Corrigendum: gold in old school games
Today, I was studying the first level, magic user spell "Floating Disc" in the Old School Essentials (OSE) rules. I discovered an error my earlier comment on Jack London's "All Gold Canyon." I was wrong about the value of the huge nugget of gold in the story. Let me explain. [image from Old School Essentials] In OSE, the rules state that a "Floating Disc" can carry "a maximum load of 5,000 coins (500 pounds)." That's a useful spell for sure, but this information also tells me that a GP in OSE weighs 0.1 pounds. In my earlier comment on "All Gold Canyon," I estimated that the value of the prospector's 200 pound gold nugget was 10,000 GP. I had looked online and found a reference indicating a GP in DnD weighs 0.02 pounds. I reasoned: 50 GPs to a pound and 200 pounds = 10,000 GP. Well, that would be correct - in 5th edition! An old school GP weighs 0.1 pounds. To calculate the gold nugget's value, I should have reasoned: