On Hand Money in Shops

[Aaryq]

Howdy, folks.
Has anyone made any kind of house rule/table to determine how much money a shop would have? My group just finished their first quest and found some really cool stuff that they want to sell. The problem is the town that they are rushing back to sell is rather small and most of the shops in the town are either a small stand in a field (think a bazaar) or the front room of the merchant's house. Odds are they don't have thousands or tens of thousands of gold pieces (or equivalent currency) on hand or readily available. Meanwhile, if they were to journey off to the Capitol to a larger, high-volume shop they might have it on hand or able to get it within a day or so.

I can make this all up in my head but if anyone else has already done the work, I would appreciate copying your notes and modifying it to fit my needs.

[kiralon]

For me about 1/4 to 1/2 the population of the town with possibilities of up to the town population in a few days for the wealthy
1/8 to 1/4 for medium
and less for poor

But for the smaller market stuff 2d6 - 4d6 x 50GP as a base

Then its into big favours.

[Prysus]

Greetings and Salutations. Probably not helpful, but was reminded of this: Poor Merchant. Farewell and safe journeys.

[Veknironth]

Well, I'm guessing that a bazaar as you described wouldn't carry much gold. They are a group of shops together to SELL their goods. They would have enough on hand to make change, I suspect. If they are affiliated with a larger city they might have the ability to provide promissory notes backed by a bank or their account at a bank. But otherwise, they aren't going to be able to buy things. Even someplace like an Alchemist shop might prefer trade to pure coin exchange. If you think about it, who wants to carry thousands of coins with them? That's heavy and loud.

-Vek
"A merchant could also write a fake promissory note."

[Library Ogre]

Rule of thumb: Most expensive item *5 is their on-hand cash.

[Kraynic]

Rule of thumb: Most expensive item *5 is their on-hand cash.

That is... a pretty simple, easy to remember rule of thumb. I like it.

[Library Ogre]

Rule of thumb: Most expensive item *5 is their on-hand cash.

That is... a pretty simple, easy to remember rule of thumb. I like it.

I'd probably break it for things like armorers and alchemists... people who can reasonably be assumed that they're going to get large sums of money infrequently. But that's a good approximation of their liquid assets.

[kiralon]

Rule of thumb: Most expensive item *5 is their on-hand cash.

I don't think that would be enough money. Most of the shops wouldn't be able to give change for the common coinage, or would only be able to do so once, and would have lots of trouble paying for a wagonload delivery of anything, especially as banks aren't anywhere near as commonly used so the cash on hand is often most of the cash they have.

[Kraynic]

Rule of thumb: Most expensive item *5 is their on-hand cash.

I don't think that would be enough money. Most of the shops wouldn't be able to give change for the common coinage, or would only be able to do so once, and would have lots of trouble paying for a wagonload delivery of anything, especially as banks aren't anywhere near as commonly used so the cash on hand is often most of the cash they have.

I guess I imagined this as not "total cash on hand", but "cash on hand with which to handle customers". Unless they are having difficulties, they will have the money set aside for whatever deliveries of raw or finished goods needed to support their business, but will be unwilling to dip into it to buy... whatever it is you have to sell. And if you are in the habit of trying to buy an apple at a fruit stand with dragon coins, then I suppose the price could increase in comparison to the hassle of your presence.

But then, I suppose I'm not that concerned about players being able to sell everything all at once. If they come into a town, or even a city with a lot of high value stuff, I tend to let them sell some up front, but then they need to set up an account with a broker to liquidate the rest over time. In my current long running game, there is no cash economy (way out on the frontier), and everything is barter or services in trade.

[kiralon]

Most of the my group does is barter and cash, so less money is needed, but from memory palladiums gp is modelled around 80-90's American dollar, and there are 20, 50, 100 and 200gp coins. My players tend to carry the fifties as preference, as the hundreds aren't as useful away from civilisation and bartering is more common there.

[Borast]

One way to do it would be consider the old saw that small towns don't have as much as cities...

So, think of it this way, you have a 200 gold item you take to the thorp at the bottom of the mountain, and try to sell it. The shop owner likely does 95% of his business as trade or credit for locals. This means he has little cash on hand, except what the PCs use to *buy* stuff from him. So, when buying the 200 gold item, he'll tell the PC that he can't pay him "big city" prices. While he could see maybe 120 gold in the city, *he* can give him, maybe 50 gold...unless he wants some of it in trade, in which case, he can offer 75 gold in cash/trade.

The fun part comes when you have to give the basic pre-K economics speech to the players... Just because something sells for / is worth "X" in gold, does NOT mean when *you* sell it you'll receive "X" gold. If you receive HALF, that, consider your self blessed beyond all others. (If they still don't get it, tell them to watch a couple of episodes of Pawnstars! )