Talk:Standard Numbers
People Earnings
Jono your wealth numbers would indicate that a poor person earns about 25sp a week more than a ranked alchemist?
Mandos 10:48, 17 May 2006 (NZST)
Not really. Middle ranked Alchemists fits into the Middle Class (8760 sp per annum, 168 sp per week) category of the Cost of Living guideline. On the flip-side though, Jono's 5,000 = Poor puts them considerably higher than the 3650 sp per year in the Cost of Living.
Jono, is there a reason that you disagree with / don't use the standard cost of living numbers?
Martin Dickson 11:04, 17 May 2006 (NZST)
I was using the rules under alchemist
"An alchemist can produce standard chemicals for the use of local businessmen (e.g. embalming fluid for the undertaker), and earn between 50 and 75 Silver Pennies per full week of labour."
This doesn't seem to match up with the cost of living document :-)
Mandos 11:08, 17 May 2006 (NZST)
I agree they do not match, but when playing in a game this session, I notice that a number of people felt that people earned next to nothing and tipping a med-skilled merchant person 50sp was like paying them a couple of months wages, which I feel it is not. We arnt in the dark ages for the most part.
The numbers and outlook on things like; Death Aspected, mercanery bands, Necromancery, cults, etc would all be good to talk about (on the record) so others can see the style we are looking at.
--Jono Bean 13:50, 17 May 2006 (NZST)
Jono, I find that as (an incredibly rough) rule of thumb, considering 1sp = $10 gives a not completely wrong feeling -- and remembering that the Cost of Living numbers are household income. So, 50sp = $500 for a person whose annual (household) income is $80-90k.
I tend to agree with your players Jono, 50sp is a lot of money. I would say in Seagate things might be a bit different but the guild would be a massive factor in rampant inflation so things are probably all out of whack there.
Mandos 07:50, 19 May 2006 (NZST)
I have worked in some poor countries, where a worker gets beween $1.70 and $10 per day. So I think the rates of pay varies widely, and is likely to decrease away from larger towns. Tipping 50 sp in MMH will be sneared at, thanked in Seagate and observed with stunned silence in Hickville (followed by sudden clamouring for gifts and favours).
Ian Wood 25 February 2010 (NZDT)
Mage Numbers
Mandos, with Mages at 1:200k the Guild would represent virutally all mages in Western Alusia... which could then prove a problem with finding them magic using enemies. :-)
Martin Dickson 15:16, 17 May 2006 (NZST)
Given that the western kingdom as far as I can tell is 2-3 times the size of france and thanks to some magic can support larger populations the possible populations would be around the 40-50 million people. Which gives 250 mages. More than enough to provide some opposition. Plus I tend to favour a more low magic environment than most other GM's.
Mandos 15:32, 17 May 2006 (NZST)
It does come down to GMs ideas about the balance within the game and how they view the world, but I hope their is some middle ground. 250 mages I feel is too low a number given the style of games that have been played and the history of those games within the area. I tend to have more than 250 mages more in line with Martins numbers. I feel it is useful to get an idea from others on there views thou.
--Jono Bean 01:21, 19 May 2006 (NZST)
My feeling is that there has to be *far* more mages than 250 in the Western Kingdom. The guild alone has around 350 mages. Saydar has killed at least 20-30 mages in the WK in his time (PC races). I am sure if you do a body count of mages killed by the guild over any given year in the WK it will be at least 30. Either people are learning magic at a really fast rate to replenish the supply, or there must be more mages :)
Andrew 07:49, 19 May 2006 (NZST)
I think unless the assumption is there that Mages tend to work alone and study a lot the impact on society would be massive if there are lots of mages. While I accept lots of Wiccans with low ranks in a few spells the large numbers of other mages certainly doesn't fit with what I have seen as a player which is ~40-50 mages in centres of learning of which there are 4-5 scattered around the Baronies. A number of lone mages around the place and the occasional mage or two in each court.
Most of the magical opposition I have faced has been offplane.
Of course if Saydar has gone round killing lots of WK mages that would explain my numbers perfectly :-)
Mandos 13:22, 3 Aug 2006 (NZST)
Guild Earnings
Just noting Stephens calcs on cash requires in the barony.
His comments that the barony must produce 2 million sp/year are pretty worrying, until you do some more calculations.
50 million people in the WK. So a rough gestimate would put the total within the baronies at 100 million+ (assuming the baronies area covers Atzdorf - Carzala)
The Guild actually generally only has around 25% of adventures coming from the local area, and if we assume that a number of those are altruistic or paid for by the Guild (say 20% of the local adventures or 5% of all adventures) that leaves a total of a mere 800,000sp per year from the baronies.
On top of that very few adventures ever get paid in straight cash. Normally you get paid in either items or produce. (working for mages and getting paid in investeds or potions counts as produce :-). The only place where it is converted into actual currency is at the guild.
So 800,000sp/year with say 70% (a pretty conservative guess) in items and produce leaves only 240,000sp in actual cash being brought in anually.
Which works out to be .24 which comes to one copper farthing/4 people in the baronies each year.
Most of this is worst case scenario so I think actual impact would be even smaller.
Mandos 10:04, 4 Aug 2006 (NZST)
