Drop Wolves Art

A quick post about an old monster of mine. Remember drop wolves? Well, here’s what they look like.

Drop Wolves

(Or, at least, what a text to image AI thinks they would look like. Although maybe this pic is better for droplet wolves?)

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Gems: A Short Series

I’ve been meaning to do another movie review for a while, so obviously it’s time to start a series of posts discussing dungeon treasure stocking instead. Specifically, how to handle gems. It’s inspired by this OD&D forum post that’s been going on for that last month or so.

How do you assign gems to treasure? More specifically, how much information do you include, or should you include? Full description of each gem and quantity, minimum information necessary, or something in between?

I lean towards the minimum, with a few extra details. But before I get into that, I need break down the steps to assigning gem details. Loosely based on the “official” process, the steps are:

1. Check if there are gems in a treasure cache or trove.
2. Check the number of gems.
3. Assign base gem value.
4. Check how many gems are of higher or lower value.

If randomly assigning treasure, Steps 1 and 2 are handled as part of the treasure table in either Volume II: Monsters & Treasure (page 22) or Volume III: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (page 7) depending on whether it’s a wilderness treasure or dungeon treasure. Step 3 involves a roll on the Gem Base Value table on page 40 of Monsters & Treasure, followed by a d6 roll for each gem or group of 5 to 10 gems as Step 4.

In the official process, you could argue that there is a fifth step, “Record the info, along with extra details like gem type or color”. But the books do not actually say that all four steps must be done at the same time, before the dungeon key is completed.

I would argue that it’s easier to do Steps 1 through 3, record the info as Step 3.5, and put off the final roll for Step 4 when each gem is appraised.

So here is my suggested gem generation process for GMs stocking treasures:

Step Zero: Pick a Dungeon Theme

Picking a theme is of course is part of the dungeon creation process, rather than the gem generation process, but what kind of dungeon you are creating and where it is should, logically, affect what kind of gems might be available. One trivial example is pearls, usually treated as if they were gems. Underwater treasures or coastal treasures might reasonably include more pearls than someplace far from an ocean. Other gem types could be more or less common depending on the region: if jade is more common in one area, dungeons in that area or connected in some way to that area might have more jade in their treasure troves than other gems.

Step One: Pick Your Gem Types

It’s arguably not immersive to describe gems to players this way:

“You find 30 gems of 100 gp value.”

It’s more immersive to describe them this way:

“You find 20 sapphires and 10 diamonds.”

But it’s crazy to roll for each gem to see what its type is, especially since the average PC probably won’t know the exact type, just the general appearance. The easier method is to assign three gem types to the dungeon as a whole, for example opaque red, murky green, and clear yellow. All gems in that dungeon will be one of those types, simplifying the next step.

Step Two: Check the Number of Gems

As you stock each treasure trove in a dungeon, you make three rolls:

• How many gems are Gem Type 1?
• How many gems are Gem Type 2?
• How many gems are Gem Type 3?

You defined each gem type in Step One, so all you need to roll is a number. Gem Type 1 will be different for each dungeon. There is no table lookup for this step.

Since we can subtract a number from the roll and discard any result of 0 or less, we can fold “Check for Gems” into this step as well.

Step Three: Revealing Details to Players

For reasons I’ll explain more in a future post, each of our gem types has a predefined base value. We actually don’t need to roll any more as part of dungeon key creation. We just need to tell the players “You find 10 gems that look like this, 8 that look like this, and 2 that look like this.” And there’s only three "this"es per dungeon, so players can just keep a running total of each gem type found.

If there’s a dwarf in the party, or someone with gem appraisal skills, they can find out more details, including the exact value. Or they can have the gem appraised, or just sell it blindly without knowing the details.

I plan on detailing each of these modified steps in a separate post, with appropriate tables. I won’t be posting before next week, however.

Series Index

• Gems Intro (this post)
• Gems I : Types
• Gems II: Quantities
• Gems III: Assessments

(Will edit to add links as the posts are published.)

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Ethereal Components

The way I run magic in D&D, M-Us use common, easy-to-get “material components” as spell ingredients during their spell prep (not during spell casting.) This helps explain why there is even a need for spell prep and why it is usually done between adventures rather than during them.

But one particular idea I’ve had about this spell prep is: some spell prep involves using a material object to make a temporary ethereal duplicate of that object that the spell caster “carries” with them, as if it were equipment. Examples of this for 1st level spells:

Hold Portal (object: iron spike)

Casting the spell wedges an invisible spike under the door, preventing the door from moving for a short period of time.

Shield (object: wooden shield)

Summons an invisible shield between the caster and opponents the caster is facing at the time of casting.

Magic Missile (object: arrow)

Summons an invisible arrow or large dart into the caster’s hand that can be thrown immediately at an opponent.

Light (object: lit candle)

When prepped, the light from the candle is “stored” ethereally, attached to whatever is holding the lit candle (M-U’s hand, end of a staff, etc.) When cast, the light becomes visible above the attachment point and moves with it. Max duration = max burn time for a candle.

1st level spells would only be able to bring back one quality of the object used (like the light of a candle, or the obstruction ability of an iron spike.) The object itself would not appear (not a conjuration, in other words,) so you couldn’t use Hold Portal to summon spikes to use as climbing gear, for example. The effect is short-lived.

3rd level spells would allow actual items or material to be stored ethereally and conjured when needed.

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Portable Holes in a One-Plane Universe

There’s a question about portable holes on the OD&D forums: do you treat it as a Bag of Holding, or just a temporary hole? The question assumes in both cases that there’s an extra-dimensional space involved, as mentioned in the Greyhawk supplement.

But I thought: What if there isn’t?

I’ve written before about how I prefer a one-plane cosmology with a material world that has additional states of matter beyond solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. To maintain that, there couldn’t be any extra-dimensional spaces under my cosmology. So where does the hole part of a portable hole come from? Where do things inside the hole go when it is removed?

