If you’re here from my Good Economics in Your 5e Handbook? post, welcome! You can start in Part 3.
To recap that article, when the math maths, the engagement of the game improves by helping the world feel more plausible / livable.
This whole post is built on the assumption that adventurers (the role typically designated to players in most RPGs: Mercenary, Explorer, Outlaw, etc.) represents a small percentage of the general population, with NPCs making up the rest of the population of laymen.
And the game mechanics available to the player reflect this.
While NPCs might get more HP / do more damage, they generally don’t level up in the same way players do. (with skill trees & experience points to allocate).
However, this means that players are also mechanically prevented from interacting with the world in the same way a layman would.
If nothing else, acknowledging the ways that ordinary people interact with the world is useful for clarifying the differences between adventurers and layman.
Part 1: Adventuring is not Ordinary
Payment doesn’t have to be in monetary measures, but for now we will assume money is how we get our 3 necessities.
So, how dose someone get money? By providing goods or services. Thankfully we can rely on the Services (Sv) table to tell us how much someone is paid for their services, however this only tells us the wages of someone living a Poor or Comfortable lifestyle.
The Poor lifestyle is tied to unskilled labor.
People at this lifestyle tend to be unskilled laborers
(P. 158)
You make† and spend‡ 2sp per day. (†P. 159Table: Services, ‡P. 157Table: Lifestyle Expense
The Comfortable lifestyle is tied to skilled labor.
You associate with… skilled tradespeople
(P. 158)
You make† and spend‡ 2gp per day (†P. 159Table: Services, ‡P. 157Table: Lifestyle Expense).
With no official income table, I think it is safe to assume that any Lifestyle must (at minimum) make the same amount they spend, because, as written, not making money is the Wretched lifestyle.
The only way to generate disposable income is to live under your means, and living above your means only happens on a windfall separate from your daily income.
The previous arrangement fits the adventurer/free-lance spending cycle. But we are trying to find the layman’s spending cycle. I got that mathed out in my Good Economics in Your 5e Handbook? post, check it out.
Non-monetary payment:
Time
It is important to understand that Lifestyle primarily describes someone’s quality of life. That is not to say that you can live an Aristocratic lifestyle on “good vibes” and “positive outlooks”. The quality of life is resources dependent.
If you live in a city, where you can pay someone to provide those resources, then we measure the lifestyle expense as monetary. But, if you live in the wild, you have to find and harvest and process those resources yourself, so we measure lifestyle expense by time.
This is where the Downtime Activities (P. 187) section of the Player’s Handbook comes in handy. Unfortunately, there are no tables. Fortunately, I have simplified
| Proficiency in relevant skills | Survivalist | Crafting |
|---|---|---|
| No | Poor | Poor |
| Yes | Comfortable | Modest |
For Crafting, it requires that you are skilled with the relevant tools. But, because you only support a Modest lifestyle, I assume this means you are not a Skilled laborer.
So, the work of an unskilled laborer with no training in the required tool will be shoddy less valuable.
| Proficiency in relevant skills* | Performer | Guild Member |
|---|---|---|
| No | Poor | Modest |
| Yes | Wealthy | Comfortable |
(*) This table represents Downtime activities that rely on social cohesion or preexisting systems/patrons.
An unskilled Performer is not likely to find any patrons, big or small, but someone might throw you some spare change if you pluck a few cords at the local inn.
Guilds are typically a collection of skilled laborers, who leverage collective bargaining power to demand better working and market (rights, monopolies, etc.) conditions. Guild also act as gatekeepers to becoming a skilled laborer.
So, if the default assumption is that you are a guild member as a skilled laborer
(2gp per day = Comfortable),
then not relying on / have access to those preexisting systems, it is likely that your, while good quality, would be valued less then Comfortable, but higher than Poor.
Part 2: Why Dose Food Cost More The Richer You Get? Or,
Why Dose A System Need Disposable Income?
At the end of the day, disposable income is used for improving quality of life temporarily; a luxurious night out. Or more permanently; education.
Why would someone spend that much more money? 2 words, Upward Mobility!
Poor and Modest keep the same amount of disposable income, 20%, but Modest has finer amenities and is associated with semi-skilled laborers. This makes it a transitory lifestyle, hovering between Poor and Comfortable.
| Wretched | — |
| Squalid | 10cp |
| Poor | 2sp |
| Modest | 1gp |
| Comfortable | 2gp |
| Wealthy | 4gp |
| Aristocratic | 1,000cp Min |
| Lifestyle | Expense Per Day |
The same thing could be said for Wealthy, but surprisingly, it has a lower DI than it’s predecessor. In this respect it is more like Squalid, in that it is harder to break into the lifestyle above, and very easy to fall down a lifestyle.
So, the Wealthy lifestyle spends more to earn social points on top of financial security.
As you move up the descriptions Lifestyles on page 158, note the resources and their rising quality ascribed to each lifestyle.
Wretched has nothing. No security or safety, you relay totally on others
Squalid has a leaky roof, poor security and little safety. You could easily fall into Wretchedness if nothing is done to fix the situation.
Poor can afford only the simple necessities and benefit from base legal protections. No comforts.
Modest has the same resources as Poor, but you can afford to keep your resources clean and repaired. No comforts, but you will not go hungry or thirsty.
Comfortable has access to new resources, such as education and middle class social rights/responsibilities.
Wealthy lives the life of luxury burgeoning on royalty. You have access to all the resources of Comfortable, but of higher quality due to better social connections.
Aristocratic virtually lives beyond the lifestyles. The difference between you and any lesser lifestyle is security, as you are almost too big to fail.
Wrapping It up
It is important to know what ordinary is to better understand the extra in extraordinary.
There will always be those who struggle to advance to the next lifestyle1. Some people will find alternative ways to secure their futures. So, the Adventurer is born!
Money and the quest for a higher quality of life is an easy way to engage players (or readers) in a story. So, you need a system robust enough to allow for more than just smash’n grab, murder-hobo thinking / playing.
Be on the look out for custom backgrounds for D&D 5e that focus on the Artisan tool sets.
I want to provide well balanced Backgrounds that take the Tool’s related job experience & skills applied to adventuring.
- An example of how a personal finance system helps keep the world immersive:
In Gritty settings / Realistic feudal settings, Most people would be Squalid. ↩︎
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