Project Dragonpurse
Project Dragonpurse is a completely new and rebalanced economic system for D&D 5e, created by the common efforts of Jacopo Ascioni, Paolo Borsellino and Andrea Zampedri in three months.
Introduction
Project Dragonpurse was born from the unsatisfaction grown with the original D&D 5e economy system. This system was built to be focused on materials and rarity of items and weapons, rather than their in-game efficiency. Our project aimed to drive the focus on the item's effectiveness, without going too far from the crafting aspect, creating a before non-existing middle ground.
It was created in three months by a group of three people.
Basics: Goods & Ranks
We needed to start our system from whole new values to achieve our aim, so we
researched an approximately realistic value for all high fantasy most common goods.
We then proceeded to, based on these values, create a Social Class salary system
that links each social class with its average wage.
Weapons
With this system, we drift our focus on weapons efficiency. To calculate each
weapon cost we used 7 values, for which the modifiers are in the "Weapons
Modifiers" sheet:
● Damage dice: The dices rolled to damage with the weapon, the modifier
changes between melee and ranged and between simple and martial.
● Damage type: The modifier changes based on resistances, weakness and
immunities to that damage in the Core Monster Manual
● Weight: The weight of the weapons, the modifier changes between melee and
ranged and between simple and martial
● Properties: Each property has its balanced modifier, a modifier that changes
between melee and ranged and between simple and martial
● Crafting difficulty: The technical challenge of crafting the weapon, basically
how much the blacksmith add to the cost for his craft
● Materials: The cost of the raw materials that compose the weapon
● Size: The size of the weapon, that increases its crafting and maintenance cost
Martial Weapons Absolute values
Armours
With this system, we drift our focus on armour efficiency. To calculate each armour cost we used 9 values, for which the modifiers are in the "Armour Modifiers" sheet:
● Armour type: Light, Medium and Heavy, change the modifier for the armour,
necessitating different proficiency
● Armour Class: The defensive effectiveness of the armour, its modifier
changes based on its armour type
● Dexterity modifier: The dexterity impact on your total CA, it changes based on
its armour type
● Strength required: The minimum strength required to wear the armour without malus, it changes based on its armour type
● Stealth: The chance of performing stealth without disadvantage on the roll, it
changes based on its armour type
● Weight: The weight of the armour, it changes based on its armour type
● Crafting difficulty: The technical challenge of crafting the armour, basically
how much the blacksmith add to the cost for his craft
● Material: The cost for the raw materials that compose the armour
● Creature size: The size of the armour, that increases its crafting and
maintenance cost
Armours modifiers
Tools, Gears, and Vehicles
Here we calculated the price for these objects. In particular:
● Vehicles: Their cost has been determined by material, crafting difficulty and
peculiar attributes
● Artisan's Tools: Their cost has been determined by the potential revenue of
the proficiency they allow to perform and the Social Class salary system
● Adventuring Gear: Their cost has been determined by material, crafting
difficulty and weight of the item
Potions & Poisons
Despite potions and poisons are similar since both are linked to the alchemic branch, we decided to use 2 very different approaches during their analysis.
For the potions, the value was determined mainly by the rarity of the item, since
there isn’t a real method of determining the actual effort to produce one. Then we introduced the other values as secondary modifiers:
● Rarity: The rarity of a potion influences how easy is to find that potion in the
game and increases its effects on higher levels
● Duration: It indicates how much time the potions will be effective
● Effect Value: This value is given by the efficacy of the potion at issue
On the other hand, the poisons are not based on rarity, which is not a factor in D&D, their value is instead a combination of a lot of different modifiers. Since there are various effects available, there are often different modifiers unused:
● Poison Type: The poison type indicates in which form the poison is effective:
if it has to be ingested, inhaled, touched or if it has to be applied by injury
● Effect: It indicates how efficient is the poison, regardless of what are the
values of the secondary aspects in its effect.
● Constitution DC: It is the DC of the Constitution st required by poison
● Condition on failed ST: It indicates what condition the target of the poison
will suffer once failed its Constitution st
● Damage: It indicates how many damage dices the target will suffer once
failed its Constitution st
● Effect Duration: It’s the duration of the effect of the poison on the target
● ST Repetition for Duration: Some poisons require multiple Constitution st
before the end of the effect, for example, to inflict damage at each fail to the
target.
● Damage Repetition per ST: It’s the value of the damage dices the target will
suffer after failing a Constitution st after the first one
● The Number of ST Success Needed: Sometimes poisons remain effective
until the target succeeds a determined number of Constitution st
Here you can find the Google spreadsheet used in the process, where the results are completely exposed
Conclusions
The final costs of all the items analyzed during our work appear to be slightly lower than the original one.
In particular, our analysis of the Weapons led us to lower the original range of costs, but with many differences between the cost of the single items. For example, we considered that the Spear is way too effective to cost only 1gp, in fact the result of our equation, based on its strength and crafting values, is 5gp.
Otherwise in the Armour section, the maximum costs are about half of the ones given by the Wotc. This is because we aimed to avoid exponential growth of costs between base goods and adventuring equipment. It usually results in the base goods being so cheap to not influence in any way the player purse, or the adventuring equipment being completely prohibitive.
Playtesting this system we noticed an increased value given to the money by the players and more interesting strategy developed from the beginning thanks to more accessible costs of high-level items.