How I interpret Portable Holes:

• Turns a ten-foot long cylinder of connected solid material into ethereal matter.
• The effect stops when it hits liquid, gas, or any other non-solid material and does not continue, even if solid matter resumes before the ten-foot range is reached.
• Objects or living beings that enter the hole at this point aren’t transformed. They are just normal objects occupying space previously filled with solid matter.
• When the hole is removed, any ethereal matter tries to return to its solid state. If something is already in the same space and can’t be pushed out, it remains ethereal until that space is no longer occupied.

This means that if someone is crawling through a Portable Hole through a stone wall when the hole is removed, they become embedded in stone. They will suffocate, if they need air to breathe. Meanwhile, there’s an ethereal stone duplicate of them occupying the same position. When they are removed from that position, the stone reappears. If the surrounding stone is no longer there, you wind up with a statue of a crawling person.

There are some other weird situations that could happen, but the general principle is that two solid objects or two ethereal objects can’t occupy the same space at the same time, but a solid object and an ethereal object can occupy the same space.

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Even Simpler Treasure Codes

I wanted to take a break from endless treasure codes posts, but they keep reeling me back in…

I started a thread on the OD&D forums to get more feedback, and got some that caused me to think of alternatives to making the system even simpler. Two of the main goals of coming up with a new treasure system are:

1. Keeping the codes short but readable, and
2. Reducing the amount of die-rolling.

Switching to roman numerals for base values and reducing the main treasure codes to three is good, but as waysoftheearth pointed out in the thread, having two capital letters with two completely different domains of interpretation right next to each other can cause confusion. But if we replace the codes B, E, and A with actual words like “coins”, “gems”, and “magic”, or even use the standard coin abbreviations in place of “coins”, we still have a fairly short descriptive phrase while making things easier to understand.

We could also eliminate the need for a “chance of treasure” index by making the target number for a d20 roll = HD +/- hp modifier. So, a 1+2 HD creature has treasure on 3 or less on d20 (because 1+2 = 3.)

This still leaves the roll for “how much treasure”. One thing I considered early on, but couldn’t figure out how to do, was making the chance roll the same as the quantity roll. But we could use the chance roll result to set the quantity as well.

So let’s try this treasure code format:

5+1 HD monster, gp D, gem C x10, magic

How to use this code:

1. Roll 1d20 for coins. If <= 6 (HD + hp adds,) there are coins.
2. Multiply the result by 4 for number of containers. The code gp tells us these are gold coins. The roman numeral D tells us there are 500 gps per container.
3. Roll 1d6 per HD (in this case, 5d6.) Count the number of 1s and 6s you get, tracking them separately. Multiply each by the d20 result for the number of containers of coins of lower value and higher value.
4. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for gems. In this case, if there are gems, also multiply the result by x10. This is the total number of gems of base value C (100 coins in value.) You can skip figuring out higher/lower value gems until a PC tries to appraise them.
5. By default, the roll for jewelry is the same as the roll for gems, even if not listed. However, some codes may say “no jewelry” or give a different value/multiplier.
6. Roll 1d20 for magic or other items. If <= HD/2, round up (in this case, 3,) there are items in the treasure. The result is the number of special items, but the target number (HD/2) is the total number of items, so there may be “duds”.
7. Roll 1d6 per special item. On a 5+, it’s a treasure map. Otherwise, it’s magic.

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Simpler Treasure Codes

So, I did all that stuff about mnemonic treasure codes, and then I decided there was a way to make the mnemonics much easier to read and more compact: (1) Fewer primary treasure prefixes, and (2) Ditching table lookups for base values.

Explaining the New Codes

First, the prefixes. We only need three:

• A = Arcane Artifact or Magic Item
• B = Bulk Treasure (coins of various types)
• E = Extra (or Expensive) Treasure, for gems and jewelry

The suffixes remain the same, but come immediately after this prefix, and only when necessary: Bc specifies copper as the default instead of silver. Eg specifies gems only, if jewelry is absent or less/more abundant.

Artifacts (A) only need a numerical prefix and optionally a suffix: 3 A means 30% chance for three items and 4 A+s means 40% chance for any four items + one scroll. For Bulk treasure and Extra treasure, though, use a roman numeral, which is easier to use than the vowel system I came up with earlier.

• V = 5 coins value
• X = 10 coins value
• L = 50 coins value
• C = 100 coins value
• D = 500 coins value
• M = 1000 coins value

To shorten things a bit, though, we can mix in arabic numerals instead of using more than one roman numeral (so, B3X instead of BXXX.)

Most of the time, coins will be in small bags (BL,) large sacks (B3C,) or chests (BM.) 5 BgM means 50% chance of 5d6 chests with 1,000 gold coins each. For gems and jewelry, that roman numeral refers to the base value of each gem or piece of jewelry, not the quantity. The most common value will be EC (base value of 100 coins.) In general, all gems and jewelry can fit into a single container.

How to Check for Treasure

For arcane artifacts, only one roll is necessary: a Chance Roll to see if there are any magic items at all. There may be additional rolls to decide which items are present, but this is optional; you could just pick whatever you want, any way you want.

For coins, you can handle all treasure checks with three rolls.

1. Chance Roll (d10 roll under prefixed number, or whatever you prefer) to see if any coins are present at all.
2. Default Coin Amount Roll (prefixed number = number of d6s to roll.) Total this, then set aside highest d6 rolled; call this the secondary coin amount.
3. Secondary Coin Amount Roll (secondary coin amount = number of d6s to roll as a dice pool.) Every 1 rolled is an extra container of lower-value treasure and every 6 rolled is an extra container of higher-value treasure.

So, if the code is 5 BsM:

1. Roll d10. If result <= 5 (50% chance,) there are coins in the treasure trove.
2. Roll 5d6, get {1, 3, 3, 4, 4}. Total is 16 chests of silver, 1,000 coins each.
3. Since highest d6 in Step 2 was “4”, roll 4d6 and get {1, 1, 2, 6}. Result is two chests of copper and one chest of gold, 1,000 coins in each chest.

