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Saturday, May 24, 2014

Looting the Breakables - How to Give Players Awesome Loot and Not, at the Same Time ;)

Cut glass from the Dorflinger Estates Collection
I was taking my wife and mother to different yard sales today, when we stopped at a sale at the Dorflinger Estates property in White Mills, Pa. We found some amazing samples of cut glass, and the plates were part of the Dorflinger Collection. They weren't cut by Dorflinger but by one of his craftsmen that started their own cut glass line. The blank plates or uncut ones, were made at the Dorflinger factory.

So, where is this taking us?

Sure, I've given my players bulky treasure, but how about giving them highly valuable treasure that is easily damaged and rendered worthless if they aren't careful? Drop a backpack even carefully stuffed with such glassware as you enter battle and you could lose a fortune.


Have a storeroom full of glassware and crystal, and watch the reaction as pieces fall of shelves as the party's fighter bashes the door open. Don't give your players anything to pack the glassware with - make suitable packing material part of the treasure somewhere else in the complex.

Make them earn their money or have them watch is break in front of their eyes ;)

I thought it was a vase. Apparently, it's a water bottle, to be used when drinking whiskey.
What adventurer wouldn't want an item like that in their collection?
So, what kind of breakable loot do you like to torture your players with?

edit: did I mention this shit is really heavy? ;)

5 comments:

  1. That...is awesome. Paintings pierced, tapestries torched.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is why I put the cost and weight of crates of various types on my equipent list. You never know... It might be worth going back to town to get a nice crate to take away stuff like this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pretty upscale orcs to have that stuff lying around.

    Wouldn't you prefer some rat shit covered coppers?

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  4. I have fossilized/opalized/petrified fairys in my treasure tables, they are delicate and worth a few gp but also of questionable taste.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Flashing back; one dungeon I made had 200 opals in a horde. Big, beautiful opals. 500 g.p. each. They came in a lovely velvet pouch with built in belt loops and a drawstring that could be knotted. The fighter (encumbrance!) put the pouch on his belt and carefully knotted the string.
    Later in the dungeon was a combo pit/crushing walls trap. In goes the fighter, out come the dice for saving throws vs. crushing blows (yes, plural).
    Then the party had a bag full of powdered opal worth about 300 g.p....

    ReplyDelete

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