Gyro/ResourceSystemRevised

Basic Equivalents

Yen Slip or Pence= Trinket, drink

Eighth Yen= Meal

Quarter Yen= Food for a day, Moderately Expensive Meal (Including, say, meat)

Half Yen= Moderately Expensive Meals for two people for a day, food for two people for four days.

Yen= New clothes, food for a large family for a day or a moderately expensive meal for said large family, new set of farm tools or new set of pottery for the kitchen.

Siu=MEM (Moderately Expensive Meal) for a week for a family, buys a coop full of chickens ready to lay eggs, or feeds a feast to an extended family. Buys a farmer�s whole seed stock for planting or a couple of fruit or nut trees.

Quian=Week�s wages for a peasant. Can buy a dozen sheep or a couple of milk cows. Rent a one-man apartment in a city or a sad little country cottage for a month

Koku=More than two month�s wages for a peasant. Can buy a new plough or oxen team or start entire cottage industry. For 2 koku can renovate entire house and outbuildings or hold a wedding. For 3 to 4 koku can set up someone in a house with a plot of land to farm.

Conversions

Jade Currency

1/8th Yen= 2 Yen Slips

1 Siu=8 Yen

1 Quain=2 Siu=16 Yen

1 Koku=8 Quian=16 Siu=128 Yen

1 Obol=8 Koku=64 Quian=128 Siu=1,024 yen.

1 Shekel=8 Obols

1 Mina=2 Shekels=16 Obols

1 Bar=8 Minae=16 Shekels=128 Obols

1 Talent=8 Bars=64 Minae=128 Shekels=1,024 Obols

Guild Silver Standard

1 talent (jade)=5 talents (silver)

1 talent (silver)=64 pounds=4 Dirhams=1,600 Dinars=204 � Obols (jade)

1 Dirham=16 Pounds=400 Dinars=51 � Obols

8 Pounds (silver)=200 Dinars=25 � Obols

1 pound (silver)=25 dinars=3 � Obols

� Pound (silver)= 6 � Dinars=3/4 Obol=6 Koku

Dinar= 1 Koku and 2 Quain, or 160 Yen, or 1,280 coppers.

[At this point, the dinar is the lowest denomination. Converted into 'real dollars', this is approximately the equivalent of having your lowest denomination being an 800$ bill. I invented 'strips' of silver and added copper coins to try and bring things down to something reasonable]

1/8th Dinar=20 yen=10 strips

1 Strip=10 yen=1/16th Dinar

� strip=5 yen= 1/32nd Dinar=40 coppers

1 copper=1/8th Yen

Pence= 1/2 copper=Yen Slip

Income

(THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE ANY EXPENSES OR TAXES, NOR ANY ACTIONS OF PROFIT MAKING OR LOSS OF INCOME IN-GAME. IT IS MEANT AS A BASELINE ONLY):

Resources X=Beggar, very poor peasant. Less than 6 koku a year.

Resources 1= About 6 koku a year. (Peasant)

Resources 2=About 96 koku a year. (Single farmer, Shopowner, Merchant, Artisan)

[It is assumed that at least 60-90% of the population is Resources 2 or lower. According to available Exalted literature, there is a huge ramp up between Resources 2 and 3 that is much larger than the difference between other levels, for whatever reason.]

Resources 3=About 4,000 koku a year (Comfortable Merchant or Artisan, Wealthy Farmer)

Resources 4= About 32,000 koku a year (Rich landowner, merchant, or aristocrat)

Resources 5= About 128,000 koku a year. (Merchant Prince)

(Unfortunately, reworking the system does not lend itself to the standard of �resource level=take it down a notch on the resources table. The author of this table has done his best to keep items restricted to their resources class. Sadly, some of White Wolf�s expenses for things simply do not make any sense, making some things more or less expensive than they are originally portrayed.)

Savings

Based on worldwide trends in saving in 1998, the Exalted savings rate is assumed to be 100% of resources at beginning of play, as explained by 20% of income each year over a term of 5 years if your character is starting at the age of 13. Add more money as appropriate.

Assets

Based on 1998 U.S. census data, the average household has about four times net worth in assets than income. Thus, the available assets one could liquidate for cash would be their amount in resources x4. If the character does not have significant material possessions like a house or some very valuable piece of portable merchandise or the like, assume they only have 1/8th of the assets given with them.

Resources 1= 24 koku worth.

Resources 2= 384 koku.

Resources 3= 16,000 koku.

Resources 4= 128,000 koku.

Resources 5= 512,000 koku.

Basic Two Week Pay Period

(Except for Resources 2, little decimals off of yen have been rounded. If you want exact amounts, you can do the math yourself.)

Resources 1= 2 Quain

Resources 2= 4 koku

Resources 3= 166 koku and 84 � yen

Resources 4= 1333 koku and 42 1/4th yen

Resources 5= 5333 koku and 42 1/4th yen

Range of prices of items in terms of sheer Resources dots:

[Based on the whole month's pay thing as in Exalted]

Resources 1= 1/8th yen to a yen

Resources 2= 1 yen to 4 koku

Resources 3= 4 koku-300 koku

Resources 4= 300-10,000 koku

Resources 5= Above 10,000 koku

Comments

I am an American living in Japan right now (Feb 2006, in case Posterity is lookin'), and I rent an apartment big enough for 2 people (that are VERY close with each other; most everyone in the building is single) in the country is about 40,000 yen a month. This comes out to 1300 yen a day. If I planned to eat well, I'd probably spend about 800 yen a day (mostly rice and veggies, a smidgen of meat and egg per meal, definitely a Resources 2 kind of lifestyle when a MEM or two a week is thrown in). If food for a day in the Age of Sorrows is a quarter-yen for 1, that'd be 7 yen for a month, so I propose a 1-man apartment would be 16 yen (11 rounded excessively up, maybe to represent bloated property costs), 1 Quian, a month. So I added my suggestion, in easily separable italics, to what a Quian can buy above. If Gyro abides. --UncleChu

Nice work, Gyro. -- JohnBiles