Troll Lord Games

What if a character wants to buy a house? How much would that be in a poor, common and rich neighborhood?

That's really going to be dependent on your campaign world - essentially, how much money you've got floating around - along with the usual factors that influenced real estate in medieval periods. But as an example, the adventure Heart of Glass is set in the massive Sea Towns of Ihlsa (population ~70,000), and has the following to say:

APARTMENT/FLAT

Prices can vary, depending on where the flat is or it's general condition. The more rundown it is, the cheaper it is. The price depends on the district, and where in the district, but generally a small on room flat costs about 1-3 gp a month. Of course this comes with no food, furniture, water, or even water bucket. Better furnished flats come with greater prices. The CK should determine what type of room the player(s) want, the neighborhood the party is staying in and determine the price from there. For instance if they rented a flat off of all major streets in Nochi, a rougher part of town, it might only cost but 1 gp a month. A flat of Fleetwood (a major thoroughfare) in Ra-veen could cost about 4 gp a month. If the rented a furnished flat near the University in Capayrnha it could cost as much as 15 gp a month. The CK is the final judge.

Also, depending on just where they are, they might not be able to buy a house, as nobles (or a church, or a guild, etc.) may actually own all the land, and everyone rents from the landowner. Or they might be able to buy the house but owe rents on the land it stands on. But use this more as a campaign flavor feature or perhaps hook, because I wouldn't worry too much about trying to create a realistic pseudo-medieval economy - fantasy RPGs have been breaking laws of economics since the early 1970s. Just pick a figure or range of figures that work for you. And keep in mind that prices can vary by region, just like in the real world.

There might be something in the CKG about this but I don't have it handy.

treant_on_fire wrote:What if a character wants to buy a house? How much would that be in a poor, common and rich neighborhood?

That is totally dependent on the area (your game world). Example: Price those 3 categories in Paris & Tucson AZ and then compare...

CKDad wrote:That's really going to be dependent on your campaign world - essentially, how much money you've got floating around - along with the usual factors that influenced real estate in medieval periods. But as an example, the adventure Heart of Glass is set in the massive Sea Towns of Ihlsa (population ~70,000), and has the following to say:

APARTMENT/FLAT

Prices can vary, depending on where the flat is or it's general condition. The more rundown it is, the cheaper it is. The price depends on the district, and where in the district, but generally a small on room flat costs about 1-3 gp a month. Of course this comes with no food, furniture, water, or even water bucket. Better furnished flats come with greater prices. The CK should determine what type of room the player(s) want, the neighborhood the party is staying in and determine the price from there. For instance if they rented a flat off of all major streets in Nochi, a rougher part of town, it might only cost but 1 gp a month. A flat of Fleetwood (a major thoroughfare) in Ra-veen could cost about 4 gp a month. If the rented a furnished flat near the University in Capayrnha it could cost as much as 15 gp a month. The CK is the final judge.

Also, depending on just where they are, they might not be able to buy a house, as nobles (or a church, or a guild, etc.) may actually own all the land, and everyone rents from the landowner. Or they might be able to buy the house but owe rents on the land it stands on. But use this more as a campaign flavor feature or perhaps hook, because I wouldn't worry too much about trying to create a realistic pseudo-medieval economy - fantasy RPGs have been breaking laws of economics since the early 1970s. Just pick a figure or range of figures that work for you. And keep in mind that prices can vary by region, just like in the real world.

There might be something in the CKG about this but I don't have it handy.

Thanks!

Depending upon your campaign, of course, perhaps there are no places to buy. Many families in the dark and middle ages had to build their own homes. There was no housing market per se. If you wanted a roof over your head, you have better figure out how to do that yourself.

~O

Like everyone else said, it depends on your campaign/world.

For me (with my world's economy being based on a historic Greco/Roman world - 25sp = 1 GP, etc) a poor/common worker can exist on 1sp per day (the common pay for an unskilled worker, and an Athenian juror received a little over 1/2 sp plus food/housing etc a day), so rent for a low income "flat" is about 15 SP a month. I scale up form that, but I don't have my notes for exact prices here at work so I can't quote exact numbers.