Adding some spice to 4e treasure parcels

[El Mahdi]

Adding Melange into treasure parcels could have catastrophic affects.

1st: would cause havoc to local economies when the pc's try to sell this extremely valuable commodity.

2nd: the uncrottollable prescient effects that could manifest if anyone actually partakes of the spice......I shudder to think of creating other abominations. Before you know it you have uncontrollable Bene Gesseritts and Kwisatz Haderachs running around, and that never turns out good!



What?... Oh, you mean spicing up 4E treasure parcels by adding more cool stuff? ... That's really what you meant?


Sorry!


My Bad!


Carry On!

 

[alleynbard]

Tying into the last post, the ability to "create" a wondrous item out of the loot is an interesting idea. Having the PCs be able to basically decide to not sell some item they find interesting can later be rewarded by having some interesting magical property. They could be like mini artifacts where the character is able to build up a concordance with an item to unlock it's magical potential. As the dwarf eats from the bowl he decided to keep, eventually the bowl begins to replenish itself without the dwarf having to fill it, for example.

Interesting. I had always liked the idea of "spontaneous magic items". As something is used, it gains magical power. Perhaps it always had that potential, perhaps the owner is the one imbuing it.

In a 1e campaign, I played with the idea a little. One of my wizards cast detect magic and saw a faint glow of magic coming from a soldier's wedding ring. He loved his wife so dearly that magic coalesced around the object. The item itself was inherently useful, perhaps provided a little protection in combat, but that didn't matter. It was the idea that strong emotions or constant use creates a magic bond.

What you suggest is really cool and just re-kindled my desire to pursue that idea further. Very cool, thank you.

It has been wonderful hearing from you guys. Your suggestions and thoughts really got my mind racing with possibilities. This is why I love ENWorld.

 

[alleynbard]

Adding Melange into treasure parcels could have catastrophic affects.

1st: would cause havoc to local economies when the pc's try to sell this extremely valuable commodity.

2nd: the uncrottollable prescient effects that could manifest if anyone actually partakes of the spice......I shudder to think of creating other abominations. Before you know it you have uncontrollable Bene Gesseritts and Kwisatz Haderachs running around, and that never turns out good!



What?... Oh, you mean spicing up 4E treasure parcels by adding more cool stuff? ... That's really what you meant?


Sorry!


My Bad!


Carry On!

Nice! Good one.

 

[alleynbard]

And then the dwarf's backpack begins to fill up with lukewarm gruel. That's when the fun really begins.

Mmmmm....gruel on the sunrods, gruel in the rope, gruel all over the lantern oil. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

 

[Hellzon]

Adding Melange into treasure parcels could have catastrophic affects.

You jest, but spices are way underused in treasure troves.

 

[alleynbard]

You jest, but spices are way underused in treasure troves.

That's true. Spices have always been quite valuable. Even today, with our ability to mass produce, certain "exotic" spices are expensive and difficult to get.

 

[JustKim]

You ABSOLUTELY need to get the Mother of all Treasure Tables.

I needed 500gp worth of stuf and I opened to the 500gp section, looked at item 39 of 100 (just in the 500gp section!) and made a couple of text changes to fit the encounter and viola!



It was awesome, because when the Eladrin failed his third death save (and the game would have sucked to grind to a halt), one of the players ran and poured the tears of the eladrin into his companion, and I gave him another save that he made and then stabilized.

That kind of stuff is everywhere...

Great resource. Another good one is the article Crystal Confusion from Dragon 248. This was a 10 page listing of precious and semiprecious stones, what they're typically worth and in what sizes, other names they're known by, what they're commonly used for, what they look like specifically, and what other gemstones they can be confused with. If you get bored with descriptions like "a 1,000 gp ruby" like I do, it is an awesome article.

Unfortunately, since I don't believe you can buy the old Dragons online anywhere, I don't know where you would get it. If it helps, the article was written by Holly Ingraham.

 

[El Mahdi]

...Unfortunately, since I don't believe you can buy the old Dragons online anywhere, I don't know where you would get it. If it helps, the article was written by Holly Ingraham.

Well, their are places you can still get them online, but...well, you know...

Anyways...Yeah, that is a pretty cool looking book. I've already added it to my wishlist at RPGNow. It's funny, but now that I'm not looking to buy WotC stuff, I'm finding all kinds of cool goodies I want to spend my money on. Even if you're not playing 4E, that still looks like a very useful book.


edit: P.S. Sorry alleynbard, didn't mean to threadjack with the joke but I'm currently reading Sandworms of Dune, and as soon as I saw "Spice" in the thread title, that's where my mind went to.

 

[alleynbard]

edit: P.S. Sorry alleynbard, didn't mean to threadjack with the joke but I'm currently reading Sandworms of Dune, and as soon as I saw "Spice" in the thread title, that's where my mind went to.

No worries. It really made me laugh. I enjoy cooking so I appreciated the joke.