Exchange Rates in The Old World RPG

The system for handling coin, expenses and purchases in The Old World RPG (TOWR) is fairly abstract. This is intentional, and cuts down on bookkeeping and the need for carefully balancing prices and income in the game. For the way I run games, it is perfect. But the system still have three tiers of  socioeconomic status and coins corresponding to these tiers - which leaves some questions: Just how much more wealthy is a Silver status character than a Brass status one? How much more does a Gold Coin represent in purchasing power than a Silver Coin?

In this article, we'll explore the rules of the TOWR monetary system and try to reverse engineer an "exchange rate" between the Coin tiers and discuss what this means, if anything, for the relative wealth levels between the Status tiers. 

This is not supposed to be used for actually exchanging the coins, that would run the risk of unravelling the system, but rather to get a better gut feeling of when accumulated expenses of one tier might turn into something someone of a higher status would have to care about. 

If you are unfamiliar with the economic system of TOWR, check out my previous article Advanced Economy in The Old World RPG, which starts out with a fairly thorough primer on the systems involved. This text assumes you have either read that article, or are very familiar with the Coin system of TOWR as well as the Endeavours that interact with it - in particular Prolonged Labours, Craft Trapping and Invest Money.

This article is fairly long and meandering - if you don't want all the arguments, but only the final exchange rate between the Coin tiers and discussion of what that means for the relative wealth levels of the social Statuses, feel free to jump to the conclusions.

Strategy

Our road towards understanding the Exchange Rate between Gold, Silver and Brass Coins in TOWR will start by exploring how skilled craftsmen and investors can use the Craft Trapping and Invest Money Endeavours to access trappings of a tier higher than themselves by investing Coin of their own tier. We will add to this the Coin value of an Endeavour, which can be calculated using the Prolonged Labours Endeavour.

This will give us base exchange rates. Further discussion will follow, considering what we need to do to adapt this more broadly, as not everyone in a society are skilled enough to make use of the Craft Trapping Endeavour (many will lack the required Trade Lore) - and perhaps the means to save enough for using Invest Money.

Lets get started!

The Craft Trapping Endeavour

The Craft Trapping Endeavour can be taken over several downtimes, and consists of an Exacting crafting test. Two successes can create a Brass item, four successes a Silver item and eight successes a Gold item - though to create a gold item each test costs a Silver expense, and to create a Silver item each test costs a Brass expense.

Using the Artisan NPC in the Game Masters Guide as an average skilled tradesman with Strength/Initiative 3 and Toil/Dexterity 4, and assuming he has access to a relevant asset for +1d, 4 dice will be rolled per test, and require a 4 or less per dice to generate a success. That's 1.6 successes per test. 

Assuming an economy where the average craftsman generates 1.6 successes per Craft Trapping test, that means that without factoring in the value of work, a silver item is generally worth 4/1.6 = 2.5 brass expenses, and a gold item is generally worth 8/1.6 = 5 silver expenses. (Brass expenses cannot be turned into gold items, so there is no direct Brass-to-Gold exchange rate indicated.) There are two more factors to consider: The value of work, and the resale value of  a crafted item.

As we do not know the length of a downtime, we can only work from the value of time itself measured by other mechanics: 

First: A craftsman is assumed to "reset" his disposable cash during downtime, even if he takes the Craft Trapping Endeavour. This means that the time spent on the Endeavour does not significantly impact his personal economy, and allows him to in the worst case generate 3 Coin of his status, though there could be losses as well if he had cash to squander. In general, it indicates that the Endeavour is akin to a hobby or side-job, something you do in addition to your main line of work. 

Second: The craftsman could take the Prolonged  Labours Endeavour and generate one or two extra Coins - one coin on a failed crafting test, and two on a successful one. The chance of total failure is 13% (assuming we let the asset count) and any success is 87%. 13%*1+87%*2 = 1.87. So the time put in is worth 1.87 Coins of the craftsman's tier, usually of either Brass or Silver level. We'll that Brass and Silver tier items are generally created by Brass tier craftsmen, and Gold tier items by Silver tier craftsmen. This would seem to make sense, as otherwise the craftsman could more efficiently buy the items he is creating.

