What does cost of living get you in a Fantasy setting?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

For most of history, a respectable single man would have a manservant, valet, or lackey of some kind. Not having one would be considered vaguely disreputable. If he was skilled enough up at keeping up appearances without making it seem like he was doing the work himself, it might not lower his status. If it became obvious that he had no servants and was doing the servant's work himself, then he'd likely lose status or reputation.

Yes, but that's "respectable." It would apply to a young nobleman or squire, a well off priest, a merchant, or a successful artisan. It would not apply to a journeyman in most trades.

Bill Stoddard

[sieurin]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Yes, but that's "respectable." It would apply to a young nobleman or squire, a well off priest, a merchant, or a successful artisan. It would not apply to a journeyman in most trades.

My experience with the sort of question is very much based on 15th to 16th century Sweden, and is thus not very useful in a general context, but there an unmarried journeyman ( a gesäll) very often simply lived with his employer (it was part of his hiring terms), so he didn't have a household per se to take care of.

Erik

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by sieurin

but there an unmarried journeyman ( a gesäll) very often simply lived with his employer (it was part of his hiring terms), so he didn't have a household per se to take care of.

That's what I was getting at, there are numerous historical arrangements that can replace the obligations in the modern cost of living table.

[cmdicely]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I don't think mortgaged houses were historically common, and I'm pretty sure they're rare in most fantasy settings.

Owning property that isn't subject to some substantial duty or limitation on the estate of ownership is pretty rare in most of the historical milieus which form the basis of the social structures in fantasy settings; its true that the particular form of "fee simple title to the property, subject to a mortgage granted to a bank" is not common, but I'm not sure that there is really that big of a practical difference between a duty to make money payments to a bank to retain title and a duty to make equally substantial in-kind payments to a feudal lord to the same end.

[nik1979]

fantasy settings can be aribitrary and has no pressure to be realistic. I don't think anyone should fault you going by the stereo types and leaving other details up to your creativity or imagination.

as for Realistic COL details, they differ between eras of the middle ages and ancient antiquity. Certain ages have more mercantile activity, there is a different level of interaction, there is also the touchy subjects - religion, cultural evolution and relative morality. touchy subjects are pervasive and a huge factor in daily life that is usually given token treatment in fantasy settings. back then definitions and lessons we take for granted from the accumulated knowledge of our Tech level is not available, and this grossly affects the manner people interact.

Ex. the methods of raising a child, or what constitutes a child is different when methods of rearing them were limited and considered barbaric by our standards. A woman can have 10 pregnancies but only see two-three children grow up. This changes the definition of "life" as we in modern times define it. (personally I like screwing with modern sensibilities using medieval contexts, it forces players to be allocentric to solve problems)

[Hyrneson]

If you can find it at a reasonable price, "...And a 10-Foot Pole" by John Curtis, M. Bernhardt & Iron Crown Enterprises is a great resource for the day to day bits of stuff and comes in several 'eras', Bronze to Modern.
The Bay of E shows copies running from $29 - $91.

RH

[elv]

Originally Posted by Hyrneson

If you can find it at a reasonable price, "...And a 10-Foot Pole" by John Curtis, M. Bernhardt & Iron Crown Enterprises is a great resource for the day to day bits of stuff and comes in several 'eras', Bronze to Modern.
The Bay of E shows copies running from $29 - $91.

Really?! I'm glad I got my copy when I did then. It's an excellent resource, but not worth that much (or at least, not the higher prices).

John