let-players-choose-the-treasure

Let Players Choose The Treasure

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0931

RPT GM Michael Shean-Jones wrote in with a cool idea about handling rewards. In cases where treasure need not be a secret for story reasons, try this:

Hi Johnn,

Reading and thinking about Gold for XP: Where does the treasure come from?

Why. Whhhhhy do monsters have all this liquid currency anyways?

Thinking about it, somebody had to mint the money and then somebody had to have been carrying the money for somebody else to take it away from them for it to end up in the dungeon….

Who was carrying 500 gp in a chest and why wasn’t it protected better? What is the story there? Could that be an adventure seed? Where does the treasure go?

If it comes down to inserting items equal to the treasure value of the monsters, how about giving the players a budget and letting them come up with what they could find?

For example, if the monster is supposed to have 250 – 500 gp in treasure, have the players roll for how much is there and let them buy that much stuff for what they find in the lair.

Great tip, Michael. Thanks!