The Value of Treasure in DnD Campaign Building
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- Опубліковано 24 чер 2024
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Artist credit: Keith Parkinson
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Resources mentioned in the video:
Knock! Issue 1: tinyurl.com/2p9yepwm
Knock! Issue 2: tinyurl.com/mth9v9y7
Knock! Issue 3: tinyurl.com/7tvb9fkw
Council of Wyrms: tinyurl.com/2k8s58z6
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons: amzn.to/4cdflGj
The Fall of Gondolin: amzn.to/4cz5smk
What the Arkenstone can do for you: tinyurl.com/y88f2zz4
Treasure tells a story: tinyurl.com/bd9wdsk5
Bonded Treasure, aka the Smaugian Gambit: tinyurl.com/4yj5k4m2
Resources I like and use:
Old School Essentials Player's Tome: tinyurl.com/yc6d9756
Old School Essentials Referee's Tome : tinyurl.com/2mzhybku
The Monster Overhaul: tinyurl.com/yknhbf2m
Worlds Without Number FREE PDF: tinyurl.com/43nxtwna
Worlds Without Number Deluxe PDF/Print: tinyurl.com/4rye49jw
Tome of Adventure Design: tinyurl.com/2p2vbpr7
Mythic GM Emulator 2nd Edition: tinyurl.com/4b7smeur
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#dnd #osr #ttrpg #dungeonsanddragons
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Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statue that might otherwise be infringing. - Розваги
Resources mentioned in the video:
Knock! Issue 1: tinyurl.com/2p9yepwm
Knock! Issue 2: tinyurl.com/mth9v9y7
Knock! Issue 3: tinyurl.com/7tvb9fkw
Council of Wyrms: tinyurl.com/2k8s58z6
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons: amzn.to/4cdflGj
The Fall of Gondolin: amzn.to/4cz5smk
What the Arkenstone can do for you: tinyurl.com/y88f2zz4
Treasure tells a story: tinyurl.com/bd9wdsk5
Bonded Treasure, aka the Smaugian Gambit: tinyurl.com/4yj5k4m2
Thank you for these resources. Keep up the awesome work.
I have implemented heirloom items that link to and expand upon players backstories and future story events. These items will evolve with the characters and take on new properties according to their actions in game.
Hidden workshops, libraries, and magical resources scattered about dungeons tend to draw my players in.
Yep, good ideas!
This is easy to do when the nearest dungeon is a community of Gnomes cursed to slowly degenerate into the form of Goblins and Kobolds, who are stealing food because they are too lazy to grow their own.
I agree with this philosophy so much that when I started planning my campaign I got sidetracked for weeks by making a whole system of famous artists and lost valuable art pieces and different cities that valued them to different degrees
Yeah good stuff! I've tinkered with famous artists and/or craftsman so there are items distinguished by their maker.
@@Earthmote I know it's probably too niche of a topic but if possible I'd love to hear more about that
reading other people's useful comments and ideas is one of the best things about your channel. A broken magical item the PCs can learn about repair can be a nice background side quest and resource sink.
I think the section on intelligent swords in original DnD is a fantastic resource of flavor and interesting mechanics for magic weapons in general
Yep! lots of good stuff there for giving items different benefits
Making the occasional fun treasure item can really make stuff interesting. I have a list of magic item names to give when they find a magical item. Simply naming the item gives it a cool factor and they can search out its history if they desire. I also just injected a magical dagger into one of my groups. A simple +1 dagger that has a heart-shaped jewel set into its pommel. They discovered from a bard that the dagger is designed to stab into ones own heart and doing so allows them to cast the Limited Wish spell as a final act. They were both freaked out and loved that dagger instantly. No one wants to use it but the simple idea that it exists was exciting for them.
Sounds cool! I like items with a high upside that also have a risk associated with it.
I love the "give to get" concept. One of the big things that drew into GURPS is that when you run out of FP ( Magic Points ) you can burn your own life ( lose hit points ) as a substitute. Even to death if you chose.
Perfect tool for the “Last Chance Limited Wish Shopper”
@@dane3038 - Yeah, GURPS has a rather Sword & Sorcery style magic system. Love those which requires casting rolls and soft limits on how much you can use it - with a chance the magic will do something nasty or dangerous if control is lost or you have to use it too much.
One problem you could throw at the players with a treasure horde can be as simple as “how are we gonna carry all this gold”
The fallen coins tell a story...
I love the idea of a mutualistic relationship between "hoard" and a magical "guardian".
Since some beings collect people, I am inspired to make something like a Psyonic Lord, where the ruler gains power from being around so many intelligent minds, but the people are blessed with psychic or magical abilities that make their lives easy. The Lord is doing evil with their abilities, but those powering him don't care because the existence of the Lord makes their lives easy... Might be a fun campaign arc.
