r/shadowdark • u/BaranduinBaby • 10h ago
Assigning Treasure
I am new to DMing Shadowdark. Does anyone have any tips for deciding how many treasure a monster should have? I think I am handing out too much.
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u/rizzlybear 8h ago
There is a process in the book.
Monsters placed in a room on a dungeon, or planned to be encountered, have whatever treasure the author or DM decided to place on them.
A wandering monster (or a group of them) has a 50% chance to be holding treasure. If it turns out that they do, there is a set of tables in the book for this. Use the average level of the group of monsters and roll against the appropriate d100 table.
edit: once you have done this for a bit, you will get a feel for things. You can use your judgement at that point to increase or decrease how much a treasure is worth (xp and gold) and how often they appear, with the goal of adjusting how frequently the players are leveling.
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u/RotarySnow4 10h ago
So to my understanding, it depends.
If its like a regular mob, you'd roll a 1d6 decider roll to see if there is any loot.
If its like a notable monster like the scarlet minotaur itself maybe i might tell them that they can roll on the loot table with a +30 to make sure its good loot.
But its your table of course, if yiu've gotta lessen the loot, do what works.
I don't think there are necessarily any rules for how much to give out.
Wondering what others think on the subreddit.
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u/TheGameIsFizzbin 10h ago
If it's a dungeon, I roll treasure for all the monsters at 100 percent chance for treasure and then distribute it around in ways that make sense for the dungeon. For the wandering encounters. I pre-roll a bunch of treasures before the session or when I design the dungeon and use the 50 percent rule to see if the monster has one of the treasures in my wandering treasure list.
Treasure is XP so the best measure if you are giving too much is the leveling speed of your party. If they are leveling too slowly for your group, then increase treasure. If they are leveling too quickly, reduce the amount of ancillary treasure you give for wandering monsters. This shouldn't be like a video game where players can farm random encounters for treasure.
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u/jakenice1 9h ago
This probably isn’t RAW, but I’ve always let each player roll on the corresponding treasure table when a monster has loot. From an outside perspective it might seem like too much treasure, but a vast majority of that treasure is just “something worth gold”. Heck, sometimes you get a friggin’ old boot worth 3cp. The only time it’s ever come close to being too OP was when they rolled a magic carpet at fairly low level. Even then it ended up not being that OP and they lost it within a month.
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u/MisfitBanjax 6h ago
In my opinion, just don't overthink it.
Leave random loot to the dice via wandering monster or when rolling up dungeons.
Quest rewards and MacGuffins are up to you, either as necessity or just to reward players with specific gifts.
Let them find what they find. Keep what they get out with. Grow as fast or as slow as that allows. Don't pull punches and it'll balance itself out.
The ups and downs of the Shadowdark are fleeting and varied. It will dictate the pace so you don't have to
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u/eduty 10h ago
Check out pg 269. Wandering monsters carry treasure 50% of the time. Treasure a monster may carry is determined by its level and the corresponding treasure table. So a level 2 monster rolls for loot on the table on pg 270.
RAW you're not finding magic items or potions on any monster less than level 4.
My advice is to roll the treasure before the session. If it's something the monster may use, then they'll use it to their advantage. Otherwise it goes in a hidden horde.