Treasure [4e but not really]

[Swordgleam]

4e has this thing called "treasure parcels" that people seem to find useful. I, being the helpful sort of girl I am, am building a random treasure parcel generator.

The problem is this: the treasure parcels all contain gems, coins, art objects, jewelry, and potions. That's it. (Weapons/magic itmes are considered treasure parcels unto themselves.) My generator details the jewelry and art objects and gems, and potions don't seem doable without violating the GSL's weird ideas about software.

But this really doesn't feel like a whole lot of variety for me. "Oh look, the Troll King has art and jewelry and gems! Just like the treacherous duke. And the horde of kobolds. And the dragon. And the evil fey. And the oozes."

So, give me suggestions. What's another form of portable (or semi-portable; at epic I figure you can probably consider entire buildings to be loot) loot that I could throw in here?

[Crow]

Ingots of precious metals?

Exotic Herbs?

Expensive Dyes?

[JoshuaZ]

Fine china? Ornate silverware and other dining implements?

[Swordgleam]

Exotic Herbs?

Ooh, that's a good idea! Expand that to be any kind of magical/divine components.

[Colmarr]

I think it all depends on how you define art objects.

Rare books (including ritual books)

Fine wines or rare ales.

Livestock (dragon eggs, anyone?)

Ceremonial (ie. for display only) armour and weapons

[Mando Knight]

For potions, you can make the thing sufficiently random and useful without violating the GSL:

"<Adjective phrase> liquid sealed inside (a) <Somehow Interesting> bottle(s)." (Potion(s) worth X gp)

[NeoVid]

Residuum is always a handy thing to find.

Hmm... valuable documents?

...That's about all I have.

[Swordgleam]

For potions, you can make the thing sufficiently random and useful without violating the GSL:

"<Adjective phrase> liquid sealed inside (a) <Somehow Interesting> bottle(s)." (Potion(s) worth X gp)

I thought about doing that, since I do have a random potion generator. But I feel like that adds extra work for DMs, which is what the generators are supposed to avoid. Since now the DM has to look up/make up a potion of similar value.

[Randel]

Food
Bags of flour
Tea Bricks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_brick)
Currency-like units of food (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koku)
barrels of pickled vegetables
barrels of dried meats and vegetables

Spices
bottles of vinegar
bottles of various cooking oil
Salts
various herbs
some rare powerful spices that boarder on drugs

Drugs
Tobacco
Various mushrooms that "inspire visions" (but don't give you anything useful, people just know that wizards, clerics, and various other 'smart guys' and 'spiritual leaders' enjoy using them to inspire creativity)
Incense
Various medicines that cure aches and pains and other ailments (nothing that the players would run into. Mostly dried herbs used in folk medicine or that could improve the lives of orphans and such)

Drink
Booze
Hard liquor
Really crazy hard liquor
Engine fuel
Fine elven wine
Fine Dwarven Ale
Fine halfling moonshine
Grungy Orcish Glug
Ogre Beer (a hideous fermented compound brewed up by monstrous races with high disease tolerance. Its actually a self-propagating compound similar to vinegar. Get a barrel of it and put it in a still, dump organic matter in it and wait for it to dissolve, kill whatever manages to crawl out and dump it back in, wait until it stops bubbling... a few weeks should do, then scoop off the scum from the top and pour out the 'Beer' while avoiding the dissolved sludge on the bottom. The 'Beer' is quite alive with microorganisms and any given bottle can be used to start another still to make more. Non-monstrous races can drink it only by boiling it for over ten hours first.)
Bottled Virgin Blood (A drink invented by vampires that preserves blood to drink later)
Bottled Dreams (A fay drink that is mildly hallucinogenic. Its production is a closely guarded secret and there are some 'flavors' that are no longer produced. Some think that its just another alcoholic drink with some special additives, others think it actually has the dreams of people mixed into it)
Coffee

Books
Various regualr books
Special Editions that fetch higher prices
some real-world books (Find them in the possession of high-level spellcasters and paranormal creatures. These are worth more on the market)
erotic novels and 'picture books'
Largebound books filled with copies of famous artwork
Videos (maybe magical in nature, like paintings that show scenes of a story, or actual magical crystal DVDs that characters can watch)

Gizmos
Boxes of replacement parts for traps and machines
a collection of pristine stainless steel fine-toothed clockwork gears
A box of springs
A crate full of strong cord
300 windup mice
A music box with a mechanical figurine that sings songs from Dr. Horribles Sing-Along Blog

[senrath]

I thought about doing that, since I do have a random potion generator. But I feel like that adds extra work for DMs, which is what the generators are supposed to avoid. Since now the DM has to look up/make up a potion of similar value.

You could, say, have it spit out something along the line of "The Xth potion listed in the table on page Y of book Z".

[Excession]

A collection of animal masks. Just the thing for the upcoming royal masked ball.

Fairy in a jar. She looks pissed.

One of a set of numbered figurines. Collect them all!

