Now that we’ve described the system of currencies, values and wages on Gor (you can read the article here, and I recommend you read it before continuing), let’s talk about what you’re really interested in: what you can buy on Gor, and at what price.

PS: it’s really hard to decide on prices in a way that’s consistent with the context as well as with the monetary system, and the habits of Gor SL players; so your comments are welcome, as long as they’re respectful (eh, haters?!).

If you’d like to support me, I’ve got a little store in Second Life, and you can even make a donation to encourage me, with a tip jar on the spot. A huge thank you and all my gratitude, in advance! SLURL : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Serendipity%20One/236/47/25

But before we get started, a few explanations:

1- The following prices respect as best as possible the values and prices of the Gor saga novels. But as I explained in the article: Money, values and living standards in Gor, John Norman was not at all rigorous on this subject, and had no notion of economics, and clearly didn’t try to find a reference that would have been useful for his stories. It wasn’t his subject, he didn’t care. So, we have to do it for him.

So it won’t be like in the books! A slave girl will never be worth the price of a bowl of paga!

My price references therefore come from the novels, and, to fill in the gaps and inconsistencies, from the prices and values of ancient Rome, Norman’s main reference (yes, much more than ancient Greece, his reference is the Roman and Gallo-Roman world).

2- Prices are adapted to the zCs monetary system. The system is designed to work effortlessly with the meter zCs currency system. BUT… the zCs meter currency system is just there to create a means of exchange in role-playing. It’s not realistic or coherent, and you shouldn’t treat it as such and use only it as a reminder.

Why do I say this? Because an avatar who uses the zCs meter and logs on regularly to an SL sim earns a gold coin in about a month. It can go even faster. The virtuous idea of the meter’s creators is that it generates and circulates currency.  It encourages players to use zCs to spend with each other; everyone knows that their currency reserves regenerate. So everyone earns currency simply by logging in, even slaves and animal avatars.

3- Don’t like the system? Don’t use it! I’m only proposing a system, and I’m not here to tell you that it’s the best. Many people have prize lists that come from Gorean Campus notecards, others use the Tales of Gor TTRPG prizes; I’m no more or less legitimate than they are. And don’t complain after me: I’m not forcing you to do anything! On the other hand, if you want to use these lists to make your own price references, please feel free to do so – that’s what this is for!

Abbreviations & notes

– Tarsk bit: B (bit)

– Copper tarsk: C (copper)

– Silver tarsk: S (silver)

– Gold tarn: G (gold)

Tarsk bits (copper coins cut into 8 parts) do not exist in ZcS. Think of it as small change – you can buy a loaf of bread or a glass of bad beer with it in your pocket, but you don’t need to count it.

Price variations

The prices below are for average quality, bought and sold in the Vosk and Ar region, the heart of Gorean civilization. Prices may vary according to two standards: quality and rarity.

• Quality: a roast vulo bought at the market or in a village will not have the same price as one bought in the best inn of a large city-state.
• Rarity: Bazi tea, jade or chocolate are considerably cheaper at the equator, than in the north of Gor.

Quality:

• Second-hand, counterfeit or damaged: x 1/2
• Good quality: x 3
• Very high quality: x 5
• Masterpiece: x 10
• Great luxury: x 20

Rarity :

• Produced locally: x 1/2
• Produced in the region: within a radius of 500 pasangs (350 miles/563 km): x 1
• Produced in the same cultural zone (Torvaldsland, Tahari, Vosk, etc.): x 1.5
• Exotic product: x 2
• Exotic product rare even in its region of production: x 5

1- Dishes

“The meat was a steak, cut from the loin of a bosk, a huge, shaggy bovine with long horns and a bad temper, which moves in large, slow herds across the meadows of Gor. Vika seizes this meat, as thick as a warrior’s forearm, on a small iron grill over charcoal cylinders, so that the thin edge of the outside is black, crispy and flaky, and the blood-rich flesh, hot and fat with juices, is sealed inside by the contact of the fire”.

