Help Please, newish DM

[LightPhoenix]

I get the impression that a lot of people seem to think that wanting to take items of value from the town is somehow "wrong," like these players are being powergamers or excessively greedy. I might actually agree if it weren't a Dark Sun game, but the world is so squalid that I think that looting the town is a good idea. I would reward them for not walking away and leaving all the valuable stuff behind.

That said, they still probably won't get a whole lot. Food, survival days, maybe 100-200 gp in a random mixture of copper, silver, and gold coins, or a fair bit of basic equipment (torches, rope, rations, etc). Common people aren't likely to have lots of coins, and they certainly aren't likely to have magic items or other things that most adventurers consider really valuable.

I completely agree. It's Dark Sun, this is something the PCs should be doing. I'd just figure another treasure parcel's worth of food, survival, and basic equipment. Plus a wagon (with no animals) if you wanted to be generous.

Most of it would have been taken by the bad guys, because they have need of it too. This is Dark Sun, people don't leave valuable stuff lying around if they don't have to.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I completely agree. It's Dark Sun, this is something the PCs should be doing. I'd just figure another treasure parcel's worth of food, survival, and basic equipment. Plus a wagon (with no animals) if you wanted to be generous.

Most of it would have been taken by the bad guys, because they have need of it too. This is Dark Sun, people don't leave valuable stuff lying around if they don't have to.

The fact that its Dark Sun is somewhat immaterial. The treasure parcel generally represents what the party gets when they strip the place or anything of value. But that will not all that is there of value the rest is not junk but stuff that is not portable or of direct use to a small group of people. Now if you are a member of an elf tribe, or halfling band or part of a large caravan them more stuff is of value since you have the means to utilise more of what you have found.
Either by having people to make stuff using the scavenge materials of the town or the transport to carry the bulky stuff to somewhere that might pay for it.
The thing is not so much to discourage the players from searching the town but if you greatly exceed the treasure system then the DM will run into problems with encounter balance at a later time.
Now of course in Dark Sun survival resourses are also important and one can be as generous or as mean as one likes in this department and a thorough search should yield more of this type of resource.

 

[On Puget Sound]

Give them all the mundane gear they want, and wagons to haul it. No draft animals though; they were all killed by the ritual. Let them decide what non-valuable stuff they find, subject to veto. If they really search they might even find a few things that have a sale value - add one treasure parcel worth of coins. If it becomes unbalancing, just drop less treasure during the next level. They'll probably decide to leave most of it behind once they realize they can't easily carry it, hide it, guard it or sell it.

 

[the Jester]

I'd let them find anything they want that's worth less than 1 sp that you think could reasonably found in a village of that size and type.

Also, possible food and drink are the real potential treasure in Dark Sun imho.

 

[Tsukiyomi]

The fact that its Dark Sun is somewhat immaterial. The treasure parcel generally represents what the party gets when they strip the place or anything of value. But that will not all that is there of value the rest is not junk but stuff that is not portable or of direct use to a small group of people. Now if you are a member of an elf tribe, or halfling band or part of a large caravan them more stuff is of value since you have the means to utilise more of what you have found.
Either by having people to make stuff using the scavenge materials of the town or the transport to carry the bulky stuff to somewhere that might pay for it.
The thing is not so much to discourage the players from searching the town but if you greatly exceed the treasure system then the DM will run into problems with encounter balance at a later time.
Now of course in Dark Sun survival resourses are also important and one can be as generous or as mean as one likes in this department and a thorough search should yield more of this type of resource.

Exceeding the treasure limit by a few hundred gold in one instance (especially since said gear is probably going to be used for simple survival and not buying magic items) isn't going to unbalance anything. If the PCs do something smart, it's not going to hurt anything to toss them a little bonus.

I totally disregard the listed treasure system in my game and everything works out fine.

