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Friday, October 12, 2012

Thousands of Coins II

So, when I commented about the 2000 silver coins debacle, I didn't make any recommendations. Because really, who cares about whether the number seems too round?

But if I *did* care, if I really, really, REALLY wanted to make the numbers seem right, I'd record treasure amounts very roughly: "silver x10", "gold x1k". When the treasure is actually found, I'd say "you found what looks like thousands of gold coins!" Or whatever. And I'd roll 2d6 and record the round number on my session log. I'd convert this to sacks and bags as the adventurers pack up the treasure, or if they ask for an estimate of how many sacks they will need.

And when they get around to counting, I'd roll 5d6 and subtract that from the round number. Call it higher precision, call it coins lost in transit; doesn't matter.

Also: why don't we call small sacks "bags" and reserve "sacks" for the large ones? For some reason, I think of the word "sack" as implying something larger than a typical bag. Perhaps this is under the influence of my "sack of potatoes/bag of sugar" analogy.

Also also: I haven't decide how much a typical chest ought to hold. Maybe a small chest is the same as a sack, just sturdier and lockable? A trunk would be two sacks, and a coffer three sacks.

4 comments:

  1. I agree with your bag/sack distinction. Working with farmers in Belize on maize yields we always used rice sacks for carrying corn, which are more or less torso-size bags when full and nominally carry a hundred-weight of grain. I say nominally because always rolled 3d20 to determine how much heavier it was than 100lb (it's always heavier because you want to carry as much in a single trip as possible, regardless of encumbrance costs).

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  2. I always thought coffers were small, like bags.

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    Replies
    1. I thought so, too, possibly under the influence of something in the DMG or Dragon magazine, right up until today.

      But of course there's no official size definition, and the only guideline to make a guess is that a coffer is also a niche that can contain a corpse or bones. Even the AD&D "Coffer Corpse" suggests that a coffer ought to be large enough to contain a partial or complete body.

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    2. I've actually got a small leather with 200 coins (1 pound) in it. I've been meaning to do a photo set showing it inside of some coffers/chests of various sizes, along with calculations as to how many coins they would hold and how much they would weigh when loaded.

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