding - it's keeping more coming in than going out, and not over-paying for either.

Why prices move

The same item isn't worth the same everywhere or to everyone. Three levers matter:

  1. Where you are. Each town has its own price character - a good that's common locally is cheap; a good that's scarce there fetches more. This is the heart of trade: buy low in one town, sell high in another.
  2. Who you are. Your reputation with a vendor or faction moves their prices in your favor - friends give better deals than strangers.
  3. Supply and demand. Flood a single buyer with the same goods and the price craters - they've got more than they can move. The signal is plain ("he'll take it, but for coppers"); when you see it, carry the rest somewhere else. Vendors also hold a finite purse a poor merchant can't pay a rich price.

Tips

  • appraise / check value before you sell - know what a thing is worth so you don't get lowballed (the appraise skill feeds the /price check - value plus who nearby will buy).
  • Don't dump everything on one vendor - split a big haul across buyers, or across towns, to dodge the saturation crater.
  • Reputation pays twice - better prices and better stock. The shifts you work and the factions you favor compound into discounts.
  • Carry, don't hoard - coin sitting in a purse does nothing; goods bought cheap and carried to a hungry market are where the margin is.

See also