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| Dore's London |
The Season
In Endon, the Season lasts from January to June: approximately half the year. It starts with the first balls of the season, properly wakes up with horse races and Parliament's return, roars through spring and early summer, then slowly winds down by June as the great families return to their country estates. For convenience, a Season contains 180 days.Everything in Endon happens during the Season. During the rest of the year (the Off-Season), it's assumed life just carries on. Poor, Lower, and Middle Class PCs are assumed to be working or nursing wounds, grudges, and/or infants. Some Middle and Upper Class PCs can roll on a giant carousing table to lose their fortunes at cards, gain insight into the future, etc, etc. In the Off-Season, nobody gains or loses money.
PCs go on adventures during the Season. Once a dungeon has been cleared, a crisis averted, a mansion burgled, a rival bankrupted, etc, the Season ends. The GM, probably between game sessions, then rolls to advance various Innovations and sets up the next Season.
Adventures in the Off-Season are possible (of course).
The prices below are based on notes from the Jane Austen Society, Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, and T.A.J Burnett's The Rise and Fall of a Regency Dandy. The last source in particular was very useful for adventuring purposes. Scrope Davies lead a very interesting life.
1gp = 10sp = 100cp = (very approximately) £1 in 1800 = (extremely approximately) $100 modern American. The values should be within an order of magnitude of accurate. Given this information, it should be possible to adjust Endon's currency to suit your system.
| Item | Cost |
| Clothing | |
| Rags | 3cp |
| Work Clothing (coat, underclothes, boots) | 8sp |
| Proper Clothing (jacket or dress, shoes) | 1gp |
| Extravagant Clothing | 10gp |
| Wig | 1gp |
| Fine Hat | 1gp |
| Fine Umbrella | 1gp |
| Food | |
| Cheap Meal (bread, drippings) | 1cp |
| Basic Meal (bread, cheese, beer) | 3cp |
| Moderate Dinner (cold meat, bread, beer) | 7cp |
| Steak Dinner (steak, dip, bread, beer) | 1sp |
| Sumptuous Dinner (steak, fish, fruit, wine, beer) | 1gp |
| Bread (1 loaf) | 1cp |
| Local Cheese (1lb) | 4cp |
| Fancy Cheese (1lb) | 1sp |
| Oranges (1 dozen) | 1sp |
| Rental Housing | |
| Lodging House Room (disreputable, per night) | 2cp |
| Lodging House Room (reputable, per night) | 5cp |
| Apartment (small, per Season) | 30gp |
| Apartment (large, per Season) | 60gp |
| Apartment (luxurious, per Season) | 100gp |
| Townhouse (on the outskirts, per Season) | 50gp |
| Townhouse (central, per Season) | 400gp |
| Owned Housing | |
| Townhouse (on the outskirts) | 1,200gp |
| Townhouse (central) | 10,000gp |
| Country House | 5,000gp |
| Country Estate (moderate) | 20,000gp |
| Country Estate (vast) | 100,000gp |
| Drink | |
| Gin (5oz) | 1cp |
| Beer (1 pint) | 2cp |
| Local Wine (1 bottle) | 3sp |
| Fancy Wine (1 bottle) | 8sp |
| Brandy and Water | 1sp |
| Entertainment | |
| Penny Theater | 1cp |
| Coffee House Evening | 8cp |
| Prostitute (appalling) | 3cp |
| Prostitute (cheap) | 1sp |
| Prostitute (expensive) | 1gp |
| Admission to the Long Mall | 1sp |
| Box at the Theater | 5sp |
| Piano | 30gp |
| Education | |
| Foreign Language Lessons (per Season) | 2gp |
| Dancing Lessons (per Season) | 4gp |
| Tuition and Board at Endon College (per Season) | 15gp |
| Apprentice to a Wizard (per Season) | 30gp |
| Transport and Mail | |
| Local Postage | 2cp |
| International Postage | 1sp |
| Local Runner / Courier | 1sp |
| Boat across the River Burl | 4cp |
| Bicycle | 2gp |
| Horse (Riding or Carriage) | 20gp |
| Horse (Racing or Hunting) | 100gp |
| Carriage (basic) | 30gp |
| Carriage (luxurious) | 80gp |
| Coach | 100gp |
| Hirelings | |
| Tip | 1d6cp |
| Urchin (hourly rate for simple tasks) | 2cp |
| Servant (per Season) | 4gp |
| Fancy Servant (per Season) | 12gp |
| Superlative Servant (per Season) | 20gp |
| Misc. Supplies | |
