Standard Numbers
This page holds the views (I hope) of a range of people and their understanding of the number of things. If you have a view please add it to the page. I hope this will show us that people have differing vies and will leave to some helpful comments.
Peoples Views
Jono Bean
16:15, 15 May 2006 (NZST)
Wealth:
A wealthy Inn cost 12sp per night. I think poor people earn 100sp per week (or 5,000sp) per year. The poorer the people, then more of their money will in fact be in stuff (not cash). The richer the people the more cash, and less stuff.
A Wealthy extended merchant family may have 2 ships and 3 family homes, and a small farm with a few animals, and wharehouse worth around over 800,000sp. They may be able to get in cash 2,000sp at any one time, and place (within a week) or 20,000sp in a 3 month period (and leave the family without working capital at all).
Mages:
I think that mages with a full collage are rare, without real training. I think of NPCs as having only 50% of general knowledge spells. I see the numebr of mages being low, 1 in 10,000 people.
Death Aspect:
1 in 100 people are death aspected. I think these people in general will like the effect that deaths around them have.
The problem I see is that not a lot of them would make it to the age of 15 years old while living in a rural country side, as in spring they would gain a cumulative penalty that would make walking to the farms front gate a deadly activity, along with eating; chocking to death on food etc etc. I guess 1 in 10 live to 15 years old being 1 in 1000. I expect that Death Aspected people with wealth would in Spring be convalescing in towns or citys to avoid the problems with births. Like people used to go to the countryside for their health, this is the same.
In some places they will naturally move towards employment in slaughterhouses in towns (or larger settlements) or guards or a life of violence.
Town or City Guards may have lower than expected numbers of death aspected members, as violence is not looked upon kindly. Elite guards would have higher numbers of death aspected people. Mercenary bands or groups would have small bands moving around the country side looking for death aspected people.
Also Elite Guards looking after something (where death may be expected) - then a Death Aspected guards would a wise addition - as the early warning of attacks/death is a good thing.
GMs should in Spring, in rural areas put Death Aspected people on +5 on teh dice.
Healers:
I think rank 1 to 4 is common, higher ranks held by older people in villages. Ranks 5 and 6 in towns of 2,000+, and in larger (older cities) you may gain a rank 8 healer.
Mandos
Wealth:
Working from the numbers in the rules I assume that artisans and crafters earn around 50-75sp a week, with poor surviving in a mostly cashless economy and getting by on 10-20sp a week. 3-4 sp a day is a fine wage for a labourer or farm hand.
Mages:
I think mages are very rare, being around 1:200,000 and they are predominatly hedge witches with mostly blessing and curse magics. Other mages cluster in towns, generally attached to a guild or academy. Living by teaching the children of the rich and working directly for the nobility or rich merchants.
Death Aspect
I think that many of the people who are born with a death aspect will end up in trouble and outcast when people find them enjoying the deaths of others. They are likely to be killed as Necromancers, particularly in the more backward areas. It is probably this that causes the mass dislike of Necromancers that exists in the game. Most social issues arising from misunderstandings. I also presume most people with it would tend to gravitate to jobs like soldiers, guards, butchers and hangmen.
Healers:
Most members of the health industry are quacks and physicians often with little more than Rk0 Healer with most healing done by herbalists. Hedge witches also have some healing abilities. High ranked healers like mages flock to the cities to tend to the rich and/or nobles.
Martin
Wealth:
The numbers scattered through the skills rules and the Cost of Living guideline don't always match up, and I tend to use the latter for its simplicity. The cashlessness of the economy varies with rural vs. urban; a rural community could very well end up paying mercenaries in food or trade goods and shouldn't have much silver laying around. Even so, many urban servants (who get room and board as part of their service) would see less than a penny a day.
Mages:
Mages are not common, but there have to be enough to account for the level of magic use that gets portrayed in the world; there have to be enough to be black hats for a start. Pretty comfortable with Jono's 1:10k, but would add another 1:3500 hedge witches (with mostly blessing and curse magics). Across the Western Kingdom and surrounding areas (with a guesstimated population equal to medieval France of some 25 million people), this gives a hedge witch per six villages, and another 2500 mages scattered through the towns and cities.
