Dalan question

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

    • Dalan question

      Ok, i get that one dalan is the same as $5 US current time. Is there smaller currency ($1, pennies, etc...)? Also could you give me a very basic idea of some costs that aren't really exchangeable? For example, a small skyship, a large one, a juganu worm, a buthan, a ride on a buthan say 100 miles, a makdi, a working class slave, a healing by a Blessed mangai? Is aid from a surgeon just as expensive as it is in our society?

      Thanks!
    • RE: Dalan question

      For the most part, people trade goods and services for other goods and services. Money is mostly only used by the higher castes and then usually only by members of noble houses. If you are a merchant or tradesman, you will usually trade whatever it is you sell or make for other goods and services. That's why haggling is so common, because everyone will have their own idea of how much a certain service or good is worth (for example, an armed guard offering his services to a caravan would be worth a lot more than a puppeteer, but that situation might be reversed if they were bartering with a theater owner).

      Every country has a version of a dalan (although it might be called something different). There are smaller units, sometimes called "dalani" which are worth about a $1. There really is no smaller unit than that. It's just not considered worth the crystal exchange (anything cheaper and you might as well be trading simple pebbles). There are also bigger denomination coins, usually bigger than a dalan and of different shapes made of more valuable crystal. These can be worth $25, $50, or $100 or more dalan and they are of different colors.

      Dalan are normally a light blue in color and hexagonal in shape but that varies from country to country. Other popular colors are red, purple, green, and yellow. Dalan are commonly called "stones" by the common populace (the equivalent of "bucks" or "quid") and dalani are often called "chips" (because they look like tiny chips of crystal). Larger denomination currency can be round, oval, triangular, square, pentagonal, or octagonal (and many other shapes besides). They are also usually carved with images and symbols that denote its country or region of origin.

      There is a fairly extensive list of good and services that we intend to make available in the World Guide but Scott may be kind and consider posting it on the forums for the benefits of the players. ;)
    • Of Dalan and Merchants in Shard

      Hello all!

      And great questions Wyldkat!

      Aaron has given an excellent "accounting" (HAH!) of the nature of dalán in the game, and has gone in even greater detail than the very basic listing already created for it, which we'll no-doubt be incorporating into the re-edits of the World Guide, which is still in progress...

      You've asked some very specific questions about some very specific services, and though the lists we roughly created (based on any info we could find about comparative costs for goods and services during similar "cultural timeframes" on Earth) may not contain the answers for everything you'd like to know, they do contain a lot of basics that you might be able to use to extrapolate the values and costs you're looking for...

      I'll tell you what,...not only will I share the very small lists of Common Goods and Services and more specific Ship's Goods and Services we currently have, but I'll also share the very brief explanation of Dárdüni commerce (preceding the lists) contained in the limited, incomplete, and unedited chapter that we have so far for that same book, and I'll even throw in the fun little explanation of the Merchant's Circle (that area of the city used for the operation of the businesses of the Trade Caste) the commerce chapter refers to...

      Oh,...and I'll also throw in the little write-up on the Dalán in what will eventually be the Crystals section of the eventual World Guide, plus

      The explanations of the commerce and merchant's circle might help put into perspective the costs you'll see on the list, which might not match up to our more "modern" ideas of what things are worth, and the somewhat complex ways that folks on Dárdünah perceive the value of things, depending on where they live (in a city area, or in a more rural area)...

      Please check out the attached PDF's,...and remember,...(here's the disclaimer) everything you see should be considered unedited "works in progress", and may change hugely between now and the final draft of the World Guide where much of this stuff (and much, much more) will eventually appear... Some of the stuff in the PDFs may look done,...but they're not....

      First,...a little info about the particular area of most cities dedicated to the various activities of commerce.....

      The Merchants’ Circle
      Immediately beyond the gates of the Nobles’ Circle, further out into the city, lies the sprawling and exciting confusion of the Merchants’ Circle. This area of most towns and cities contains markets, shops, merchant domiciles, teahouses, bathhouses, inns, restaurants, various temples for general public access, and even brothels and gambling dens. Though it is possible to find individual shops and merchant houses here and there along the various noisy and winding streets, much of the economic activity is to be found in the thriving districts of the markets.

      Here, merchants selling similar items gather in areas called samüts that are filled with individuals prepared to barter and haggle over their wares eagerly with potential customers. Each samüt contains several to dozens of merchants, each one selling variations of the same type of merchandise, and is sometimes large enough to cover an entire street’s length or fill the extent of a large covered building or open-air market. There may be a samüt dedicated to the crafting of religious statuary, perhaps referred to by the local populace as the “lane of the vendors of idols”, or a large outdoor market called the “samüt of the incense sellers”, or possibly an “avenue of the rug merchants”.

