Gear and Prices

Money in the corridor is U.S. dollars and cents. The sourcebooks print prices in their own units; this book prices everything in dollars from the record, and the unit column in the echoed tables is a cross-reference to the sourcebook row, not a rate. Do not convert. Every stat line in the gear tables is copied from the sourcebook that owns it. The sourcebook is canon for the stats; this book is canon for the dollars.

Historical figures carry a year and, where a GM may want to check one, a short source. ~ marks a figure the record gives only as a range or from nearby years, or one this book sets to sit among documented neighbours.

Money

The money of the Territories is the U.S. dollar, divided into 100 cents. Three things shape what a character carries.

• Greenbacks and coin. Paper currency (United States Notes, called greenbacks) is legal tender. The Supreme Court struck it down for older debts in 1870 (Hepburn v. Griswold) and upheld it the next year (Knox v. Lee, 1871). Coin, especially gold, is worth more than paper while paper stays off the gold standard.

• A seller may quote a price “in currency” or “in coin.” The 1872 edition of Crofutt’s Trans-Continental Tourist’s Guide quotes railroad meals at 75 cents to a dollar “currency.” The Specie Payment Resumption Act, signed 14 January 1875, set 1 January 1879 for paper to become redeemable in gold, so the whole play range sits before resumption. The New York price of $100 in gold ran from about $119 to $162 in paper in 1869, $110 to $123 in 1870, and $106 to $119 across 1871 to 1874; it stood near $111 in 1876. The New York figures are the working premium in Cheyenne and Denver.

• The Coinage Act of 12 February 1873 ended the coinage of the standard silver dollar, authorized the trade dollar for the China trade, and changed the weight of the small silver coins. A character in 1873 or later sees few new silver dollars, and the change was argued over for years afterward. The same mix of greenbacks, fractional currency, gold coin, and residual silver that circulated in the West generally is what a character carries in Wyoming or Colorado.

• Gold dust was money in the Colorado camps of 1859 to 1862, weighed at $12 to $20 an ounce by district. In the 1870s a placer miner sells his dust to a bank or to the Denver assay office, which has bought gold since 1863. Dust no longer routinely passes over a store counter.

Sourcebook Units

The cited sourcebooks price their entries in one shared unit. This book does not use it as money.

• The unit beside an echoed row is a cross-reference to the sourcebook's row, so a reader can find the entry. It is not a rate, and no divisor turns it into dollars.
• The sourcebook is canon for the stat line. The dollar price is this book's, from the record of the corridor in 1869 to 1876.
• A GM who wants a sourcebook item this book does not price uses the nearest price band (Prices, below), not the unit.
• Small change under a nickel is not tracked. A character in a town can buy a postal card, a match, a cup of water or a cup of coffee without spending anything that matters. The Stable's daily upkeep and hired-help figures are not used; see Keeping a Horse in Era Rules and the wage table.

What Things Cost

Nine figures to hold in mind. Every one is in the tables that follow.

Where a corridor figure exists it is used, even when it is dated 1877 to 1879 (Strahorn's two Cheyenne guides), because prices in the corridor moved little between 1872 and 1879 and the record for 1869 to 1876 itself is thin. Where no corridor figure exists, a national figure of the 1870s is used and marked ~. A Cheyenne store adds freight to an eastern catalog price, about a quarter.

Wages and Income

Wages are by the month unless the row says otherwise; "and board" means fed and housed. A character paid by the month with board spends little of it on food and lodging; a day laborer does not. This is a reference for rewards, hired help and a Role's Pay line, not a bookkeeping rule.

Rewards and hire. Use these as the going rates for a hired gun, a guide, a drover or a witness unless the adventure says otherwise.

Prices

Price bands

When no price is printed, use a band. A band says how much a thing is worth against a wage, and a GM who knows the band never needs a catalog.

What the record gives

Doctor, medicine and nursing

The Denver Medical Association adopted a fee bill on 15 June 1871, and the Colorado Medical Society adopted the same bill on 19 September 1871. These are its rates. A doctor on the Cheyenne side charged about the same.

Medicines come from The Apothecary and are in the essential gear table below.

Availability by Place and Year

Availability uses the sourcebook tags: Common, Restricted, Military and Rare. The tag says whether a seller exists, not how much a seller wants.

Dates of introduction

An item is available from the year in the table, not before. Items in the aka lines of the sourcebooks that fall after 1876 do not appear in this book.

The 1873 line. The Single Action Army and the Model 1873 Winchester both begin in 1873. A game set in 1869 to 1872 gives characters the Cap-and-Ball Revolver, a conversion or the Smith & Wesson revolvers, and the Winchester Model 1866 or the Sharps. A cartridge conversion of a cap-and-ball revolver uses the Cap-and-Ball Revolver's line with a two-maneuver reload; a converted gun is $14 new, and converting a gun the character owns is ~$4.