| Brass Barometer | 2gp |
| Candles (1lb) | 3sp |
| Cheap Book or Notebook | 5sp |
| Coal (a day's worth) | 1cp |
| Glass Bottle | 1cp |
| Plates, Cups, Cutlery (6 sets) | 1gp |
| Silver Watch | 5gp |
| Teapot | 2sp |
| Soap (1lb) | 1sp |
| Healing | |
| Bloodletting (unskilled) | 3cp |
| A Course of Drugs | 1gp |
| Pulling a Tooth | 5cp |
| Amputation of a Limb | 1gp |
| Difficult Surgery | 30gp |
| Extremely Difficult Surgery | 100gp |
| Advice of a Physician (per visit) | 10gp |
| A Fleet of Physicians (per day) | 50gp |
| Weapons | |
| Dagger | 1sp |
| Sword or Rapier | 3sp |
| Dueling Pistol | 5gp |
| State-of-the-Art Fowling Piece (shotgun) | 70gp |
| Magic Items | |
| Minor Magic Item (pg. ##) | [ ] 5gp [ ] [ ] 3gp [ ] [ ] [ ] 2sp |
| Minor Magic Weapon (pg. ##) | [ ] 15gp [ ] [ ] 8gp [ ] [ ] [ ] 4gp |
| Magic Sword (pg. ##) | [ ] 100gp [ ] [ ] 50gp [ ] [ ] [ ] 30gp |
| The brackets [ ] indicate the Tempo of Endon. | |
| Income | Revenue |
| Unskilled Manual Labour (per day) | 1sp |
| Unskilled Manual Labour (per Season) | 2gp |
| Skilled Manual Labour (per day) | 2sp |
| Skilled Manual Labour (per Season) | 4gp |
| Shop Clerk (per Season) | 50gp |
| Merchant Banker (per Season) | 200gp |
| Reputable Physician (per Season) | 500gp |
| Sale of a Novel or Work of Poetry | 10x1d20gp |
| Interest on Wealth (per Season) | 2% of wealth deposited* |
There are four social classes in Endon. The minimum costs for each are listed below. If you can't pay the costs, you drop to the next class down (or, at the very end, starve to death).
- The Poor must support a Cheap Meal per day and a new set of Rags each Season.
- The Lower Class must support a a Lodging House Room and a Basic Meal per day and a new set of Work Clothes per Season.
- The Middle Class must support a Moderate Dinner per day, a Servant, an Apartment, and a new set of Proper Clothing per Season.
- The Upper Class must support a Steak Dinner per day, two Servants, a Luxurious Apartment, and a new set of Extravagant Clothing per Season. They must also own a Carriage, a Riding Horse, and a Country House.
| Cost to be Poor (per day) | 1cp |
| Cost to be Poor (per Season) | 2gp |
| Cost to be Lower Class (per day) | 5cp |
| Cost to be Lower Class (per Season) | 9gp |
| Cost to be Middle Class (per day) | 3sp |
| Cost to be Middle Class (per Season) | 45gp |
| Cost to be Upper Class (per day) | 8sp |
| Cost to be Upper Class (per Season) | 138gp |
*Traditionally, this would be 5% of wealth deposited per year, but the Season is only half the year and I'm including taxes and fees wherever possible. Invest wealth at a bank. Assuming the world doesn't end (and what are the chances of that), the bank will provide a nice stable income at the start of each Season.
Loans
Need money quickly? No problem! Loans are available at 100% interest per Season, due at the end of the Season. Take out a loan for 1,000gp and you'll need to pay back 2,000gp. If you only pay back 500gp, you'll need to pay back another 3,000gp the next Season, etc. Debt can rapidly spiral out of control. If you can't pay, the lender will accuse you of Theft (pg. ##) and put you on trial.You can take out new loans to pay off old ones but eventually the lenders will get together and come after you with a vengeance.
Loans from friends, relations, and patrons charge 5-10% interest per Season but typically come with strings attached.
This is really great, I look forward to seeing more on this setting!
ReplyDeleteI really like the entries, very thematic and appropriate.
ReplyDeleteCan you make a post describing your view on the kind of adventures that would occur in Endon? I'm having trouble imagining typical dungeon crawls in a Victorian/Regency Era pseudo-London.
For fun, I've been converting the 'under the mattress' GP wealth of the residents of Hommlet to current USD using your 1gp = $100 conversion factor.
ReplyDeleteThe first farmer the party comes across in T1-4 has roughly $107K in savings, plus whatever he owns in real property. Not to shabby!