Priest-kings of Gor

Prices are for taverns, inns, bakeries and rotisseries.

• Plate of eels: 2 C
• Plate of cabbage: 4 B
• Corn plate: 3 B
• Plate of suls: 5 B
• Plate of cookies: 1 C 2 B
• Charcuterie plate: 2 C 3 B
• Cheese plate: 2 C
• Oatmeal bowl : 1 B
• Soup bowl: 2 B
• Whole roasted carp: 3 C
• Fresh fruit: 3 B
• Large cake: 4 C
• Bread loaf: 1 B
• Common stew: 6 B
• Small cake: 6 B
• Seafood dish: 3 C 5 B
• Garnished verr/tarsk dish: 2 C 5 B
• Bosk dish with garnish: 3 C
• Deluxe poultry garnish: 5 C
• Whole roasted tarsk: 1 S 25 C
• Fruit tart: 4 B
• Vulo roti: 1 C 2 B

2- Drinks

“On one side, a slave girl, barefoot, wearing pants, a diaphanous canvas chalwar, gathered at the ankles, a tight red silk vest, bare-bellied, runs towards him, with the large, graceful silver pot containing the black wine.

. . .

Off to the side, another young girl rushed towards him, a fair-skinned girl with red hair. She too wore a veil, vest, chalwar, bracelets and a slave collar. She carried a tray on which were various spoons and sugars.”

Tribesmen of Gor

Prices are for taverns, inns and liquor merchants.

• Ale (mug): 5 B
• Mead (horn): 1 C
• Fruit juice (glass): 7 B
• Ka-la-na (glass): 2 C
• Kal-da (bowl): 2 B
• Milk (bowl): 1 B
• Turia liquor (glass): 1 C 5 B
• Paga (bowl): 1 C
• Fruit syrup (glass): 1 C 2 B
• Sul-paga (bowl): 5 B
• Wine (glass): 8 B
• Luxury wine (glass): 1 C 6 B
• Palm wine (glass): 1 C
• Black wine (coffee) (cup): 25 C
• Luxury wine (bottle): 25 C
• Common tea (cup): 2 B
• Bazi tea (cup): 3 C

3- Supplies

” Dorna la fière,” said the slave, who poured onions, turnips, radishes, potatoes and bread into the manger.”

Outlaws of Gor

“Larma is succulent. It has a fairly hard shell, but this is fragile and breaks easily. Inside, the fleshy endocarp, the fruit, is delicious and very juicy.”

Renegades of Gor

Common vegetables: Beans, Cabbage, Carrots, Corn, Katch (a leafy vegetable like a chard), Kort (a kind of pumpkin), Onions, Peas, Potatoes, Radishes, Squash, Suls (a tuber), Turnips, Broad beans, Garlic.

Common fruits : Apricots, Lemons, Ka-la-na (a large red fruit), Larmas (a fragile-shelled fruit with juicy apple flesh and a large stone), Melons, Cherries, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Pomegranates, Grapes, Topsits (a type of plum with a bitter taste), Sweet gourds.

Common cereals: Corn, Sa-tarna wheat, Black wheat, Rence (rice).

• Crate of seasonal fruit (5 kg): 2 C
• Crate of fresh vegetables (5 kg): 1 C
• Whole gant: 20 C
• Portion of verr (1kg) : 4 C
• Portion of tarsk (1kg) : 3 C
• Portion of bosk (1kg) : 5 C
• Honey pot (1kg) : 4 C
• Travel rations (one week) : 3 C
• Bag of flour (20kg): 2 C
• Bag of dried fruit (1kg): 3 C
• Bag of dried peas (20 kg): 7 C
• Bag of black wine (5 kg): 5 S
• Bag of pepper (5 kg): 5 S
• Bag of common spices (5kg): 1 S
• Bag of salt (10 kg): 20 C
• Bag of sugar (5kg): 25 C
• Bag of suls or potatoes (20kg): 3 C
• Whole Vulo: 1 C

4- Melee weapons

“The average Gorean spear is about seven feet long, with an interlocking bronze blade fourteen to eighteen inches long.”

