Treasure for Castles and NPCs in the Wilderness

[Jonathan Miller]

What's your method for generating treasure for castles (U&W pp. 15-16) and for high-level NPCs encountered in the wilderness (pp. 18-19)? Rules are given for the chance of high-level NPCs to have magic items (p. 19), but there are no rules for other types of treasure (coins, gems, jewels).

[Desparil]

For castles, all bands of humans have Treasure Type A. For the wilderness case, I suppose that would be dependent upon how you assign treasure for any wandering monsters.

[Deleted]

Feb 21, 2022 19:23:53 GMT -6 Jonathan Miller said:

What's your method for generating treasure for castles (U&W pp. 15-16) and for high-level NPCs encountered in the wilderness (pp. 18-19)? Rules are given for the chance of high-level NPCs to have magic items (p. 19), but there are no rules for other types of treasure (coins, gems, jewels).

To quote the guy from Dr. Strangelove: "What, ya didn't think I'd go into combat wit' loose change in my pockets did ya?"

(But yeah, that's only if they're soldiers and not weirdo adventurer types like the PCs. In that case I suppose a good rule of thumb would be to take the 3d6 x 10 starter gold and add another d6 for every HD the character has above 1. So a level 7 Fighter would have 10d6x10 gold somewhere nearby, maybe. Or the equivalent in gems, silver, jewels, etc.) 

[Jonathan Miller]

Thanks for your replies! I DM an OD&D campaign, but haven't yet had a situation where the PCs looted a castle or encountered a high level NPC as a wandering monster, so I had not yet thought about this lacuna in the rules.

I'm currently leaning toward treasure type A (land) for castles, and something like ampleframework's suggestion for generating "petty cash" for wandering NPCs. I also run a low-magic campaign, so will replace standard magic item treasures for NPCs with weapons of quality, alchemical potions, talismans, and the like.

[dicebro]

My current idea is that the Lord of the Castle, likely a Baron or Viscount, will have individual Treasure. But it is possible that a second room could be found in the castle with tax revenue waiting to be sent upstream to the Earl.

[nizrad]

Castles receive treasure type A (possibly bolstered by local taxes or tithes if the rolls are poor). Wandering NPC adventurers are treated to the table near the bottom of p.19 of U&WA which provides odds of such characters having magical items. I also occasionally use these tables to outfit npc adventurers encountered in lower levels of the dungeon.

[tetramorph]

Yes, I use Treasure Type A for castles and villages.

For a wondering party or a band of humans I might have soldiers travel with 1-20cp, leaders with 1-20sp. I might give high level characters and leaders 100-300gp each.