How much is money worth?

[Darkfather]

Game masters can construct their own versions of wealth and treasure, but Total Eclipse was built on a structure of wealth that existed in the Muslim Caliphate from the 8th to the 10th Centuries. During this time metal coins where in common circulation, even slaves might have some money, but that most coinage in circulation was silver or copper, with copper being considered trade tokens rather than having some inherit value as precious metals.

The basis for Virdean wealth is the 2.5 gram penny. A good soldier may expect to receive 1/2 penny a day for his or her services. This does not seem like a lot of money and it is not, most soldiers accumulate little wealth unless they are on campaign as usually half this wealth is lost to taxes, donations, and the Virdean version of retirement and health benefits: the cost of a collegium. A soldier though has a lot of perks. They receive at least another 1/2 penny per day in food, live in free lodging, and the tools of their trade and clothing are generally free , something that is not true of a knight making three times his or her wages.

Players in Virdea where often struck by a kind of culture shock because of money and the cost of hard goods and clothing. The soldier carries a weapon and armor that they could not hope to purchase in a decade of saving, if they have a trained warhorse they would have to save every dime they made for thirty years just to gather the purchase and training price. On the other hand a couple of coppers pays for a healer's attentions and a night in a tavern can be had for half a penny.

The easiest way I found to track money was to use foreign coins. Dungeons and Dragons players who swim in thousands of gold and do not even think to record their coppers are downright frugal when they actually have a bag of jingling coins to count out.