Swordsmen of Gor

“Javelins, whether intended for sport or war, are very different from the typical Gorean war spear, which is generally a heavy and formidable weapon, requiring considerable strength to use properly. It usually features a thick handle, seven feet or more in length, and a long, broad blade, usually made of bronze.”

Smugglers of Gor

Prices are for orders placed with blacksmiths.

• Sword: 7 S
• Two-handed sword: 8 S
• Hunting stake: 70 C
• Snake-whip: 40 C
• Glaive: 4 S
• Guisarme: 5 S
• Axe: 2 S
• Lumberjack’s axe: 50 C
• Spear : 1 S
• War mace: 5 S
• Dagger: 1 S
• Saber: 5 S
• Sarisse (long spear): 3 S
• Stylus: 50 C

5- Ranged weapons

“As a tarn unit, it was superbly trained and equipped for aerial combat, far more so than Gor’s usual tarn units, which generally consisted of mounted infantry, carrying spears and armed with a saddle crossbow.”

Rebels of Gor

Prices are for orders placed with blacksmiths & bow makers.

• Hunter’s bow: 60 C
  • Arrows (X10) 25 C
• War bow: 3 S 25 C
  • Arrows (X10) 60 S
• Crossbow: 12 S
  • Bolts (X10) 1 S
• Bolas: 20 C
• Capture net: 40 C
• Slingshot: 15 C
  • bullets (x10) 10 C
• Javelin: 30 C
• Lasso: 5 C
• Blowpipe 15 C
• Darts (x10) 5 C

6- Armor

“Whatever the truth of these matters, the Priest-Kings, as usual, have not explained the reasons for their decisions. Yet they apply them, mercilessly, with the flame of death. It may be that the decisions concerning armor breastplates were not even motivated by rational reasons; perhaps they were the result of a random notion or idiosyncratic whim on the part of one or more Priest-Kings. Whatever the case, the rules, as in the case of certain forbidden developments or innovations in weaponry, communication and the like, are in place.”

Swordsmen of Gor

Prices are for orders placed with blacksmiths & gunsmiths. Protective torso armor, stronger than padded or leather jacket, is rare, very expensive, and the Priest-Kings forbid such technologies. So, it’s not a good idea to use it, because if you see many characters wearing armor in the novels, especially the more recent ones, the threat is real.

• Round wooden shield: 40 C
• Round bronze shield: 2 S
• Long shield (Scutum): 2 S 50 C
• Greek helmet: 2 S
• Roman helmet: 3 S
• Scandinavian helmet (Torvi): 2 S
• Quilted or leather jacket: 3 S
• Scales jacket: 25 S
• Chain mail: 50 S
• Muscular breastplate (steel breastplate): 70 S
• Ubar breastplate: 2 G

7- Accessories

“Why weren’t lanterns hung from high bridges? Why weren’t lamps of a hundred colors and flames lit in the compartments of the city, telling in the codes of Gor’s of conversations, binges, loves?”

Outlaw of Gor

Prices are for orders placed with craftsmen and suppliers.

• Firelighter: 3 C
• Candle: 1 C 5 B
• Notebook: 5 C
• Common slave collar: 15 C
• Rope (10 meters): 2 C
• Working knife: 25 C
• Pencil: 5 C
• Charcoal: 2 C
• Parchment sheet: 60 C
• Grappling hook: 80 C
• Lantern: 1 S
• Printed & bound book (200 pages): 1 S
• Writing utensils (nibs & ink, etc.): 50 C
• Basket for tarn : 10 S
• Ream of rence paper, 20 sheets: 5 C
• Roll of papyrus: 10 C
• Complete medical bag (with remedies): 5 S
• Travel bag: 30 C
• Tharlarion saddle: 1 S
• Kaiila saddle: 3 S
• Tarn saddle: 10 S
• Sewing kit: 20 C

8- Furniture & crockery

Prices are for orders placed with craftsmen and suppliers.

