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This is just for fun.

Based on the cost of non-magical items, one could presumably deduce a conversion rate between Pathfinder and the real world. Of course, worlds and nations differ, so some goods or services will be more or less than they will be in other worlds and nations, so several indices would be needed.

Economic indices could include:

  • Cost of food (meat, bread, eggs, etc.)
  • Cost of a basic meal at a restaurant
  • Cost of lodging
  • Cost of clothing
  • Cost of alcohol
  • Cost of personal transport
  • etc.
SevenSidedDie
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jvriesem
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  • I'm closing this as primarily opinion-based. Pathfinder isn't actually a real economy, since its prices aren't set in any way that reflects actual economics (e.g. supply and demand) -- they're modeled off what an adventurer should be paying as a pacing mechanic. There aren't useful equivalences to draw here. Further, though, this does not strike me as something that will be useful to RPG players, nor significantly require any RPG expertise. Since this is just for fun, you could instead request approval for posting it as a fun exercise in the [meta-tag:just-for-fun] meta tag. – doppelgreener May 08 '17 at 16:20
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    [Related] How much is a Gold Piece really worth? – SevenSidedDie May 08 '17 at 16:22
  • @dopplelgreener: Super-annoying to not be able to even submit an answer. I was answering this myself to contribute to the community. There's a similar question that has nearly 26,000 views with 45 upvotes and an answer with 99 upvotes here, but that's for [tag:dnd-5e] rather than [tag:pathfinder]. Should that question also be closed? Good call about the [tag:just-for-fun] tag—thanks! – jvriesem May 08 '17 at 16:23
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    I removed the [just-for-fun] tag that was just added. It was part of a short-lived experiment in allowing off-topic “fun” questions (result: it didn't work), and the tag no longer has a purpose at RPG.se. “Just for fun” questions that aren't on-topic already in some other way are off topic. *(Mistaken there; see later comment.)* – SevenSidedDie May 08 '17 at 16:28
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    @doppelgreener, isn't what you said equivalent to a successful frame challenge answer? More specifically, knowing that prices are based off of pacing mechanics seems like an example of RPG expertise. – Icyfire May 08 '17 at 16:50
  • @doppelgreener Estimating an exchange rate based on purchase-power parity (PPP) is not opinion-based, but rather standard, quantitative economics. To do this, one creates a "basket" of standard goods/services (what I called "economic indices") and calculates the total cost of the basket in each economic system. The ratio of currency purchasing power equals the ratio of the cost of the basket in each place. The estimate is therefore as good as the basket. – jvriesem May 08 '17 at 16:55
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    @Icyfire It would be a successful frame challenge if the question belonged on the site to begin with, but I don't see how this question solves a real problem that anyone is facing. It starts out by saying, "this is just for fun." The expectation is that questions seek to solve a real problem because hypothetical questions are problematic for a number of reasons. – LegendaryDude May 08 '17 at 16:59
  • @LegendaryDude That is the other half of the reason it is closed. It isn't a real problem (at least, not in the RPG space), and it doesn't seem to benefit RPG players nor be very relevant to RPG expertise (as in a real-world research question). It's helpful that it said it was just for fun at the start, because otherwise it would've been closed as Unclear with a "what problem are you trying to solve here by trying to find this out?" inquiry that could've lasted a long time. – doppelgreener May 08 '17 at 17:12
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    I see myself as having four options: (a) Leave it closed as POB, (b) Close it as Off Topic for the reasons we close real-world research questions (it doesn't draw on RPG expertise), (c) Close it as a duplicate of the Gold Piece question SSD linked, or (d) Reopen it to receive a similar frame challenge. Should I go with (c) instead? I'm open to input here. – doppelgreener May 08 '17 at 17:12
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    @doppelgreener You're right, we never did officially call a time of death for [just-for-fun]. Maybe it's not dead. We should probably go with option (e): jvriesem needs to write a petition on [meta] for a [just-for-fun] question. – SevenSidedDie May 08 '17 at 17:19
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    Ok, we can go with that. So, @jvriesem, what I meant by referencing that tag was that on meta, we have [meta-tag:just-for-fun] (click that link) where people propose a "for fun" question they'd like to write about and we see if it's good and can go ahead. (We could come with some pretty funny results, like extrapolating ridiculous values from specific items, or from economy-crashing actions possible via magic.) We've had one success and one failure, so it's far from a field-tested experience. For now I'm going to also do (c) and close this as a duplicate of that Gold Piece question. – doppelgreener May 08 '17 at 17:22
  • All: Thanks for the discussion! I've learned way more from that than I hoped to learn by asking this question. I basically wanted to do a fresh take on that similar question (which I had in my answer text!)—but for Pathfinder—and do it in a much more rigorous way, using a mathematical approach from economics. I was curious how the answers would compare. I agree that it's a very near duplicate, but I wasn't sure how close was too close. – jvriesem May 08 '17 at 17:28

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