Treasure Generation

[Ed_Laprade]

I loves me some generators, thanks!

I've used pretty much every method, but mostly I've rolled random stuff and picked out the stuff that seemed most usefull or most interesting. (And I love giving out Wands of Wonder!)

 

[Treebore]

Good tables take levels into account. Even so I still love me the old 1E DMG generation tables. Some of the best games came from the party getting a uber powerful item, twice they even got a artifact/relic.

The hardest for to adjust to was the 8th level party getting the Staff of the Magi. It got to the point where I pulled in this Uber NPC I occassionally use, usually when gear is making the game too unwiledy to run, like this occasion. I played up how he was obviously a great mage, crackling with raw power, etc... and I had him say, "I'm only going to make you this offer one time. I'll give you 75,000 GP for that Staff of the Magi you have. If you don't accept, I'll send messages to every evil magi I know of, and tell them you have it, and where you are."

In less then 15 seconds they accepted the offer, and their eyes bugging out had me laughing! One told me later all he could think of was Zaumig coming after them (a lich whose mechinations and history they had discovered much about, and would one day become their main adversary for a time), and how his character would end up a skeleton or zombie in Zaumig's undead army.

Anyways, after I got over laughing at their facial expressions I had this NPC tell them, "When you think your powerful enough to take this from me, seek me out, and I'll sell it back to you at the same price, but not necessarily the same condition." and had him teleport away.

My game was much easier to run again.

 

[grodog]

I use a combination of selected/placed treasures as well as random rolls (which generally get adjusted up/down based on how well I feel they played out).

In terms of resources, a few of the guys in our play group created the Treasure Generator which is hosted over on Dragonsfoot for download: it's a compilation of all of the tables from the 1e DMG and UA, and will generate random magic items including fully-populated scrolls, the various additional random sub-types of magic items (which version of scroll of protection from elementals, which figurine of wondrous power, the 10% chance that your ring of regeneration is vampiric, the very slight chance that your scarab of protection is +2, etc., etc.).

I'm also a huge fan of the Necromancer Games/TableTop Games [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Mother-all-Treasure-Tables/dp/1594590656/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308106180&sr=8-1"]Book of Treasure Tables[/ame], which is the only post-1e book that I regularly carry to games. This is a wonderful trove of excellent (although non-magical) random treasure tables, ranging in value from 1gp up through some huge figure suitable for a dragon's hoard (perhaps up to 1,000,000gp?). It's OOP now, but still one of the best D&D books ever published---well worth hunting up a copy that you feel is reasonably priced.

 

[Treebore]

I use a combination of selected/placed treasures as well as random rolls (which generally get adjusted up/down based on how well I feel they played out).

In terms of resources, a few of the guys in our play group created the Treasure Generator which is hosted over on Dragonsfoot for download: it's a compilation of all of the tables from the 1e DMG and UA, and will generate random magic items including fully-populated scrolls, the various additional random sub-types of magic items (which version of scroll of protection from elementals, which figurine of wondrous power, the 10% chance that your ring of regeneration is vampiric, the very slight chance that your scarab of protection is +2, etc., etc.).

I'm also a huge fan of the Necromancer Games/TableTop Games Book of Treasure Tables, which is the only post-1e book that I regularly carry to games. This is a wonderful trove of excellent (although non-magical) random treasure tables, ranging in value from 1gp up through some huge figure suitable for a dragon's hoard (perhaps up to 1,000,000gp?). It's OOP now, but still one of the best D&D books ever published---well worth hunting up a copy that you feel is reasonably priced.

Book of Treasure Tables is one sweet book! MAde me realize, actually rediscover, how cool wonderfully described mundane treasures can be. Very glad I bought it!

I do believe it is available as PDF, and they may have put it up as POD by now.

Edit: Nope. Still just PDF, but that is probably better than print anyways. Much easier to copy/paste and print from a PDF.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=12252&it=1&filters=0_0_0_1300


Plus it is "The MOTHER of all Treasure Tables", a companion to their Encounters book, which I also like a great deal.

 

[Ainamacar]

I like a mix of chosen and random treasure, which appears to be the most common choice.

I'm curious, though, about the who and the when for random treasure. For example, do you as DM roll it when preparing an adventure? Do the player's roll it at the end of an encounter? I like that the former can give less incongruous results, especially when the former gives results where a defeated creature should clearly have made use of its treasure. (Yes, maybe it didn't know what it had, etc. But if it used a +1 shield, and after the fact someone rolls a +3 shield, it just feels awkward.) Plus, it allows tweaking the treasure or the encounter as necessary to make the verisimilitude work. Of course, the latter can be incredibly exciting at the table, and is an instance where both the players and DM let the dice take them where they will. The downside, of course, is that a fantastic treasure can have negative results for balance as well as party/campaign cohesion, and often the final results are anticlimactic.

Personally, I got into the habit of predetermining treasure for most encounters, but using player rolls. Every once in a while we'd sit down and I'd have them roll enough of every conceivable roll used in random treasure generation, record them in order, and then use them whenever I needed a random treasure, or even just part of one. The excitement is similar (a 100! But on what table!), although the gratification is delayed. I could also record the provenance of each item, if they wanted to see after the fact how it happened. I think it gives most of the benefits of both the DM determining treasure beforehand (randomly or otherwise), while making sure the players feel critical to the process. Plus, they don't feel the burn of anticlimactic results so clearly, where an excellent roll or series of rolls feels wasted. But I can make the ones that did work feel like victories, simply by telling them that "so-and-so's 94 lead directly to this treasure." Selective memory is great like that.

 

[AeroDm]

I pretty much stick to chosen treasure, often tailored to the party and campaign. For the most part, my players just got annoyed when their Weapon Spec: Longsword character kept finding axes and it wasn't worth the resentment. One solution is to introduce mechanics like residuum, but that is pretty distant from our preferred style. It was much simpler to just give them the +2 flaming longsword they wanted and then tailor it with unique magical effects that made me happy like "once per the sword can grant a +5 bonus to intimidate when drawn and leaves a seared mark on somewhere on the target."

I like the idea of random treasure and think it can lead to really interesting scenes where something fits perfectly that otherwise never would have occurred, but the investment and consternation to get to that point never seemed worth it. I'd love to be sold on the idea, though, if anyone is interested.

 

[The Shaman]

In most cases I simply assign what I think is appropriate to the location or the character - sometimes I'll mix it up with a random roll.

 

[Gilladian]

I said earlier that I like random tables, but I didn't go into how I use them.

I ALWAYS predesign treasure for encounters. Even if I have a random encounter, I'll have a treasure for random encounters table to roll from... I'm really a preparation freak!

However, to avoid falling in the trap of giving every monster/npc my favorite magic items, I like to randomly roll for "a defensive item", or "a wondrous item" for a given NPC, or a "hoard item" for a monster. They will most likely make use of the item during the encounter, or if not, they will have some purpose for owning the item that makes sense to them. For a dragon, it may simply be prestige. For a mid-level fighter, that quaal's feather token may be their emergency money stash. Or it was given to them by their girlfriend and they'd never actually USE it except in direst emergency.