That's a cool idea! I didn't think about extending it to living beings, but that could be interesting for sure
I'm gonna be honest: in D&D 5e and PF2e I just mentally check out at the end of the session when the GM is telling us what we found on the enemies/room. I used to love it in 4e where you had a ton of slots and no need to attune. To his credit I've been more engaged with his scenarios, both combat and social, than most campaigns I've played before.
Plus once you have a handful of magic items it's like... I already have these cool powers, or protections, or whatever options, so if I get a bunch more statues or potions or super cool new weapon I almost never use them. That last sentence doesn't word it quite right, but close enough. It's like D&D5e/PF2e makes the candy of magic items super concentrated sweetness and I only want so much or something.
More credit to the GM I mentioned is he does try to give us cool custom items, weapons, etc. so that adds to the the "I have cool things already" mindset. I also wanted to mention I enjoyed the video. I'm glad your videos were recommended, along with others who have almost the opposite play/GM style as you which gives a nice variety of ways to think about the game.
Yeah that's fair. I play more OSR style games where players have fewer innate abilities/skills. So magic items can really help define the characters. But everyone can/will enjoy different things about the game and that's all good!
Great ideas to spark creativity
The tale that treasure tells is in the spending.
I know Tabletop RPG's tend to keep their Magical Items lesser by design but I think the normal "Normal, Enchanted, Magical, Legendary and Unique" if modified for the Game would work well.
Normal is just a Sword.
Enchanted is a Swors with a moderately produced rune or enchantment that hits more often.
Magic are the Fire Swords and What not but able they should work in different ways. - IE needing to wait a day, feast on evil, a resource or taps your soul
Legendary is a souped up Magic item or having unique effects like one per day just inverting a enemy effects or attack to punish them or a shield that disrupts focus.
And Uniques? Just go crazy imo
You can use treasure to reinforce the world setting. Just drop a family crest or trademark here and there.
I have used non monetary treasure for years. Tapestries, Fine rugs, Furniture. And these type of items have the added benefit of being more cumbersome that a bag 'o gold. Imagine they fine a jar with a pound of Saffron. Could be worth a hundred time its weight, if they take it with them. What is the value of a Library of a couple hundred books in a Medieval time frame. And maybe there is a magic tome or two in the bulk of the books. All the party need do is transport it back to a safe place. Imagine the plot hooks contained within these books for the clever player that takes the time to investigate. Finally, I switched to a silver based economy several years ago. One side bonus was the party has to carry a lot more coinage to get the gold equivalent of XP.
Yeah good stuff! The idea of putting a massive treasure item in the dungeon, but let the players figure out if/how they can get it out of there can be fun.
Hey! I'm from Janthar!
This video gives me an idea! Do you think treasure can be used as a rumor delivery system? I just started running a campaign inspired by Soulsborne games, so naturally, I want to include Fromsoft's lore-filled item descriptions, but I don't want them to be the way I handle the plot - Instead, I just want them to be an additional thing my players can invest in if they choose. For example, here's a weapon they found:
"Belonged to the famed outlaw Bennie Brawn, who swore up and down the goddess of luck was his lover and personally granted him good fortune. After a band of bounty hunters caught wind of Bennie's trail, they pursued him until the ends of the earth where they were faced with the realization: Maybe there was some truth to his tall tale. This trick weapon was all they could find of him, and the bounty hunters disbanded shortly afterward."
I think this has potential because it begs questions that the players can find answers to. This NPC didn't exist in the setting until this weapon was found. Where is he, what happened? Is the goddess of luck even real? Why did the bounty hunters get so rattled and disband?
Well now, any bounty hunter NPC's they come across might have some connection to this weapon. Or, certain outlaws may recognize it. Either way, it's something my players can choose to investigate themselves if they wish - And since my players ARE the plot, it only becomes relevant to the plot if they decide to research into it.
What do you think? My only real issue is "How the heck do the PC's know this?" But in a game inspired by Souls games I don't think this is a true issue.
Yeah for sure! There are a couple ways you could do it I think:
- The items could be well known to the inhabitants, even if the players don't know about it. So they could react to the players with those items or make comments about their history.
- If you are using a system that has magic spells like identify or legend lore you could share some snippets through that too.
- You could have the first person to touch it catch a brief vision of the items past (your outlaw running away and dropping it or something)
- Just telling them there characters would know it is totally fine too (just like souls games do through the descriptions).
@@Earthmote cheers! Looking forward to new videos.
I am going to make a Tabletop RPG and for me, I want to try and balance it between finding Magical Items, Stealing or slicing it off a bosses arm and.. Researching Principles to craft truly powerful items.
Ie: Thaumcraft Pickaxe of the Core with each hit melts X armor
Sword of Zeprhy where it can shoot chain lighting and create a Tornado ward to reflect shots.