• Blacksmith’s workshop: 30 S
• Builder’s workshop: 50 S
• Complete library (100 books): 1 G
• Complete kitchen: 15 S
• Complete bedroom: 5 S
• Medical practice: 50 S
• Scribe’s study: 60 S
• Physician’s laboratory: 1 G
• Modest artwork: 5 S
• Luxurious artwork: 50 S
• Arts and crafts tools: 10 S
• Complete living room: 20 S
• Terracotta service: 50 C
• Glass service: 5 S
• Porcelain service: 50 S
• Silver service: 1 G
• Fur rug : 30 C
• Precious carpets : 5 S

9- Luxury & jewels

“Every year at the Sardar Fair there is a motion before the bankers, literally, the coin merchants, to introduce a standardization of coinage among the major cities. To date, however, this has not been accomplished. I did not feel it was really fair of Boots to call attention to my possible lack of expertise in these matters. I was not, after all, of the merchants, nor, among them, of the coin merchants.”

Magicians of Gor

These prices are for orders placed with jewellers.

Ornamental stones: jade, jasper, onyx, coral, turquoise, amber, beryl, tiger’s eye, white, black and rose quartz.

Fine stones: aquamarine, agate, amethyst, citrine, garnet, opal, pearl, moonstone, peridot, turquoise, topaz.

Precious stones: diamond, sapphire, ruby, emerald.

• Silver ring: 50 C
• Gold ring: 15 S
• Gemstone ring: 70 S
• Slave ornament: 1 S
• Ornate slave collar: 10 S
• Faceted diamond: 1 G
• Common perfume: 25 C
• Slave perfume: 30 C
• Luxury perfume: 1 S
• Silver ornaments: 15 S
• Gold set: 3 G
• Gold set with fine stones: 3 G 50 S
• Ornamental stone: 10 C
• Fine stone: 5 S
• Precious stone: 50 S

10- Clothes

These prices are for orders placed with dressmakers and shoemakers. Clothes and shoes are always made to order and designed to last.

• Boots: 40 C
• Booties: 30 C
• Burlap sandals: 4 C
• Leather sandals: 10 C
• Lace-up sandals (Caligae): 15 C
• Slippers : 30 C
• Woolen camisk : 5 C
• Silk camisk : 2 S
• Women’s cap: 30 C
• Hat: 25 C
• Thin gloves : 1 S
• Leather work gloves: 20 S
• High-caste coat: 5 S
• Skin coat: 1 S
• Wool coat: 50 C
• Tight pants : 50 C
• Loose-fitting pants : 20 C
• Leather pants: 40 C
• Common dress: 25 C
• Merchant dress: 1 S
• High-caste dress: 5 S
• Dancer’s silks: 3 S
• Toga: 70 C
• Common tunic: 20 C
• Merchant’s tunic: 80 C
• High-caste tunic: 3 S
• Wool jacket: 30 C
• Leather jacket: 1 S
• Common veil: 15 C
• Silk veil: 50 C

11- Wholesale products

• Bronze ingots (10 kg): 25 C
• Iron ingots (10 kg): 70 C
• Tool box (10 kg): 4 S
• Common alcohol, barrel (50 l): 50 C
• Luxury alcohol, barrel (50 l): 1 S 20 C
• Roll of rence cloth (10m): 25 C
• Roll of wool (10m): 80 C
• Roll of silk (10m): 8 S
• Roll of leather (3m): 25 C
• Empty barrel (50 l): 25 C
• Large empty barrel (500 l): 5 S

12- Technology

Apart from the energy bulb, you’ll note that there are no science-fiction marvels from Gor’s novels, which you can discover in this article. That’s because they’re rare enough to have no guide price. A refrigerator or even a universal translator are necessarily very rare, little-known items, almost magical for Gor people, and ridiculously expensive.