Fine clothing. Perfume. Make up. Why the ogre king had a wardrobe full of silk gowns is anyone's guess.

Antique furniture. I once gave my players a chair as treasure.

A pirate ship.

[dragoonsgone]

Fabrics such as silk and fine cotton.
Salt. Roman soldiers used to be paid in salt.
Chess set would be cool or even a checker or go set


Could you make a random art generator inside it? Add a string to make it <adjective><noun>of<noun> Golden Statue of Thor

[krossbow]

4e has this thing called "treasure parcels" that people seem to find useful. I, being the helpful sort of girl I am, am building a random treasure parcel generator.

The problem is this: the treasure parcels all contain gems, coins, art objects, jewelry, and potions. That's it. (Weapons/magic itmes are considered treasure parcels unto themselves.) My generator details the jewelry and art objects and gems, and potions don't seem doable without violating the GSL's weird ideas about software.

But this really doesn't feel like a whole lot of variety for me. "Oh look, the Troll King has art and jewelry and gems! Just like the treacherous duke. And the horde of kobolds. And the dragon. And the evil fey. And the oozes."

So, give me suggestions. What's another form of portable (or semi-portable; at epic I figure you can probably consider entire buildings to be loot) loot that I could throw in here?



Adamantite objects, such as Chains, pillars or doors used to construct his lair; Disregarding its usefulness in weapons, thats an incredibly valuable substance (hence the issue in tomb of horrors where the PC's would just steal the doors and leave)


A spellbook that Belonged to XXXXX, founder of the XXXX order! (nothing special about it, just worth alot to collectors).

A winecellar.

Medieval porn collection.

An ornate clock.

An airship.

A cannon to attach to the airship.

An even bigger cannon to attach to the airship.

[Rockphed]

I thought about doing that, since I do have a random potion generator. But I feel like that adds extra work for DMs, which is what the generators are supposed to avoid. Since now the DM has to look up/make up a potion of similar value.

They don't have to have any sort of in-game use. If you want, you could make it spit out a description and label the potions "Potion of <adjective>". I personally would rather have the description and an adjective describing a potion than just a listing of the potions already in the books.

[Totally Guy]

Grungy Orcish Glug

*Roar!*

Glug stay in room today.

[pasko77]

But this really doesn't feel like a whole lot of variety for me. "Oh look, the Troll King has art and jewelry and gems! Just like the treacherous duke. And the horde of kobolds. And the dragon. And the evil fey. And the oozes."


Well some oozes have fine tastes...
I seem to recall (im away from books) that in the PH there are some examples of loot and their value per tier.
Another option would be, you can add another table per category, detailing what kind of "useless suff" you find. So the dragon has gems, the kind has art, and the oozes have fine antiquity and so on (kind of "anime name generator").

[Swordgleam]

They don't have to have any sort of in-game use. If you want, you could make it spit out a description and label the potions "Potion of <adjective>". I personally would rather have the description and an adjective describing a potion than just a listing of the potions already in the books.

Maybe I will do that. I'd rather have that, too, but I'm not always sure what other people would want.


You could, say, have it spit out something along the line of "The Xth potion listed in the table on page Y of book Z".

The SRD explicitly forbids you from referencing specific page numbers. :smallbiggrin: That's why I'm trying to keep that sort of silliness out of my software entirely - for my books, it's worth it to put up with it.


Could you make a random art generator inside it? Add a string to make it <adjective><noun>of<noun> Golden Statue of Thor

The art object generator is currently this (http://chaoticshiny.com/artgen.php) ported into vb.NET, but with some extra silliness for epic-tier loot (frames made of adamantium, astral diamond statues, etc).

[senrath]

...I'd really like to know the rational behind saying "no, you can't tell people where in the book something is."

[Swordgleam]

...I'd really like to know the rational behind saying "no, you can't tell people where in the book something is."

I believe it's so that if they release updated versions of the books, there isn't going to be third party stuff all over the place that now directs people to the wrong page number.

There's a lot of semi-silly stuff like that. For example, you can't change the races at all - even to say (specific SRD example) that eladrin are taller in your world. But again, it makes sense; they just want everything to fit well together, so you don't have one book telling you eladrin are 6'3" and another telling you they're 5'4" and your players arguing about which one to believe.

[Yakk]

Bearer Legal Documents: writ of taxation excused, writ of free travel, etc.

Slaves.

Steamwork toys (or constructs).
Clockwork toys (or constructs).

Weapons (ornate)
Armor (ornate).
Weapons (show, plated with precious metals)
Armor (show, plated with precious metals)
Weapons (master crafted, but plain)
Armor (master crafted, but plain)

Trade Bars (by weight, precious metal).

Navigation Charts.

Bulk metal

Livestock.

