Treasure, and the hunt for it, have been at the heart of
D&D since the beginning. Tables for randomly
generating the fantastic wealth to tempt adventurers long have been a staple of
the game. The OD&D treasure types
included chances for copper, silver, gold, gems, jewelry and magic items. AD&D changed these tables but little,
adding only electrum to the treasure spectrum.
Conspicuously missing from these lists is a staple of Hollywood style treasure
hoards – miscellaneous objects of value, such as tapestries, ivory, works of
art and so forth.
When Arneson & Snider wrote Adventures in Fantasy, a lot of old ideas were
reworked and repackaged, body types and hit location from Supplement II, for
example. Treasure Types were another
idea that received a re-skin. There are
none of the familiar lettered treasure types in AiF, but there is treasure
still. The same categories are there –
copper, silver, gold, gems, and jewels, but rather than assign a particular
type to particular monsters with varying chances in each category as D&D
does, AiF uses a one-size-fits-all 10 x 10 table allowing the possibility of
almost any treasure being assigned to any eligible monster.
A different approach, to be sure; but, for the most part,
familiar hordes of silver and gold result.
However, of the 100 possible treasure options, 4 contain a new category
of either 1 or 2 objects of Miscellaneous treasure.
The category of Miscellaneous Treasure is one of the most
interesting and potentially useful distinctions found in AiF. Basically, it works as follows; when a
miscellaneous treasure is called for a roll is made on a table containing these
ten categories:
Kegs (various goods)
Tapestry
Tableware
Decorative weaponry
Riding Tack
Clothing
Ivory (raw)
Sculpture
Artwork
Furniture
Except for kegs and ivory, each category has a value
modifier that is multiplied times an amount of coin – 5 gp for example – determined
randomly on a table. Some items’ value
modifiers are fixed at 1 and some have a range of 1-4 or 1-10, so some items,
such as a tapestry can range from a few coppers to thousands of gp in value.
There is also a subtable for the contents of kegs:
Iron
Copper
Wine
Ale
Salt
Spice
Ambergris
Perfume
The keg items have fixed gold piece values, except for
perfume, which ranges in value from 100 to 600 gp.
For the most part, details, such as what kind of clothing or
sculpture or piece of art, are left to the referee to invent.
All in all, The Adventures in Fantasy miscellaneous treasure
is a fairly simple yet versatile way to add some real color to your treasure
haul.
Integration with D&D is fairly seamless too. In AiF there is always a 4% chance any given
treasure will contain a miscellaneous item or two. In D&D there is likewise always a chance
any given treasure could contain gems or jewels, so all one needs to do is add
one more roll when generating a D&D treasure and allow a chance for a
miscellaneous treasure too. I go with 5%
instead of 4% just because chances on the D&D tables are always in
multiples of 5.
3 comments:
Very nice, it makes me want to get AiF sometime so I can see of it fits my needs; as I am trying to get back to truly Old School role-playing.
Being a fan of Dave's Blackmoor I'd love to know what went into this game & how it differed from Oe, B/X, BECMI & AD&D 1e.
Very nice, it makes me want to get AiF sometime so I can see of it fits my needs; as I am trying to get back to truly Old School role-playing.
Being a fan of Dave's Blackmoor I'd love to know what went into this game & how it differed from Oe, B/X, BECMI & AD&D 1e.
This is also in one of the old Judges Guild supplements. Maybe Wilderlands of High Fantasy
Post a Comment