Healers:
Fair numbers of Rk 0 & 1 healers scattered throughout the world. I'd be happy with reasonable number of Rks 2 to 5, expect that Prolong Life has a weird and potentially distorting effect of general society that I want to avoid worrying about.
William
Wealth
Most people in the game world are largely running on a barter economy. Cash for normals is scarce and mostly limited to copper and some silver. Wea;th exists but it is tied up in non-liquid assets. Actual moolah is rare and limited to the newly emerging middle class of bankers, merchants and adventurers. A baron might have a (for game purposes) income of 100,000 but when a quarter of that is 500 cows another half is 5000 bushels of wheat and the last is 60 days military service from 25 knights it's a little non-transferable.
The numbers for the cost of living are for IMNSHO adventurers, who tend to not work for a living. An alchemist may only make 50-75sp a week, but he already has a place to live provided through his guild or his master, his wife and children do most household maintainance (which a PC would have to hire someone for) and he gets a lot of stuff in trade (eg the butcher who provides a string of sausages each month in thanks of the timely prentitive the alchemist supplied his mistress some years back and the complementary fruit basket each quarter from the "Seagate Friendly Business Association". So he does pretty well for himself. But again, has little cash money. The Alchemists Guild might be able to scrape together funds for a low party but not a single regular joe.
Mages
Mages I see as a re-emerging as society pulls itself out of the dark ages that followed Penjare. People are starting to realise how usefull they can be and so mages are becoming more and more common as people can afford to support them. At the moment the role of a mage in society is still in flux, as some mutter alternativly of the wonders and hubris of the ancients, work out the benefits while wondering how to keep them in check.
As a result mages turn up when you want them. They range from damn near rare to super-abundant.
Healers
Healer I see as most other skills. A 'master' is Rank 5. You can find a few in the big cities. If you're lucky a prosperous town will have one. The 'Miricle' workers are very rare and are regarded as holy men (or women) by whoever is lucky enough to have them. Healer Prolong Life requires constant attention and so only the very wealthy or powerful will have them. Or it may be that most are totally unaware that healers can do that (since your average healer keeps that secret to themselves). Remember, the NPCs cannot crack open the rulebook and check what services are availiable from Bob the Rank 5 Healer.
Groups of healers are more likely to be members of a church than a guild. They're more likely to join these since it may be the typical source of that knowledge in game. PCs being able to learn every skill is a game mechanic. Most real people are more limited.
Stephen
- Wealth
A world where most transactions are in trade of goods, services, and favours, and only rarely or in big urbans areas do you see much coin. It sounds good and seems to fit the view of the world that many of us have.
Ignoring direct adventuring costs (horses, Inns, magic, healing, etc.), an adventurer is going to need a few thousand for training costs per adventure, 10-20 thousand (or more) per year for living expenses, and thousands to pay for their spells if they are a mage. Assuming the average adventurer goes out twice a year this means they are going to need to bring in at least 10,000sp in cash per adventure to live and gradually advance.
So with 40-50 adventurers heading out each session there needs to be enough wealth in the world that about 500,000sp can flow into the guild economy every quarter. If there isn't then a guild of our size with our costs is not sustainable.
We can say that some of this wealth comes from off plane, but about half of it should be coming from our local adventuring world - the baronies.
The question is, how do we balance this requirement for available wealth with a world that we see as cash poor?
- Mages
The number of mages is difficult. An average guild party loaded with mages is rarely going to be troubled by non-magical opposition without getting into combats with large numbers of people which don't work very well in DQ. So the opposition needs to have magic to create combat challenges. But most of us don't want a world so packed with mages that magic becomes mundane.
We need enough that there are NPC mages who PCs can work for and learn from. Enough to create investeds, scrolls, and potions for other NPCs to have and use against the PCs. And enough that the PCs can have magic thrown back at them and the Namers can earn their wage.