If a prefix has two suffixes (Bsg,) roll Step 2 twice, but only set aside one d6 as the secondary coin amount for Step 3. The lower-value treasure is below the lowest value listed as a suffix, while the higher-value treasure is above the highest value listed. In the case of Bsg, this means there would be copper and platinum.

For gems and jewelry, either roll the same as you would for coins, using the third roll for gems or jewelry of higher and lower value mixed in with the rest, or just roll for chance and quantity, then follow the procedure in Monsters & Treasure, p. 40.

Using Treasure Codes for New Monsters

When designing new monsters, you would want to follow a more rational pattern than the original treasure types:

• Don’t worry about minimum quantities, only max quantities.
• Don’t use the plus or minus modifiers.
• Don’t split probability and quantity. Just use one number. If you want the treasure amount to be higher or lower than the probability would indicate, adjust the roman numeral instead (poor monsters might have small bags instead of chests, for example.)
• Only record the most common type of coin, letting the rules above handle other types.
• To make treasures fit better with each monster, focus on exclusions and bonuses. 4 A+2s no w as a magic-using monster’s artifact treasure is a much better customization than randomly raising and lowering coin amounts. 3 BgM no s might make sense for custom lycanthrope treasure.

Instead of assigning numbers to treasure probability and amount at random, work out a formula tying this to monster level. I think this is a good start:

Hit Dice	Quantity X	Base Value	G/J	Magic
up to 1+2	max hp/2	X BL	x1	1 A
2 to 10+	HD/2	X BM	x1	X/2 A
11+	HD/4+1	X B2M	x10	X+1 A

Replace the X in columns 3 and 5 with the value from column 2 (round up) to get the coin and magic treasure codes for a monster. For gems and jewelry, use X EC, replacing X with the value from column 2, then add the multiplier from column 4 as necessary. So, for example:

• For a 1+1 HD hobgoblin lair: 4 BL 4 EC 1 A.
• For a 6 HD troll lair: 3 BM 3 EC 2 A
• For a 10 HD hydra: 5 BM 5 EC 3 A.
• For a 12 HD dragon: 3 B2M 3 ECx10 4 A.

This starter code could then be customized, shifting some low-HD monsters to copper instead of silver, for example, or adding a x10 multiplier to gems for a gnome lair, or adding bonus magic items to mid-level monsters that have more powers than usual.

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Treasure Codes and the Treasure Table

I wrote a lot of posts over the past couple weeks about a new mnemonic way to mark treasure in monster descriptions:

• Part One: treasure codes
• Part Two: coins
• Part Three: gems and jewelry
• Part Four: maps and magic items
• Part Five: dice and probabilities

I promised translations for the existing treasure types, although I will warn you right now that they look pretty ugly. This is mainly due to the treasure types not being very well thought out. Aside from scattered patterns I've already mentioned (higher treasure amounts for hoards and active treasure collectors, for example,) there's no real rhyme or reason behind assigning probabilities and quantities. This means you have to record lots of info for each type and can't compress it down to something simple.

And I confess: after I finished writing up the conversion table, I decided I wanted to improve the mnemonic system even more, and maybe do a complete overhaul of the treasure types, which really are quite bad. But for now, here's the conversion table.

Type	... Converts to This Code
A1	2:1 Coyc 3:1 Coys, 3:2 Coyg, 5:6 Gee/Jee, 4:3 Xu
A2	2:1 Coyc/s-1, 2:1 Coyg, 5:1 Gee/Jee-1 x10, 6:3 Xu
A3	6:5 Coyg (no cs), 6:1 Gee/Jee x10, 5:1 Mu
B	5:1 Coyc+1, 2:1 Coys, 2:1 Cyog-3, 2:1 Gee/Jee, 1 Xuw
C	2 Coyc, 3:1 Coys-1 (no g), 2:1 Gee/Jee-1, 1:1 Xu
D	1 Coyc+1, 2 Coys, 6:1 Coyg, 3:1 Gee/Jee+1, 2 Xu+p
E	(1/2):2 Coyc-2, 3:2 Coys, 2:1 Coyg+1,1:2 Gee/Jee-2, 3 Xu+s
F	1:4 Coys-4, 4:2 Coyg, 2:4 Gee/Jee, 3 Xu+ps (no w)
G	7:1 Coyg-1, 3 Gee, 3:2 Jee-2, 4 Xu+s
H	3:4 Coyc, 5:2 Coys-2 x10, 7:1 Coyg x10, 5:2 Gee-2 x10, 5:1 Jee-1 x10, 2:4 Xu+ps
I	5:2 Gee+2, 5:2 Jee+2, 2:1 Xu

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Treasure Codes: Thoughts on Quantity and Probability

This is Part Five in an ongoing series re-examining treasure types in OD&D and discussing a possible mnemonic replacement.

• Part One: treasure codes
• Part Two: coins
• Part Three: gems and jewelry
• Part Four: maps and magic items

Today’s topic: Dice ranges for treasure amounts and the probability of finding each variety of treasure.

I mentioned one way of sorting the treasure types in Part Three based on quantity. But we could also sort based on likelihood of finding maps or magic. Mixing the two methods and splitting off Type I as an outlier gives us six categories:

Types	Category Name	Examples
A1/A2	Active Treasure Collectors	bandits
A3	Active Waterborne Collectors	pirates
B-F	Standard Treasure Troves	orcs, ogres
G	Dwarven Hoard	dwarves
H	Treasure Hoard	dragons
I	Individual Items	rocs

Active treasure troves have generous quantities of gems and jewelry and high chances of magic items, although pirate treasures (A3) have no magic, only a map, which is why it’s separate.

