Mundane treasures--what's the point?

[DungeonmasterCal]

In my opinion, mundane treasures are more exciting (from a plot and story point) than most magical treasures -- especially with Quik-E Mart style magic item shops flooding standard D&D campaigns.

But then, most of you probably already knew my opinion on mundane treasures.

Indeed I do, and have purchased a certain product from a certain writer you may know from gazing in the mirror.

I've tried to place mundane treasures in games, and they're usually just ignored, even for the gold piece value. I had one player a few years ago who would go out of his way, however, to drag everything back to sell. I miss that guy.

 

[Thunderfoot]

I'm going to tick off a lot of people for this one, but - don't give them access to "free" magic.

Let me explain - First off, there are no magic item shops in the world I co-run, why, because it makes magic items special. (Player: Gee, this +1 longsword just doesn't do it for me anymore. Salesperson: How about this +3 flaming, voropal model? Player: OOOOOOHHHHH!)

Secondly - be very descriptive when telling them what they find - instead of a small gold crown, try, "you find a gold circlet of approximately 12" in diameter. There is a single small emerald chip on the front, round cut and set in a scalloped, wire base. The head that would have been adorned by this crownlet would have had to have been quite large."
Not only will they wonder if the thing is magical, they will begin to research what could have worn a crown that large. If the pursue it, it may open up a whole new story arch you never would have thought about. (Great for side adventures and one offs.)

Thirdly - Believe that the items are worth handing out in the first place. A lot of DMs I have played with were completely thrown off when my character would take a seemingly "useless or valueless" item and make it my prize possession. They had thrown the item in as a "just junk" or filler material and I took it to the next level. As a fellow DM, I knew the value in it, it creates story, adds atmosphere and ellicits Roleplaying from even the most staunch hack & slay player.

As for examples - The current characters in the campaign I'm running are carrying the following "mundane" items:
1) 5 bottles of 400 year old wine - waiting to complete their current quest and are saving it for the celebration. (They thought of that on their own)
2) Platinum Ferrionier with a ruby jewel - used as part of disguise by the poor sorceress to gain a situational modifier when meeting royalty.
3) Book of arcane research - no real game value, but the mage is always reading it in the off time - first book she grabs. (My fellow DM and I are keeping track and when she logs 20 hours of off time research, we are going to give her a +2 skill bonus to arcane knowledge as a roleplaying reward)
4) Painting of a relative of one of the PCs - They found this in a crawl, it was the great, great grandfather of one of the parties paladins. It now resides in his room as a symbol of the greatness he too wishes to achieve in the name of his faith.

None of these items were considered to be "great" treasures when I made them, but each item, because of the way the players made them live makes each item great treasures.

 

[IronWolf]

I think mundane treasures can be fun to include. Even if the player's walk on by it and don't pick it up I still like to have it in there. It doesn't make much sense for there *not* to be mundane items in the loot. After enough times of passing by some valuable art object or other oddity the players might start to pick up on needing to pay some more attention to it.

In past games I have seen the players pick up anything from chess sets made of bone to pulley systems and 100' length of rope. I guess it all depends on the player.

 

[jester47]

Mundane treasures make the hoarde more believable. Its unlikely that a Ogre will have 1000 gp in a sack, but a few art objects and nice stuff, and it becomes much more believable.

Aaron.

 

[Ibram]

And it'd be more realistic, for intelligent foes, to have a large portion of their wealth sunk into actual STUFF. I've got thousands of dollars in STUFF around the house ... I don't have 2,000 bucks in a sack under my bed.

no... that would be silly....

I've never had players who would overlook a set of gems, or an ornate necklace as part of the treasure. That was true even in standard issue games where I rolled for treasure as usual.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Mundane treasures can easily be interesting and engaging, moreso than magical treasure or coins/gems/ingots/etc.


Why the PCs would find a whole lot of furniture and art furnishing a BBEGs hideout...well, maybe a Rakshasha or an Ogre Mage or a grasping type of undead or a master thieve's hideout or maybe some offbeat evil deities church...but in general, furniture, art, and the like would be in storage.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Stingyness.

My players are expected to do a certain anmount of scavanging, and if they leave mundane valubles behind then they are just going to have less treasure. They each have a small collection of useable items, one powerful item, and no cash. mundane art is easier to sell, esp in the small towns they frequent where no one cares about a +1 great axe, but the elders, the rich tavern keeper and the guard captain might want a piece esp intersting or valuable art.
- of course they got 80% value when they found a better version of the guard captains favored weapon.

Next session they may go on a quest for a mundane item - figurativly the golden cup stolen from Beowulf's dragon's horde. He gets it back or else!

 

[Warehouse23]

Don't forget the value of mundane items as gifts to NPCs. The Baroness will be offended if you try to give her a sack of 1,000 GP (she is not a harlot, afterall, and might have her husband, the Baron, have you drawn and qaurtered for offending her honor). That being said, the coral tiara you pulled off of the Kuotoan priestess or the platinum pendant you found in the dragon's horde make delightful gifts which she will treasure, allowing you to gain influence at court.

Just make sure "mundane" items are really mundane before you give them away. Something about Medea.....

In our Shackled City AP game, my wizard character has been buying brownie points with his wizards' guild by liberally raiding all libraries, laboratories, and sacred documents found in the course of the adventures. Mundane media often contain secrets of the highest value (such as solutions to an in-game puzzle, a weakness which can be exploited in a monster, etc.) Knowledge is power.

 

[JamesDJarvis]

I So it seems that mundane treasures (the Crown Jewels or famous works of art, for example) are completely overlooked in most treasure hordes, as no one wants to try and cart them back to civilization. How do you get your players to choose them along with, or even instead of, magic treasures?

Mundane? Since when are the Crown Jewels or a famous work of art mundane?
Yeah 12 glaives , a pair of swords and a hogshead of stout would be a mundane treasue but something on the scale of the Mona Lisa or the Royal Jewels really shouldn't be mundane.

I've had parties that scavenged fixtures for the metal value.

 

[Aristotle]

Give the mundane treasure some real weight within the game... If you just come up with stuff off the top of your head and throw it in the pile you have to expect low level parties to only take what they think they can get good money for and high level parties to often completely ignore it.

I'm fond of books that give a +2 bonus, or even +4 for a really rare book, circumstance bonuses to specific knowledge tests if the character spends some time referencing the book. Those almost always get picked up.

Expensive looking jewelry and clothing can assist you as a 'disguise' to aid in dealing with members of the aristocracy and such.

Items with a purpose, even if not immediately obvious, can keep mundane treasure interesting. Players will learn the hard way not to pass up such loot when the ornamental but mundane weapon they find and leave behind in a high level dungeon turns out to be the sword that identifies it's wielder as the rightful heir to a kingdom... A signet ring bearing the mark of a popular mage order might be taken and kept in the hopes that it can be exchanged for a magical favor at some future time. And so on...