Revision as of 08:06, 5 April 2010

Manacle and Coin Adjusted Cost Chart

This is an adjusted table of costs in Resources, Jade and Silver coinage, intended to replace the chart in Manacle and Coin. That chart seems to be based on inaccurate assumptions about the value of the coins involved. I've chosen that chart to revise because the rest of the chapter is fairly consistent in its definitions -- the values of coins listed on page 107 line up effectively with the Resources conversion chart on page 122, for example.

The chart I present here adjusts the cost and resources values of most items from the original chart, as well as adding additional gradations and new items in several places to make the chart more authoritative.

These costs are based on several factors:

The general relationship between costs in the Manacle and Coin chart. While these costs are generally inaccurate, I tried to maintain the overall relative expense of various items, except when dictated otherwise by other concerns.

The rules for Resources on page 325 of the core book. By these standards, items should go up an order of magnitude, typically, between Resources ratings. In addition, an item with a given Resources should represent a serious purchase for someone with an equal rating -- probably occupying a significant portion of their monthly (or even seasonal) income.

The need for all units of money. Manacle and Coin seems to indicate that every denomination described within the book is at least theoretically useful in some circumstance, so I've attempted to adjust the chart to reflect this.

Common sense. The Resources rules in the corebook were intended to be a quick and dirty solution on an extremely grainy scale. They don't really scale properly to include peasants, since even basic items like an ox are far, far beyond a peasant's income. Many items would properly be Resources X, since a peasant could afford them as a significant monthly expense and anyone with a "real" job could buy them out-of-pocket.

Later information. Some of these costs are refactored to fit with later information. For example, some of the Everyday Wonders are reduced in price, given the relative ease of producing them with thaumaturgy and their relative commonality.

A basic chart of potential cost ranges for each Resources rating:

Resources X: Anything up to about 2 koku

Resources •: Anywhere from 2 koku (about a week's income) to 2 obols (a month's income)
Resources ••: Anywhere from 2 obols (about a week's income) to 1 mina (a month's income)
Resources •••: Anywhere from 1 mina (about a week's income) to 4 minae (a month's income)
Resources ••••: Anywhere from 4 minae (about a week's income) to 4 bars (a month's income)
Resources •••••: Anywhere from 4 bars (about a week's income) to 4 talents (a season's income)

Some objects will cost more than the listed minimums, if they are considered a large investment. For example, houses and land tend to exceed these maximums, since one is likely to devote a significantly larger portion of one's income towards buying one.

While it's not specified as such in the book, this revised chart assumes that all prices are urban -- the prices you would pay in the Imperial City or Nexus for such items. In a smaller city, cut the prices of common goods and services by a quarter to a third. In villages and rural areas, reduce the cost of locally available goods (clothes, food, animals, etc.) by a half to two-thirds; however, double, triple, or more the costs of luxuries and other imported goods.

For items like weapons and armor, this chart also assumes that the items being purchased are of fine quality -- made with solid, careful craftsmanship. For basic or poor workmanship, reduce the prices by as much as one half. For exceptional weapons and armor, double the listed price.

All silver prices provided are given as a strict conversion from Jade standard prices, given the current conversion rate of 1 Jade Talent = 5 Silver Talents (page 119). This works out to 1 obol = 7.8125 dinars, which puts the value of a dinar at just over that of a koku. It also provides for some very pleasant conversions.