Part 5: Equipment ☰
The currency of Iron & Aether is the Aeon, which is a primarily fiber-based, paper-like currency. There are notes for 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 Aeons, and there are coins for 100 and 500 Aeons. There are also small copper and silver coins of varying size and shape that are worth less than a single Aeon, which are referred to as change, and it takes 100 change to make 1 Aeon. There are the same denominations of Aeon coins as there are Aeon notes, and they vary from 1.5cm to 3cm in diameter with rectangular and circular shapes. Shorthand for Aeons and change are simply the letters “A” and “c”, respectively; so 10 Aeons may be referred to as 10A, or 32 change can be referred to as 32c.
The color of Aeon notes varies from light grey (1) to dark grey (50); the 100 Aeon coin is 4cm in diameter and white with a yellow tint, and the 500 Aeon coin is 5cm in diameter and black. A single Aeon note is 1/1000th of a pound, a 100 Aeon coin and all change coins are 1/50th of a pound, and a 500 Aeon coin is 1/25th of a pound.
To give a sense of worth to the Aeon and how various people live, described here is how much workers of various wealth classes can usually expect to earn in a day:
The wealthy and upper-class who are not day-to-day workers may make more than that, but at that point it is up to your GM to determine the exact nature of their wealth.
Everyone has to eat and sleep, and it’s good to know roughly how much a meal and a night in an inn is worth, especially for peoples of different wealth and social statuses.
| Lifestyle | Meal Cost | Inn/Night Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Lower Class | 5-10c | 25-50c |
| Lower-Middle Class | 10-20c | 50-75c |
| Middle Class | 20-30c | 75c-1A |
| Upper-Middle Class | 40-60c | 1-1.5A |
| Upper Class | 75c-1A | 1.5-3A |
Knowing how the common folk live is all well and good, but what about adventurers? How large should the reward for a difficult quest be, or how much treasure should the party expect to find inside a dungeon? Given here is a guideline for how much the party should reasonably expect to make from quests and dungeons for each Tier of play, though as always, the DM has final say.
| Tier | Quest Reward | Dungeon Treasure |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | < 10 Aeons | < 25 Aeons |
| 1 | 10-50 Aeons | 20-200 Aeons |
| 2 | 50-200 Aeons | 150-500 Aeons |
| 3 | 200-500 Aeons | 400-1,000 Aeons |
| 4 | 500-1,000 Aeons | 1,000-3,000 Aeons |
| 5 | 1,000-5,000 Aeons | 2500-10,000 Aeons |
| 6 | 5,000+ Aeons | 10,000+ Aeons |
The cost of any given piece of gear or equipment is subject to an uncountable number of variables, and it is impossible to accurately account for all of them and/or provide a single universal value for every conceivable piece of gear. Instead of taking the price of anything presented in these rules as an absolute, set-in-stone truth, the prices given here should instead be used as a quick reference or starting point.
When determining how much an item should cost in a particular situation, there are several factors to keep in mind, such as:
What is a diamond, really, aside from just a hard, shiny rock? In a world with flaming swords and people that can shoot pure darkness out of their fingers, certain things that we might consider valuable - precious metals and gems - would be just like any other metal or rock, in that their value would mostly only come from their usefulness, or how much value certain people(s) gave them, which is an entirely arbitrary measure.
Put simply, this ruleset assumes that precious metals and gems have no intrinsic worth or value, and see no substantial use aside from perhaps as decoration or whatever more practical use they may have. Instead, Aetherite in all its various forms is likely to take their place as symbols of status, wealth, and power; picture a crown inset with a pebble of each kind of Aetherite, or a precious family heirloom set with a beautifully cut "gem" of Soul Aetherite, or some other such symbol of wealth that uses Aetherite instead of diamonds or other gems.