 

[Cor_Malek]

I get the impression that a lot of people seem to think that wanting to take items of value from the town is somehow "wrong," like these players are being powergamers or excessively greedy. I might actually agree if it weren't a Dark Sun game, but the world is so squalid that I think that looting the town is a good idea. I would reward them for not walking away and leaving all the valuable stuff behind.

That said, they still probably won't get a whole lot. Food, survival days, maybe 100-200 gp in a random mixture of copper, silver, and gold coins, or a fair bit of basic equipment (torches, rope, rations, etc). Common people aren't likely to have lots of coins, and they certainly aren't likely to have magic items or other things that most adventurers consider really valuable.

I have to agree that many posters - me included - focused too heavily on the "let's take everything that's not loosely nailed down!" and forgot about the survival aspect. Trying to resupply diminishing food and water would be important in Athas.
Still, most of the wealth of locals is probably their home, tools of trade, and a blue flask with number "13" on it ;-)

 

[jbear]

The fact that its Dark Sun is somewhat immaterial. The treasure parcel generally represents what the party gets when they strip the place or anything of value. But that will not all that is there of value the rest is not junk but stuff that is not portable or of direct use to a small group of people. Now if you are a member of an elf tribe, or halfling band or part of a large caravan them more stuff is of value since you have the means to utilise more of what you have found.
Either by having people to make stuff using the scavenge materials of the town or the transport to carry the bulky stuff to somewhere that might pay for it.
The thing is not so much to discourage the players from searching the town but if you greatly exceed the treasure system then the DM will run into problems with encounter balance at a later time.
Now of course in Dark Sun survival resourses are also important and one can be as generous or as mean as one likes in this department and a thorough search should yield more of this type of resource.

The fact it is Athas is far from immaterial.

The world you live in helps you as a DM decide what kind of things people have, or don't, how people act and what is useful and valuable. Athas underlines this even more than other campaign worlds.

I think your thinking is a little too locked into what you think a treasure parcel represents.

The treasure parcel system is a good guideline to determine the kind of wealth PCs should more or less receive each level. It is not a rigid structure that DMs can't deter from, giving either more or less treasure depending on what their players do.

The PCs wisely want to search the village to find whatever they can of use.
Some reward seems fair.
What was in the village before the bad guys arrived? Was it poor and humble or wealthy due to some resource the villagers had access to?
What was left after the bad guys laid waste to it.
How much time do you want to dedicate in your game to have them search the village?
Do you want to use this opportunity to add some interesting hook into your story?
Do you want to give them a minor reward for their efforts and then move on?

Those are the kind of things you want to take into account and then make a decision based on what you prefer.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

The fact it is Athas is far from immaterial.

The world you live in helps you as a DM decide what kind of things people have, or don't, how people act and what is useful and valuable. Athas underlines this even more than other campaign worlds.

I think your thinking is a little too locked into what you think a treasure parcel represents.

The treasure parcel system is a good guideline to determine the kind of wealth PCs should more or less receive each level. It is not a rigid structure that DMs can't deter from, giving either more or less treasure depending on what their players do.

The PCs wisely want to search the village to find whatever they can of use.
Some reward seems fair.
What was in the village before the bad guys arrived? Was it poor and humble or wealthy due to some resource the villagers had access to?
What was left after the bad guys laid waste to it.
How much time do you want to dedicate in your game to have them search the village?
Do you want to use this opportunity to add some interesting hook into your story?
Do you want to give them a minor reward for their efforts and then move on?

Those are the kind of things you want to take into account and then make a decision based on what you prefer.

Nothing here I really disagree with, my advice was given in the context of a question by a newbie DM as proclaimed in the thread title.
The treasure parcel is supposed to represent what the party finds when the search the bodies, is it not?
Of course there is more wealth there if they put the work into recovering it. It is a different kind of game then. As for adventure hooks, a village where every thing down to the bedbugs was killed in a massive act of defilement is a ships anchor size plot hook right there

Of course if the player want to play "wandering scrap dealers" they can ignore that and load the village into wagons and move on. I some how had the impression that this is not the game the DM wants to play though.