Hey everyone. I was curios how people sell things they have bought for real money price up their items to sell in game for IC cash.
I have always seen a ring as a pound (seeing how the average cost of a pint of beer is 3-4 rings) but that would make a throne £160.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
The Sassy Thane
First, to be clear: these are not convertible currencies. People who are selling OOC items for IC money are, effectively, giving those items away. There are important legal reasons that you can’t just buy and sell PD IC money.
Remember also that events are like a UN conference. Prices there for basic things like food and beer are likely hugely inflated compared to normal day to day costs in the Empire.
There’s certainly no hard and fast rule. In general, a few rings is for things which are a few quid nowadays, but that doesn’t scale. When people e.g. ‘sell’ a really nice pair of larp boots for a throne, that breaks the illusion of the currency a bit - because IC there’s no way they’re reasonably worth more than a magic sword. A good rule of thumb is that if you can’t afford to ‘sell’ it for under a crown, you should just charge OOC money, instead of distorting the IC economy.
(Also, note that you can only give away food or drink (particularly alcohol), unless you have specific permission from PD)
Firstly, I wasn’t asking if I could buy IC money. Not once was that mentioned in the post. Secondly, it sounded like (this could just be the way I’m reading rather that what was actually meant) I was being accused of 'distorting the IC economy wjich I am in no way doing.
The main point of this question was to understand the value of resources. You can buy a wain of dragon bone for 17-18 rings. Does that make it valuable or just useful? compared to mithril for 40 crowns, is that expensive? 2 rings for a newspaper, am I being ripped off?
I realise I could have worded the question much better. Essentially, to get an idea of the ‘value’ of money while in character. I see people selling things IC and was curious if that reflected on the value of IC cash.
My slightly unhelpful answer is:
If you attempted to map the IC value vs OC time and/or money of every (non game item) sold on the field so far at the …
… You would likely get a very wonky graph.
The game is deliberately ambiguous on the IC worth of anything in the world beyond game resources (mana, herbs, materials, liao etc). The game doesn’t worry too much with trying to simulate the individual trade of basic resources, only the big, important stuff.
The closest is on the Currency page of the wiki (profounddecisions.co.uk/emp … i/Currency)
[quote]A ring generally represents a suitable payment for a minor task, or the cost of an item such as a simple meal or a bottle of wine or beer. Citizens who deal mostly in rings tend to be towards the bottom of the economic pile.
A crown is a more significant expenditure; a fine meal or a bottle of wine from a prestigious vinyard might cost a crown. Citizens who deal mostly in crowns tend to be wealthy - they are often business owners, or run a prosperous farm.[/quote]
I doubt however many people are interested in selling a bottle of £5 wine IC for 1 ring.
As Tea mentions, the meetings at Anvil have some of the wealthiest and most powerful citizens of the Empire, hence prices for simple things are vastly inflated.
Also, it is best to think of the 18 Rings most characters get as the “spending money” for that season, once all living expenses have been dealt with.
I agree I think there are effectively three or four separate economies using the same currency at Empire (#notaneconomist) you’ve got your food/drink/newpapers, magazine and pamflets level which runs on rings and crowns. Then you’ve got the trade in magic artefacts which works in crowns and thrones, but also a lot of barter in magic materials, you’ve also got the Wain economy with strategic materials going for a few Thrones a Wain. Finally you’ve got the Bourse Seat economy dealing in large gobs of thrones (seats sell for between 400-600 Thrones in recent times) which is very much on a different level to everything else.
So yeah it doesn’t really map onto how the real world works at all.