Standard treasures have smaller quantities of all monetary treasure varieties and lower the chance of copper coins in a trove as you progress through the alphabet: 50% for Type B down to 0% for Type F. Oddly, the chance of a magic item being in a standard treasure trove increases as the number of items increases. It’s roughly a 10% chance for each item, excluding bonus items like potions and scrolls.

Dwarven Hoards have generous quantities of gold coin, gems, and jewelry, no other coin varieties, and follow the same pattern for magic items as Standard treasure troves.

Dragon Hoards have generous quantities of just about everything, but half the expected chance of finding magic items.

Individual Items have no coins and low quantities of everything, although the chances for gems, jewelry and a magic item are high.

Treasure types with generous quantities of coin, gems, and jewelry have at least 50% chance for each, while almost all types with standard quantities of a category have a chance less than 50%.

Other than that, there doesn’t seem to be any pattern linking quantity (dice) to chance of finding (probability.) But we can ignore that and create a link, just to make the mnemonics easier. I’ve already assumed all quantities are rolled with d6s only. Modifiers to the roll can be placed after the mnemonic code. This gives us:

• 3 Coyg = 3d6 chests of 1,000 gold coins each

• Jee-1 = 1d6-1 (or 1 to 5) pieces of jewelry, base value 100 coins each
• 4 Gee x10 = 10 to 60 gems, base value 100 coins each
• 2 Xu +p = any 2 magic items, plus one potion

The base probability for any of these is 10% per die rolled for quantity. So: 30% chance for the 3d6 chests of gold, 10% chance for the jewelry, 40% chance for the 10 to 60 gems, or 20% for 2 magic + 1 potion. No need to use percentile dice: roll a d10 instead, any result less than or equal to the number shown means that treasure is present. If the probability doesn't match the number of dice, use a target number prefix followed by a colon and the dice number:

• 6:3 Coyg 60% chance of 3d6 chests of gold
• 4:2 Xu +p 40% chance of 2 magic items + potion

Some options:

• d20 instead of d10: double target number
• 2d6 Drop 6s: Treat each 6 on a die as a zero, for number from 0 to 10. Target number is the same, but probability is no longer linear.

Next up: I finish this long series by translating the existing treasure types into mnemonic codes to create a new treasure type table.

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Treasure Codes: How Items Work

This is Part Four of in a series re-examining treasure types in OD&D and discussing a possible mnemonic replacement.

• Part One: treasure codes
• Part Two: coins
• Part Three: gems and jewelry

Today’s topic: maps and magic items.

Unlike other treasure items, the monetary value of maps and magic items is not used in the treasure types at all. One obvious reason for this: the random treasure tables include cursed items mixed in with useful items. That’s kind of what you want, if you are aiming for an old-school experience: players never know if an item is useful or cursed based solely on superficial examination.

Instead, items are sorted by their general form and function, which is why I originally chose to assign one letter to each form:

• M for Maps
• P for Potions
• S for Scrolls
• W for Weapons or Armor
• X for Any Magic Item

But in way, this doesn’t make sense. Because:

Any time a treasure type specifically includes a Map, Potion, Scroll, or Weapon, it’s one added item of that type, over and above any other maps, potions, scrolls, or weapons that are rolled by accident.

In other words, “Any 4 + 1 Potion and 1 Scroll” may mean:

• 5 potions and a scroll,
• 1 potion and 5 scrolls,
• 1 potion, 1 scroll and 4 items that aren’t potion,
• Some other mix of 6 items that includes at least one potion and one scroll.

Since the only vowel code that makes sense for items is “unique” (u), it makes more sense to cluster all magic items together in one “word”.

So: 4 Xu+ps would be a better way to write “Any 4 + 1 Potion and 1 Scroll” than “4 Xu Pu Su”, because it’s more compact. Besides, the repeated “u” codes makes the code look repetitive.

There’s only one roll to see if a treasure trove includes maps and/or magic items, not one roll per potential item.

Again, the “4 Xu Pu Su” code would be misleading, because it looks like there are four rolls: one for four magic items of any type, one for a potion, and one for a scroll. It should actually be a single all-or-none roll.

You can still use M/P/S/W if there is only one item type. One example: pirates do not have magic items, but do have a chance for a single treasure map. This would be the code Mu.

Next week: dice and probabilities.

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Treasure Codes: How Gems and Jewelry Work

Topic Two in a series of explainer follow-ups for the treasure codes post is gems and jewelry. The original treasure table specified that gems and jewelry are rolled separately, but in all but two cases, the chances of finding each and the quantities found are the same for any given treasure type. They are just combined into one column to save space.

There are two broad categories of treasure in relation to quantities of gems or jewelry in the trove: standard quantities (in the 1 to 3 dice range) vs. generous quantities (either 6d6, 1d100, or 1 die x10.) Gems/jewelry collected by bandits and other large bands of humans are generous, as are dragon hoards. All others are in standard quantities.

[There’s a similar distinction for gold possessed by pirates, dwarves, or dragons (generous) vs. all other treasures (standard,) which when combined with gems and jewelry gives us four categories: standard, generous gold, generous gems, and doubly generous.]

Vowels in gem and jewelry codes should be used to represent base values of each item, rather than the multipliers we use for coins:

i for inferior gems (10 coins base value)
a for average gems (20 coins)
e for excellent gems (50 coins)
ee = 100 coins
o = 500 coins
y = 5,000 coins
u = 50,000 coins

Most of the standard gem values are represented here, with a few extra. If the base type is y or u, don’t roll a d6 for the number of gems, but instead assume it’s a single gem (or, for example, 5 gems if the code is 5 gy, etc.) Jewelry will normally just be joo, but the value can go up or down for either gems or jewelry.

Each piece of jewelry, gem, or group of 5 or 10 gems of the same value, gets a d6 roll on the value adjustment table:

d6 roll	Gem Value	Jewelry Value
1	half normal	3d6/10 x base
2-5	normal	1d6 x base
6	doubled	2d6 x base

This is a simplification of the way gems and jewelry are handled in Monsters && Treasure.

