Inspiration for treasure?

[hymer]

Does anyone know of some good resources for descriptions of valuable loot, something to get the inspiration going? I need something that will get some level of detail, like 'Small ivory idol of an orcish warrior spirit' and things like that.
Preferably online and free, of course. :smallsmile:

[Berenger]

It's been a while since I read it, but I guess The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings has some descriptions of typical loot (dragons hoard, magical weapons etc.). Can't point you page numbers, though.

[Lord Torath]

Whenever you put in a piece of jewelry, describe it briefly. Something like <metal> and <gemstone> with <animal/plant/object> motif:

Example: A matched set of necklace and earrings out of gold and sapphires in a wolf motif. Arm bands and anklets of silver etched with curleques. A lily pendant carved from mahogany on a leather necklace.

Statuettes are fun: A woman holding a water vessel out of ivory. A rearing stallion carved of marble. A sleeping dragon curled around a faceted crystal ball, carved out of wood and gilt with gold. Pick an animal/person, an action, and a material.

Keep the descriptions short, unless you mean the item to be a major plot point. If you have a whole paragraph for each item, the players are going to start tuning it all out. They may anyway, but they're less likely to if you keep it short.

[ellindsey]

I get treasure inspiration from playing Dwarf Fortress. If you set your dwarves to produce crafts constantly, and also have some decorating those crafts, you'll eventually get some remarkably detailed randomly generated treasure items. They're mostly random crap, but sometimes you'll get items that with a little imagination can be turned into unique treasure. For example, one of my dwarves produced a glass statue of a carp. Another dwarf took that and added a decoration of a mouse in platinum to it. I picture a statue of a carp rearing up out of water, with a platinum mouse riding its back like a cowboy. There you go, a randomly generated piece of treasure to put in your next hoarde.

[turbo164]

I get treasure inspiration from playing Dwarf Fortress. If you set your dwarves to produce crafts constantly, and also have some decorating those crafts, you'll eventually get some remarkably detailed randomly generated treasure items. They're mostly random crap, but sometimes you'll get items that with a little imagination can be turned into unique treasure. For example, one of my dwarves produced a glass statue of a carp. Another dwarf took that and added a decoration of a mouse in platinum to it. I picture a statue of a carp rearing up out of water, with a platinum mouse riding its back like a cowboy. There you go, a randomly generated piece of treasure to put in your next hoarde.

Hard to top the stone bed menacing with spikes of spider silk though :P

Torath's method works well, and feel free to make dice charts to help make those choices for you. (d% for wood/ivory/silver/gold/mithril/tungsten/clay/whatever)

Paintings are another fun thing to throw in a hoard, and pretty easy to make up on the spot. "A d4+1 foot painting of a d6 person/landscape/boat/house/dragon/flower. The quality appears to be d3 crayon/average/masterpiece. It is in a d4 cheap wood/rich wood/cheap metal/rich metal frame."

Well made walnut furniture with ornate leaf carvings or whatnot works too.

Silverware is easy, and again you can add little touches like animal/nature engravings along the handle.

Also depending on where this treasure is found; real life pirates and thieves have been known to rip jewels out of a bracelet/necklace/statue, and hammer the remaining gold/silver into scrap metal. Loses some value, but much harder to trace back to "The Duchess of Karington's famous falcon-shaped brooch that was stolen 3 weeks ago" so it's easier to fence on the black market. (Some would be left intact of course, depends on the item and the thief).

[Fouredged Sword]

I once sent my party after a shipment of coins that fell victim to a robbery on the road.

Then they had to figure out how to haul 100,000 copper pieces back to town.

The look on their faces was pure gold.

[Rhynn]

Does anyone know of some good resources for descriptions of valuable loot, something to get the inspiration going? I need something that will get some level of detail, like 'Small ivory idol of an orcish warrior spirit' and things like that.
Preferably online and free, of course. :smallsmile:

Not online and not free, unfortunately, but the old AD&D 1E to 2E conversion book for FR, Forgotten Realms Adventures, is legendary for this: it has a 100 entry "art object" listing of one-paragraph descriptions of precious items. I can not recommend it enough.

Two example entries (out of 100):

93: A toy warrior made of bronze with a wire sword (broken off and missing). The eyes of the warrior are tiny, faceted turquoises (5 gp value each). The shield of the warrior has a silver inlay. Very finely worked, with detailed features and armor (20 gp value total).
94: A gold chain necklace attached by gold wire to six plates of electrum, shaped in matching pairs to cover the upper chest/collarbone area of a man-sized humanoid. Each pectoral plate is set with a large, faceted sapphire (1,600-gp value each, all perfectly matched in size and cut), and from these plates depend four pyramid-cut matched chrysoprase stones (emerald green, worth 80 gp each). The pectoral would only provide AC 6 protection, and seems to be ornamental in nature (10,000 gp value total).

edit: There's also a giant listing of gemstones of the realms, many of them real, many original inventions. Many will be familiar to player's of the Baldur's Gate games. There's also various unusual types of currency.


