hi /his/ im leading a role play campaign based on bronze age

File: Europe_1500bc.png (115KB, 2100x1525px) Image search: [Google]

115KB, 2100x1525px

>>2566279
No idea m8y

>>2566279

The Edict of Maximum Prices is, if you want any semblance of realism, not a very good document for you to use. For a start, it is highly unlikely that the prices given were ever actually stuck to - the edict ceased to be propagated shortly after its initial issue, and it is doubtful that there was even an attempt to enforce its use in the western empire. So not only is it too far in the future for your purposes, but it is unlikely to be an accurate representation of marketplace conditions in 301 AD - it is also important to remember that it was issued in an attempt to counteract hyperinflation and a monetary crisis, so it hardly represents 'typical' conditions.

I realise that what I am about to say is unhelpful - because I cannot give you specific examples/links to translations - BUT, for a bronze-age M.E. setting, I would take a look at the Minoan Linear B tablets or cuneiform clay documents from the Levant. I know for certain that we have examples giving some prices (in kind), but I cannot remember any examples for certain. But if you have a dig about, I am sure you will find something appropriate - it is NOT the work to go to, but I seem to remember Niall Ferguson citing a cuneiform 'bill of sale' in his Ascent of Money.

Good luck.

>>2566323
>Minian Linear B
>Minoan
>Linear B

How embarassing...

>>2566329

Still more constructive than your effort...

>>2566323
i adjust the prices to my currency anyway.
im looking mainly for the ratio between prices of different goods. would that also be distorted by inflation?

if you can give me a link to your source it would be very helpful!

>>2566279
each educated person was worth 10 million USD a year per degree, christians were poor and could not afford luxury goods

>>2566279

There was no money during the bronze age, all trade was via barter. Typically, the peasants would send their surplus to the palace, which would redistribute the food among the city dwellers. Long distance trade was in commodities, typically large metal ingots an other high-value items. These would be valued by weight, there was a well-developed mesopotamiian system of weights and measures in use during the bronze age, although apparently many mesopotamians preferred the more standardised weights and measures of the Harrapans (Indus Valey Civ) with whom they traded.

>>2566435

As to what these trade goods were "worth", the answer is "whatever you can get for them". The value of something like copper would fluctuate pretty wildly, depending on how much there was around to be traded. Typically, traders would be organised and dispatched from centralised authorities, usually the Palace, with a specific idea of what goods to exchange their cargo for. These would be luxuries of various sorts, metals, precious stones, spices (saffron was a major export of the Minoans) and jars of oil, wine and resins. These goods would be used by the palace for various things,including gifts (the gift-based economy was an extremely important one, by continually gifting valuable items the state demonstrated its power and bought loyalty from its nobles), religious ceremonies, and feasting, both for the king and his court and for the common people on high holy days.

http://nautarch.tamu.edu/pdf-files/JonesM-MA2007.pdf

>>2566435
>>2566469

i set the silver shekel as sort of standard coin.
i have to make sacrifices, since its a game after all.
we play a bunch of lower class characters, and i need a semi mobile class system for game purposes. you were born a peasant and you will die a peasant make for a poor game experience.

what you write is very interesting, and i will definitely read that document.
i can attempt to swap to goods based economy, but im still lacking an exchange rate.
one that include common consumables, livestock weapons and armors.
finding one was the main subject of the thread.

>>2566508
>i set the silver shekel as sort of standard coin.

The shekel was a unit of weight,NOT a coin. There were no coins before the Greeks invented them during the iron age.

> weapons and armors.

Weapons would be given to soldiers, and supplied by the state. Afaik there was no market in weapons for civilians. Armor in the bronze age basically means shields, these were made of wood and hide or wicker and wouldn't have been expensive.

>we play a bunch of lower class characters,

This is a bad idea, since low class people had few or no rights and would not have the opportunity to leave their home districts. you should make your players either be nobles, or else barbarians from outside the civilized world, this would be the best approach if your players don't know much about the bronze age since it allows you to introduce their characters to the setting at the same time as you explain it to the players.

