Tag: Marques Jordan

The treasure table. For those of you who give out coins as treasure or monster loot, do you rely on the TT only or do you make up values on the spot? Does anybody assign a loot value to a monster before it appears in play (e.g. Goblin is worth 10 coins or 2d6 coins)?

After much thought I feel removing coins from my game or replacing them with useful items will rob my player of an incentive and fun. So now I am trying to tackle how I will handle treasure.

I’ve been studying the topic a lot lately and there seem to be four primary schools of thought on how to handle treasure in a fantasy game. I’m having a tough choice trying to figure out which approach I wish to pursue.

1. Keep Treasure Sparse, Make Every Coin Count!

Money is a focal point of the game, not because buying stuff is cool, but because the gritty nature of getting by on low amounts of cash is a fun addition to the game. Encumbrance from coins or treasure is never a worry because treasure is simply too sparse. Spending a week in town trying to earn some extra coins through odd jobs just so you can leave for that next adventure prepared is part of the game experience.

 – Loot is a big incentive

 – It is exciting to find

 – Players depend upon it to survive

2. Loot Is Loot, No Biggie

Money is handled pretty hand-wavium. Yes you will find loot or treasure on adventures but whether you do or not really isn’t the point. You won’t have to check your wallet if you want to a night at the Inn or a round of drinks for your friends. Basic equipment needs are assumed to be met. Uncommon, Rare, and Magical items are more desirable and almost always found through old fashioned detective work and questing.

 – Loot is an after thought

 – Usually serves a functional purpose in game

 – Often used to spark adventure vs as a reward

 – Players usually don’t think about it

3. Loot Is Everywhere, The More The Better

Money is a focal point of the game, because buying stuff is cool. Markets and merchants are a big part of the game. Just about anything can be purchased for a price and equipment lists are usually long and thorough, much like a Sears, Roebuck and Co catalog. Real Estate is often a focal point of loot heavy campaigns. Adventures often revolve around these various possessions or adventuring to finance them or more.

 – Loot is a primary focus

 – It shapes the world, its people, & opportunities

 – Players greatly desire it

 

4. Treasure Is Replaced, Player Desire Shifted

Traditional coins and gems either don’t exist or are rarely addressed. Instead of using money as an incentive to adventure, another type of object is used in its place. Numenera focuses on one-use magic items, artifacts, and cyphers to entice players to adventure. They add to the game fiction, are something the players often go through quickly, and are the new shiny things players will dream of obtaining.

 – Loot is a big incentive, though not required

 – Usually serves a specific purpose in game

 – Often iconic of or important to the setting

 – Players may depend on or desire it

One last Cleric question. If Human is used as the race, when the cleric communes, can the player choose a different Wizard spell?

The reason I ask is because when you commune it specifically states you lose any learned spells. Race acquired or not, why wouldn’t you forget that one too? And they are both apart of a default class on the same character sheet. Why wouldn’t they specify it was an exception to commune if that is the case? It sounds like it could go either way due to poor wording.

Looking at the Cleric closely. Can I get some opinions and/or examples of how precepts apply to using Divine Guidance?

Looking at Druid gear, section “choose your defenses”. What is the difference between 1 armor and +1 armor?

Also, what are the common animal moves on the druid CS about? I saw no mention of this in the rulebook.

Compendium Classes, do you use them? They seem kind of lame to me since you pick a CC advanced move instead of a normal class AM. Not to mention they seem very specific, as if each one (I’ve seen) is  perfectly geared for someone elses campaign.

A quick question about hirelings. It sounds to me like you really only get to choose from the hireling skills as far as what kind of people you can employ. Is there no chance of hiring a warrior with the Blacksmith move or a Druid to change the weather? If so, hirelings seem pretty weak and hollow, both in capability and game fiction wise.

Do you handle them differently in your game?

A couple of questions about Advanced Moves.

Druid – World Talker: Does this move allow me to turn into something like a Volcano and a Squirrel made of Fire? I’m pretty sure about the squirrel but for the Volcano, Thing-talker states “to inanimate natural objects (plants and rocks) or creatures made thereof, as well as animals.” So it sounds like it to me.

Wizard – Prodigy: The wording of this spell is simply confusing. What exactly is this saying I can do? It doesn’t specify whether it includes Cleric spells too and it its reference to “one level lower” makes no sense to me. Also it mentions nothing of limitations. Could I choose a Lv 9 wizard spell? How exactly does this work?

A quick question about Arcane Art. “When you weave a performance into a basic spell,” Does this reflect playing music when a Cleric or Wizard is casting a spell? If not, what qualifies as a spell for this move?

I’m curious with so many different play styles out there. Do you track coins in your DW game? If you do not, do you use anything in place for loot? I’m considering a Numenera approach with regular one use magic item drops.

For those of you who do not track coins, how do you handle Adventuring Gear? There are five uses. If a player spends a use to pull out rope, when they are done using it, can they collect it and put it back in the bag? From that point forward do they have rope and four uses left? Do you allow them to take more than 5 uses of Adventuring Gear?