• Slave goad: 15 S
• Tarn goad: 10 S
• Energy bubble: 1 G
• Marine compass: 5 S
• Plastic jar: 10 S
• Lighter: 1 S
• Padlock: 5 S
• Stopwatch: 25 S
• Slave collar with complex lock: 6 S
• Wire (10m): 40 C
• Cooler: 1 S
• Capture ties: 20 C
• Spyglass: 50 S
• Pair of eyeglasses: 70 S
• Small electric lamp : 1 G
• Iron braided slave bag: 35 C

13- Transportation

“It was very bad news. I had no doubt that these were replacement ships for the privateers I’d burned on Daphna. The destroyed privateer fleet had four fifty-oar ships and two thirty-oar ships. There were now seven enemy ships, each with fifty oars, a far more formidable fleet than the one we had managed to destroy by cunning. What’s more, if the ships came out of Telnus, the largest of Cos’ ports, it seemed clear that Lurius de Jad himself, the Ubar of Cos, had invested resources in replacing the corsair fleet.”

Avengers of Gor

Ship prices are quoted bareboat, i.e. without the necessary equipment and crew, which can represent half the price of the vessel.

• Fishing boat: 20 S
• Bireme (classic galley): 30 G
• Antique freighter (gaoul): 7 G
• Merchant coaster (chebec): 5 G
• Two-wheeled cart: 1 S
• Four-wheeled cart: 5 S
• Large wagon: 5 G
• Torvi ship (langskip): 10 G
• Merchant ship (cogue): 25 G
• Barge: 2 G
• Small bark: 1 S
• Small wagon: 25 S
• Trireme (assault galley): 70 G

14- Real estate

Prices include construction and interior fittings.

• Relais inn: 2 G
• Farmer’s cottage: 10 S
• Barracks: 15 G
• Farm estate: 15 G
• Administrative compoud: 20 G
• Hospital: 25 G
• Craftsman’s house: 30 S
• Bath house: 5 G
• Merchant’s house: 1 G
• High-caste palace: 15 G
• Theater: 25 G
• Tavern: 50 S
• Urban villa: 4 G

15- Miscellaneous services

Prices for services generally correspond to the service concerned (such as a jurist, or medical care), or per day of service hire (such as a porter or armed escort).

Servants & slaves

• Dancer: 10 C
• Slaver, complete training: 3 S
• Slaver, luxury training: 30 S
• Kitchen slave: 5 C
• Paga slave: 1 C
• Coin slave: 1 C
• Pleasure high slave: 1 S
• Slave branding: 10 C
• Worker or force slave: 5 C
• Porter: 4 C

Travel

• Mount rental (Tharlarion): 10 C
• Merchant ship & crew rental: 5 S
• Boat trip (one day): 15 C
• Caravan trip (one day): 5 C
• Travel by tarn (one day): 50 C

Tavern & inn

• Public baths: 3 C
• Banquet (10 people, including slaves & musicians): 5 S
• Night at inn: 10 C
• Stable night: 10 C
• Deluxe guesthouse, one night : 1 S

Professional services

• Artist: 10 C
• Builder: 40 C
• Armed escort: 15 C
• Lawyer: 1 S
• Physician, treatment or examination: 25 C
• Physician, surgery: 2 S
• Urban messenger: 5 C
• Inter-city messenger: 1 S
• Musician: 20 C
• Scribe: 50 C

16- Livestock & pets

Market or supplier prices for live animals. If you don’t know what these animals are, I invite you to read this article, which will enlighten you.

• Bosk: 5 S
• Bosk, large male: 10 S
• Frevet : 30 C
• Gant: 10 C
• Hurt : 25 C
• Trained Kailla: 50 S
• Hunting Sleen: 3 S
• Guard Sleen: 2 S
• Sniffer Sleen: 5 S
• Tarsk: 70 C
• Breeding Tarsk: 1 S
• Working Tharlarion: 10 S
• Riding Tharlarion: 20S
• War Tharlarion: 30S
• Transport tarn: 70 S
• Racing tarn: 5 G
• War Tarn: 1 G
• Vulo : 2 C
• Verr : 20 C

17- slaves

“A golden tarn was a small fortune. It could buy one of the great birds themselves, or up to five slaves.”

