Ye Olde Inn

I have a bunch of numbered coins from Dark World and Pirates of the Spanish Main. I place them into a cup, and I draw them when the players kill a monster. The number of coins I draw are based in the monster killed (note, I have a mixed set):
Goblin = 1
Guard (human), Orc or Ratman = 2
Fimir, Beastman (Bugbear) & Death Knight = 3
Chaos Warrior = 4
Ogre = 5
Minotaur, Giant or Manscorpion = 6

The following have five times (x5) the normal printed value do to them carrying jewellery, have valuable pelts, of have valuable venom for anti-toxin:
Mummy = 1
Wolf or Succubus = 2
Chaos Demon (HQ Gargoyle) or Gorgon (Medusa) = 3
Demon Queen (D&D Marilith) or Manticore = 4
Dragon = 6

The following have no money do to a lack of pockets or made with nothing of value: Trolls, Fire Elements, Gargoyles (DS), Specters, Skeletons, Vermin (rats and such) and Zombies.

The coins range between 1-6, but they are mostly 1s and 2s, with 5s and 6s being rare (the Pirates game had 5s & 6s in the first set, but discontinued them ho to how the coins are deployed). I have so many 1s and 2s, I have been marking some of them with icons for special treasure (draw from the Treasure Deck).

The only problem is that the players usually get about the same amount of gold from killing monsters, as they would searching rooms for treasure, so they become more focused on bleeding a dungeon dry, by killing anything with coin on it: a Wondering Monster is looked on more as a blood and coin-filled piñata, then as booby-trap.

so you're basically giving your heroes gold loot for kills? Doesn't that make them too rich?

Sjeng wrote:so you're basically giving your heroes gold loot for kills? Doesn't that make them too rich?

Yeah, but but all those coins adds up. Off the bat, I would say that each coin has the average value of about 3 gold (more or less), and on average, they could easy get around 8 (for mostly greenskin encounters) or 15 gold (with tougher monsters) per kill. On the otherhand, my Treasure Deck (a mix of US and UK cards) averages about 36 gold (19 for the US or 40 of the UK), if anything of value comes up (about a third of the time). Even though you'll get more money form the deck (a third of the time, with another third for potions), the players don't really do the math, and they also get really greedy and bloodthirsty.

For the same reason classic D&D game tied EXP with earned GP, giving out loot for kills change the scope of the game just as drastically as the social Darwinism that comes with the UK's "may target (for attack) any hero or monster" rule. When you make a dead monster more valuable, the focus of the game is less about getting to the objective, and more about "clearing" a dungeon, which means, that the players would linger well after they accomplished the objective, so they can bleed the place dry. (In the case of D&D, players would ignore wandering monsters - who only have pocket change - so they would sneak around to the treasure hoard) On top of that, the players would give-up on searching for treasure, if they feel like the deck has been tapped of anything useful. If you got all the 25+ cards and Healing Potions, would you risk drawing a Hazard or Wandering Monster?

I like it. Looting corpses is something I've considered in the past but never implemented.

What I really want is some dice that have numerous faces with lower numbers and few faces with higer numbers, to get the same effect as the bag of counters. Does anyone know where I could buy dices like these?

Ethica wrote:Looting corpses is something I've considered in the past but never implemented.

I consider looting corpses to be incorporated in treasure search in rooms. It gets too much, otherwise.
I pray my girls won't get any funny ideas...

Nice thematic addition you have there. I'm sure nobody complains about slowing down the game to draw some loot! Do your players share the treasure when more than one Hero kill a monster together, or is it treasure to the deathblow?

Malcadon wrote:The coins range between 1-6, but they are mostly 1s and 2s, with 5s and 6s being rare (the Pirates game had 5s & 6s in the first set, but discontinued them ho to how the coins are deployed). I have so many 1s and 2s, I have been marking some of them with icons for special treasure (draw from the Treasure Deck).

The only problem is that the players usually get about the same amount of gold from killing monsters, as they would searching rooms for treasure, so they become more focused on bleeding a dungeon dry, by killing anything with coin on it: a Wondering Monster is looked on more as a blood and coin-filled piñata, then as booby-trap.

Malcadon wrote:For the same reason classic D&D game tied EXP with earned GP, giving out loot for kills change the scope of the game just as drastically as the social Darwinism that comes with the UK's "may target (for attack) any hero or monster" rule. When you make a dead monster more valuable, the focus of the game is less about getting to the objective, and more about "clearing" a dungeon, which means, that the players would linger well after they accomplished the objective, so they can bleed the place dry. (In the case of D&D, players would ignore wandering monsters - who only have pocket change - so they would sneak around to the treasure hoard) On top of that, the players would give-up on searching for treasure, if they feel like the deck has been tapped of anything useful. If you got all the 25+ cards and Healing Potions, would you risk drawing a Hazard or Wandering Monster?