Tharsult Statues: Far to the south, the nation of Tharsult uses small art objects in trade. These statues of ivory, jade, and serpentine are used as coinage in that region, and have reached the heartlands of the Realms as curios. Typical statues are worth 15 gp each in the North, but only 5 gp each in their native land.

Mercenary Cards: Small cards of parchment about the size of a Talis card, marked on one size with the symbol of a particular mercenary unit. The reverse usually has some handwritten scrawl from the troop's paymaster authorizing payment. The payment is equal to 15 gp per unit of "other currency" found. If the mercenary organization still exists, its present paymaster will authorize the payment (and perhaps offer more work as well). Mercenary paymasters are accustomed to individuals producing cards that have been found in monster lairs, stolen, or won in card games.

Sunstone: A feldspar gem, closely related to moonstone, and more properly known as oligoclase. Sunstone can be colorless or faintly greenish and of facet grade, but most common by far is its softer (cabochon) variety. This rarely yields gemstones more than ¾-inch in diameter, and has bright red or orange spangles (minute crystals) suspended in a nearly colorless background in a parallel fashion, giving the whole a rich golden or reddish brown color.

Thuparlial: Also called prehnite, this hard, tough gemstone varies in color from rich green through pale greenish yellow and yellow to brown. It is translucent and is cut in facets if light-colored, but otherwise cut cabochon. It is abundant in hardened lavas as crust lining gas cavities in the rock, but only rarely is this crust thick enough or colorful enough to be cut into gemstones.

/edit

The original The Ruins of Undermountain set also had smaller tables of less detailed treasure items.


I once sent my party after a shipment of coins that fell victim to a robbery on the road.

Then they had to figure out how to haul 100,000 copper pieces back to town.

The look on their faces was pure gold.

Assuming a generous 50% inefficiency on space for coins and D&D's "50 to a pound" coins, you'd need a box 2' x 2' x 2' for those coins. (Density of copper is 559 lbs per cu ft, 100,000 coins is 2,000 lbs.) It just needs to be able to withstand the weight, which probably means a sturdy, thick-bottomed chest.

[Sidmen]

I once sent my party after a shipment of coins that fell victim to a robbery on the road.

Then they had to figure out how to haul 100,000 copper pieces back to town.

The look on their faces was pure gold.

Easy solution, offer some farmers 10% of the coin if they carry it for you, then calmly sit on their cart eating an apple as they do all the hard work.

[Fouredged Sword]

They where an hour out in the woods. The they got a tip go after was "worth thousands of gold" and they didn't bring mounts or pack animals.

They ended up buying some mules and getting back out to the woods, but the look on their faces when they found the haul (it was in a chest built into a broken cart, and none of them had craft)

[hymer]

@ Berenger: Good idea, thanks!

@ Lord Torath: Yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for inspiration for.

@ ellindsey & turbo164: Thanks for the suggestions and pointers.

@ Rhynn: I know I have a bunch of old FR books lying around. Looking in some of those would probably be a good idea. Thanks, and thanks for all that typing! :smallsmile:

[Lord Torath]

Okay. Whenever you need an animal, if nothing jumps to mind, roll on the Random Encounter table. Doesn't even matter which table. If you don't have any available, open the Monster Manual (or equivalent) and pick the first monster you see. For the next piece of treasure, turn 4 pages forward, and use that monster. If you wind up with a shapeless monster (jelly/mold/ooze/pudding/slime), just go with a circle or curliques. Or clouds.

After that, it's just choosing materials (and pose, for statues/sculptures).

[Amidus Drexel]

The Draconomicon for D&D 3.5 has a bunch of treasure tables in the back of the book for detailed and interesting treasure... it's neither easily accessed online nor free, though...

Seconding Tolkien - flip through the description of any of the royal halls, or of Smaug's hoard, and you'll find a plethora of things to use as treasure.

[Jay R]

You might try internet searches of art auctions.

[The Fury]

Okay. Whenever you need an animal, if nothing jumps to mind, roll on the Random Encounter table. Doesn't even matter which table. If you don't have any available, open the Monster Manual (or equivalent) and pick the first monster you see. For the next piece of treasure, turn 4 pages forward, and use that monster. If you wind up with a shapeless monster (jelly/mold/ooze/pudding/slime), just go with a circle or curliques. Or clouds.

After that, it's just choosing materials (and pose, for statues/sculptures).

Alternatively, if there's something that ties in with the setting's mythology use that. Also, ceremonial items might work well too.

[hymer]

@ Lord Torath: Interesting suggestion, thanks!

@ Amidus Drexel: I'm pretty sure someone in the group has one. Thanks!

@ Jay R: Good point!

@ The Fury: Thanks!

[Belril Duskwalk]

I knew I had seen this before:
http://chaoticshiny.com/artgen.php
Insert basics of the kind of art object loot you want and it spits back descriptions of objects. The sidebar also has charms, gems, treasure hoards, magical item descriptions (not stats, but rather appearances)

[hymer]

Marvellous! Thanks a bunch!