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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vegepygmy" data-source="post: 5632035" data-attributes="member: 40109">I said "liberate yourself from what you think the rules are commanding you to do." The rules do not actually command you to hand out a certain amount of treasure; they are simply giving you a guideline. I'm running a campaign right now where the PCs are 5th level. The fighter has yet to acquire a magic weapon of any kind. The cleric has a +1 shield and that's about it. Another character has nothing magical except for a few potions. My players can hardly wait to play each week; the campaign has not suffered a bit from having "under-equipped" PCs. I wasn't trying to offend you by pointing out your inexperience. Rather, I was hoping you might pause for a moment and consider whether those who have been doing it a lot longer than you might actually know something you don't. If you choose to reject their advice...well, that's a privilege of youth (and/or inexperience). But I'll attempt to answer your question. What makes treasure acquisition exciting is the same thing that makes combat encounters (or anything else in the game) exciting: the possibility of failure. If you are intent on removing that, the only thing you can do to maintain the excitement is to create the illusion of the possibility of failure. Yes, my advice is essentially to give out random loot and not care if the PCs get it or not. Let them succeed or fail, win or lose on their own merits. That's what makes the game a game. And the harder it is for them to succeed, the more satisfying it will be when they do. Sure, there's no problem with giving them another opportunity to find treasure if they missed it the first (or second, or third) time. I'm not sure I see what this has to do with your question of making treasure acquisition more exciting, however. It's possible that I simply don't understand the problem you're perceiving. Perhaps you could give us an actual example from play where the PCs have failed to acquire the treasure you've made available, and how that then caused a problem? Maybe you could include your attempts to alleviate the problem, and how those failed as well. (If you'd like to give an example at all, of course.)</blockquote>

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