Adding 1.87 brass coins to the exchange rate for silver, and two silver coins to the exchange rate for Gold, the Craft Trapping Endeavour then indicates that 1 Silver equals approximately 4.37 Brass and 1 Gold equals approximately 6.87 Silver.

We haven't taken into account the resale value of the crafted item. Now, this is a new item crafted by an at least somewhat skilled craftsman, so it seems likely resell value would be very close to 100%. The TOWR rules themselves only state that used or stolen items are worth less. So we'll assume 100% resell value for this.

Of course, we're still not accounting for the passage of time, and that "money today is better than money tomorrow" - so the exchange rate is probably on the low side. We'll round it to 1 Silver = 4.5 Brass and 1 Gold = 7 Silver to keep the numbers easier to remember and account for such things as interest and lowered value of excess inventory.

But we have another mechanic that allows so lets check our math, so lets do some more reverse engineering and see if the numbers make sense:

The Invest Money Endeavour

The Invest Money Endeavour allows you to spend three coins to take a risk to generate a return. If the Coin invested are not of the same tier, the lowest tier is used - so we will assume three coins of the same tier. A test is then made, and on a success an item of the tier above the least valuable coin is gained. On a failure, all is lost. 

(Invest money can also be used to invest into an asset. As assets generally can't be bought for Coin, that is useless for our exchange rate computations and we will ignore it.)

Now, on average a skilled investor will succeed, but what his chance of failure? If we assume an investor of the same skill as the "average" crafter we discussed before (3 dice, 4 skill), but no relevant asset (as few seem relevant to investment of this sort, perhaps the Trustworthy Banker), the chance to fail 21.6%. (Note that a master investor (6 dice, 6 skill) would only have something like 0.4% chance of failure.)

If Invest Money is used to generate higher tier wealth over time, and assuming the investor is always able to get 3 coins together at the start of downtime (NOT a given), the exchange is 3-to-0 21.6% of the time and 3-to-1 78.4% of the time. That translates into 3-to-0.784, or 3.83-to-1.

We'll assume that an investor manages to get the same value out of Prolonged Labours as the craftsman, and keep the value of the Endeavour itself at 1.87 coin of the investors tier.

That means that with Invest Money, 1 Silver = 5.7 Brass, and 1 Gold = 5.7 Silver. That means that Brass characters should focus on crafting (and pay only 4.5 Brass for the silver) while Silver characters benefit more from Investing money - I guess that's why they turn into merchants.

What about our assumption that you can have 3 coins to spend at the start of downtime? Significantly, this is going to be much easier for the Silver tier of society than the Brass tier, as Brass tier characters will have to spend Coin for any unexpected Brass tier expense (I'm calling expenses during an Adventure unexpected expenses) while Silver tier characters are only affected once an unexpected Silver expense shows up, which is likely to be much rarer. So that means the real exchange rate from investment over time is worse for both Brass-to-Silver and Silver-to-Gold than 5.7, but significantly worse for Brass-to-Silver - though how much isn't quantifiable.

This has the fun corollary that you join the Silver Tier of society when you become affluent enough to invest your money which is a social commentary I didn't expect to find buried in the TOWR rules. I wonder if its intentional.

What we've learned so far

As mentioned before, an exact exchange rate should never be put down for gameplay, and how efficient the various Endeavours are for a given character will vary with their skills and characteristics, just as the value of an item will vary in the in-game economy. That's a major part of why an abstract monetary system is a good idea in the first place. However, we can assume that the Brass-to-Silver exchange rate is somewhere around 5 to 1 for an average Brass tier character (assuming there are some who use investment at that level, and not only peak efficiency crafting), and the Silver-to-Gold exchange rate is somewhere around 7 to 1 for an average Silver character - though more like 6 to 1 for merchants and other investors.

...before we start talking about how many are skilled workers or can save up enough to invest.

