{"id":21867,"date":"2020-09-04T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/?p=21867"},"modified":"2020-08-20T09:32:53","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T14:32:53","slug":"finders-archives-dat-phat-loot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/finders-archives-dat-phat-loot\/","title":{"rendered":"Finder’s Archives – Dat Phat Loot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Finder’s Archives.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today we\u2019re taking a break from the Magic the Gathering landscapes, and looking at every player\u2019s favorite subject. LOOT. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>So why does loot matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, on the face of it \u2013 loot does not matter. We\u2019ve all sat around the table, imagining the piles of gold in front of our characters, the magic items that have been stashed in their backpacks for months on end, and it\u2019s all \u201cnot there.\u201d But loot does matter. And that\u2019s because for the players it gives them a sense of accomplishment (a bit like experience points) and as a way of keeping score. After all, if\u00a0 the hoard you just grabbed is enormous, you\u2019re doing something right. At the same time, loot begets more loot \u2013 gold gets turned into magic items \u2013 items get used to stay alive and so on. It all matters to player progression \u2013 but mostly to their sense of satisfaction that they did something right. As such, at the end of every adventure (though not every encounter), there should be a reward, loot, or treasure for the players to grab.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>What loot?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The question of the type of loot is always a good one, and it\u2019s one of my own pet peeves for gaming. Gold pieces and coins are the standard for every game, and they have their place, but they are also rather boring. Once you\u2019ve seen 1,000 gold pieces, you\u2019ve pretty much seen 10,000 gold pieces. So that is where you, as the GM, have to start swapping things up. Perhaps they find an art piece that\u2019s worth thousands of gold pieces. They might not even want to sell it, since it\u2019s a unique thing \u2013 imagine finding an unknown piece by Picasso \u2013 the thrill you would have from owning it would probably not outstrip the pure monetary worth, for a normal person \u2013 but how about to a millionaire? It suddenly becomes a matter of perspective, but most player characters are far wealthier than the commoners that they interact with daily. So art pieces, magic items (which do not always have to be useful to the party mind you), gemstones, and unique types of treasure (how about a gold chariot instead of 100,000 gold piece for example) should be a frequent part of the loot, especially in bigger hoards.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>But not all loot needs value.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While this seems contradictory to what I\u2019ve stated above \u2013 that\u2019s because it can tell a story. (I actually wrote a small book based on that called Pocket Lint, Light Loot & Tiny Treasures<\/a><\/strong>) In most games, when you loot a corpse, you find coins, maybe a magic item, or an art piece, but that\u2019s it. In reality, though, our own bags and pockets are full of things that don\u2019t have that value. How about you find a flower with 4 petals on it? It\u2019s easy for the PCs to go \u201cshe loves me, she loves me not. She loves me, she loves me not\u2026\u201d and suddenly, their nameless opponent was unlucky in love as well. Or perhaps you find a TERRIBLE drawing in their pocket, with a little heart on it that says \u201cMommy.\u201d Now you\u2019ve just caused an orphan (and if the GM is really mean, either a new PC or a new recurring villain).<\/p>\n

In short, it\u2019s time for you to get creative with your loot. <\/strong>😊<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Finder’s Archives. Today we\u2019re taking a break from the Magic the Gathering landscapes, and looking at every player\u2019s […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1580,"featured_media":21868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1783],"tags":[61,156,2430,644],"class_list":["post-21867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finders-archive","tag-gm-advice","tag-roleplaying-games","tag-rpg-adventure-ideas","tag-rpgs"],"yoast_head":"\nFinder's Archives - Dat Phat Loot - d20 Radio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.d20radio.com\/main\/finders-archives-dat-phat-loot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Finder's Archives - Dat Phat Loot - d20 Radio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Finder’s Archives. 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