Do you tailor your treasure or do you roll on the treasure tables?

[dreaded_beast]

I'm DMing a solo-campaign (just 1 player and me, the DM) and have found myself tailoring the treasure to my player.

When I first started rolling for treasure, I came up with some items that my player could not "use." The campaign area is very small with no shops to spend or sell treasure, such as art, weapons, armor, etc.

Instead, I decided to give her treasure that would be more "useful" to her. The major reason is that since she will be adventuring for the most part alone and with another NPC, many of the encounters could be very lethal. I want to increase her chance of survivability, so I have sprinkled a few low-level magical protection items as well as a few potions of cure light.

In addition, I don't want my player to be unhappy with her treasure, at least not yet. In areas where there are shops that sell and buy art, weapons, etc., I would have no problem give her a piece of art as treasure. It is just at the moment, my campaign area has no such places.

So do you tailor your treasure to your players or just roll randomly?

 

[BOZ]

So do you tailor your treasure to your players or just roll randomly?

a little of both. i usually roll, but i try to make sure that every item we get could be useful. if there are no dwarves in the party but i roll a dwarf-sized suit of plate mail, who's going to use it?

 

[Fevil]

I tailor my treasure for the encounter, not the party. If they can't use some items, they can either give them to someone who can or sell them on.

Example: They fight a group of Kobolds, so items will be sized for a Kobold and pretty much useless to anybody but a Halfling.

 

[Arnwyn]

Both.

 

[Katerek]

both

Though I prefer to roll first, then tailor fit.

 

[Wolfspirit]

I'd tend to do both. Allthough most of the loot would be something their opponents would have been able to use, if they got into a treasure hoard or something like that, I'd try to make the items unique and something interesting that they might use, rather than "Yay, it's another Longsword +1 that noone can use. In the 'to sell' pile you go!"

 

[Mista Collins]

Originally Posted by BOZ
a little of both. i usually roll, but i try to make sure that every item we get could be useful. if there are no dwarves in the party but i roll a dwarf-sized suit of plate mail, who's going to use it?

Possibly the dwarfed sized NPC the character had to kill to get it?

I usually roll randomly and go from there. I create an encounter with 4 human NPC fighters that do not have horses, and I ramdomly get the Horseshoes of Speed... I just re-roll on the random chart.

Now I can see where you would have a problem because there is no where for the PC to sell the stuff. I wouldn't completely tailor it to him though. give him some odd ball items that he can use, but might not think of it.

As long as fun is being had by all, it doesn't matter that you do.

 

[Beard in the Sky]

I tend to give NPCs items they can USE... it is rare to find potions on a dead villain in my game. On the other hand, I give unintelligent monsters such as a hydra equipment belonging to adventuring parties that were too low level to kill it, otherwise why is the equipment there? I very rarely roll, but I -will- add up GP value to see if I am close to the suggested amount.

 

[EricNoah]

I never roll, and I never consult the charts about the "right amount" for a given encounter. I do try to pick a mix of the interesting, the useful, the valuable, the informative/flavorful, and the mundane.

 

[der_kluge]

I do both, and sometimes I just tailor it.

For BBEGs, I usually handpick their equipment.

For mundane encounters, I will often purely roll randomly, but I do throw out things I might not want the party to have, or things that make no sense.

For example, I upgraded all the slaad in my game, but as a bonus, I gave them all 1d4 potions and some of them have scrolls. The grays also have a random wondrous item in their possession.

These things I will always roll, but I'll ignore things that either don't make sense, or things I don't want the party to get their grubby hands on.