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: 10 GPs to a pound x 200 pounds = 2,000 GP. 

Wow, A GP is 5 times bigger in an old school game. I'm sorry for the error.

***

As an aside, I had remembered the name of the spell "Floating Disc" was "Tenser's Floating Disc." Indeed, that was the name in the ADnD Players's Handbook. "Tenser" is an anagram for Gary Gygax's son Ernest, one of the first people Gygax DM'd for, back in the early 70s.

Thanks for reading.



 


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