Crothian
First Post
It is always nice to see a product one likes but more importantly to see a pair of companies one likes working together. When I saw Tabletop Games and Necromancer were both involved in this project I knew I just had to get it. It makes it one of those rare books I bought that I review. I just do not have a lot of time to review things I buy but everyone once in a while I have to make an exception to that. Mother of All Treasure Tables was an easy choice for such an exception.
Mother of All Encounter Tables is a good sized book designed by Daniel Brakhage and Vicki Potter. It is available in print and PDF and is one of those collaboration books with ten authors given writing credits. The PDF version has book marks though only each table and not each result is marked. The book has the usual high quality Necromancer lay out and good black and white art inside.
The idea behind the book is rather simple. There are ten tables in here and on each table there are one hundred different variations of treasure. Well, the first nine table have one hundred the last table with its vast amounts only has ten. Each table is around a gold piece value by two percent. The first table is small treasures worth around ten gold pieces, the next fifty gold pieces, the next one hundred gold pieces and the last one being a half million or more. It does not just give one coins and such there is some great descriptions of the different items that are found. What is nice is the treasure here is not magical. That is easy for DM’s to do and add on. This is the more interesting mundane treasures that seem to get ignored. This is a great product for a low or no magic campaign as these treasures will really fit that type of campaign. But even games with magic need treasure troves filled with unusual items that can easily spark an interest in players.
Here is a sample of just one of the treasure descriptions.
You find a cylindrical ivory case, slender and as long as your arm [32 gp]. It holds a roll of thick, high-quality paper. When unrolled, the scroll is nearly four feet long. On it is an exquisite painting of a long-legged water bird with delicate shading in the feathers and in the reeds below [157 gp]. Next to it lies a backpack of mellow golden leather [2 gp] Inside is a folded piece of black silk, which proves to be a slender black dress with laces up the back. It is embroidered all over in large, openwork flowers in a variety of colors [92 gp]. Folded with it is a wide belt of soft black leather [6 gp]. Below, wrapped in a piece of gray wool [2 sp], is a set of three porcelain plaques, each about a hand-span square—their polished white surfaces decorated with delicate renderings of various wildflowers [set 18 gp]. In the bottom of the backpack is a cloth pouch [1 sp] of coins [3 pp, 37 gp, 287 sp, 318 cp], a petite leather pouch [3 sp] with five rose quartz stones [50 gp each] and another cloth pouch [1 sp] holding a bracelet. It is made of carnelian beads,
round and smooth in colors ranging from fiery red to nearly cranberry dark [345 gp]. [Total 1,001.58 gp]
As one can read it is well written and has a good amount of detail making these treasures truly remarkable. The book has almost a thousand different treasure troves like that in it. It is a book that one will be hard pressed to fully exhaust.
The Mother of All Treasure Tables is in fact that. It is a simple way for DM’s to place some elaborate treasures into their own game with very little actual work. That makes it a big win in my eyes.
Mother of All Encounter Tables is a good sized book designed by Daniel Brakhage and Vicki Potter. It is available in print and PDF and is one of those collaboration books with ten authors given writing credits. The PDF version has book marks though only each table and not each result is marked. The book has the usual high quality Necromancer lay out and good black and white art inside.
The idea behind the book is rather simple. There are ten tables in here and on each table there are one hundred different variations of treasure. Well, the first nine table have one hundred the last table with its vast amounts only has ten. Each table is around a gold piece value by two percent. The first table is small treasures worth around ten gold pieces, the next fifty gold pieces, the next one hundred gold pieces and the last one being a half million or more. It does not just give one coins and such there is some great descriptions of the different items that are found. What is nice is the treasure here is not magical. That is easy for DM’s to do and add on. This is the more interesting mundane treasures that seem to get ignored. This is a great product for a low or no magic campaign as these treasures will really fit that type of campaign. But even games with magic need treasure troves filled with unusual items that can easily spark an interest in players.
Here is a sample of just one of the treasure descriptions.
You find a cylindrical ivory case, slender and as long as your arm [32 gp]. It holds a roll of thick, high-quality paper. When unrolled, the scroll is nearly four feet long. On it is an exquisite painting of a long-legged water bird with delicate shading in the feathers and in the reeds below [157 gp]. Next to it lies a backpack of mellow golden leather [2 gp] Inside is a folded piece of black silk, which proves to be a slender black dress with laces up the back. It is embroidered all over in large, openwork flowers in a variety of colors [92 gp]. Folded with it is a wide belt of soft black leather [6 gp]. Below, wrapped in a piece of gray wool [2 sp], is a set of three porcelain plaques, each about a hand-span square—their polished white surfaces decorated with delicate renderings of various wildflowers [set 18 gp]. In the bottom of the backpack is a cloth pouch [1 sp] of coins [3 pp, 37 gp, 287 sp, 318 cp], a petite leather pouch [3 sp] with five rose quartz stones [50 gp each] and another cloth pouch [1 sp] holding a bracelet. It is made of carnelian beads,
round and smooth in colors ranging from fiery red to nearly cranberry dark [345 gp]. [Total 1,001.58 gp]
As one can read it is well written and has a good amount of detail making these treasures truly remarkable. The book has almost a thousand different treasure troves like that in it. It is a book that one will be hard pressed to fully exhaust.
The Mother of All Treasure Tables is in fact that. It is a simple way for DM’s to place some elaborate treasures into their own game with very little actual work. That makes it a big win in my eyes.