Sounds fun, best of luck with your designs!
@@EarthmoteThank you!
So if we go back to the best and true edition of Dungeons & dragons, AD&D 2nd edition 😎.... My fighter was specialized in the Bastard Sword. So he wanted to find a magical Bastard Sword. Well after a while he comes across the shopkeeper who says this is a magical sword, and the fighter not being the brightest spark on the block believes the shopkeeper that it's magical.... he paid 1500 gold pieces for this sword 😎... Now imagine this is a really nice looking sword, and handles nice, it feels great it's well balanced.... Well it turns out, it's actually just a really well made sort, not magical nothing... Oh but the fighter, that's a magical sword man.... But in reality it's just a really good looking sword. so that is how my fighter acquired The 'Exceptional Sword'.... And man that is a nice looking sword 🤩.
Hilarious!
And that right there is why everyone specialized in longsword.
Oh man! I learned long ago that treasure is NEVER just "500gp and a +1 sword". It's typically going to be a handful of various coins with the balance being mundane items relevant to the creatures and location of the treasure ~ a band of Goblins would have a different treasure "style" than, say, a band of Lizardfolk, or a nest of Giant Spiders. And the +1 sword is never "just" a +1 sword: it was crafted by someone for someone, or for some purpose. Even my minor magic items will typically have a secondary power that mimics a cantrip of some sort, and possibly a number of runes on the item that represent the charges that it has before that extra magic power is depleted. Bards and scholars might be able to determine the origin and partial history of the item as well.
Your comment about folks recognizing an item ~ my party recently found a sword that gave the party sorcerer a very uneasy feeling just looking at it. The sorcerer has a draconic background, and the sword is a Serpent Slaying weapon (but they don't know that quite yet) >:-]
as usual you video is on point - I do not only enjoy the excellent content but also the way you present it. Your structure and calm style makes me come back to your videos time and time again. Thank you for the great content!
Very cool video. Adding story flavor to even minor magical items can make for a more memorable find in a treasure horde. This is great advice. It is living gamable lore.
Glad it was helpful!
Great ideas! 🌟
Good show. Our group loves weapons that grow and change as characters level and progress.
Preach! I've recently gotten into this concept and it's fun.
I personally want to use this idea from a Terraria mod called Spirit. You form a Weapon out of Boss Parts called a Signature Weapon and you keep it from Eater of Worlds till MoonLord.
Lovely set of weapons with abilities that scale up.
Happy Days had a section on it but it the OLD Spirit verison.
Randall you are honestly my favourite TTRPG youtuber by far, and your content has inspired me hugely in how I want to run first campaign - a hexcrawl sandbox using the Icon system. So thanks for being awesome!
Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you find the stuff useful.
I've written treasure that tells a story, but also comes with a liability. Such as specific ritual coins found in a barrow that can not be spent locally, because the citizens will recognize that the party has been raiding local tombs.
That's some quality content on your channel!
As a novice GM I wish I had the time and skill to weave it all in my (Daggerheart) Campaign.
Cheers!
Much appreciated!
Great ideas!
Great video
Such great ideas! Thank you so much!!
Glad it was helpful!
Hell yeah! I'm here for it!
Where can I find the Better Treasure article please 🙏?
My big problem here is, treasure is pretty much synonymous of weapon, and especially in D&D, all the "numerical" weapons, armors and especially in 3.X / PF, mandatory boosters (saves, attributes and AC chiefly) are not meant in the system to be exceptional, but expected, due to maths, upgrade as you go. Sadly adventurers need to survive and thrive, and efficiency beats story for many of them in my experience
From my outsider pov, DnD stuff seems to be flawed? Like surely there has to be ways to work around beside "buying offical homebrew books"
For me, I would make competitive sidegrade stuff that does stuff like modifying a Thaumcraft "Pickaxe of the Core" to melt foes armor off with each hit.
Something like that will never bot be useful but if it was a strict dnd magic item, probably be tossed.
@@Subject_Keter Funny I would offer the Obuch from Age Of Empire 2 as an example for the same ability. If you miss, lower target AC by 1, but only the armor / shield part. After a couple hits it is competitive with +X weapons, but it does nothing particular against stuffs with no armor
I am not sure how you would DnD treasure basically needing to be better weapons, armor and what not this is my idea for my own game.
The heroes are them self succient types so they research alot of stuff so they can design and make depenable weapons.
Weapons found in Dungeons are the strongest at X function but generally bad allrounders, Magical weapons can be strong but require resources from your blood, plant juice or knowledge to use right and..
The heroes can breakdown these things to research abd craft a well rounded thing that does X well.
So all 3 tug and pull to help free up Treasure to be Treasure
Great video
Thanks!