For now though, the results seem to indicate that a Noble or Knight of the Gold tier has 7 times the purchasing power of an Artisan or Priest, who again have 5 times the purchasing power of a peasant. This does seem fair enough. It also supports the examples given in the book well enough: "Buying a round for the table is a Silver expense, but buying a round for the Tavern is a Gold expense." Going by the Food&Lodging table later in the Equipment chapter, that means we're in a Silver establishment. It would mean there are generally 5 tables fully occupied in a Brass tier Inn, and 7 tables in a Silver tier one. Not totally unreasonable.

Skilled labour vs access to the means of production

For characters to be able to access the exchange rate given by the Craft Trapping Endeavour, they must have at least one Trade Lore suitable for creating items of a higher tier, as well as the assets to use them.  The latter is important here, as without having the asset (such as a Farm and Grazing Herd for farming), you wouldn't get the +1 die and your profit would be lower. The means of production for our average craftsman from before then, is equal to the value of one die on the Craft Trapping: If he only had 3 dice to roll, an average of 1.2 dice will show successes, and 4/1.2=3.33 - so the value of owning the means of production is 3.33-2.5= 0,833 Brass per endeavour - or when looking at making Gold items, (8/1.2)-5= 1.67 Silver per endeavour.

The effect would be much higher for low-skilled workers, much lower for high-skilled workers. Meaning that the system suggests that factory workers pay their highly skilled workers a higher cut of what they bring in - highly realistic, a bit surprising really. Again, I wonder if its intentional.

But how many members of a society would actually be skilled workers? If the Trade Lores only included things like Smithing and Textiles, that would be one thing, but Cooking and Farming are probably more generally available than what historical records would call "skilled workers" - on the other hand, perhaps not.

We could look at the careers in TOWR and see how many get trade lores, but that would get us nowhere without assuming they represent a representative spread of professions in a population - but that is clearly wrong unless you think a society usually has the same amount of Watchmen as it does Labourers.

The inclusion of Farming on the Labourer Career and Music on the Entertainer career, and the note in the rules saying there are "hundreds of trade lores not represented" probably means that Trade Lores are fairly common among the population. And this does make sense. So we'll assume general access. However, access to the means of production is likely much lower - and those few with no trade lores at all might balance out those who have the relevant assets - so we'll remove the asset from our computation. 

That means we also have to redo the calculation for the value of an Endeavour, as the average character would make less money with the Prolonged Labours Endeavour: 21.6%*1+(100%-21,6%)*2 = 1,78 Coins per endeavour.

 That changes the Brass-to-Silver exchange rate to 3.33+1,78=5.11 to 1. We'll call that 5 Brass to the Silver. For the Silver-to-Gold ratio, it's 6.67+1,78=8.44 to 1 - we'll round that to 8.5 Silver to the Gold.

So by analysing the need for skilled labour and access to the means of production as well as we can (which, admittedly is not that well), we now have exchange rates of 5:1 for Brass:Silver and 8.5:1 for Silver:Gold based on crafting.

The change in the value of time also means we have to revise our exchange rates based on investment. They are now 3.83+1.78 = 5.61 to one for both coin types - lets say 5.6. Crafting remains the most efficient way of generating wealth for the Brass Tier, and Investing is still the best option for the Silver tier, assuming average skills.

How many Silver tier characters would invest?

While certain Brass tier characters would have the skills to make the most of the Investing exchange rate (probably through gambling a lot of the time), it seems likely that the vast majority of that tier are more likely to craft than invest, especially as the return on investment is better with equal skill. We'll ignore investment for that tier.

But what about silver tier? Both Artisans and Merchants are silver tier. And it makes sense that the Merchant would be richer in most cases, so the exchange ratio being better for investment is sound. But with the Warhammer setting being loosely based on the Renaissance, I will assume that a wealthy middle class is a fairly recent invention. That would seem to indicate that the wealthiest among them are still relatively few in numbers. Also, on a society scale, the profitability of investment probably requires artisans to be available.

For this reason, I think it is reasonable to weigh the crafting-based exchange rate higher than the investment-based one. But the Investment-based one should still be considered. Sticking my thumb in the air, I'll do a weighted average, giving the crafting based ratio three times the weight of the investment based one: (3*8.5 + 5.6)/4 = 7.8... we'll make it an even 8 for simplicity.