As for suffixes, most of the time there won’t be one. If you really want to specify different kinds of gems, you could use codes like r(ed), g(reen), b(lue), and y(ellow), or p for pearls. But probably the most useful suffixes would be those indicating size.

gyl is a large gem (10x normal size, about the size of someone’s fist)
gyh is a huge gem (100x normal, about the size of someone’s head)
gyt is a titanic gem (1000x normal, about the size of someone’s torso)

The size multiplier doesn’t affect the base value, but it affects the space it takes up in a bag, sack or pack. You can’t fit a titanic gem into a large sack, but 1 to 3 huge gems could fit. These size codes would be especially useful if we added another code, F, for fancy items like vases, urns, paintings and other decorations.

Next up: maps and magic items.

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Treasure Codes: How Coins Work

At some point, I plan to do a conversion table for OD&D treasure types to the treasure codes I wrote about last week. But that’s going to take a while to assemble, so in the short term, I’ll try to explain some of the thinking behind the codes, with an eye towards things I might change in the future.

First topic: coins in treasure troves.

The original treasure tables had separate rolls for three kinds of coins: copper, silver, and gold. Later official versions of the treasure table often include new columns for electrum and/or platinum. I decided it makes more sense to use relative coin values. This has a couple advantages:

• It keeps the number of rolls low.
  The full AD&D treasure table would require five rolls just for coins. This way, there’s only three rolls in most cases.
• It allows adjustments for GMs who use the silver standard.
  This is a pretty common house rule that interprets equipment prices in silver pieces instead of gold pieces. There are rarer variant house rules for a copper standard or other alternatives.
• It allows temporary shifts for unusual treasure troves.
  Even if using the silver standard, a GM could change the common coin type for a dwarven hoard to “gold” to make it much more valuable.

In the previous write-up, I used the codes

C (common coin, in bags of 300 coins each)
Cl (low-value coin, bags of 300 coins each)
Cr (rare coin, bags of 300 coins each) and
L (loose coin, in smaller quantities)

Plus optional suffixes to specify other types. Re-thinking this, I’ve decided that it’s easier to just use C + vowel + suffix. Suffixes are up to individual GMs – they are mnemonics, after all – but my own suggestions, based on stuff I’ve seen, are:

c for copper
s for silver
l for electrum
g for gold
p for platinum
m for mithril
j for junk (any coin less valuable than copper, frex iron)
double or triple letters for larger coins, small bars, etc.

The missing element to these mnemonic codes, of course, is the vowels, which I defined as quantities. My original approach was to pick some of the most common quantities and assign them to vowels, but now I’m thinking that, if the die-type is constant (1d6) and we use numeric prefixes to indicate how many dice to roll (3 cig = 3d6 gold coins,) all we really need to use the vowel for is the multiplier (base number of coins.) So here’s a rewrite:

a for average (x20)
e for extra (x50)
o for overflowing (x300)
i for individual (x1)

These multipliers are based on container sizes in Men & Magic: 20 coins in a pouch, 50 coins in a small bag, 300 coins in a large sack. Which means that the first three vowels can be read as those container types. So:

2 cag = 2d6 pouches of gold pieces, or 40 to 240 gp
5 cog = 5d6 sacks of 300 gold each, or 1,500 to 9,000 gp

Double vowels, or vowel combinations, add the multiples together before multiplying: coog is twice as many sacks of coins as cog.

The missing vowels, y and u, can be redefined as needed, but by default. u is “unique” (no die roll, just a single item) and y is an abbreviation for “two sacks and two bags”, a x700 multiplier. This makes it easy to get the original quantities of coins in the treasure table with the oy combo (x1000).

Next up: gems and jewelry.

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Treasure Type Links

One thing I may not have made clear in the treasure codes article is that I’ve thought a lot about treasure types and written about them in the past. Lots of analysis, most of which we can probably ignore. But for the curious, these specific posts might be useful.

• Probably the most useful thing I’ve done with the treasure types is to create a list of monsters sorted by treasure type.
• I rewrote and tweaked the treasure types many times for my clone project, including these thoughts about treasure types.
• At least a tiny bit of that work resurfaced when I wrote about restocking dungeons.

Delta’s D&D Hotspot has some relevant articles as well, at least one of which was around the same time as I was writing about it. These are much more math-intensive than anything I ever did.

• Expected Treasure
• Expected Treasure and XP
• Dungeon Treasure Revisited

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Treasure Types, or Treasure Codes?

The treasure types table in OD&D’s Monsters & Treasure booklet has slightly obscure design goals, which carry over into B/X, BECM, and AD&D. As a result, it gets tweaked or completely replaced in most retroclones and many house rules. It’s tricky to figure out which type to assign to completely new monsters, or which old monsters can have their types swapped, since it’s not entirely clearly what the differences between most of the types really are.

But there are a couple distinctions worth noting:

• Most treasure types have all three coin varieties, but a few have no copper or silver, and one has no coins at all.
• The max number of gems is the same as the max number of jewelry items in all but two cases.
• Most types can have any kind of magic item or map, but three of them limit this to one variety, while some other have 2 to 4 items of any type plus one potion or scroll (or both,) guaranteed.

Having coins, gems, jewelry, magic items, and maps all specified for any given treasure type confuses the design and reduces usefulness. What we could do instead is use treasure codes made from more than one letter. Something like:

Code	Treasure Type
B	Basic Treasure
C	Common Coins (sack)
Cr	Rare Coins (sack)
Cl	Low Value Coins (sack)
G	Gems
J	Jewelry
L	Loose Coins
M	Maps
P	Potions
S	Scrolls
W	Weapons and Armor
X	Other Magic Items

Coins are separated into Common, Rare, and Low Value, corresponding to your standard coin used for prices in your campaign, a rarer coin, and a “junk” coin that’s less convenient to haul out of the dungeon. By default, these are in the proportion 1 rare : 10 common : 100 low-value, but you can change this to fit your campaign. The way you’d most likely use these codes in a monster description is to assume every treasure type is potentially present in standard quantities at standard chances, then specify anything that’s different. (That’s what Basic Treasure is for: a catch-all for any treasure type not otherwise specified, so that you can note a monster has ten times normal gold, no silver, and everything else is standard.)