If a mage were to set up a stall in the corner of the town market offering spell casting services then they would have a maximum of 10 or 20 customers per day (possibly less as most large settlements are low mana), and a bunch of unfriendly wanna-be customers who couldn't afford their services or were too far back in the queue. And then when as inevitably happens a spell goes awry, unfriendly can quickly become angry.
I think we have to assume that there are quite a lot of mages but the personal risk and sacrifices required mean that they don't cast their magic for just anybody and they generally maintain a low profile, a powerful patron, or become the megalomaniacs that PCs are paid to hunt down.
Mages might live openly in small villages or remote hamlets were there are a limited number of people seeking their services. While there may be up to a dozen mages in a town or 30-50 in a city they are unlikely to be living openly.
I think most practicing mages will be living outside of large settlements away from the low mana and somewhere they can have privacy or protection. The cliche mages tower, fortified manor houses, abbeys, hidden in forests and mountains, island retreats, small keeps, etc. are the most likely places to find mages.
Mages are almost always there but can only be found as often as the GM wants them to be found.
- Death Aspect
One percent of Adventurers are death aspected. I think the percentage in the general population is much lower as death aspected people are more likely to seek a mercenary career.
- Healers
I would like to see physikers and non-magical healers in the world as the most common person you see when injured. They know enough to bind wounds, keep them clean, set simple breaks, and offer advice on common ailments. There will probably be 1 to 3 of these per village and occasionally one in a hamlet. They will be easy to find in towns and cities, advertising their services like every other merchant in town.
Next are the Rangers and Herbalists who have greater knowledge of herbal remedies. There will usually be at least one 'urban herbalist' per town, more in cities. These are the ones that usually purchase their herbs rather than gathering them. Possibly older Herbalists and Ranger getting too old for field work. Rural Rangers and Herbalists that grow and gather their own herbs will be rare in villages in well cultivated lands, more common closer to the wilds were they can find the herbs that are their stock in trade.
Hidden amongst the physikers are the true healers, most at low ranks (0-4) using their healer skill to bolster their physiker abilities and remedies. The frequency and availability of these among physikers will vary wildly (GM whim to suit the game).
Master healers (ranks 5-7) will usually have a sponsor, live in hiding/retreat somewhere, live nomadically, or hide their abilities to avoid being swamped by hundreds of demands each day on their limited FT. There are probably a dozen of these in a Barony. The trick is in finding them.
Miraculous Healers (8-10) are rare and face the same issues as Master Healers only more so. While the names of these Healers are probably well known, the alias they live under and the home address will be well guarded secrets. A noble or otherwise powerful sponsor is most likely. There is likely to one in a Barony who may or may not be known to the Baron. There is almost certainly one or more in a typical Duchy. Again finding them is the hard bit, equiries with the rich and powerful are most likely to lead to them but their services will cost you. Enquiries with the good and wise are more likely to lead you to philanthropic healers who won't necessarily charge all the market will bear.
Andrew Withy
Wealth:
For living costs, I use 1sp = $10. A Beer costs 2cf = $5. A good artisan earns 100sp/week = $1,000/week = $52,000. A fancy inn at 12sp/night = $120/night. A good meal = 2-5sp = $20-$50. Street vendor food = 2cf = $5 = big mac. This works for mundanes.
Adventurers earn say 20,000sp/quarter 2 adventuers a year = $400k. Some quarters they may make a loss, others maybe 100ksp = $1 million. A magic item costs 10ksp = $100,000 = flash car. This means a Rank 10 Hellfire @ ?? 3500sp = $35k. Adventurers are the flashy nouveux riche Bling merchants - $ millions in jewelley, flash car, live with their mothers.
Mages:
Thinking ...
Death Aspect:
Adventuring attracting a disproportionate amount of Death aspected people. HOwever, +/- 5 on dice rolls isn't fatal for mundanes. Maybe the person wears balck and is unlucky.
Agree with Jono that GMs should in Spring, in rural areas put Death Aspected people on +5 on the dice.
Healers:
Thinking ...