      In a samüt, the final price of an item is usually reached by agile bargaining with the shopkeeper. Traders of a given commodity generally all sell within the same samüt, as this helps to ensure fair prices. In addition, the arrangement of a samüt is beneficial to the merchants because an elected elder merchant as well as a treasurer from within that samüt are appointed (and rewarded) to look after the local interests of its members and the communities of which they are a part. These representatives arrange and pay taxes and other such duties, as well as help to monetarily sponsor public works, local events and tournaments (where many banners bear emblems signifying the craft of the sponsors), and hire mercenaries to protect the shops of vendors and artisans, the caravans of traders, etc.

      In most cities there are also one or two “grand” bazaars, large buildings with multiple wings and various inner structures or even grand outdoor assemblies of buildings, tents, and other such open forums which have been built by prominent merchants to contain many different samüts hosting a variety of wares. Though each neighbourhood within the Merchants’ Circle would have a local samüt selling food and other essentials, these main samüts are some of the central structures of most Merchants’ Circles. They are where textiles, jewelry, spices, and other valuable goods, as well as the establishments of the money changers are often arranged in a line. A crisscrossing of stone-vaulted streets chaotically intersecting one another, or a tight mass of buildings and maze-like alleys too packed together for roads to intersect them, generally forms these grand bazaars. The workshops are often further away from this center of exchange, as are the main living quarters of the resident artisans and merchants.

      In some areas, such as the outer edges of the Merchants’ Circle, often near the gates of its walls, or in smaller communities, replacing the grand bazaar entirely, are large square buildings with sizeable open courtyards in the middle, known as caravanserai. These act as a combination of inn, stables, and bazaar for the type of merchant-trader gatherings called sárthas. A sártha travels together (sometimes with other sárthas) in a caravan from community to community, sometimes across many different countries, and usually makes its temporary home and office in the lodgings offered at roadside and city-based caravanserai, selling their wares from the spaces rented around the inner open-courtyard below.

      Unlike the merchant samüts, a sártha can be but a single merchant and perhaps his family, or a larger gathering of several merchants, who trade in many different types of goods, often covering a wide variety of commercial needs. Sárthas and samüts generally do not set up in the same areas, as their business dynamics are so very different, but there is no hostility between the two. In fact, much of what samüt merchants may sell, if not made within their own city, might have been recently purchased from the imported stock of a traveling sártha trader who has recently arrived in town.

      ............................

      Anyway,...I hope you guys enjoy checking out the two attached PDFs!!!

      Scottie ^^
      Files
      • Dalan.pdf

        (485.95 kB, downloaded 803 times, last: )
      • Commerce.pdf

        (1.28 MB, downloaded 756 times, last: )
    • Oh goodness me, reading all of this it seems to me that our supposedly poor characters have been squandering money like the newly rich! :V

      Thanks kindly for posting these snippets, I'll make sure to incorporate new ways of payment into my campaign, such as itty bitty servant sidequests ("Say, I heard you are a most talented singer! I would gladly offer you a room for tonight if you were so kind and share your divine voice with us!"), natural produce, smaller objects, etc. :3

      The post was edited 2 times, last by Sherbie ().

    • Yay!!! Much happiness! Thank you so much. This is exactly the type of guideline I was hoping for. :)

      We've finally gotten all the characters made, minus one or two enemy/dependent/contact supporting cast, and are going to be starting to actually play probably today or tomorrow.
    • Something interesting happened to me today when I went to buy Cat Food from our local grocery store. I was on my way to check out with my groceries when a young employee came up to me saying 'Hey I'm new here and I don't know a lot of people so maybe we can get together...'

      Obviously he was a nice kid but as an Asexual I had no interest in him or any relationship EVER so I turned to him and said 'No I'm Asexual' And I as I was saying 'I have no want for relationship with anyone...'He was already backing off and I continued Yes I may be a bit blunt because of my Asperger's

      But that has sparked a question in my mind, would this scenario happen in Dardunah? Suppose a young lady of the Trade Caste is simply doing her own shopping in the Merchant's Circle and a Young Assistant or Apprentice of the same Caste but probobly of a differing trade flirts with her as she is doing her shopping and the lady is single and not currently looking

      Considering how different the modern world is from the days of Caste Systems I ask, is it proper for a Merchant to flirt with a customer or it is improper to attempt courtship while on duty? And in the scenario I described how would it be phased...How does one politely decline among the Trade Caste Janah?