Quantities for coins are assumed to be measured in “sacks” (300 coins each.) Other items like Gems and Jewelry are counted individually. This base number is multiplied by a dice roll, which we could choose to link to vowel codes like this:

Code	Size Modifier
a	Abundant (5d6x10)
e	Extra (3d6x10)
o	Ordinary (2d6x5)
i	Individual (1d6)
u	Undefined

So that we can specify treasure types like:

CaBo no S

Which would mean “this monster has abundant common coins like gold, ordinary quantities of other treasure types, but no scrolls.”

Undefined by default means “unique” (only one of this item,) but can also be redefined each time it is used.

Additional notes:

• Coins are broken down the way they are because you might want to set standard chances for each type, like “25% chance for common coins, 10% chance each for low-value and rare coins”.
• Magic items are broken down the way they are partly because that’s the way they are broken down in the original treasure type table, but mostly because those types have special restrictions: armor and weapons probably won’t be in an evil wizard’s lair, potions and scrolls won’t be underwater.
• If you want to specify absolute coin type instead of relative coin type, for example because you don’t want lycanthropes to have silver coins, you can follow the vowel with a lowercase letter (Cos = silver coins, Cog = gold coins.) This is especially useful for the “loose coins” type.
• You can do the same for other treasure types, like magic items (Wis = magic shields, Sic = cursed scrolls.) Some of these might wind up pretty cryptic, though, so adding an actual word after the code (Si (cursed)) might be a better choice.
• You can also use the “rare”/“low-value” modifier to breakdown gems into different values, for example, or to show that a magic item is fancier than normal or appears like a cheap common tool or weapon. (Gri = rare gems, Wlow = wooden magic weapon.)

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Divine Moods and Personalities

Someone brought up Gods, Demigods, and Heroes on the OD&D forums, wanting to talk about who has actually used it and how. For myself, I like the monsters, hero, and artifact entries. But the gods?

Let’s start with the kind of gods I want in my game:

1. Ambiguous desires, plans, and even existence.
2. Ambiguous source of “divine” displays of power.
3. Enigmatic miracles and manifestations.
4. Both player and GM-created religions.

These guidelines are based on two principles:

Create as much as possible through play rather than before play.

Keep the players front in center, not NPCs (including gods, the ultimate NPCs.)

So what kind of “god mechanics” would work for me?

No monster stats for gods. They may or may not be real. Any monster may be a divine incarnation, sending, minion, or hoax.

Start with a zone of divine control, what some versions of the game might call a Sphere. If using a god from mythology, this is the common interpretation of what that god is the “god” of (war, sky, death, life.)

Add a second unrelated zone of control, possibly a narrower one.

Add a profession or social role, if one isn’t obvious. Less likely professions or roles will be more evocative.

Add at least one object or behavior associated with the god. This can be turned into a myth about the god (summarize a story in one or two sentences.)

Examples

• Tut-Tut, the Warrior-Smith of the Coast, cries as he creates turtle-shell armor and shields in a sea-cave forge on the western shores. (Summary: War, Coastal Areas, Smithing, Turtles, Tears)
• Lyraine, the Huntress of the Celestial Choir, leads her chorus in battle-songs as she rides a parrot across the night sky. (Summary: Hunting, Stars, Music, Parrot.)

The first time during an adventure where the PCs do anything on grounds sacred to a god, or in the presence of a priest of that god, or involving one of the keywords that “define” the god, make a reaction roll for the god. Only do this once per adventure.

• Shift Results Down one step (Bad becomes Very Bad) if PCs harm a priest, defile a temple, or otherwise unwittingly “offend” the god.
• Shift Results Up one step (Good becomes Very Good) if performing rituals or otherwise serving the god.

On a Very Bad result (2 on 2d6) or a Very Good result (12 on 2d6), it seems as if the god is “paying attention”. This might mean the god is real, it might mean someone who worships the god noticed and is acting on the god’s behalf, or it might be the PC’s unconscious guilt or confidence. If the first result roll indicates no divine interest, this will not change for the rest of the adventure.

For the rest of the adventure, track the PCs on the Divine Mood table below, starting at (Dis)favor unless the adjusted roll is 1 or 13, in which case jump to Bad/Good Omen.

Bad /	Good Mood	Effects
(Dis)	Favor	Flip near miss or hit
Cursed /	Blessed	+/-2 on rolls
Doomed /	Chosen	Next result becomes critical or fumble. Reset.
Enemy /	Ally	Extra wandering monster roll, seeks vengeance on/alliance with PCs. Reset.
(Bad)	Omen	Minor spell (half dungeon level) cast against/for PCs. Reset.
(Evil)	Sending	Wandering monster magically appears to attack/serve PCs. Reset.
Judgment /	Miracle	Major spell (twice dungeon level) cast against/for PCs. Reset.
(Wrathful)	Avatar	Monster representing the god magically appears to attack/serve PCs. Reset.

Favors, Blessings, Disfavor, and Curses stay in effect for the rest of the adventure or until the next time the PCs “interact” with the god in some way (break a taboo, perform a ritual, help or harm a divine servant, trigger one of the other key words.) Everything else happens once.

In either case, roll 2d6 and consult the Divine Mood Reset Table. If the result is anything below Cursed/Blessed, delay the new effect until the next interaction with the god.

2d6	Divine Mood Reset Effect
2	Flip Mood (bad to good or vice versa)
3-5	Mood Wanes (shift up one line)
6-8	Reset to (Dis)Favor
9-11	Mood Strengthens (shift down one line)
12	Extreme Shift (down two lines)
13+	Flip Bad Mood to Good, otherwise shift down two lines)

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How Many Miracles Will Your God Grant?