>>2566554
it seems that i have been further from the time setting than i intended.
i guess its mainly bronze age as far as technology goes. we do use different map, and there fantasy races are common.

the reason i wanted them to play commoners is because starting as nobles would limit how much they can improve over the game, and i wanted to pick locals so they would have ties to local population what would make them act more reasonably. (*sigh*)

-silver coin shell now be referred to as a "piece"

-as for weapons i think in greece and rome a soldier would provide his own?

>>2566585
>as for weapons i think in greece and rome a soldier would provide his own?

In Greece sure, in Rome, the higher-ups (mostly cavalry) would supply their own, but the common legionnaire would have his arms supplied to him.But of course both these cultures are Iron Age, and the same rules didn't apply in the bronze age. Bronze is much more expensive than iron, and its trade was usually a state monopoly (though there is /some/ evidence of private bronze traders).

>starting as nobles would limit how much they can improve over the game

What? Do you think nobles are born with full knowledge and abilities? Anyone can improve overtime.

>i wanted to pick locals so they would have ties to local population what would make them act more reasonably.

Nobles have ties to their people, in fact they are MORE tied to their people than peasants are. A peasant can leave, go to another land, and still be a peasant, but if a noble tries the same thing he loses everything.

As to acting reasonably, the bronze age was not a lawless place, there were many laws and they were often quite harsh, with mutilation or death being the typical punishment for breaking them. Remember, this is the time period of the Code of Hammurabi and the Ten Commandments.

>>2566615
we kind of already started as commoners, and id rather like to keep this part. the ties to the place referred to your suggestion to play barbarians. i intend for them to be nobles at the end-game. i know this part is not historical at all.

i dont want to just give them weapons and armor, i want them to earn them slowly,
so being drafted is kind of deus ex machina right now. also acting as free agents allows them to make more judgement calls.
their first quest they played tax collectors and beat up some dude for 2 mules.

good idea looking up hamoraby laws :)

>>2566615
i had a scene with an old lady cutting salad.
would she have used stone knife circa 1400BC?
copper? bronze? how much would it cost?

>>2566689

If she's a peasant, she probably wouldn't cut salad at all, but rather would tear it or even eat the vegetables whole (or in a soup). She might have a bronze or copper knife, but it would be a treasured possession.

>>2566647

Fine weapons and armor can always be taken as a trophy from a defeated foe. Body armor made in the bronze age was not mobile enough for infantry, it was intended for use by chariot archers. Presumably your characters don't have access to a chariot, since they were extremely expensive pieces of high technology, so for armor they will have to make do with a helmet and a shield.

File: b869debb8e39671f346ef13d42e9332b.jpg (60KB, 736x533px) Image search: [Google]

60KB, 736x533px

>>2567096
>chariot archers

Speaking of which, while it's fairly common for modern illustrations to give charioteers lances, the bow was THE weapon of choice for chariot forces, if they carried a lance or sword it would be as a back-up for emergencies.

>>2567106
since its low fantasy setting, halflings can ride the horses of the time, and goblins ride giant ostriches, but archery is most def the weapon of nobility. they also throw javelins.

>>2567096
i think she counts as middle class since her son owned a stable. seems weird to me the lowest class would just abandon stone tools and resort to using the hands.

tools like axes and shovels, which need a hard material, would they be made of bronze or stone for the common worker? im assuming copper is too soft.

in my current setting of the price market,it would take 13 months of laborer salary to buy a spear , 7.5 years to buy a small sword, 7.5 years for hardened leather armor, and 15 years for scale armor. (the entire salary).

they will probably win some in combat eventually, but as for now im pitting them against armorless civilians such as themselves, armed with sticks and slings.

>>2567512
i mean, those things might not available for the laborer to buy, but the value of his work can buy them.