[RPG] How wealthy are the rich in the Forgotten Realms

dnd-5eeconomyforgotten-realmslorewealth

I'm building a campaign that includes a Plutocracy style government. The several wealthiest people in each city govern that city, and the wealthiest of those join to govern the entire empire.

I anticipate certain party members will be interested in acquiring enough wealth to join the government. However, I'm at a loss as to how wealthy those people would be. I can calculate basic averages from running multiple large businesses over the course of years, but that doesn't account for inheritance, investments, or other large scale wealth generating activities not covered in the rules.

Are there any official or unofficial sources that suggest such wealth numbers in the Forgotten Realms?

Best Answer

In Basic D&D (BECMI), The Republic of Darokin (GAZ11) has a Level of Government Participation table on page 10:

\$\begin{array}{|r|l|} \hline \textbf{Total Worth (in daros)} & \textbf{Allowed Position} \\ \hline \text{under }\,15,000 & \text{Non-voting Citizen} \\ 15,000 & \text{Voting Citizen} \\ 25,000 & \text{Local Office} \\ 75,000 & \text{Regional Appointee} \\ 150,000 & \text{Outer Council} \\ 250,000 & \text{National Appointee} \\ 1,000,000 & \text{Inner Council} \\ 3,000,000 & \text{Chancellor} \\ \hline \end{array} \$

The gold daro is the currency of Darokin. I think you can take these numbers the way they are (I mean: no conversion, one daro is one gold piece), and just change the positions if you want.

The point is that the thresholds are fixed by the government, so much depends on national wealth (very high for Darokin) and maybe political games (to exclude someone from some positions).

If you want to adjust the numbers, my advice is that you do not look at how much they earn. Look instead at how much they can buy. Specifically you can look at the cost of building (DMG 5e pg 128: 5,000 gp for a large estate, 25,000 gp for a noble estate, 50,000 gp for a small castle, 500,000 gp for a large castle. Also maintenance (pg 127) ranging from 10 to 100 gp daily).

Also you can look at the daily expense: 4 gp for a wealthy, 10 gp minimum for a noble (PHB 5e pg. 157). This income must come from interests and investment because the aristocracy don't work, so at 3% yearly, they must have 50,000 to 125,000 capital, respectively.

A wealthy must have a 5,000 gp house, 50,000 gp invested plus extra.

An aristocrat must have maybe(?) a 50,000 gp castle, at least 125,000 gp invested plus extra.

The extra is the money spent for extraordinary expenses and for improving their conditions. How much? Well I have no idea... I think you can double the capital invested. The problem is that a rich can have many serfs to pay, and soldiers, specialists and much more. Those are very expensive and must come from interests on capital (so the capital will need to be much higher).

I'm afraid it will not help you much but I made a research on some FR supplements and here are the results:

  • In Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster's Forgotten Realms pg 116 speaking about a very successful merchant (rich like royalty) it say he owns more than twelve buildings in each of three cities.
  • Moonsea (AD&D2) pg 28: to take a vacant council seat you have to pay 100,000 gp, to create a new one 2,000,000 gp.
  • The City of Ravens Bluff (AD&D2) pg 48: the Boldtalons (a noble family) own more than 500 houses.
  • Same book, pg 79: the Tempest Rose Merchant House, the richest of all the merchant houses in Ravens Bluff, has many sources of interest, one of them is to lend money to nobles, millions of gp. Even if the house loses this money it can continue to live in confort.
  • FR 3 Empires of the Sands (AD&D2) pg 7: Fenzic trading house paid for 14 cargo vessels worth 3,500,000 gp with one big trade bar. Another merchant made a fortune selling 23,000 birds for 150 gp each (total 3,450,000 gp).
  • Shining South (D&D3) pg 105: the richer Crinti own a dozen or more ranches each with thousands horses. Each ranch is a manor, with barracks, a smith, numerous barns and grain storage buildings, and several corrals. These buildings are surrounded by thousands and thousands of acres of open grassland.

What we can see is that the real rich count their capitals using millions. The numbers given in GAZ11 can be valid, maybe not counting the buildings, but you can do your considerations by yourself.

Related Topic