The Essential Gear Table

These are stats from sourcebooks for the Exodus NDS system. The Price column is the sourcebook's unit, kept as a cross-reference; the dollar price is in the Dollars column and is this book's.

Firearms (The Black Powder Armory, Master Tables)

The "Dollars" and "In this era from" columns are this book's; every other column is the sourcebook's. The Colt, Winchester and Sharps dollars are makers' list prices; Strahorn's Cheyenne outfitters quote a breech-loading rifle at $35 to $50. The others are set from the government surplus sales of 1870 to 1875, which put thousands of used arms on the market at a few dollars each.

Reloading and weather are in The Black Powder Armory, Reading an Entry. The Single-Action Revolver reloads in two maneuvers, and its Fanning rule is in the book's Percussion and Cartridge Arms chapter. The Cap-and-Ball Revolver reloads in six maneuvers, or two with a spare cylinder (60; $3).

Old stock. The Black Powder Armory says a flintlock is still a trade gun in 1870 at half the listed price. At the table, a Trade Gun costs 60 in the sourcebook's units and $5 at a trader's counter throughout 1869 to 1876 (the sourcebook's example is 1870).

Aliases. A Dragoon Revolver is a Colt Army or Dragoon; a Rifle-Musket is a Springfield 1861 or an Enfield; a Breechloading Rifle is a Sharps or a Springfield trapdoor; a Buffalo Rifle is a Sharps or a Remington Rolling Block; a Lever-Action Repeater is a Henry, a Winchester 1866 or 1873, or a Spencer carbine (aliases from The Black Powder Armory). A Single-Action Revolver is a Colt Single Action Army, a Smith & Wesson Schofield or a Remington 1875, and none of the three exists before 1873 (see Dates of introduction). A Smith & Wesson or a Remington is about $16.

The civilian Sharps. A civilian Sharps or Remington sporting rifle is Common in this era; the Military tag on the Breechloading Rifle is for the Army's Springfield.

Carbines. For The Stable's saddle rules (a pair of Saddle holsters carries a carbine; a pistol or a carbine ignores the Bane Die for firing from a mount that moved), a Lever-Action Repeater bought as a Spencer or Winchester carbine and a Breechloading Rifle bought as a Sharps or Springfield carbine count as carbines, with the same line as the rifle. A Winchester carbine is $40. The Rifle-Musket and the Buffalo Rifle never do.

Blades and tools (The Fantasy Armory, Master Weapons Table)

A Knife is a belt knife or a bowie knife ($2; a pocket knife $0.75). A Hatchet is a camp axe or belt axe ($1.25 at a hardware counter), and a trade tomahawk ($2 at a post) (aliases from The Fantasy Armory). A surplus cavalry saber, the Sabre in The Fantasy Armory (Military), is ~$3 at a surplus sale; an officer draws his from the quartermaster. Table on next page.

Bows (The Ranged Armory, Master Weapons Table and Ammunition)

Arrow (Ammunition): Cost 10 for 20, fits all heads; ~$1 for twenty, in trade. The bow dollars are set by this book: a Plains bow was made by its user, not bought, and the only retail record is the curiosity trade, $2 to $10. The unit prices are the sourcebook's and are not trade prices among the nations. Table on next page.

Mounts (The Stable, Master Tables, Horses and Their Kin and Beasts of Burden and War)

Price is for a healthy adult saddle-trained animal (The Stable, Reading an Entry). The dollars are the Cheyenne outfitters' quotations of 1877 and 1879 (Strahorn: saddle horses $40 to $75, pack horses and saddle mules $40 to $60, a team of horses $100 to $250, oxen $80 to $100 a yoke); the Pony, the Mountain Horse and the Donkey are set by this book. A Donkey is the burro of the Colorado mining camps. The Stable has no entry for the Texas cow pony or the horses of the Tribal Nations; use the Riding Horse row for either, or the Pony row for a small animal (see Horses, Tack and Livery). A cow pony is ~$30; an Indian pony is ~$25 in trade.

Tack (The Stable, Tack, Harness, and Platforms)

Tack dollars are set from 1870s saddlery and hardware lists and Montgomery Ward's 1875 catalogue; the pad saddle is set by this book.

