Tuesday 27 January 2015

Get rid of the random in treasure

A few years back I ran a fairly long campaign of Savage Worlds set in ancient egypt. There were some specific needs at various times so I started designing treasure rewards rather than randomly drawing something from a table.  I even went to the extent of doing up a table program in Inspiration Pad to assist with generating treasure, it got quite extensive.  One of the things I decided to add into the tables was an option to allow players to pick a treasure item of their own, so randomly, every now and then the tables would throw up "Mark's treasure" etc.  To speed this along I got the players to do up a list of the 5 treasure items they would like to get, the promise of factoring this into the tables resulting in EVERYONE doing it.

Now this was the important thing to notice... all my players submitted 5 treasures they wanted (within some parameters of cost value). This means they thought about it, they read the rules and investigated it and they made up a list that they submitted to me... OMG, I have discovered the most amazing thing of all role playing time... enthusiastic players.

I have never forgotten that fact, and generally now I try to insert the same option into my games when they fit the criteria.  Plus I have been thinking about it lately, along with a number of other things, whilst I prepare to start a brand new D&D5e campaign set in Freeport.  Why not just take it a step further and get the players involved in what the treasure actually is as they find it. Not only will it give treasures that they want, that will be relevant to what they are doing, and that will remove the burden from me other than as an oversight function.

So for the new game I am simply going to specify an amount, a number of items, and the type of treasure.  So they may find a treasure worth 10,000gp, there will be a minimum of 2 items (meaning nothing over 5K) and a maximum of 5 (so no huge sacks of CLW potions). The players will have to work out who is going to get a pick, how much they will get and what it is they want.  As they are all loot whores I am expecting them to really enjoy themselves.  Any gp unspent will become literal gps.

So initially they will be getting +1 weapons and +1 armours and some simple but useful wands and things, essential stuff that doesn't cost a lot. Once they all have this they will start expanding their world views, treasure wise.  It will be interesting listening to everyone's rationalising as to what is the best thing to buy.

On top of that I can always throw in some specific item or some random items, plus I intend to add on things to the items they give themselves that they didn't account for, muhahahaha. Some extra effects that may or may not be beneficial or controllable.