[3.5] Treasure Generation, Splatbooks, and You

[Feliks878]

So, I come with a few questions.

When you defeat an enemy, it drops shiny things. This is a goshdarn fact, immutable in D&D at least as long as I've been playing it. Players desire these shiny objects, with a passion roughly analogous to something involving the overweight children of the world and delicious, delicious cake. This is something, I believe, we can all agree on.

There are even rules for randomly selecting this scrumptious set of baubles to give to your player. Here is where my problem occurs. The rules for this random generation and the tables associated with it exist in the Dungeon Master's Guide. WotC, in their infinite Benevolence and Wisdom, then released other books, and these had other shiny things in it. Wonderful! But there were no easy ways to add these items to our old treasure system. It was as if I was at a classic, 1950's style diner with an astounding array sugary confections across the counter. I got to role a dice to choose from them. But there were hundreds of confections, and my dice only had four sides, which corresponded to Apple, Cherry, Blueberry, and Peach. While I like all those things, I wish the die had enough sides that I could end up with Chocolate Chip Explosion too, especially after eating the first four for a few years.

So, please, tell me - are there any sources that consolidate splatbook items into a random loot system? The sheer number of scrolls that would be added is huge, not to mention potions, staves, wands, weapons, etc.

What I would ideally want is a program that lets me choose what books I can use and generates treasure based off of that. Or even a mechanic to do it by hand.

Alternatively, how do you give out treasure? Wishlists, random generation, flipping open a book and saying "this one!", players bribing you with pie (oh god I'm so hungry), pre-chosen shinies, etc.?

[Volos]

I've modified the random generation tables in my DMG with some notes that I keep stuck inside the book. When I roll for 'splatbook', I roll a die with enough sides to represent the books I think they players would enjoy getting treasure for. I roll as if I'm getting something from the DMG, and then select something of equal or lesser value from the splatbook.

But most of the time my players loot the baddies to such an extent that they just get the cool equipment that I spent hours looking for to make the encounter more interesting. Though I do take note of each baddie and what sort of pain is wrought upon him by the players. Fire (and potenially water) ruins most scrolls or flamable loot. Acid takes the masterwork quality off of almost anything (or severly reduces the hardness, but they don't know that). And ice makes metal items seriously brittle. My players usually walk away with very little for treasure until they reach the center of whatever it is they are tying to accomplish. Then they get the big rewards. My 15th level party just got 15K gp each ontop of the Landlord feat for free due to good roleplay. They're having fun building their new castle now.

[dsmiles]

Due to the sheer quantity of splat out there, I usually hand-pick the treasures for random encounters at least a week in advance.

[Feliks878]

Handpicking treasure seems like such a good idea, but there is something obscenely alluring to me about random generation. So many silly stories about it as well, such as the time we went into the Underdark and emerged two sessions later with two Trident's of Fish Command. It encourages me to give out items I would never think to give, and that my players would never buy.

[Greenish]

MIC has random treasure tables for the booty it contains, I seem to recall. Really, that alone goes for a long way, no?

[Akal Saris]

I do the same as dsmiles, with the only exception being for treasures of truly immense size, such as a dragon's hoard or the throne room of an evil overlord.

I've had players complain bitterly about rolled loots before, since the arbitrary nature of the dice can lead to either very powerful items that as a DM I then need to compensate for (we had a level 9 PC once roll up a +8 weapon, for example), or to completely worthless junk.

[Feliks878]

MIC has random treasure tables for the booty it contains, I seem to recall. Really, that alone goes for a long way, no?

I actually did not know that. The MiC is a book I do not actually own. I will keep this in mind for the future, and maybe start writing up my own table to randomly select a book.

Thanks.

[big teej]

So, I come with a few questions.
What I would ideally want is a program that lets me choose what books I can use and generates treasure based off of that. Or even a mechanic to do it by hand.

Alternatively, how do you give out treasure? Wishlists, random generation, flipping open a book and saying "this one!", players bribing you with pie (oh god I'm so hungry), pre-chosen shinies, etc.?

now, for the record, I haven't implemented this yet (players are still learning)

BUT

once it becomes neccessary, I plan to make a table to determine what book the treasure will come from (correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most books have treasure tables in the back?)

if not.... well then, I get to have fun making tables

[Bakkan]

I really enjoy the Magic Item Compendium random treasure tables. They are very easy to use (more so than the DMG tables in my opinion). They don't have every item out there, but they have a lot. One of the advantages of the MiC random treasure tables is that they're far less "swingy" than the DMG tables, so you will never get a level 9 encounter granting a +8 weapon.

On the other hand, the MiC tables tend to roll a lot of scrolls, so if you don't have an archivist or wizard in the party, I would reroll some of the scroll results you get. I also reroll any item that doesn't make sense for the encounter or campaign (e.g., the MiC tables include incarnum and psionic items, either of which may not be appropriate to your setting).

[dsmiles]

I do the same as dsmiles, with the only exception being for treasures of truly immense size, such as a dragon's hoard or the throne room of an evil overlord.

Same here, except even in ginormous treasures, i'll still hand pick at least a dozen items (not necessarily magic items, though).