Gold Worth More Than Platinum: What Does It Mean?

The increasingly dire economic crisis in Dungeon & Dragons’ city of Waterdeep took another turn for the worse today with the announcement that real-world gold was briefly worth more than platinum. International gold prices, which have climbed steadily over the last few years, were 60 cents higher than platinum earlier this morning. In Waterdeep, where a single platinum piece has long been locked at the value of 100 gold, the news was greeted with a mixture of alarm and confusion.

The Waterdeep gold crisis is another in a long list of fiscal turbulence that has followed in the wake of United States mortgage crisis of 2008, which left the world of Athas a deserted wasteland, and the price surge on commodity copper, which severely destabilized the kingdom of Greyhawk – portions of which were later forced into foreclosure by the mists of Ravenloft.

With traditional loot prices in flux, many adventurers have found themselves without a viable income. Now, even paltry marauding kobolds threaten many communities because adventurers cannot be motivated to take risk life and limb on the battlefield for a reward that could be worthless by the time they get back to the inn. Consequently, many parties have travelled to the Outer Planes in search of greener pastures while numbers released by the Department of Justice seem to indicate that spelljammer piracy is on the rise.

Waterdeep political commentator Khelben ‘Blackstaff’ Arunsun could not be reached for comment.

With Stu Horvath