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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 9384527" data-attributes="member: 7026594">This is a great overview, but I feel like you're underselling a bit the paragraph titled Distribution of Monsters and Treasure on page 6 of The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures, and the dungeon-stocking procedure which follows.  I read that as prescribing that the referee is supposed to intentionally place multiple big treasure stashes and monster lairs on each level, and then purely for convenience randomly finishing stocking the remainder of the rooms."The determination of just where monsters should be placed, and whether or not they will be guarding treasure, and how much of the latter if they are guarding something, can become burdensome when faced with several levels to do at one time. It is a good idea to thoughtfully place several of the most important treasures, with or without monsterous  guardians, and then switch to a random determination for the balance of the level. Naturally, the more important treasures will consist of various magical items and large amounts of wealth in the form of gems and jewelry. Once these have been secreted in out-of-the-way locations, a random distribution using a six-sided die can be made as follows:"(bold emphasis mine in all of these quotes)This is more specific about treasures than, but consistent with, the language in Moldvay Basic on B52 that "Special monsters should be first placed in the appropriate rooms along with special treasures. The remaining rooms can be stocked as the DM wishes. If there is no preference as to how certain rooms are stocked, the following system may be used."Holmes, on page 39, gives much the same instructions- "Each new room or area is given a code number and a record made on a separate page of what it contains, treasure, monsters, hidden items, etc. Place a few special items first, then randomly assign treasure and monsters to the other rooms using the selection provided in the game or appropriate tables."Dan Collins broke down expected treasure yields if you just use the OD&D random tables some <a href="https://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2018/08/more-dungeon-treasure.html" target="_blank">years ago on Delta's D&D Hotspot</a>, and pointed out that just using the random table on page 7 of TU&WA means there will be trivial amounts of treasure, except for the ~1/20 rooms on level 1 which on average have gems or jewelry, or ~1/10 rooms on levels 2-3.  85% of random treasures found on level 1 can be expected to be worth less than 100gp.  When you hit the 5% for gems or jewelry it'll usually be worth thousands, but it's entirely possible and reasonably likely to miss those entirely in stocking a level.When we look at the <a href="https://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/search?q=subterrane+surveys" target="_blank">published OD&D dungeon designs and Gary's Castle Greyhawk notes/key</a>, we see that he definitely included more treasure than that. So what we actually see in his dungeons is very much inconsistent with random stocking.For me, reading that passage and procedure on page 6 of TU&WA brought it all home.  The tables are intentionally scant, because random treasures aren't meant to make up the bulk of the treasure, although they allow a lottery-like chance of a random big score, for excitement.  The bulk of the treasure is expected to be "thoughtfully placed" by the referee with intention and forethought.  "Several" big stashes of gems, jewelry, and magic items consciously chosen and selected with care, defended by appropriate guardians or traps to ensure that they need to be earned.</blockquote>

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