Cheese.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

"Payment in kind" was commonly used for taxes. So I would think the treasure of the local lord would consist largely of the local products. Examples:

furs
bolts of silk
spices or salt
various alcohols
wheels of cheese
grain

Other than that I think that precious items in any given noble's treasury would include the usual:
weapons and armor
magic items
books and scrolls
coins, ingots, gems, jewelry
artwork of various kinds

If we're not talking a dragon's horde but rather a defeated palace, you might find:
rare animals and plants
artists, artisans, entertainers
slaves and prisoners
livestock and warhorses(dogs)

Some other ideas:
I think someone mentioned dyes. I would add to that ink and other supplies used by magicians.
unusual technology
items of historic value (like the Magna Carta)

[Swordgleam]

Drink
Booze
Hard liquor
Really crazy hard liquor
Engine fuel
Fine elven wine
Fine Dwarven Ale
Fine halfling moonshine
Grungy Orcish Glug
Ogre Beer (a hideous fermented compound brewed up by monstrous races with high disease tolerance. Its actually a self-propagating compound similar to vinegar. Get a barrel of it and put it in a still, dump organic matter in it and wait for it to dissolve, kill whatever manages to crawl out and dump it back in, wait until it stops bubbling... a few weeks should do, then scoop off the scum from the top and pour out the 'Beer' while avoiding the dissolved sludge on the bottom. The 'Beer' is quite alive with microorganisms and any given bottle can be used to start another still to make more. Non-monstrous races can drink it only by boiling it for over ten hours first.)


This reminded of something, and I couldn't figure out what. And then it hit me. Have you played Red Dragon Inn (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24310/the-red-dragon-inn)?

[Faleldir]

Dragon porn!

[BobTheDog]

Grungy Orcish Glug


*Roar!*

Glug stay in room today.

ROFL!

Anyways, I think the 3.5 Draconomicon had something of a "dragon hoard generator" with a lot of flavorful suggestions...

[Swordgleam]

Great idea! Lots of very useful stuff in there.

I'm glad it suggests interesting coins, since I have spent entirely too many hours making a coin generator that makes pretty pretty pictures.

[Jack_Banzai]

How advanced is your RP world?

The evil duke can have stock certificates. Bank vouchers. A letter of credit. Deeds to properties.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Ooh! Don't forget maps! And precious goblets, plates, and eating utensils.

[Swordgleam]

How advanced is your RP world?

The evil duke can have stock certificates. Bank vouchers. A letter of credit. Deeds to properties.

That's the trick - this has to fit in as many worlds as possible, because it's not for my world. It's for the world of anyone who uses the program, and that could be anyone. It's easy to make a cool, unique, fitting treasure horde. It's much harder to make arbitrarily many cool, unique, fitting treasure hordes. :smallyuk:

[Yakk]

So, one issue I'd have with such a system is that I would want things to feel differently in different parts of the game (heroic, paragon, epic, middle kingdom, feywilde, shadowfel, underdark, astral sea, etc).

For that to work, you would want to have a modular treasure generator, then throw together tables from that.

One can even imagine modular adjective/noun engines.

And once you have that, a "advanced finance" module becomes just another option.

[Swordgleam]

It's already sort of modular, in that you can specify which types of things (eg gems, jewelry, art, ritual components) to include. And different stuff gets added in at different tiers - astral diamonds only come up in epic tier, etc. What else would you suggest?

[NMBLNG]

You have things that are valuable because of the material they are made from:
Uncut gems
Adamantium objects (clasp, ring, tools, pots)
ditto for mithril.
Other difficult to obtain or produce metals.

Valuable because of how they are made:
Adamantium statue
Finely crafted weapons or other metal objects
tapestries, beads, paintings.

Valuable because of its history:
THE Mona Lisa
The royal crown of a lost kingdom.
First edition of Evard's Black Tentacles.

Valuable because of location:
Water on Arrakis
Spice everywhere but Arrakis
Silk in Europe, but not in Asia


Just some ideas to see if I can get others thinking.

[Tequila Sunrise]

One of a set of numbered figurines. Collect them all!
For some reason, I really want to drop my players a bunch of randomly numbered figurines as loot. 1s will appear in every other dungeon room, while a 10 might appear once in a whole dungeon. Each one acts as a one-shot item; higher numbers grant better effects, but players won't want to use higher numbered figurines for fear they'll be unable to complete the series.

Little do they know, nothing special happens once they've collected them all. (If I don't just keep inventing higher and higher numbers.)


Fine clothing. Perfume. Make up. Why the ogre king had a wardrobe full of silk gowns is anyone's guess.
Maybe the troll's name is Caption Shakespeare (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqsV-aNoXtI)?

[Bonecrusher Doc]

A numbered set of figurines? Makes me think of B-E-S-U-R-E-T-O-D-R-I-N-K-Y-O-U-R-O-V-A-L-T-I-N-E. But at least the complete set would be worth more to an art collector.

I like the idea of treasure that is a bit of a challenge in itself. For example, a huge heavy chunk of copper - valuable, but you can't just toss it in your pocket. Or poisoned or cursed treasure, or like in Firefly the food bars that were difficult to sell because they had Alliance tracking information on them.