Confused About Treasure Parcels

[Kzach]

Treasure is scattered throughout the text. Some is in the monster descriptions, some are in the encounter descriptions and others in scene descriptions.

And these don't seem to match up to the table.

For instance, it lists 5 1st-level treasure parcels as being in the White Wyrm Encounter and yet there's no mention of them or where they're located.

I'm a bit lost as to what I should be following. Should I just ignore text descriptions and go by the table or the other way around? Or am I supposed to use all of them?

 

[samursus]

I know what you mean, it takes a bit of searching to find them all. The White Wyrm encounter has 3 level 1 parcels and the other 2 are in the NEXT encounter...Dead something, along with 2 level 2 parcels.

 

[Jhaelen]

I'd use the list as a starting point. It will at least result in the proper number of parcels. Remember, however, this is just a suggestion. You can place the parcels wherever you like.

 

[Kzach]

I know what you mean, it takes a bit of searching to find them all. The White Wyrm encounter has 3 level 1 parcels and the other 2 are in the NEXT encounter...Dead something, along with 2 level 2 parcels.

Where? The only reference I can find is in the table.

 

[Kez Darksun]

From page 12, discussing the aftermath of the White Wyrm encounter
Aftermath
If the party is defeated, the heroes are killed.
If the cell is defeated, the heroes discover
a chest with treasure worth three 1st-level
treasure parcels. There is a cache of notes and
messages sealed with a mysterious letter “M.”

 

[merchantsteve]

Somehow, the treasure parcel table didn't reflect the White Wyrm's text correctly.
Future modules rely on the table heavily and rarely add any information to the text regarding treasure unless it is deemed important.
If the text "undershoots" the table amount, I would pad the encounter up to the table amount. When finishing a module, the number of parcels is the last thing I check and I use the table to set the count. That is why the text is sometimes missed.

 

[I Claudius]

After just having failed at calculating what parcels have already been used by the module (Scouring...) and having to do it all again (Stocking Revelations!!!). Does anyone have an accurate list of which parcels have already been used and their contents and those which are free for custom treasure?

A summary table somewhere in future releases would be very useful for those who only read bits at a time (and even then, not too thoroughly)?

We kick off this sunday evening and it's practically guaranteed that my xl init tracker will fail at the first sniff of trouble!!

 

[Chimera]

Fortunately, our group is more relaxed about money. Exact amounts rarely mean anything to us.

From early on, quite unintentionally to start, we've had the dreaded Box o' Bling. This is a veritable Schroedinger's Cat of treasure. Totally undefined, it always seems to be exactly what we need for use as a trade, payment or bribe.

In fact, when our GM started telling us how much was in the box, we objected, and said we didn't want to know. No, no, no, it's another Box o' Bling, and we know what it's for!

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

THe Box'o Bling notwithstanding... treasure parcels are difficult to do. Chimera and I are in Module 7 and I hope the 4e conversions {or an advance draft copy ... hint hint hint} catch up to us soon.

As it stands, I have been pretty much ignoring what is in the module regarding treasure and building my own treasure parcels based on the DMG guidelines and player wish lists. The group has learned that most times the bad guys supernatural attack with the sword isn't a property of the sword... ya, I know its not quite fair but its an easier way to meter what items the group obtains.

Altho I did almost have fun with the undetermined necromantic cheese in the Castle ... the PC that grabbed it ended up being eaten by Syriana

 

[RangerWickett]

Man, NPC treasure was probably the most annoying thing about writing the adventures in 3.5. Later in the series I just started ignoring the suggested NPC wealth and rejiggering stats to compensate, because giving the PCs dozens of magic swords when they take on a company of mooks started screwing with the wealth-equals-power balance of the system.

4e handles it much more smoothly. However, after reading Sagiro's storyhour recently, it occurred to me that the PCs usually treated magic items the way I treat guns while playing Modern Warfare 2. Some guns are better than others, but you don't get attached to them. You just use whatever is most effective at the moment.

Hm. I would be kind of interested in a 'sorta-disposal magic weapons that you can tweak but are all about equally balanced' system, instead of the current "Level 10 items cost 5 times as much as level 5" scale. But that's a post for another forum.