Here’s an expansion of Clerics Without Spells. my rules for using reaction rolls for clerics casting spells on the fly. These days, I assume spells prepared beforehand (“memorized”) can be cast without risk of spell failure. But there’s a couple situations where a cleric prays for spells:

• When preparing/memorizing those spells,
• When casting a spell that hasn’t been memorized,
• When praying for a miracle (higher spell level than they can memorize.)

Religious characters who aren’t clerics can also pray for miracles.

So what if you don’t want to use a crude “all spells granted/no spells granted” approach?

This table should take care of it.

2d6 Roll	Reaction	Detailed Explanation
2	Fall from Grace	No spells granted until character atones at a shrine or temple.
3-4	Divine Wrath	If any spells are granted, they are at least two levels below max level.
5-6	Divine Impatience	Some spells may be granted, but not those at max level or those one level lower.
7-8	Divine Disfavor	Most spells granted, but not those at max level.
9-10	Divine Favor	All spells up to max level are approved.
11-12	A Miracle Is Granted	Spell one level higher than normal granted on one-time basis. Does not apply to prepared spells.
13+	A Great Miracle Is Granted	Spell two levels higher than normal granted on one-time basis. Does not apply to prepared spells.

Max Level refers to the maximum spell level a cleric can prepare beforehand. For example, a 2nd level cleric’s max level is 1, a 4th level cleric’s max level is 2. Max level is half cleric level, rounded down. (officially, OD&D diverges from that after 5th level, and other D&D versions tinker with it, but this is the quick and dirty replacement I use.)

Miracles here are spells that the cleric or worshipper doesn’t cast themselves, but ask to be cast. Any spell above max level is a miracle.

The table is basically the standard reaction roll with the 2 x (cleric level - spell level) formula built into the results already, so no calculation is necessary.

Despite the wording (Favor, Disfavor, Impatience, Wrath,) spells and miracles granted are not considered absolute proof that the cleric or worshipper’s belief in their god is justified. It’s all a matter of faith, not objective truth.

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Cross-Class Training: Teachers

In last week’s cross-class training post, I didn’t mention anything about hiring a teacher. This is partly by design, and partly because I wasn’t sure which direction I wanted to go with that.

I definitely don’t want to require a teacher. I don’t see classes as professions, more like semi-fantastic abilities. Player characters are larger-than-life figures in some ways, and should be able to train themselves, if need be.

But after a little thought, I think I see an easy way to add the option of finding a teacher. Remember the effects of prime ability scores on training time? If you have a score of 16+, you automatically take the minimum time and spend the minimum amount needed. That basically makes it match the by-the-book rules for changing classes. But if your score is lower, you may have to spend more time, sometimes a lot more, increasing the total cost.

If a character has a teacher, they use the teacher’s prime ability score, rather than their own. Simple! What the teacher charges for their services counts as part of the training cost. At least half the weekly training cost must go for training supplies, though, so if the teacher charges more than that, the excess is just an extra weekly cost.

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Cross-Class Ability Training

Since I recently simplified ability checks, I’m feeling in a simplifying mood. Let’s simplify changing classes and multi-classing!

To add a second class, spend time and money training in the new class.

• Cost Per Week, in coins = Current XP/10
• Weeks Needed: Level modified by Prime Ability score for new class (Strength for Fighters, Dex for Thieves, etc.)

If Score Is …	Time Is …
3	Level x 4
4-8	Level x 3
9-12	Level x 2
13+	Level

GM secretly rolls 1d6. No roll is needed for a prime ability score of 16+.

On 5+, the character improves in the second class, one level at a time, after the minimum amount of training time.

On 1 to 4, add 1 and multiply by minimum time to find out how much more training the character will need.

Apply current XP to new class to find max training level for new class. After reaching this, new levels are added by earning XP as usual.

Old class does not improve further unless character trains to “switch back”.

Use best hit dice, attacks, and saves from all classes, up to last level earned in each class.

I might make a few tweaks to numbers, but there’s only one major change I’m considering for these rules.

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Mystical States: The Astral Realm

It’s been a while, but it’s time to continue the re-thinking cosmology discussion about multiple mystical states of matter that create the illusion of multiple planes of existence in a single-plane universe…

The physical realm is tangible and detectible, the ethereal realm is intangible and undetectable to the physical, while retaining other physical properties like size and duration. In keeping with the pattern, the astral realm is to the ethereal realm as the ethereal realm is to the physical:

• Astral matter doesn’t exist for ethereal beings, in the same sense that ethereal matter doesn’t exist for physical beings. It can’t be felt, has no hardness, no temperature, no feeling of substantiality whatsoever.
• Naturally, astral matter doesn’t exist for physical beings, either, and is undetectable with any physical sense (invisible, silent, and odorless.)
• And of course astral matter has no mass, is unaffected by gravity, and doesn’t block movement for either physical or ethereal beings

Again, astral beings can see, hear, and smell either physical or ethereal matter, but are unable to touch, taste or feel anything that isn’t astral, and can pass through any matter that isn’t also astral. But while ethereal beings experience the physical world as slightly out of focus and full of echoes, astral beings see the physical and ethereal world as a mildly-glowing, semi-transparent version of reality, with all sounds at a lower volume.

Spirits are ethereal, but souls exist in the astral. I won’t go into the difference between spirits and souls again, but the short version is that spirit retains emotion, but eventually dissolves without a soul, while souls retain the personality and memories of the living. Souls generally don’t linger in the spot where they die, but move on to another place…

The astral realm tends to feel more empty than the ethereal. But the presence of astral mirror matter can change that. Magic can create a copy of a physical or ethereal object or being in an astral state, which gives it these properties:

• It doesn’t glow and isn’t transparent to astral beings, but remains undetectable to physical and ethereal beings.
• It is solid to astral beings, who can touch, move, or use it in the same way a physical being could touch, move, or use a physical copy.
• If an astral mirror is made of a being or object that is present, the mirror occupies the same space as the original and follows its movements until an astral being or object changes it in some way. This has no effect on the original.
• Astral mirrors are basically solid illusions. They persist in astral form as long as there is an astral being there to perceive them.