Medicine (The Apothecary, The Apothecary's Shelf and The Industrial Pharmacy)

• Healing Salve: Applied before a full night's rest, the patient recovers 2 additional Wounds from that rest

• Poppy Tincture: Recover 3 Strain, and ignore the ongoing penalty of one Minor or Moderate Critical Injury for the duration. Side effect: add 1 Bane Die to Perception and Readiness checks

• Strong Drink: Add 1 Boon Die to checks made to resist fear, and recover 1 Strain. Side effect: add 1 Bane Die to Agility and Intellect checks

• Antiseptic: Add 1 Boon Die to Medicine checks made to heal Wounds or to remove a Critical Injury

• Morphine: Recover 4 Strain, and ignore the ongoing penalties of Critical Injuries up to Severe for the duration. Side effect: Disoriented

• Patent Medicine: None. A patient who believes in it recovers 1 Strain

• Emetic: A Purge made with an emetic needs no check. Side effect: the patient suffers 2 Strain and is Staggered on the next turn

• Chloroform: 3 Strain each round the pad is held (Interval Round, Course 5), then sleep for 10 minutes. The pad must be held over the face; the target must be Restrained, Immobilized, asleep or unaware, and stays exposed only while it is held

Poppy Tincture is laudanum and opium; Antiseptic is carbolic or iodine in this era; Chloroform is also ether, and Emetic is mustard water, salt water or ipecac (aliases from The Apothecary). Chloroform is the surgeon’s anaesthetic. The dollars are druggists’ prices of the 1870s; the dollar bottle of patent medicine was universal, and the sourcebook’s unit prices a dose where the store sells a bottle. A hypodermic syringe is $4 and quinine for the ague $2.50 an ounce. Morphine and laudanum are sold across a druggist’s counter without a prescription throughout the range; the first state prescription laws come in the 1880s and later. Carbolic antiseptic was in the hands of some American surgeons from about 1870 and in general use only by the late 1870s, so a doctor who carries it is ahead of his neighbours. The Apothecary treats Restricted Industrial entries as Common to anyone willing to sign a chemist’s poison book before the laws arrive. The Denver fee bill of 1871 charges $10 for giving chloroform or ether, so anaesthetics were ordinary Denver practice by then.

Horses, Tack and Livery

The Stable keeps every horse number. This section prices the animal, the grade and the hire. Upkeep is not priced: living expenses cover it in towns and on the road, and the Keeping a Horse rule in Era Rules governs a horse away from the road.

Buying a horse

The price in the Mounts table is for a Sound animal that is saddle-trained. The Stable (Training and Keeping) sets the grade multipliers; the dollar prices below are this book's (Cheyenne outfitters' prices, 1877 to 1879), rounded to a dollar a dealer would quote.

The same multipliers price a Mountain Horse, a Donkey or an Ox. Judging an animal before buying is an Average Survival check, or Hard if the seller is hiding something (The Stable, Quality). A Sound saddle horse is seven weeks of a cowhand's pay and a Fine horse five months of it; a Fine horse at $150 is what the Army paid for a cavalry remount. An unbroken range horse at Cheyenne sold for $15 to $25, which is the one-third rule. An Exceptional horse has a name and a pedigree, and people know whose it is; at $500 it is a named racer or a stallion with papers. Prices are the Cheyenne outfitters' quotations of 1877 and 1879 (Strahorn).

Livery

A hired mount is billed by the day at the livery rate and includes feed, stabling and shoeing. A week of hire is billed as six days. The rates are Strahorn's for Cheyenne in 1879 (saddle ponies $2 a day; a team and rig $4 to $7), the mule, buggy and boarding rates are set from nearby figures.

A hired heavy freight wagon with four animals is twice the team-and-rig rate. Hired help in town comes at the wage table. The Stable's own Hired Help rates are not used.

Clothing and General Goods

No sourcebook prices clothing, camp goods or tools. The prices are Montgomery Ward's 1875 catalogue and the Cheyenne outfitters' lists; a Cheyenne store adds freight, about a quarter. Figures marked ~ have no corridor source.

Clothing

Camp kit and provisions

Tools and trade kits

The last eight rows price the kits of the Roles that own a trade (Character Creation and Roles). Most are values set by this book.

Vehicles

The Stable lists the vehicles without a price; every value here is this book's.

Ammunition is sold by the box. Metallic cartridges for a revolver or a repeater are $1.25 a box of 50 in .44 and $1.50 in .45; rifle cartridges for a Sharps or a Springfield $1 a box of 20; shotgun shells $1 a box of 25, or a brass reloadable shell 5 cents; percussion caps $0.25 a tin of 100; powder $0.75 a pound; bar lead 12 cents a pound and a bullet mould $1; combustible paper cartridges for a cap-and-ball revolver $0.25 a packet of 6; a spare cylinder $3. The Black Powder Armory prices paper cartridges at 15 for a box of twenty, a bandolier of charges at 20 ($1), a powder horn and shot bag at 10 ($0.75) and a spare cylinder at 60, in its own units; the dollars are this book's.

Lodging

A character who lodges in a town pays the cost once, at the start of the stay, and the book treats it as part of the character's living expenses unless the story makes the expense a problem.

Passage

On the rail, the character is a passenger and the journey is a scene or a sentence. On the road, the Stable's Travel decides.

The Source Book Map

Which sourcebooks this book draws on, what part is legal here, and which rows are echoed. The owning sourcebook is canon for every stat line.

Disease is out of scope in The Apothecary; the Era Rules chapter carries the illness rule.