Treasure
Treasure table for lair treasures expanded to letter O
(D&D74 stops at I). A second table
for individual treasures (types J-V) added.
“Lairs” are where adventurers “normally” find treasure.
(p102). Lair treasures represent lairs
“full” of monsters and should be reduced to reflect smaller monster
populations. Note there is no
restriction of treasure types to “outdoor” lairs as there seems to be in D&D74.
Some minor changes in types A-I in the table – mostly
it’s the same. Type A simplified.
Gems and Jewelry given separate columns and Gems are “Magical Gems”. The “magical” appears to
be a mistake however because no mention of magical properties is made in the
Gem generation subtable. In fact it seems the word is misplaced from the last column which has simply "items" instead of magical items.
Average Values of the treasure types given (p103)
Treasure Generation
Tables
The methods on these tables are generally similar to most
of their counterparts in D&D74, however the specific details are quite
different and too numerous to list without in effect reproducing the whole
section. They are however, identical to
the same tables prepared for the 1983 (Mentzer) edition of Dungeons &
Dragons.
Gems – when multiple gems are generated they may be
combined into a single gem of the combined value. Examples of types, i.e. “ruby” are assigned
to each value range. Jewelry has similar
examples.
Discussion: The treasure type tables of D&D have an interesting story to tell all on their own, ranging from the D&D draft through AD&D 1st edition. Despite the various iterations, only the values of types A and especially B change very significantly. The other treasure types do vary a bit, but not enough for players to ever notice the difference.
Adding individual treasure types doesn't help the game much in my opinion. In OD&D74 individual treasure carried upon the person is usually a matter of a few coins or personal items, something for the referee to vary as needed, not something to be consistently rolled for on a table. For the few monsters who carry more significant treasures with them as they travel the needed info is provided in the monsters description.
One thing that's nice is having the treasure types average values. That's helpful when designing adventures.
As for the D&D94 treasure generation tables, the percentage chance of getting any particular kind of item is pretty much the same as in OD&D74 - which is quite important - and there is not a whole lot of practical difference in method from OD&D74. What is different is the overall items themselves, and so to use the D&D94 treasure generation tables requires use of D&D94 magic items, which could be an advantage or out of the question, depending on the campaign.
The rules regarding gems may be of some use to an OD&D referee. At times it may be useful to multiple combine gems into a single gem of greater value and likewise, some groups might appreciate knowing the value or type of gem by color and description.
Adding individual treasure types doesn't help the game much in my opinion. In OD&D74 individual treasure carried upon the person is usually a matter of a few coins or personal items, something for the referee to vary as needed, not something to be consistently rolled for on a table. For the few monsters who carry more significant treasures with them as they travel the needed info is provided in the monsters description.
One thing that's nice is having the treasure types average values. That's helpful when designing adventures.
As for the D&D94 treasure generation tables, the percentage chance of getting any particular kind of item is pretty much the same as in OD&D74 - which is quite important - and there is not a whole lot of practical difference in method from OD&D74. What is different is the overall items themselves, and so to use the D&D94 treasure generation tables requires use of D&D94 magic items, which could be an advantage or out of the question, depending on the campaign.
The rules regarding gems may be of some use to an OD&D referee. At times it may be useful to multiple combine gems into a single gem of greater value and likewise, some groups might appreciate knowing the value or type of gem by color and description.
2 comments:
In OD&D there was a nice table with treasure by dungeon level, not monster type (vol3 pg 7). This table was in B/X but rather hidden in AD&D. Is it present in D&D 94?
Nope. There is no equivalent table in D&D94. Of course, there's lots of stuff that is in the 3lbb's that's not in D&D94. :) Here I'm only comparing the things they have in common or that are in D&D94 but not in the 3lbbs.
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