Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quasqueton" data-source="post: 3223637" data-attributes="member: 3854">I never actually used the official treasure type tables in the AD&D1 Monster Manual. I always just placed treasure as I judged appropriate. Compared to the treasure given in official, published AD&D1 modules, I was stingy. Judging from the treasure given in official, published AD&D1 modules, I figured I was probably stingy compared to the treasure type tables too. But I never really knew for certain.I got curious recently about how the old AD&D1 treasure type tables worked. So I did some calculating and random rolling.-------------------------------------------------To start with, I looked at Treasure Type A:Calculating using a weighted average formula, total treasure value = 32,904.4 gp (not including magic item gp value)Then I actually rolled on the charts:"Monsters" that have treasure type A: lich (1), locathah (20-200), bandits (20-200), giant squid (1), and troglodytes (10-100).Treasure Type A gives a 30% chance for "Any 3" magic items. Rolling within that 30% chance for the second record, I was disappointed to roll 2 potions on the full magic item chart <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />-------------------------------------------------Then I considered a standard orc lair:From the AD&D1 Monster Manual:ORCNO. APPEARING: 30-300 [plus a couple or three dozen elite-types per the ratios in the MM listing]TREASURE TYPE: Individuals L; C, O, Q (X 10), S in lairCalculating using a weighted average formula, total treasure value = 5,626.7 gp (including individual treasure, but not including magic item gp value)Then I actually rolled on all the charts:Notice the different results for the two orc tribes. I figure they must be from opposite sides of the track <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />-------------------------------------------------This experiment shows me that trying to figure averages for AD&D1 treasure types is pretty useless. The variation between the calculated averages and actual rolls, and between multiple actual rolls is just so vast.I want to roll for Treasure Type H, next. All dragons but the lowly white have Treasure Type H. I'd love to roll 10 tests, to see a full spread of results, but rolling on all these charts is just so very complicated and time consuming. For instance, for that first Treasure Type A record, I rolled at least 46 dice (counting d% as 1 die). Forty-six dice! For one treasure hoard. For just the orc tribe populations, I rolled 30d10, twice.Anyway, having done all this rolling and calculating, I thought I'd share the results with everyone here for discussion.Quasqueton</blockquote>

Verification