Buying treasure out of the gold is how my parcel system works, so having to do that here is not a big deal to me. However, you make a good point about its still being tied to PC level, and that means it doesn’t do what I want it to do.What that table does is this:
Let's ask how many Low encounters do you need to level up? Answer: 13 1/3
So let's divide up the level's worth of gold by 13 1/3, so that if you encounter nothing but Low encounters, you total the "correct" amount of gold just as you level up. Same for Moderate (10 encounters), Severe (6 2/3) and Extreme (5). That's the table!
It still assumes party level, though. I mean, it makes me remember when we discussed:
The table isn't for that. If you give out 440 gold because that's the amount for a Severe encounter and because the Drakes are level 7, that... I simply wonder "doesn't the table become totally meaningless then?" (What is the accuracy or correctness, I mean, in handing out a number like 440 gold at level 5? Why not just look at cool level 7 treasure to place in the drake nest? I mean at that point we've tossed out the guidelines so it's time to stop worrying )
So not sure how groundbreaking or useful that "Treasure by Encounter" table is. It doesn't take items into account, which means a truckload of calculations. (If that Drake encounter is a Severe encounter for your fifth level gang, it should yield 200 gold, so if those drakes had a +1 armor, that leaves 200-160=40 gold in cash. Either you're meticulous about this, meaning you do this calculations diligently each time... or you aren't and you don't and... why not just skip the table and wing it?)
I like playing with subsystems and rules, so I’ll probably continue playing with things until I get something I like. The parcel system is not great. It’s basically winging it in a way.And of course it doesn't account for the fact that you will often want an easy encounter to yield more loot, and you will want hard encounters that are a "waste" lootwise. Meaning you will still have to keep tally of how much total gold you have awarded as soon as you deviate from "every low encounter gives exactly one thirteenth and a third of the total level's worth". Which brings you right back to where you started: knowing that a party of any level is expected to gain ten items and twice the value of an at-level item in cash.
Not to mention the elephant in the room:sometimesnearly always you will feature more or less Low encounters than 13 1/3 before you want to level up the heroes!
I mean let's face it: lots of tables and lots calculations is a quality that gives off a veneer of scientificity and objectivity. Paizo loves that naughty word (just like WotC I might add).
But the truth when it comes to loot and especially xp is that good GMing is an art, not a science. To be frank, I consider this just a lot of work for the GM for very little benefit. I personally don't have time for that.
Since I want to do this old-school thing where loot is based on an external factor (i.e., not party level), I’m going to need to take a different approach. I won’t be able to use the guidelines directly. They’ll just be a benchmark, like the creature creation tables. What I think I’ll need to do is devise a system that generates loot over the course of a standard campaign such that the overall distribution follows the guidelines.
Yeah, it’s work, but like I said, I like playing with these kinds of things.
This is good stuff.So what would I then find useful?
Going back to the random generator, my point was that I see little need to introduce a new "parcel" term. Just have the generator randomize the items (6 consumables, 4 permanent) and tell me the gold amount, and I can do everything else myself.
Useful customization would of course include
- being able to select your number of players (3, 4, 5 or 6). Paizo's total focus on 4 players is a bitch to recalculate when you run your AP for 5 players (unless, of course, you just don't care. Then it becomes easy )
- a checkbox for "heap of lesser items" so that one out of the ten items is randomly replaced by a "goodie bag" of several lower-level items of the same approximate value
- a checkbox for "whackiness" that gives the generator a chance to ignore all rules. As long as the randomized treasure isn't a fundamental rune or worth millions, it could be fun to have it render a cool item that gets the GMs imagination going (the item might still be too valuable to hand out, but it might make you come up with something similar of lower power)