The marketplace of a large city teems with buyers and sellers of many sorts: dwarf smiths and elf woodcarvers, halfling farmers and gnome jewelers, not to mention humans of every shape, size, and color drawn from a spectrum of nations and cultures. In the largest cities almost anything imaginable is offered for sale, from exotic spices and luxurious clothing, to wicker baskets and practical swords.
For an adventurer, the availability of armor, weapons, backpacks, rope, and similar goods is of paramount importance, since proper equipment can mean the difference between life and death in a dungeon or the untamed wilds. This section details the mundane and exotic merchandise that adventurers commonly find useful in the face of the threats that the worlds of D&D present.
Money is the lubricant of the gears of industry and commerce, and it is said that it is upon these gears that the world turns. An adventurer will find that they cannot get very far in the world if without coin in their pockets to purchase goods or pay for services.
With one gold piece, a character can buy a belt pouch, 50 feet of good rope, or a goat. A skilled (but not exceptional) artisan can earn one gold piece a day. The gold piece is the standard unit of measure for wealth, even if the coin itself is not commonly used. When merchants discuss deals that involve goods or services worth hundreds or thousands of gold pieces, the transactions don't usually involve the exchange of individual coins. Rather, the gold piece is a standard measure of value, and the actual exchange is in gold bars, letters of credit, or valuable goods.
One gold piece is worth ten silver pieces, the most prevalent coin among commoners. A silver piece buys a laborer's work for a day, a flask of lamp oil, or a night's rest in a poor inn.
One silver piece is worth ten copper pieces, which are common among laborers and beggars. A single copper piece buys a candle, a torch, or a piece of chalk.
In addition, unusual coins made of other precious metals sometimes appear in treasure hoards. The electrum piece (ep) and the platinum piece (pp) originate from fallen empires and lost kingdoms, and they sometimes arouse suspicion and skepticism when used in transactions. An electrum piece is worth five silver pieces, and a platinum piece is worth ten gold pieces.
The most basic type of treasure is money, including copper pieces (cp), silver pieces (sp), electrum pieces (ep), gold pieces (gp), and platinum pieces (pp). Fifty coins of any type weigh 1 pound.
| Coin | CP | SP | EP | GP | PP |
| Copper | 1 | 1/10 | 1/50 | 1/100 | 1/1000 |
| Silver | 10 | 1 | 1/5 | 1/10 | 1/100 |
| Electrum | 50 | 5 | 1 | 1/2 | 1/20 |
| Gold | 100 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 1/10 |
| Platinum | 1,000 | 100 | 50 | 10 | 1 |
In most campaigns, you can use or wear any equipment that you find on your adventures, within the bounds of common sense. For example, a burly half-orc won't fit in a halfling's leather armor, and a gnome would be swallowed up in a cloud giant's elegant robe.
The DM can impose more realism. For example, a suit of plate armor made for one human might not fit another one without significant alterations, and a guard's uniform might be visibly ill-fitting when an adventurer tries to wear it as a disguise.
Using this variant, when adventurers find armor, clothing, and similar items that are made to be worn, they might need to visit an armorsmith, tailor, leatherworker, or similar expert to make the item wearable. The cost for such work varies from 10 to 40 percent of the market price of the item. The DM can either roll 1d4 × 10 or determine the increase in cost based on the extent of the alterations required.