The "Five Major Cities" of Westeros are King's Landing, Oldtown, Lannisport, Gulltown, and White Harbor. These are the five port cities that pay taxes directly to the Iron Throne and are the most densely populated areas on the continent.
Whenever a tournament is held in one of these cities, knights and mercenaries flock from all directions, including many highborn lords.
Jousting is the quintessential noble sport. Anyone who can win a championship in one of these cities—even in Gulltown, the second smallest (since White Harbor in the North doesn't hold jousts)—is undoubtedly among the most elite (and wealthy) knights in the realm.
To be blunt: Does a Level 1 player deserve to be in a formal joust like that?
Setting aside skill, a starting Hedge Knight player simply can't afford the gear. Tournament-grade plate armor is over 4mm thick, costing far more than standard 2mm field plate. Tournament horses are prime destriers, costing several times more than a regular warhorse.
And what does a Hedge Knight player have? A set of old chainmail and a generic trained horse.
Of course, if someone has nerves of steel and insane skill, they could sign up. But Ian didn't think he was reckless enough to try that yet.
In his plan, the most he would attempt was a "hedge tournament"—small, local melees held in market towns or minor castles, usually fighting with live steel.
"So, what does this 'Swap' button do?" Ian asked mentally.
"We have designed at least three mission paths for each profession available to players," Annie explained. "You can cycle through all options before deciding. Once accepted, the mission cannot be changed."
Ian clicked [Swap], silently praying the next one would be reasonable.
> MAIN MISSION 1: PATH OF THE BRIGAND
> Description: People often say that a hedge knight and a robber knight are two sides of the same coin. Even if you've never been a bandit, your reputation is tarnished by the actions of your peers. Since that's the case, perhaps shedding that meaningless honor is the better choice?
> Objective: Sack the castle or manor of a landed knight and loot wealth exceeding 100 Gold Dragons.
> Reward: 5 Points, 3 Attribute Points, 3 Skill Points.
[Accept] [Swap]
"Sack a landed knight's castle? And loot over 100 Gold Dragons?" Ian exhaled sharply, his face falling.
A wave of despair washed over him.
Take the poorest landed knight's holdfast as an example. To sack it, Ian would have to fight at least one knight and a squire. He might win that fight, but a knight too poor to hire guards wouldn't have 100 Gold Dragons lying around. The loot probably wouldn't even be worth as much as the knight's armor and horse.
To get 100 Gold Dragons, Ian shuddered to think how many raids he'd have to pull off.
What does 100 Gold Dragons mean?
In the books, after Joffrey was poisoned at the Purple Wedding, Ser Addam Marbrand put a bounty on Sansa Stark for "conspiring with the Imp to commit regicide." The reward? Exactly 100 Gold Dragons.
Let's look at top-tier knightly gear: A full suit of high-quality plate, a good longsword and mace, a warhorse, and two rounceys. That total package costs around 30 Gold Dragons.
Only the wealthy knights of the Reach (with their fertile lands) or the Westerlands (with their gold mines) could afford such kit without putting a strain on their finances.
Elsewhere? Vale knights mostly use splint-and-mail. Stormlanders wear plated jacks. Riverlands knights, sticking to tradition (and budget), often still use chainmail as their primary defense.
"So this mission is designed for Arthur Dayne, right?" Ian thought absurdly. "Just cut down six Kingsguard, strip their armor, and boom—mission complete."
Forcing himself to calm down, Ian clicked [Swap] with his last shred of hope.
> MAIN MISSION 1: PATH OF GOLD
> Description: The first time you drew your sword for coin instead of justice or a liege lord, you realized the truth of this world: Gold is the only true god; everything else is an illusion.
> Objective: Earn 1,000 Gold Dragons.
> Reward: 5 Points, 3 Attribute Points, 3 Skill Points.
[Accept] [Swap]
"..." Ian felt numb.
100 Gold Dragons was already ridiculous. Now it was 1,000.
Sure, there were no restrictions on how to earn it, but... 1,000 Gold Dragons!
During the War of the Five Kings, Catelyn Tully released Jaime Lannister (a high-value POW) and demanded he return her daughters. This move was a disaster for the Stark-Tully alliance.
In response, Edmure Tully, Lord of Riverrun, placed a bounty on Jaime. The amount? 1,000 Gold Dragons.
That was the highest specific bounty ever mentioned in A Song of Ice and Fire.
Jaime was the commander of the royal army, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, one of the deadliest knights in Westeros, heir to the richest family in the realm, and the King's biological father (shh). And his head was worth 1,000 Dragons.
Some people might think gold is cheap because Robert Baratheon threw a tournament with a 40,000 Gold Dragon prize. But most fans agree that was an early-installment weirdness or a massive outlier due to Robert's reckless spending (and Littlefinger's debt schemes).
More realistically: After Robert died, Littlefinger told Ned Stark that 6,000 Gold Dragons could buy the loyalty of the entire City Watch of King's Landing. Ned considered that a reasonable figure.
So, 1,000 Gold Dragons is roughly equivalent to buying one-sixth of the entire police force of the capital.
Asking a starting player to earn that out of thin air was basically nonsense.
Suddenly, a terrifying thought struck Ian.
Did the devs design these missions... expecting us to fail?
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Note on Currency:
1 Gold Dragon = 30 Silver Moons = 210 Silver Stags.
1 Silver Stag = 7 Copper Stars = 56 Copper Pennies (approx. based on text logic, though exact rates vary in lore).
Note for this story: The author estimates a Gold Dragon as a 7.56g medium-sized gold coin. This is for internal consistency and plot convenience, not strict historical or book canon analysis. Please don't overthink the purchasing power based on modern gold prices!