Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd
real world prices routinely vary by a factor of 3 or more from day to day, store to store, or city to city even in the same country, never mind first world cities to third world villages.
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Which is why
no conversion is going to make sense across the board for all items (clothing, electronics, food, lodging, tools, vehicles, weapons, etc.) in all markets.
All the time on these forums, I see prices mentioned that
make no sense at all . . . to
me, where
I live. Most are in USD, but even after I convert to CAD, they're extraordinarily high or low. This gets especially wonky for things nobody absolutely needs, like target pistols, bottles of bourbon, and name-brand jeans, because those are subject to luxury pricing.
Even for staples, though, I can find factor-of-three to -five variations in my own neighborhood. I just paid $2.99 for something that was $11.99 down the street – we're talking the same item by the same manufacturer in the same packaging with the same product code, not a knockoff or made-for-Walmart version. And I didn't have to use any special skill (like Area Knowledge or Merchant) to find this . . . in
GURPS, I'd represent this by "$
X × (1d-1), minimum $
X."
So I'd just use
GURPS prices as real ones and call it a day. They may be a little low for some things and a little high for others, but assuming fairly resourceful PCs who had time to walk around town, search the Internet, etc., they're probably close enough. Converting them, rolling dice for them, or whatever might be fun for an "Adventures in Shopping" campaign or a "The Price Is Right" adventure, but it seems like too much hassle otherwise.