For the DMs: do you roll up treasure randomly or make a detailed list yourself?

[Zogg]

I'm thinking that one day in the near future I'm going to be a DM. Having seen only a few other DMs, I'm wondering if most DMs roll up treasure (according to the CR or whatever) or just create a list of cool stuff that they think is appropriate for the encounter? I feel that I would prefer to create a list of stuff rather than roll it up, but I'd like to see what the community has to say about it.

 

[Rashak Mani]

You can roll it and then change stuff.... I prefer to determine the treasures myself thou. More control and avoids giving too little or too much.

 

[Dimwhit]

I have one suggestion for you. However you do it, determine the treasure ahead of time. If there is a potion of healing, maybe the bad guys will actually use it during the combat. That +3 longsword laying in the treasure pile? Maybe the bad guys will actually want to weild it! Too many times we'd defeat an encounter only to find treasure that the creatures could have been using to fight us.

 

[Trickstergod]

Whip out treasure as I find appropriate, or that I put in ahead of time. Random treasure is the suxx, particularly when I don't believe a few random schlubs who capped a few monsters should find themselves with the ability to bank-roll entire nations due to their line of work. Rolling up treasure after an encounter is also obnoxious, and, as has been pointed out, something in that treasure might very well have been appropriate to the previous battle, and, therefore, shouldn't have just been tucked into a pouch, or lying in some treasure pile.

 

[Garmorn]

I do both.

For non or very low intelligent creatures I roll random. Then I check to see if it fits the campaign world and situation.

For intelligent creatures I find out the average value. Next I buy magical/special equipment some where between 30 to 60% of that value. The rest is in cash or other forms of trade goods, gems, et.

 

[KB9JMQ]

A little of both.
The rolls give me a base to work off of then I change it to fit the game, characters, etc.

If it is a hard/easy encounter that in actuality was much harder/easier than it should of been I will also add/subtract the treasure on the fly.

Picking your own is fun but if you dont mind some wackiness once in a while or sometimes a plot hook it is funny to put a 500 gp black pearl or something on a kobold in a small group. Makes your players wonder what is going on.

 

[The_Gneech]

If I have a specific treasure I want the characters to get ahold of, I put that in; then for the rest, I generally roll-and-tweak. There are some treasures I don't want the PCs to get ahold of, for whatever reason, and there are others that I think they'd get more use out of than others.

No cleric in the party, for instance, means that there are more cure light wounds potions than bull's strength.

-The Gneech

 

[Mr. Lobo]

For treasures I use random tables as suggested in the Monster Manual or DMG only for INSPIRATION - not the rule. Mainly the setting dictates types of treasure. So I picked both methods in the poll.

From an RPG standpoint you also have to consider the party and try to reward the characters based on class and race. So treasure placement for me is very campaign specific.

Also, when I write up scenario's for my group I usually make outlines in MSWord. For treasure I hunt on the internet for pictures of gems, swords, flasks, art, etc. and insert them (offset from the text of course) into the word document. I show the players the actual treasure they find so they get a sense of actual discovery.

Mr. Lobo

 

[Zogg]

You are a very cool DM, Mr. Lobo, very cool indeed.

 

[Joshua Randall]

It would be helpful to have an online random treasure generator for 3.5 rules... anyone know of one?