14 thoughts on “How do you give gold to your players? Do you actually use the treasure chart after the party kills a monster?”

  1. I personally call it Coin, and give it to my players when they search the bodies of creatures that might carry it. I usually don’t roll, but have done before.

  2. I’ve used it twice, so mostly commenting to see other responses… once was a low-level monster, and < 100 coins, no big deal. The other was an 800 coin gem in a party of 4-5, and it's been interesting to keep track of who's got it on them, and make them have to put effort into finding a buyer (they're still in the convenient low-population steading just outside the first dungeon). To add on to the question, if you don't use the treasure chart, what would you use in cases where some type of treasure is called for (e.g., The Labyrinth Move), but you don't have something fitting on hand?

  3. Yep. Unless I want them to find something specific. I usually have magic items of a certain variety to match the dungeon theme or the monsters within it created ahead of time just in case they get a magic item on the roll. If they get the “learn a new spell” roll, I usually theme it to the dungeon or just ask them what spell they would like to learn of their level or lower. That is if they have an arcane magic user who learns spells anyways. If not then they find a scroll of a spell or I let them reroll.

  4. Yeah, I love that table. I’ll use it…

    1) If they search the body or lair of a creature that might/could/should have treasure (unless there’s already some established, obvious treasure… but even then I might roll to see “what else”).

    2) If I’m prepping a location in advance, I’ll use it to spur ideas and then figure out where the valuables might be.

    3) If they Discern Realities in an area and ask “what here is useful or valuable to me” and I think “y’know, there might be some treasure here.” I’ll just pick a die type (usually d6 through d10) and roll, see what comes up.

    For the record, I do not just have the monsters drop random loot when the PCs kill them. But if it’s a creature that could/should have some valuables on them, I might offer an opportunity: “So, does anyone loot the bodies?” And then (per #1) roll on the table.

  6. In the time before time, the ur-deities of Prosperity and Peril were wed, and gave birth to many children, whose souls fell to earth and took up forms that followed their nature.

    Those which favored Mother Prosperity became humans, elves, dwarves and their ilk; they built great cities to tame the wild lands and turn them to profit, stamping out Peril wherever they could find it.

    Those which favored Father Peril became monsters; they roamed the lands leaving destruction in their wake, tearing down the wealth of their Prosperous cousins and hiding away whatever they could not destroy.

    And somewhere in the middle, neither mortal nor monsters, came the Adventurers. They walk a path between, attracting both fortune and danger like a magnet. To mortals, they bring a sword and spell to unearth wealth beyond measure, a river of gold that flows from the deep places of the earth and into the cities. To monsters, they bring blood and fury, an opportunity to spit fire and gnash teeth and spill forth all the chaos they are compelled to spread.

    It’s from them that we get the term “fortune favors the bold.” For them, Prosperity inevitably follows Peril, no matter how unlikely it may seem.

    …And that’s why I always roll the treasure table after they kill something. Fight terrible monsters, acquire filthy lucre; ’tis the life.

  9. At the moment, my players are extremely rich due to ripping off a Snake Empire during a time travel jaunt. However, they are on a brand new continent. Who knows what passes as currency when meeting new civilizations.

    So, no, I really don’t get into coin much. Right now, for them, food and supplies are much more important.

  13. Jeremy Strandberg So would you do this process 3 times since there are three goblins? Do you only do it once? Do you roll a D4 and then +2 since there are two other goblins (kind of like group rules)?

    Do people ACTUALLY use the treasure chart? or is it just something that gets in the way; you would rather just go on the fly/prepare drops before the table?

  14. It’s not scientific. You don’t “owe” the PCs any sort of wealth-by-level or anything like that.

    I generally roll the damage die once per “unit” (horde of 6 or more, group of 2-4, or an individual solitary creature).

    If the PCs encountered a group of 3 goblins (and it really was only 3? cuz goblins… there’s always more goblins), I’d roll 1d6 (their damage die) and assume that was for the group of them. In a larger horde, like an actual goblin warren, I’d probably break it up more by families or groupings. Plus, the chief or the orkaster would have their own (solitary) treasure roll.

    I can’t speak to whether anyone else ACTUALLY uses the treasure table, but yes, I use it. It’s a great tool for playing to see what happens.

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