New characters in Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG have a randomly determined occupation, which in turn gives them a starting weapon and some sort of "trade good" appropriate to their occupation. The DCC RPG rulebook suggests that these trade goods might be useful in the dungeon but might also be traded or sold. However, despite calling these items "trade goods", the book neglects to place a monetary value on them! What's the judge to do when a player asks if they can sell the side of beef or 3 square yards of fabric they've been lugging around?
After having the question arise in several games and having to come up with an ad hoc estimate, I decided to go through the occupations list and derive values for each of the starting weapons and trade goods that didn't already have prices. These values come from a variety of sources from the old school D&D constellation, tweaked as seemed appropriate for the DCC economy. These sources included (in roughly this order of priority):
- Crawl! #2, a DCC RPG fanzine issue that includes an expanded equipment list, with prices in line with the DCC economy
- The AD&D 2e Player's Handbook, which is highly recommended for what is probably the most comprehensive equipment list suitable for any kind of old school fantasy setting
- The D&D 3.5e Player's Handbook, for a few items that other sources did not cover
- The Dolmenwood Player's Book, the Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Player Tome, and Carcass Crawler #3. I frequently find the prices deriving from the "Basic D&D" lineage to be extremely inflated (always specified in gold pieces and probably a relic of the "XP for gold" mechanic), but I borrowed a few prices that seemed reasonable from these sources.
- Grain Into Gold. This is an outstanding effort to create a plausible medieval fantasy economy, and I used it as a "sanity check" on values, or borrowed values outright when no other source covered an item.
One source I didn't use directly was the original AD&D Players Handbook. Although it has a decent-sized equipment list, one has to be careful because in 1e, a gold piece was equal to 20 silver pieces, as opposed to the 10 sp we have been used to since 2e. Thus, we either have to assume that 1e copper and silver pieces are worth half as much as "modern" equivalents, or assume that copper and silver are the same but the gold piece is worth twice as much. I found it easier to just lean on other sources instead.
A brief note about the "DCC economy": Obviously, we are not trying to accurately simulate a medieval economy here. That is a fool's errand (especially when our understanding of the actual historical medieval economy is fragmentary at best!), and our players probably don't care that much. But it is nice to have things feel at least plausible and within an order of magnitude, shall we say. In judging or setting prices, I attempted to keep things in line with the equipment prices already given in the DCC RPG rulebook, keeping in mind that everything in this world is made by hand, etc.
I use basic living expenses as a rule of thumb. A pint of weak, homebrewed ale, being the medieval equivalent of bottled water, is worth about a copper piece or two. The DCC rulebook says that a day of rations (i.e., hard tack and jerky) costs 5 cp. A simple meal at a tavern would be a few silver pieces. A night at an inn ranges from a silver piece for a spot on the floor of the common room to a couple of gold pieces for the nicest lodgings a town has to offer. Very roughly, I view a copper piece as equivalent to one US dollar (circa 2025), making a silver piece equal to $10, and a gold piece to $100. This won't always reflect modern prices for the same items, but should get you close enough to "How many days of lunches is this worth?" to keep things plausible. I find it a useful calibration when determining how much treasure to place as well.
One last note: If you allow your new Level 0 PCs to trade or sell their starting equipment, I would recommend giving them no more than half the listed values in exchange. How much would you pay for an unrefrigerated slab of beef of dubious provenance from a desperate looking man who is quitting his job as a butcher to become an "adventurer"?
So without further ado, here are my suggested values for all of the weapons and trade goods on the DCC occupation table that do not already have prices listed in the rulebook. You'll note immediately that some occupations provide much more valuable heirlooms than others. Such are the vagaries of luck! I've arranged them alphabetically, as they are written in the DCC RPG rulebook. I hope you find this table useful, and please feel free to comment if you have questions or suggestions.
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