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Post by Mr. Darke on Sept 8, 2018 18:04:42 GMT -6
I never really liked how treasure was handled in S&W. I don't know if it was the way it was written as it is a bit confusing, or if it seems that it seemingly drives treasure down from what D&D had. Has anyone come up with a different way to do treasure in the game?
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Post by Punkrabbitt on Sept 8, 2018 18:49:54 GMT -6
I guess I've been playing RPG's too long, specifically D&D in many forms. I always just award treasure I feel is appropriate. I don't think I've randomized anything in at least 25 years. Every. Single. <expletive> Magic. Item. Gets it's own unique backstory. Sword +1, +2 vs. Orcs never happens. It's always Varushka, fabled sword of the legendary Queen Natalya, wielded personally by her in the Crusade against the goblins two centuries ago...
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Post by Punkrabbitt on Sept 8, 2018 19:02:29 GMT -6
I don't think I ever had an in-between phase. I was pretty much rolling everything randomly when I was the guy running the games through the late 80s, then I was just a player for a few years. After that I jumpstarted a Dark Sun campaign in the early 90s and stopped randomly generating anything but travel encounters.
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Post by delta on Sept 8, 2018 19:09:50 GMT -6
My analysis is that the S&W rule (2-3 times monster XP) is roughly on the same order of magnitude as OD&D. This assumes that you use the Vol-3 table for dungeon treasure, rather than Vol-2 treasure types with requisite pro-rating for number appearing as stated in multiple places ( link). The most critical thing is (as per Vol-3) the DM starts by placing the "important" huge treasure caches outside of any random rule. Another thing that might be biasing the treasure is that S&W follows the massively reduced low-level monster XP from Sup-I. If you follow the LBB rule (100 XP per equated HD), and use that as the basis for the 2-3 times multiplier, then you've got weightier treasure as in the LBB tables.
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Post by Mr. Darke on Sept 9, 2018 2:46:54 GMT -6
Thanks for the input. Amount isn't the entire problem though, the pesky trade-out system is one I never really liked. I had thought of making charts based on CL to see how that goes or porting treasure types in but that adds to the books I need to work from.
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Post by delta on Sept 9, 2018 9:24:15 GMT -6
My top recommendation would be just taking the dungeon treasure tables from Vol-2/3, or maybe the solo dungeon system from Strategic Review/DMG. They're short, would fit on an index card.
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Post by robertsconley on Sept 10, 2018 7:30:16 GMT -6
The Majestic Fantasy RPG I am working on is an adaptation of Swords & Wizardry. As part of its developed I looked at the Swords & Wizardry treasure table. To test them out I coded it up using Inspiration Pad Pro 3.0 by NBos. www.nbos.com/products/inspiration-pad-proIt is a free download. The result of 1,000 rolls with a 10,000 gp value hoard is as follows. As you can see out of 1,000 rolls only 10 resulted in a magic item. SW_1000.txt (18.08 KB) This is the ipt file for Inspiration Pad Pro 3.0. Treasure Generation.ipt (31.06 KB) That far too stingy for my taste so I made my own by modifying the odds of magic items appearing. Instead of Sword and Wizardry default of 10% of a tradeout for all three levels (rare, uncommon, common). I found 25% for a rare tradout, and 50% for a common and uncommon tradeout. Then for the tradeout I did the following rare_tradeout 10% for Gem or Jewelry 15% for 5 uncommon tradeouts 75% for rare magic item uncommon tradeout 15% for Gem or Jewelry 85% for a uncommon magic item common tradeout 10% for Gem or Jewelry 90% for a common magic item. The magic item table remained the same.
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Post by aldarron on Sept 11, 2018 7:03:28 GMT -6
I realize I'm a voice howling in the wilderness on this, but, excepting for that special McGuffin quest, you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS randomize your treasure. Arguably, the random treasure tables are the second most important tables in the game (after combat). The reason is so that you get the expected rate and type of magic accumulation over the growth of the character. That's what the tables are for. Anything else is inevitably Monty Haul to some degree or other. BTW and FWIW, sticking strictly to the OD&D Treasure Types tables would put you in good company - that being Dave Arneson and his players. There are lots of options out there though for exactly what tables to use as Mr. Conley has pointed out. Adventures in Fantasy has an interesting cross reference table that might be to your liking, and most of the free clones, like Delving Deeper, have options you might like. Here's another link you might find interesting link
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Post by delta on Sept 11, 2018 23:35:54 GMT -6
I realize I'm a voice howling in the wilderness on this, but, excepting for that special McGuffin quest, you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS randomize your treasure. Not the way Gary ran it, so I'm going to have to politely disagree with you. I'm all for running the game your way, but I can't think of any rule I've encountered over the years I would emphatically tell anyone they should always use. If using the random tables to stock your milieu works for you? More power to you. And Gygax's rule in Vol-3 is explicitly the opposite: "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."
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Post by Mr. Darke on Sept 13, 2018 15:06:14 GMT -6
Thanks for the tips. I think I am going to try the system one more time and maybe copy some of the random item (non Magical) tables from 1e. If it doesn't work I had thought of coming up with a chart that deals with treasure by Challenge Level so that it can be used seamlessly with the book.
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