It's gaming day here at Dungeon Fantastic. The PCs are going to go troll hunting, and dragon-avoiding, again today.
As always I'm not sure of their plans - they have a private discussion they may (or may not) be using to plot things out. I'm better off left out of it, as long I know what to prepare for game.
I'm hoping this won't be another fruitless day of swamping around the fens hoping for wandering monsters (yes, some of my players do hope for them) who almost never have treasure (something people generally do seem to expect, somehow, from monsters without pockets wandering around in a swamp.)
I always make sure every mob has something of some value, if nothing else the most 'monster' bits will have some value to Enchanters, Alchemists, Tanners, or just sold as meat.
ReplyDeleteSure, in some cases there's nothing of value remaining after the delvers have chopping, roasted, lightninged, and bludgeoned something to death, but I like to leave that to "did they get a good roll on their 'monster butchery' roll" which is often penalized by the final Death Check penalty the monster was rolling (unless they go out of their way to not attack or injure the area, like never hitting something in the head because they want to specifically harvest it's eyes).
My group tends to start loading up with the first kill, and as they "run out of weight", they start making judgments on what they should keep and what they should dump. They've actually buried sacks of coin and gems, or other small highly durable goods, so they can carry out "slightly less valuable" but spoilable goods (on the expectation they can come back the higher value, more durable goods on the next trip).
Is your group just adverse to harvesting value from dead critters, or have you undervalued that type of loot so much it's not even worth carrying back to cover the Weekly Living Cost?
They'd love loot from wandering monsters, it's just that what I normally use as wandering monsters doesn't carry loot - puddings, oozes, slimes, animals, leaping leeches, insect swarms, trolls, shamblethorns, etc. Most of them aren't valuable, either. Some are, sometimes, but the game isn't worth the candle . . . you're better off avoiding them, just for the cost in game time. That's really on purpose. They're a tax for dawdling, in a way.
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