Everyone has a Price

Put money in thy purse; follow thou the wars; defeat thy favor with an usurp'd beard. I say put money in thy purse.

Rather than trying to devise some sort of elaborate pricing system, I try to map game world costs to approximately similar real world costs. 

In my campaign the basic unit of currency is a small silver coin, called a klink. This coin is worth about $10. 

A restaurant meal costs about 1 klink.

A room at an inn costs about 10 klinks.

Military style rifles start around $1000 and go up rapidly in price. Swords start around 100 klinks.

You can get a crappy car for a couple grand on Craigslist so you can buy a worn out mule for a couple hundred klinks. A new sports car will cost about $50,000. You can buy a war horse for 5000 klinks. If you want a Maserati horse, you can buy one for a Maserati price. 

Prices vary according to quality and circumstance. Generally, you get what you pay for.

Simple, right?

The Right Tool for the Job

The rules I use are very loosely based on those in Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Role-Playing. Mostly, because they are free.

In these rules, all classes start with a +1 bonus to hit (except the fighter with +2) with the assumption that characters will be using standard military weapons.

My campaign does not make that assumption. Military weapons are highly controlled and those possessing them without authorization are subject to severe legal consequences (slavery, mutilation, death).

Characters do not start with a +1 bonus and military weapons grant a +1. Thus:

Fighting for your life with a re-purposed tool rather than a dedicated killing machine adds a feeling of desperation.

I am also hoping that the original functionality of the implements will inspire some creative problem solving. Proverbially, when all you have is a hammer, all your problems look like nails. What does the world look like when all you have is a sword?