Mundane treasures--what's the point?

[Maldin]

I often use "mundane" treasures, but my players usually take them, because I don't like to give out large amounts of coins (what evil genius is gonna store thousands of coins for the sake of having coins, when the money can be spent on fixing up the lair?), and training is expensive! If they don't take the mundane treasures and sell them, they know there is no way they'll be able to afford the next level. Sometimes they will keep a particularly unique piece. Sometimes the point of the adventure is to retrieve a "mundane treasure" for some reason.

There is also a class of treasure that virtually no DM's think to make use of. Non-magical "wondrous materials" as I like to call them. They are non-magical substances or items that have potential uses in arcane processes, and can be found as part of a treasure (already harvested or collected, perhaps labelled, perhaps not!), or found in their natural "occurance" during the course of an adventure. I've got a selection of several original "wondrous materials" which DMs can either use directly or use as an idea for their own original "wondrous materials". Jump directly to that particular web page by going to my sitemap page from my main page http://melkot.com and clicking on the map in the appropriate location.

Denis, aka "Maldin"
=============================
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
Check out the ton of cool Edition-independent stuff on my website, New Spells, Magic Items, Notoriety, Artifacts, Kyuss, secrets of the Twin Cataclysms, the Codex of the Infinite Planes, the Dreadwood, the cities of Melkot, Greyhawk and Irongate, a Grand Unified Theory for all of D&D, magic and the Multiverse, and much, much more!!

 

[Wolv0rine]

nd 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.

--fje

*chuckles* It'd probably cheese the players off to find 500 gp worth of expensive food, a finely-crafted chair, a well-made table with a brass candlestick, and a bookshelf full of good reading as the treature, huh?

 

[DMH]

A couple months ago I bought Occult Lore and now I regret not buying it when it came out. The plant part of the herbalism section is simply awesome. That is one mundane treasure I rarely see used in story hours and hearing from others. Having read books on real herbalism, there is a lot out there-much of it weak or dangerous, but still the sources of current medicines.

 

[cmanos]

the group I am running with goes by the attitude of "If its not nailed down, its ours." We don't get a lot of magic in our game. So when we fight 20 hobgoblins in banded mail, the banded mail is a great treasure for us.

 

[Maldin]

the group I am running with goes by the attitude of "If its not nailed down, its ours." We don't get a lot of magic in our game. So when we fight 20 hobgoblins in banded mail, the banded mail is a great treasure for us.

Lucky thing that the banded mail wasn't nailed on to them! ;-)
(Thinking of some fantasy art wherein the evil humanoids have rendered their armor somewhat permanent)

Denis, aka "Maldin"
=============================
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com

 

[DMH]

the group I am running with goes by the attitude of "If its not nailed down, its ours." We don't get a lot of magic in our game. So when we fight 20 hobgoblins in banded mail, the banded mail is a great treasure for us.

Let me guess- you read that Dragon article by Wolfgang Baur where he writes about looting the underdark. The second method he mentions is the caravan- taking several mules and carts to take as much as possible. Or you play like Fallout- the loot on the dead is worth a lot more than just about anything else.

How the heck do you cart away 20 suits of mail?

 

[IcyCool]

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

<snip>

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.)

I'm going to second your post, but respond to this bit. Chances are, the folks you will tick off with this comment will be the same people that will cast Detect Magic on the circlet, and upon finding out that it isn't magical will toss it unless their Appraise check tells them it's valuable enough to haul out and sell.

 

[kigmatzomat]

spells like item, teleport, mount, secret chest allow players to take or relocate a lot of treasure. Bags of holding/portable holes are pretty popular as well. And 20 sets of chainmail were on 20 guys, at least on of which probably had a horse you can use to carry the chainmail.