A fun night of gaming & the beauty of random treasure tables

[idrahil]

So had a good group last night. My kids and their uncle plus a family friend. A simple venture into the caves near the tower fortress they are based out of.

They managed to almost go directly to the boss of the dungeon. They avoided the crypts and were-rat nest with giant rats.

So they defeat the hob-goblins and their chief (A well placed Web spell made that possible). That left 2 coffers for treasure. The one box I decided would have 5000 silver pieces but the second box I rolled on the random table.

On random rolls, I rolled no copper, no gold but did roll 1000 silver pieces. Then rolled a 3500 gp gem and a magic sword! Using the random rolls, the sword ended up being:

Intelligent (Int 7)
+1/+2 vs Lycanthropes
Able to detect silver

It was really neat and ended up making sense and became an adventure hook as the sword dominated the fighter who grabbed it, forcing the party back into the other section of the dungeon to kill the Were-rat!

[waysoftheearth]

Great work idrahil

It's a neat coincidence that the lycanthrope killing sword also detects silver (which is harmful to weres)!

[strangebrew]

I love it when random tables add great, unexpectedly perfect twists! I like randomizing as much as possible, then make my brain work with it to make it all make sense somehow. You end up with great stuff you wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

[Porphyre]

A passing question: do you roll treasures before hand, or do you roll "on the spot".

Personnally I used to make the players roll for treasure.

[strangebrew]

Jan 8, 2014 15:10:05 GMT -6 Porphyre said:

A passing question: do you roll treasures before hand, or do you roll "on the spot".

I never considered rolling them on the spot. It seems like it would be a bit clumsy and time-consuming, but I really love the idea of the players having to roll it themselves. Then everyone is surprised by the outcome, ref included.

Did you just give them a copy of the treasure table and tell them which category to roll for? Or did you ask them to roll d% a set number of times? I personally think the first one would be more suspenseful for everyone.

[idrahil]

I have them roll gem values and jewelry values once they get them appraised.

I typically would roll the treasure before hand. But, since my kids were already level 3-4, I had my brother in-law roll a level 3 character. Everyone else had at least 2 magic items already so I just had him roll the tables as though I was generating a treasure horde. I had him roll once on the weapon table which lead to a +1 mace and Leather +2 (which would have been awesome if he was a thief but he was a halfling so it was still pretty cool).

At any rate, I liked the process so when it came to generating the hobgoblin's horde, I just put 5000 sp in one chest and then had the players take turns rolling at each column. I have the Monster and Treasure reference rules by me when we play so it was pretty easy. I did have to pause a minute to read closely the domination rules once the sword heard there was a were-rat nearby but other than that it was really fast and easy.

I'll be doing that for any major hordes they find from now on.

[Porphyre]

Jan 8, 2014 16:58:27 GMT -6 strangebrew said:

It seems like it would be a bit clumsy and time-consuming, but I really love the idea of the players having to roll it themselves. Then everyone is surprised by the outcome, ref included.

Did you just give them a copy of the treasure table and tell them which category to roll for? Or did you ask them to roll d% a set number of times? I personally think the first one would be more suspenseful for everyone.

Well, the rolls weren't that time consuming, and having the players make the rolls themselves kept them excited : I never had a player complaining about having to roll for loot ! It was the same thing as rolling a new hit die when leveling up.

I used to just tell them: "roll a d100 for copper, roll for silver, etc." 
Players sometimes rolled in order, one for the copper , one for the silver and one for gold, but everyone made the roll for magical items.
 

Also, I player extensively with just the Mentzer's Red Box , so the Treasure Tables weren't so big, especially the magical items (on the other hand, I stopped doing that and started "prepping" my treasures when I started playing ICE's MERP)

[waysoftheearth]

It's really cool to have the players roll for treasure. The only potential issue with it is that the players immediately know what magic items are (which may be okay), and when they've got a cursed/bad item (which may not be so good).

[Porphyre]

We were beginners in the game, the players like me as a DM, and the whole "try & error" or "looking for a sage" had escaped us. We assumed that you were somewhat magically imbued with the knowledge of what the item was the moment you put your grubby adventurer's hands on it.

And if it was cursed, well, you were for a "Oh crap!" moment, as if you had put your hand in a bag and found a mousetrap. You knew it was cursed, it bit tou, and you knew you were stuck with it.