To discourage bleeding the dungeon dry, implement a mechanic of diminishing returns like the treasure deck has. I'd suggest reducing the starting coin pool and adding in low and/or zero value coins to replace drawn coins. You could also add in specially marked coins from your extra coins that represent negative events, such wandering monsters or hazards (ex.- coin bag has a poisonous centipede in it). Those would go back in after they are drawn. By the time a Quest goal was finished, killing monsters wouldn't be so lucrative.

I think wandering monsters should always carry less or no treasure- be it from the treasure deck or coin pool. Otherwise they aren't a negative draw.

Overall, your still introducing more buying power, and thus tilting things in the Heroes' favor. I think further down the line this would have a positive effect, but towards the beginning the Heroes advance a bit faster than the challenges provided by the published Quests. If your making your own Quests, no problem. Those who wanted to use monster coins with published Quests or prefered slower progression should use a money-draining house rule as a compliment. My favorite is weapon damage.

Daedalus wrote:Nice thematic addition you have there. I'm sure nobody complains about slowing down the game to draw some loot! Do your players share the treasure when more than one Hero kill a monster together, or is it treasure to the deathblow?

No one complains when the Sugar-Daddy Wizard Player give the Hero Players some heard-earned coins. I hand the coins to the player that killed the monster, and they would split the value for shared kills - I leave it up to them to decide, and they usually share.

Daedalus wrote:To discourage bleeding the dungeon dry, implement a mechanic of diminishing returns like the treasure deck has. I'd suggest reducing the starting coin pool and adding in low and/or zero value coins to replace drawn coins. You could also add in specially marked coins from your extra coins that represent negative events, such wandering monsters or hazards (ex.- coin bag has a poisonous centipede in it). Those would go back in after they are drawn. By the time a Quest goal was finished, killing monsters wouldn't be so lucrative.

I think wandering monsters should always carry less or no treasure- be it from the treasure deck or coin pool. Otherwise they aren't a negative draw.

I have been working on some custom coins do to a glut of '1s and '2s. I like Spell Scrolls, but not as Artifacts, so I added 2 Scroll coins, and a Scroll card for the treasure deck (in both cases, a random spell is drawn). I have added some coins with gem stones on them (they look like Hyrulian Rupees) that are worth 1d6x5 gold each. Some 0 valued coins would help balance things out, as well as Trap!/Hazard! coins. I'm still working on the coins, and I have been thinking about how they might work. Here are some thoughts:

Deadman's Grasp: "While looting the body, the monster grabs your arm and dies! It will not let go! Loose your next turn."

Death Cry: "The monster dies, it lets loose a scream that draws the attention of a patrolling monster. A Wandering Monster immediately attacks the victorious Hero."

Death Blow: "While looting the body, the monster pulls out a dagger and stabs the hero before it dies! Roll 1 Attack Die, with chance of defense."

Playing Dead: "The monster goes down, but springs to life when the Hero drops his guard. The Monsters recovers 1 Body Point, and immediately gets a free attack with no defense."

I need to figure-out how to mark such coins... or use a mark for all of them, with a random table for them.

That "no/lower coin draw for Wandering Monsters" is an idea worth considering.

Daedalus wrote:Overall, your still introducing more buying power, and thus tilting things in the Heroes' favor. I think further down the line this would have a positive effect, but towards the beginning the Heroes advance a bit faster than the challenges provided by the published Quests. If your making your own Quests, no problem. Those who wanted to use monster coins with published Quests or prefered slower progression should use a money-draining house rule as a compliment. My favorite is weapon damage.

I have issue with the Armory in general. I would rather reduce the value of all items in the Armory by 1/5th, it favor of Heroes being able to pull weapons and armor off dead monsters, and have the Heroes save the money for hired muscle and other items and services that helps in some logistical way (like a Healer or Pack Mule), or even vanity items (like a Harem or something with no effect on the rules). Such extra items are used between quests. Like Keeps to keep the Hero's money safe between Quests, or the ownership of a business for some extra income, with a chance of loss. Something like a Pack Mules is used to boost the gold and item limits, when carrying limits rules are used (akin to the slot system used in the Lone Wolf books, then the bean-counting encumbrance system used in D&D). Basically, I rather have them buy big stuff with their gold, then the overpriced equivalents used by monsters.

I like the idea here. I have never had a group around long enough to legitimately afford some of the better gear (NA armory) and often times the early adventures are challenging enough I've had to fudge a little so that they can survive. So I see no problem with them getting extra GC early. I think that to avoid the Dungeon looting effect after an objective is accomplished, you can make a simple rule like the wandering monsters double, then triple, then quadruple, etc. to get the point across that sticking around is going to be increasingly dangerous.

Or just only allow 1 treasure search per room.