Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 41 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Monsters & Treasure Volume 2.
**For those coming in, in the middle of this series I am giving you my take on OD&D during my first exposure starting in Sept of 1975. For this first part it is just the first three books of the original woodgrain box set and prior to obtaining the Greyhawk, Blackmoor and later Supplements.**
Now we are going to look at something that many players can get very enthusiastic about. Treasure! First we will look at the Treasure Types and I hope to highlight some things that may have passed unnoticed.
First up we have Type A, one of the unique things about Type A is that there are different numbers for Land vs Desert vs Water. Let us look at a few things:
Land has the greatest chance of Copper, Silver and Gold. It has the same chance of Gems and Jewelry as Desert, but in smaller quantities. It has a lower chance of Maps or Magic than Desert, but can have any three items. Desert then has lower chance of precious metal but larger amounts of Gems and Jewelry. It has no chance of Maps but the highest chance by quite a bit of any three Magic Items. Then we come to Water, no chance of Copper or Silver, but the largest chance and quantity of Gold. It also has the largest chance and quantity of Gems and Jewelry. But no chance of Magic, but a 50% chance of a Map.
It has always seemed odd to me that Desert and Water have a greater chance and a greater quantity of Gems & Jewelry than regular Land. Just as it strikes me as odd that Desert has the highest chance of Magic and Water has no chance of Silver (remember all those Spanish Treasure Ships of Gold AND Silver) and no chance of Magic only a Map. Water having the highest chance and quantity of Gold, Gems and Jewelry, I suppose makes sense in terms of Treasure Ships and encounters with Pirates and Buccaneers.
So the change that I made to the table is to give Water a higher chance of Silver to match the higher Chance of Gold. So Water has a 40% chance of 2-8 Silver and I also changed the chance of Magic and Maps from only a map to 1 Map AND 1 Magic at the same 50% chance. I left Desert as it was and changed Land to Copper 5-30 at a 30% chance and a instead of any three it became 3 Magic AND 1 Map.
This brings me to another point Type A is the treasure type for Men and for one other creature. Do you know or can you guess what that is? You have all of the various types of humanoids, plus Dwarves, Elves and Hobbits, but it is none of them. Have you guessed yet? It is Centaurs, go figure. But it gave me more ideas about how to play Centaurs. What do you think? Please share your ideas in the comments.
Next we will jump all the way to the bottom of the table to look at the three footnotes that apply to Type A Treasure.
First the note about Treasure only found in the Lair is the purpose of this table and any amounts carried with the various monsters is as was indicated in the individual descriptions. So if not in the Lair and not indicated in the description, Treasure found during an encounter is a house rule.
Now on to the three numbered footnotes. Note 1 are additional rules for Brigands and Bandits, the first only has important prisoners (*guess what happens to the unimportant) while Bandits just have prisoners. Both will carry a little bit of Silver on there persons. Berserkers have neither prisoners nor coin, while Cavemen have no treasure.
*What are your guesses? Please share them in the comments. I am looking for ideas other than killing them or abusing them.
Note 2 indicates that Nomads will have prisoners and some Silver on their persons, while Dervishes will have neither.
Note 3 indicates both Pirates and Buccaneers have prisoners the same as do Bandits. Instead of carrying a bit of Silver they each carry a bit of Gold. Mermen though only have treasure in their Lairs.
Although not mentioned, I always assumed that whether encountered outside the Lair or in the Lair, those Men that take prisoners would have a chance of having prisoners with them. I treated it as a 80% chance in the Lair and a 30% chance outside the Lair. My players found out that rescuing important people can be quite rewarding, but they unexpectedly found out that the benefits of rescuing the "ordinary" people could be in many ways much more rewarding. No, I am not talking about sex. Can you guess what some of those rewards are? Please share them in the comments.
Tomorrow we will continue on down the table.
Today is Part 41 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Monsters & Treasure Volume 2.
**For those coming in, in the middle of this series I am giving you my take on OD&D during my first exposure starting in Sept of 1975. For this first part it is just the first three books of the original woodgrain box set and prior to obtaining the Greyhawk, Blackmoor and later Supplements.**
Now we are going to look at something that many players can get very enthusiastic about. Treasure! First we will look at the Treasure Types and I hope to highlight some things that may have passed unnoticed.
First up we have Type A, one of the unique things about Type A is that there are different numbers for Land vs Desert vs Water. Let us look at a few things:
Land has the greatest chance of Copper, Silver and Gold. It has the same chance of Gems and Jewelry as Desert, but in smaller quantities. It has a lower chance of Maps or Magic than Desert, but can have any three items. Desert then has lower chance of precious metal but larger amounts of Gems and Jewelry. It has no chance of Maps but the highest chance by quite a bit of any three Magic Items. Then we come to Water, no chance of Copper or Silver, but the largest chance and quantity of Gold. It also has the largest chance and quantity of Gems and Jewelry. But no chance of Magic, but a 50% chance of a Map.
It has always seemed odd to me that Desert and Water have a greater chance and a greater quantity of Gems & Jewelry than regular Land. Just as it strikes me as odd that Desert has the highest chance of Magic and Water has no chance of Silver (remember all those Spanish Treasure Ships of Gold AND Silver) and no chance of Magic only a Map. Water having the highest chance and quantity of Gold, Gems and Jewelry, I suppose makes sense in terms of Treasure Ships and encounters with Pirates and Buccaneers.
So the change that I made to the table is to give Water a higher chance of Silver to match the higher Chance of Gold. So Water has a 40% chance of 2-8 Silver and I also changed the chance of Magic and Maps from only a map to 1 Map AND 1 Magic at the same 50% chance. I left Desert as it was and changed Land to Copper 5-30 at a 30% chance and a instead of any three it became 3 Magic AND 1 Map.
This brings me to another point Type A is the treasure type for Men and for one other creature. Do you know or can you guess what that is? You have all of the various types of humanoids, plus Dwarves, Elves and Hobbits, but it is none of them. Have you guessed yet? It is Centaurs, go figure. But it gave me more ideas about how to play Centaurs. What do you think? Please share your ideas in the comments.
Next we will jump all the way to the bottom of the table to look at the three footnotes that apply to Type A Treasure.
First the note about Treasure only found in the Lair is the purpose of this table and any amounts carried with the various monsters is as was indicated in the individual descriptions. So if not in the Lair and not indicated in the description, Treasure found during an encounter is a house rule.
Now on to the three numbered footnotes. Note 1 are additional rules for Brigands and Bandits, the first only has important prisoners (*guess what happens to the unimportant) while Bandits just have prisoners. Both will carry a little bit of Silver on there persons. Berserkers have neither prisoners nor coin, while Cavemen have no treasure.
*What are your guesses? Please share them in the comments. I am looking for ideas other than killing them or abusing them.
Note 2 indicates that Nomads will have prisoners and some Silver on their persons, while Dervishes will have neither.
Note 3 indicates both Pirates and Buccaneers have prisoners the same as do Bandits. Instead of carrying a bit of Silver they each carry a bit of Gold. Mermen though only have treasure in their Lairs.
Although not mentioned, I always assumed that whether encountered outside the Lair or in the Lair, those Men that take prisoners would have a chance of having prisoners with them. I treated it as a 80% chance in the Lair and a 30% chance outside the Lair. My players found out that rescuing important people can be quite rewarding, but they unexpectedly found out that the benefits of rescuing the "ordinary" people could be in many ways much more rewarding. No, I am not talking about sex. Can you guess what some of those rewards are? Please share them in the comments.
Tomorrow we will continue on down the table.
No comments:
Post a Comment