Gutterpunk: Equipment and Wealth

It’s all about the Benjamens. Or the gold, or the silver, or whatever.

WEALTH

10 copper=1 silver

10 silver=1 gold

The above is the general rule for D&D. I’m going to break that down into actual coinage. Silver is the new gold: in the Lower City, gold is as rare as…well…gold.

1 gold=1 gold crown, a large gold coin

1 silver=1 silver crop, a large silver coin

10 crops=1 crown

5 crops=1 half-crown, a small gold coin

5 copper pennies=1 half-crop, a small silver coin

1 copper=1 copper penny

1 brass=1 brass penny

1 iron=1 iron penny

Five brass pennies=1 copper penny

Five iron pennies=1 brass penny

Your average unskilled laborer will earn a half-crop-and-three (8 copper pennies) per day, hauling crates at the docks or some such task. He will usually be paid in copper.

A skilled laborer, such as a gardener or carpenter, earns a full-crop per day, possibly more.

A full worker’s meal in a tavern costs three copper pennies (bread, meat, gravy, ale and a sweet pickle, usually, though taverns further away from the docks tend to serve rice as well).

Buying all the ingredients for that same meal and cooking it yourself costs two copper pennies.

A pint of cheap beer costs four brass pennies.

A gallon of cheap beer costs two copper pennies.

A loaf of bread costs two brass pennies.

Meat costs two copper per pound.

Candied nuts from a street vendor cost an iron penny per small bag.

WEAPONS

Using any weapon actually designed for combat gives you +2 to your attack. A character’s “Armed” combat skill does not necessarily imply that they have a legit weapon: they might be using a stick with a nail in it, or a pried-up cobblestone. They might be using such things instead of actual weapons because real, honest-steel weapons are expensive.

Melee

Sword, Short: 10 gold crowns

Sword, Long: 15 gold crowns

Rapier: 20 gold crowns

Etc. Generally speaking, I’m planning on just using the prices from the D&D 3.5 Player’s Handbook. The difference being, since the players will be seeing gold less often, getting decent weapons becomes more of a challenge.

Firearms: Guns hurt. Flintlocks especially; those things use the equivalent of .50 caliber rounds. They are, however, highly inaccurate, and prone to misfiring. On a hit, a gun will deal 2 hits instead of 1. The attack roll gets a -4 accuracy penalty, and any roll at or below the weapon’s “misfire rate” means the gun has misfired (roll on misfire table).

Matchlock: Misfire 1-5, 10 crowns pistol, 20 crowns musket

Flintlock: Misfire 1-4, 30 crowns pistol, 60 crowns musket, 80 crowns rifle

Emberlock: Misfire 1-2, 300 crowns pistol, 450 crowns musket, 550 crowns rifle

Note: “Emberlock” refers to any sort of mechanism that uses an enchantment to ignite the powder charge instead of some sort of physical mechanism. The prices listed for emberlock weapons are more guidelines than anything else; more complicated enchantments could easily get into the thousands range.

ARMOR

All characters have a base armor of 10. That is to say, an unskilled attacker swinging at an unskilled and unarmored defender probably has a fifty-fifty shot at hitting them, given ideal circumstances. Wearing armor adds to that 10 and makes a character less likely to take serious wounds. However, be warned that heavier types of armor will decrease the amount you are able to dodge. It’s up to you if that’s worth it or not. Wearing armor also limits how much of a bonus you can get from Dexterity. I haven’t decided yet if I should let characters add their dexterity to their armor class, or if that concept has been taken care of by the Dodge dice.

Armor bonuses and prices are as they are in the 3.5 Player’s Handbook.

THE RANDOMNESS

Players start with two pieces of equipment of their choosing. After that, roll twice on the Random Starting Equipment table. All characters are assumed to own a backpack or sack and the sort of clothes that might be worn by someone from the Renaissance who had seen a mirror maybe once and thought it was witchcraft.

RANDOM STARTING EQUIPMENT

01. Sword

02. Forger’s kit

03. Selection of fake mustaches

04. Large crate of wheat/flour/iron ore/other trade good

05. Two grenades

06. Flintlock pistol with three paper cartridges

07. Bag of candles

08. Musket, no ammunition

09. Book about demon summoning

10. Grappling hook and rope

11. Instrument

12. Tomahawk

13. Jug of very strong alcohol

14. Incendiary grenade

15. Half a dozen empty flasks

16. Iron-capped staff

17. Sturdy padlock and key

18. 1d4 sheep

19. Ten paper cartridges, for use with flintlock firearms

20. Small keg of gunpowder

21. Ornate knife

22. Crossbow, good working order, with box of ten bolts

23. Lucky rabbit’s foot

24. Powder horn

25. Jewelry, family heirloom

26. Jewelry, cheap

27. Ornate scabbard, no matching weapon

28. Gold pocketwatch, broken

29. Silver pocketwatch, in working condition

30. Bow, with 10 arrows, two extra bowstrings

31. Earplugs

32. Hilt of a broken sword

33. Shoeshine kit

34. Two pairs of sturdy boots

35. Garrote

36. Bearskin rug

37. Carved walking stick

38. Dictionary

39. Face mask/air purifier from the Grey City

40. Tattoo kit

41. Illegal drugs

42. Metal helmet

43. Sweet hat

44. Box of random mechanical parts

45. Mace

46. Large wooden mallet

47. A dozen iron nails

48. Book of recipes

49. Locket, with picture inside

50. Bag of marbles

51. Legal drugs

52. Crowbar

53. Small silver mirror

54. Pliers

55. Bottle of mineral oil

56. Box of tea leaves

57. Sewing kit

58. Pound of salt

59. Hacksaw

60. Pots and pans

61. Notebook

62. 20 ft. silk rope

63. Three incense sticks

64. Straight razor

65. Vial of acid

66. Butterfly knife

67. 1d6 quill pens, bottle of ink

68. Three empty vials with wax stoppers

69. A goat

70. An arrowcatch (metal cage the size of a basketball, too heavy to carry around normally but will stop any arrows within fifteen feet of it, eight times before the springs need to be reset)

71. Sturdy work gloves

72. Three flasks of oil

73. Model airship

74. A blackjack

75. Hunting spear

76. One Verdan “breaker” grenade (directed explosive)

77. One Verdan “cussor” grenade (large explosive)

78. Four smoke bombs

79. Book of inspirational poetry

80. Ten feet of copper wire

81. Assorted lockpicks

82. A dozen handkerchiefs

83. A shield, old and battered

84. Telescope

85. Formal clothes

86. 12 wooden stakes

87. Clay pipe

88. Hatchet

89. Map of the city (two years out-of-date)

90. Ten silver full-crops, counterfeit

91. Spectacles with smoked lenses (sunglasses)

92. Dragon gun, no ammunition

93. Two flashbang-style grenades (Verdan-made)

94. Blowgun

95. Pirate flag

96. Dragon’s tooth necklace

97. Five empty sacks

98. Medal for first place in some competition no one in the city cares about

99. Two knives

00. Craftman’s Bow, five darts