On Killing (Not by David Grossman)

In Dungeon World, the price of a typical murder is apparently 5 coins, and the price of a higher profile assassination is 120 coins. This seems awfully low. Given the price of "A Hearty Meal for 1" of 1 coin, I evaluated a coin to be roughly equivalent to 5 USD (given that McDonalds had as of the time writing this a 2/$4 deal where you could get two double cheeseburgers). This means a murder is 25 bucks and a higher profile assassination is 600. This is fitting with the standard DW status quo that prices are low, but also suggests that life is cheap. It also doesn't account for the mark's threat level. These factors should be considered when evaluating the price of an assassination:

• The number of moves a target has that can be harmful to the assailant.
• The maximum damage a target can bring to bear. This doesn't refer to the damage the target itself can deal, if it can order others to fight for it.
• The HP of the target. or the highest HP of  its body guards. (3 minimum)
• The Armor of the target or the highest among its body guards

For example, a Noble doesn't have any listed attacks, or HP, but they can issue orders and offer rewards to anyone beneath them (2 moves). Often, this is a Knight. which can bring to bear 10 damage, has 12 HP, and 4 armor. Therefore a Noble would be worth 2*10*12*4=960 coins. A King who has  A Whole Damn Army would use 2*19*30*4 would be worth 4560. A mere bandit has 3 threatening moves, can do 6 damage, and has 3 HP, which is 3*6*3  or 54 coins.

If you don't like these you can round to the first significant figure to get a price in tens, hundreds, or thousands. The above prices would become 1000, 5000, or 50. For the purposes of abstract coins, a significant figure 50 to 100 coins is A Chest of Riches, anything over 3 such Chests is a Giant Sack of Loot. 3 of those is "A Small Hoard" which increases the Resource statistic that armies use.

P.S.- It is noteworthy that just because you want someone killed, doesn't mean you're going to get it done by hiring some rando off the street. If you pay 120 coins to them (or 5, or 50, or 1000, or 5000, etc), they might go kill your guy, or they might pocket the money, go brag, and end up on a pike outside the city walls.