Illusion spells basically make astral mirrors of a spellcaster’s thoughts, which are then partially manifested in the physical realm, made visible and audible.

Summoned creatures are astral mirrors of imagined creatures that are made fully manifest in the physical realm for a limited time.

The Mirror Dimension in the MCU Doctor Strange movie is basically just an astral mirror copy of everything around the sorcerer, allowing sorcerers to cast spells in a “real” environment without affecting the originals. At the other extreme, powerful magics can be used to create an astral pocket realm (sometimes called “pocket dimension”,) which is an astral mirror of a real or imagined place that also distorts space.

• From the outside, an astral pocket realm appears in the astral realm as a softly-glowing orb with shifting color patterns on its surface. It can’t be seen without magical aid by physical or ethereal beings.
• All astral, ethereal, and physical beings pass through an astral pocket orb without effect.
• An astral pocket orb may contain an area as small as a chest or room, up to the size of entire kingdoms or worlds, all in a tiny area.
• To enter an astral pocket, a traveler must either be able to visualize the realm within the orb or get assistance from a being inside the orb.
• Some being or soul must always remain in the astral pocket or it will cease to exist.

In a future cosmology installment, I’ll start looking more into exploiting mystical states for the magical properties.

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A Simple Way to Handle Ability Scores

Long ago, I settled on a simple way to use ability scores:

1. Set the Difficulty of a task to either Low (8 or less) or High (13+.)
2. Skip the roll if the character’s ability score is higher than the difficulty level.

Roll is 5+ on 1d6. This is not a roll to succeed, but a roll to see if the task is finished in the shortest time possible (1 round, if performing an action in combat.) On a “failure”, the result is how much longer the task takes.

I’ve finally given in to an urge I’ve had for years: the base difficulty is equal to three times the dungeon level, or three times the hit dice of an opponent, or three times the spell level, unless the dungeon notes or rules say otherwise. This makes every spur-of-the-moment GM ruling so much easier.

Player wants to inch along a narrow ledge? If this is happening on Dungeon Level 1, no prob (everyone with Dex 3+ can do it.) If it’s on Dungeon Level 4, only those with Dex 12+ can handle it. Dungeon Level 6? Only Dex 18 characters can handle that crazy crumbling ledge.

Taking longer lowers the difficulty, enabling low ability characters to handle situations that would be impossible for them to deal with otherwise.

Training helps. Anyone with the appropriate skill can use their years of experience in place of their ability score. If that’s not high enough, they can use special gear (use 3 x gear’s level rating in place of ability score.) Untrained characters gain no benefit from special gear. Level 2 gear costs five times as much normal, Level 3 costs ten times normal, Level 4 costs 50 x normal.

Class helps. If a skill is part of a character class’s abilities, they can use 3 x character level in place of ability score. Heroes (4th level Fighters) can easily negotiate physical obstacles on the 4th dungeon level even if their Strength and Dexterity are below 12.

New magic spells can be easy to apply even without a detailed description. What’s the spell level? Multiply that by 3 to get the equivalent ability score when dealing with the targeted situation. So, a 3rd Level Chasm Leaper spell, without any special write up, will at the very least allow leaping successfully across average chasms on the 1st through 3rd dungeon levels.

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How Much Should We Worry About Ability Scores?

I know I'm already working on two other multi-post topics here, but I thought I'd take a break and draw attention to What's the Point of Ability Scores? (Part I) over on the Grognardia blog. James Maliszewski is diving into the topic of what ability scores used to mean vs. what they mean at later points in the evolution of D&D and related Class and Level Exploration Fantasy (CLEF) games. The D&D community went through several stages:

1. referee rolls ability scores, player chooses class afterwards
2. player rolls ability scores, then chooses class afterwards
3. player rolls ability scores, chooses class, and adjusts scores bases on class (point swap in Holmes, etc.)
4. player chooses class, creates ability scores targeted to fit that class (AD&D 1e Method V, point buy in later editions)

These stages of development sort of match up with changing views on the importance of ability scores:

1. guidelines only, few iron-clad mechanics tied to scores (3 LBBs OD&D)
2. some modifiers for high/low scores, gatekeeper function for certain classes (post-Greyhawk OD&D, early AD&D 1e)
3. modifier/gatekeeper functions + roll under rolls for non-weapon proficiencies (late AD&D and Classic D&D)
4. modifiers to "universal" game mechanic (D&D 3e and later)

In other words, the more important ability scores become, either for getting the class you want or just plain survival, the more players are going to want more control over their ability scores, either through guarantees that they can get at least one high score or through actual point-buy.

Since I've made no secret that I prefer using ability scores as guidelines and have been removing modifiers from my own gaming as much as possible, the low numbers on both of the above scales are my sweet spot. Although as I mentioned in a comment on Grognardia, I'm pretty committed these days to the idea of "either roll 3d6 in order, or just pick your scores and let's move on". Some of my ideas on that I've covered before here.

• Let 'em Pick
• Let 'em Pick random table (PDF)
• Just Pick a Class Already

I'm not sure where that would fall in the development of ability score generation methods, although I like to think of it as Stage 5. Once I realized that all ability score generation methods were basically about getting as close to the scores you want without the GM and other players thinking you are cheating, then really everything other than "I'll take whatever scores I get" is some form of "I'll try to get the scores I want". It's just easier to cut out the dice rolling or point distribution tricks at that point, pick the scores you want, and move on. And if the GM is not interested in being a dick about what players can do, there's not much reason to worry about cheating on rolls, is there?