Treasure in Dungeons and Dragons

Finding Treasure. An adventurer’s favorite part of the game right? Delvers live to find treasure. it is the very reason that they risk their lives going underground into places where the undead live and where other nasty creatures lurk in the dark. But so often treasure descriptions in modules and adventures read like this:

“Ok. You find 1500 gold pieces. And a magic sword. And a vial of liquid that looks like a potion.”

Kinda boring right? So how do we jazz it up. I mean if you are playing 1st Edition they have these wonderful tables at the back of the various monster manuals for the dungeon master to randomly roll up treasures for the creatures that are met and defeated in combat. In 5E there are some elaborate tables in the DMG that do much the same thing. Generic treasures. Blah. As a dungeon master….you can do better.

Malcon’s Tome of Treasure

I, Malcon the Firebringer, wrote a volume on this very subject. It is called my Tome of Treasure and is available on DriveThruRpg as a pay what you want file. In that book I describe all kinds of treasures that could be found in a dungeon. I also describe many types of treasure that your adventurers might not see as treasure at all. Things like:

• Spell components – they are certainly valuable…but will your players see bat dung as being treasure?
• Normal weapons
• Normal suits of armor
• treasure maps
• books – a book is a sage’s best friend. If a book is in a subject that a sage is highly interested in….what wouldn’t he pay in order to get his hands on it?

Types of Treasure

Just because the book and the dice say your players find 1500 gold pieces does not mean you have to hand them a pile of coins. Perhaps they find an ancient woven rug worth 250 gold pieces, a finely carved ivory statue of some ancient goddess worth 250 gold pieces, a portrait of some dead king worth 500 gold pieces and 500 gold Juralian coins that cannot be spent in their current realm. This is a much more interesting pile of treasure and is much more realistic too.

The coins can’t be spent. They need a money changer. The painting might be a rare antique. Perhaps some collector would pay more for it. The statue might be considered blasphemous and local religious leaders might want it destroyed. The rug might be valuable but it also might be heavy and bulky. Encumbrance issues might prevent the adventurers from extracting it easily from the dungeon.

The treasures found by the delvers can create adventures all of their own. How will the adventurers get these things to the surface. Will the other denizens of the deep allow them to take these things without a fight? And how do the delvers sell these things for the most money? And do not forget the tax man!

Treasure is Important Enough to Make Interesting

Treasure in Dungeons and Dragons is an important component to the adventure. Take a little time and make it more interesting than a pile of coins. With a little effort it can become a really interesting part of your adventures.