Tarnsman of Gor

“Suddenly she threw herself at the auctioneer with hysterical screams, but he cuffed her sideways and she fell to her knees weeping. She was sold for twenty-five gold coins.”

Assassin of Gor

So, here’s a complicated subject. In Gor’s novels, the only coherent thing you can say about the price of slaves is that it’s incoherent. THERE is no logical standard: a beautiful earthling like Judy Thornton, in Slave-girl of Girl, is sold for 21 tarsk of copper (what, the price of 21 bowls of paga?!). Most pleasure slaves are estimated to be worth at least a tarn of gold in Assassins of Gor, but barely a few tarsk of silver in Fighting Slave of Gor. Then we learn that a kajiru of pleasure can be worth 1,000 tarn of gold in Magicians of Gor, and, finally, that there are no more than four or five thousand Earth slaves on Gor (Beasts of Gor), but that selling one for more than a tarsk of silver is strange (Savages of Gor) while Earth slaves are highly prized (Assassins of Gor). Oh yes, and did I ever tell you that no more than 3% of Gor’s population is enslaved, and that owning a slave is a luxury (kajira of Gor), but that there are so many female slaves on the market that they’re worthless (slave-girl of Gor)?

So I’m going to try and find a compromise between Norman’s inconsistencies in the Gor novels, and the prices of slaves in the best-known ancient society, with almost one in three people having slave status, in Rome: the Roman Empire in the 3rd century, where a basic slave was worth 2,000 sesterces, or twice the annual salary of a soldier. It’s in the first novel that we have the best reference to a more or less coherent price for, we can assume, a properly trained slave-girl: A tarn of gold was a small fortune. It could buy one of the big birds themselves, or up to five slaves.”

So let’s take that as our starting point. On the monetary system, derived from Gor, that I’m using here, the average price of a well-trained slave with a minimum of education is worth around 20 tarsk of silver, which is a nice sum, that no soldier or worker will ever own. If you use the decimal system of Gorean currency, that would be 2 tarsk of silver. As Norman describes at least two currency systems, one of which is decimal, it works.

The prices are for the auctioned slaves, with their base price. Slave prices can soar to astronomical sums. The most expensive price mentioned in the novels is 1000 tarn d’or, but prices for kajirae of pleasure at 10 or 20 tarn d’or are not even exceptional.

• Barbarian (non-Earth) without training: 2 S
• Breeding slave with pedigree (passion slave): 40 S
• Combat slave: 35 S
• Exotic: 1 G
• Panther woman: 25 S
• Coin girl: 5 S
• Kettle girl: 5 S
• Farm girl: 3 S
• High-caste daughter: 50 S
• Ubar’s daughter: 5 G
• Force slave: 4 S
• High slave: 1 G
• Kajira of pleasure: 20 S
• Kajiru (male) of pleasure: 30 S
• Tower Kajira: 15 S
• Earthling: 25 S

The prices are piling up. A pedigree pleasure slave from a stud farm is easily worth 60 S. Women with red hair, especially auburn, are sought-after, as are women with jet-black hair. A high-slave is a kind of luxury pleasure kajira for High-castes palaces, often trained in the arts, dance and music. An exotic is a slave with rare physical or mental traits, such as the ignorant virgins of men in Assassins of Gor, albinos, or slaves with poisoned saliva or zebra skin, as in Prize of Gor.

Conclusion

So, I’ve finally finished, and it’s taken me a long time! My aim was to cover all the prices of goods and commodities that goreans can trade and use. This allows you to have access to these lists, without wondering what does and doesn’t exist, and to have a relative idea of their value. Once again, if you don’t like the prices, you can decide for yourself. And I hope you find all this useful!