Wealth & Social Mobility in D&D

(Yet another half-formed backlog post that has been sitting around for years and I have no time, energy, or clue to come back to)

D&D adventures take for granted that a social hierarchy exists, that kings and queens are at the top and peasants at the bottom.Yet social mobility is also a given, especially for PCs, who can ransack a few tombs and start climbing the ladder to become ruler of their own domain.

In the real world, social mobility is far from given. People who rise are criticized as nouveau riche or grasping beyond their station, while those that fall are scorned as having gone to seed or become decadent. The poor at the bottom resent the rich at top, while the lucky 1% look down their noses at the lowest workers who uphold the system that enriches them.

Here is the sketch of a simple plug in ruleset that models how wealth and social mobility interact. It is inspired by the writings of Pierre Bourdieu, who theorized about how one's social background or what he called 'habitus' largely determined an individual's opportunities for social mobility.

LEVELS OF WEALTH
First, every character is situated at a certain level of wealth, which is reflected in the standard coinage they use for all economic transactions, and provides a modifier for certain activities.

COINAGE                   LEVEL                                    MODIFIER
Copper pennies            Peasants & slaves                    - 1
Silver dollars               Tradesman & yeomen                 0
Electrum half crowns  Aristocrats & guild masters     + 1
Gold crowns                Royals                                      + 2
Platinum eagles           Celestial imperials                    + 3


INTERACTIONS BETWEEN LEVELS
Minus one to reaction for every level below your own you pay to those below or above you. A peasant trying to pay with gc will be conned, an aristo using pennies will be scorned.

DRIVE FOR COLONIZATION
Colonisation just becomes an opportunity to improve one's class. Colonies are free zones where social mobility n chance for enrichment are maximized, total meritocracy.

Upward Mobility is Hard, Downward is Easy

You Take Your Habitus With You