Final exhange rate

Based on the rules and based on what I feel are reasonable (although admittedly not very scientific) assumptions, we land on a Brass-to-Silver exchange rate of 5 to 1, and a Silver-to-Gold exchange rate of 8 to 1. As before, these rates seem fairly reasonable given the "Round for a table, Round for  a tavern" example given in the Players Guide.

That means an artisan has 5 times the disposable coin at hand compared to a labourer, and a noble has 8 times the disposable coin at hand compared to an artisan - on average, you'll find a lot of individual differences. 

We also know that within the Silver tier, those who trade and invest are in general more wealthy than those who work - which seems to make sense.

Would I let characters trade 5 brass for a silver item in-game? Or 8 silver for a gold? Most likely not. They have to go through the rules, as applying an average exhange rate to the personal economy of an individual in a world as unpredictable as the Warhammer world makes no sense. But it does give me a better sense of when to apply a higher tier expense, as the rules in the Players Guide suggest we should on page 91: "A character can make as many lower Status purchases as they like, though the GM may judge that they collectively amount to a higher Status purchase." 

That means a Silver character who starts buying weapons to outfit a militia can hand a spear to about 5 people per silver coin, while a Gold tier character doing the same could give spears to about 40 people per gold coin. As before, these numbers don't feel unreasonable to me, which I'm happy about.

The economy system in TOWR seems quite sound on average. In a future article, we might look at what happens to individuals of great skill at crafting or trading, however. It's quite interresting - and not necessarily unrealistic.

Relative wealth

It is very important not to confuse what we have discovered for the ratios of wealth between the social Status tiers. We have calculated the exchange rates between the abstract Coin tiers of TOWR, but these do not necessarily translate to the relative wealth levels between the corresponding Status tiers. Wealthy people tend to have more of their money tied up in various assets - sometimes represented by game Assets but not always. It also does not follow that the income level is in any way corresponding to this exchange rate, because more wealthy people also have much higher expenses.

Lets take a real world example to illustrate the difference: In Oslo, Norway, it is fairly common to own an apartment if you can afford the loan. But to get that loan, you first have to have both a certain income and a certain capital. This means that quite a lot of people with fairly low-paying jobs have to rent a place to live - and renting is much more expensive than paying down the interest of a loan, meaning they often won't ever be able to build up the capital to buy something. This means that the wealth of these "Brass" people never really increases beyond what furniture they can afford. While those who can afford loans will be able to buy a small apartment, and then use that as capital to buy a larger apartment, until their wealth can be measured in hundreds of thousands of Euros. But the income of these "Silver" people probably isn't more than, say, twice that of those who couldn't afford the first loan, and their disposable money at hand could vary from not much more at all (if they recently took a very expensive loan) to a lot more if they paid their loans down and now benefit from a cheap apartment along with higher income.

I'm generalising a lot, and Norwegian society happily isn't at all comparable to the streets of Altdorf or Talagaad - but it seems likely to me that the illustrated differences between Wealth, Income and Disposable money at hand will be the same in any society even remotely based on realism.

And the exchange rates we calculated are only valid for disposable money at hand, as that is the only thing we have data for. Relative difference in wealth between the Social tiers is likely to be much, much higher - potentially a factor in the thousands, and as for income - well, I believe that relation will be much higher too in most cases, though as we saw in the real world example probably not as much higher than the difference in wealth.

The rules don't give us anything to go on (unless we start trying to find real-world equivalents of the careers assets) and real-world-renaissance wealth and income levels would take a lot of time to research - so I'll leave that for another day.

For now, enjoy the 40-to-5-to-1 Gold-Silver-Brass exchange rate, and remember that:

1. It is very loosely based on an assumed average and will vary a lot depending on invidiual skills and circumstances, so you should keep things abstract and only use it as an extremely loose guideline
2. It only represents the relative value of the coins, and the relative disposable coin at hand for characters of the different social Status tiers. It does not tell us anything about relative total income or wealth levels.

Do you disagree with my assumptions, or perhaps there's a rule I missed that could shed even more light on this? Did you find a problem with my calculations? Let me know what you think!