Dear group!
I had a closer look at Julianīs wealth table and have to say,that Iīm
not convinced.
The cost of an item is(also)determined by,how difficult it is to
manifacture it and how long it takes to manifacture something!Well at
least in a pre-industrial civilisation where everything is made by
hand.
I donīt know how Julian made up this whole table but I guess,he did
it the other way round relating amounts of money to things and
costratings.
To begin:
-In the original HW table the cost for a pig,sheep and a goat was the
same.In that point I agree with Julian(he made differences in
cost).But I think the order should go something like this:goat 5
(least valuable),sheep6(donīt forget the wool you get every year from
such an animal!),pig 7(a big chunk of meat,fat and skin)
-Chainmail should be quite difficult to make and
timeconsuming,locking all the little metalrings with one another.No
journeyman should be really able to do it on his own,thatīs why I
think the cost would be 5W2(simple skill of a master).
-The same with platemail.I know how difficult it is to make a real
tailor-made perfect fitting set of clothes,because some years ago I
learned the craft of being a tailor.And it should be even more
difficult to make it out of metal,with all the joints and stuff!So to
me,the cost should be 15-20W2!!!This is nothing a journeyman could
ever do!!!An experienced master is needed!
-The same with weapons:a crossbow is a really complex mechanical
device,this should be 10W2.A katana,a japanese sword is a very
special item,which is superior to ordinary smithskill,it should be
15W2 or higher!I think assesssing these values is really easy,just
ask yourself what level of skill is needed to make the item:so a
finely crafted weapon canīt come from a journeymanīs skill-it will
always come from a master!A simple sword is somehing ,that a
journeyman should be able to manifacture,so 5W seems appropiate to me.
-The same with all the big stuff like houses,ships and castles.The
really big buildings take a lot of time to build:months or even
years.You need the skill of an experienced master.So I donīt believe
the value of a sailboat can be 12W(average skill of a journeyman?
Forget it!This is much more difficult!)
Building a dry dock or a noble manse is a thing that needs many
workers guided by very experienced masters and takes a lot of time!So
10W4 or 10W3 is quite appropiate as the rules state!
So here we are again.The costratings where the abstractions of many
factors(skill especially) while you seemed to look foremost at the
money aspect.But as I understand it,money is something that wasnīt
supposed to have a meaning (at least in countable numbers)in HW
rules,because it makes gameplay unnecessarily complicated,when you
have to keep track of your cashsum.So it depends on what you want,I
would say.If you want to count money,just forget the wealth skill and
use the values in lunars.If you want to use the wealth skill you will
not be able and will not need(!)any moneyvalue that relates to the
wealth rating.
You always said the costtable is broken,but never said why...I think
the costtable is quite right(maybe with the exception of pig,sheep
and a goat having the same value,a warhorse being to chaep(I would
suggest 15W2-think of how difficult it must be to,train a horse that
is from itīs very nature a peacful creature,into a brave,aggressive
battlecompanion..),and the the crossbow also being much to cheap.
peace
christian
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