So, we've entered
Golden Week in Japan, so I thought I'd try catching up on all of my various unfinished "Let's Read" threads. First up, Moldvay Basic and...
Treasure
I must confess, having imprinted on B/X when I hatched from my RPG egg, that I will always have a soft spot for lettered Treasure Types. It's certainly not to everyone's taste, probably not even most people's, and D&D's never going back to it, but I like 'em. They're part of my mental landscape of D&D.
The section starts with a simple explanation of treasure (coins, gems, jewelry, and magic items), and how it is used to both determine experience points and allow players to pay for better equipment, hire retainers, and purchase special services. Moldvay notes that treasure is normally found in lairs, but might also be rewarded to characters for performing missions. Treasures can be determined randomly or chosen by the DM. Moldvay suggests that large treasures be determined before play so the DM can "determine how best to hide and protect the treasure from theft, and if magic items are present, the DM may want to allow the monsters to use such items."
Four steps are listed for determining random treasure: find the treasure type; roll percentage dice for each type of treasure listed in the treasure type; roll to determine the amount of treasure present; and finally roll on the magic item subtables if such items are present.
For placed treasure, Moldvay provides some guidelines. He suggests that 3/4 or more of the characters' experience will come from treasure, so choices for placed treasure should be made carefully. He suggests first determining the amount of XP the DM wants to give out, placing the treasure to give the result, and then include monsters tough enough to make the characters earn the treasure.
There are 22 Treasure Types, listed by letter. Types A-O are for "large numbers or fairly difficult monsters are encountered," while P-V are for what individual monsters are carrying. Lairs of human-type monsters should contain at least the number given for the wilderness No. Appearing value in the monster stat block. If less than a full lair is encountered, the amount of treasure should be adjusted. There is not much in terms of advice or guidelines for adjusting treasure, though. There is a table with average values of Treasure Types A-M, for DMs to use as a baseline. (Type N contains only a 40% chance of 2-8 potions, and Type O contains only a 50% chance of 1-4 scrolls.)
The richest lair type by far is Type H, with a 25% chance of 3-24 1000s of copper, a 50% chance of 1-100 1000s of silver, 50% for 10-40 1000s of electrum, 50% of 10-60 1000s of gold, and 25% of 5-20 1000s of platinum. There is also a 50% chance each for 1-100 gems or jewelry, and a 15% chance of four magic items, plus 1 potion and 1 scroll. The listed average value is 50,000 gp. G, A, and M follow with 25,000, 17,000, and 15,000 gp respectively. Only Dragons have Type H. Dwarves have G, Bandits and Troglodytes have A, and no Basic monster has M.
The richest individual treasure type is V, followed by U, which as noted earlier are the most common individual treasure types after "Nil". These are also the only ones that allow a (small) chance of gems, jewelry, and magic times.
In terms of magic items, the most common (= have the highest chance of being found) are Potions with a 25% chance, followed by Swords, Weapons/Armor, and Scrolls at 20%. Rings, Wands/Staves/Rods, and Miscellaneous Magic all have a 5% chance. Swords, Weapons/Armor, Potions, and Scrolls have 8 slot tables, while Rings and Wands/Staves/Rods have 6 slot tables, and Miscellaneous Magic has a 10 slot table.
It is at this point in the game where Moldvay explains coins. All coins are about equal in size and weight, about the size of an American half-dollar piece. For our non-American readers, the half-dollar c. 1981 was about 30.6 mm in diameter and weighed about 12.5 grams.
For gems, they have values of 10 gp, 50 gp, 100 gp, 500 gp, and 1000 gp. The most common are the 100 gp ones, with a 30% chance. The 1000 gp ones only have a 5% chance. Everything else has a 20% chance. Jewelry is where the real money is. If it's found, the value is determined by rolling 3d6 and multiplying the result by 100. Unlike gems, though, jewelry can be damaged by "very hot fire, lightning bolts, crushing, and other rough treatment," halving its value.
Getting into the nitty gritty of magic items, magic items can only be identified by testing. If retainers are made to test an item, they can be expected to keep it. NPC magic-users can identify items, but will expect money or services paid in advance, and may take several game weeks to do it.
Interestingly, Moldvay says that characters must concentrate on an item in order to use it, with the exception of weapons, armor, and protection items. Items can only be used once per round, and the character concentrating on them can't do anything else. I totally missed this rule throughout my B/X games.
Items with charges cannot be recharged, and its impossible to know exactly how many charges it has (determined by rolling a 1d10 when found). Moldvay says "many items" will have limited charges, but in fact in Basic this only applies to Wands, Staves, and Rods.
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Magic weapons apply their adjustments to both to-hit and damage rolls. Cursed weapons cannot be willingly disposed of without the help of a high-level NPC cleric or magic-user (undoubtedly using the Remove Curse spell to be found in the Expert rules). Moldvay clearly notes that armor and shield bonuses are subtracted from AC, and an example is included to make this clear.
Swords - The sword table contains one +1 sword, one +1 sword that casts Light on command, one +2 sword, one -1 cursed sword, and four +1, +x swords (+2 vs lycanthropes, +2 vs spell users, +3 vs undead, and +3 vs dragons).
Weapons/Armor - The Weapon/Armor table includes arrows +1, axe +1, dagger +1, mace +1, armor +1, shield +1, armor
and shield +1 each, and cursed AC 9 armor. If armor is rolled, the DM can decide what kind it is, or roll a d8 to determine it. In this case, a 1-2 gets leather, 3-6 gets chain, and 7-8 gets plate. Magical armor weighs less than regular armor. Cursed armor will appear to all tests as armor +1 until actual deadly combat is entered. The implications are scary! You could put on the armor and spar with your party members, finding it provides a +1. But then when you enter deadly combat, it turns to AC 9 and can't be removed without a remove curse spell!
Potions - Each potion has a different smell and taste, even two of the same effect. Despite this, potions can be sipped to determine their type, and no special knowledge or hoops-jumping are required for this. Durations are 1d6+6 turns, which the DM determines secretly. If a potion is drunk while another is still in effect, the character is sick and unable to do anything for 3 turns. Healing potions, though, have no duration. The types of potions included are Diminution, ESP,
Gaseous Form, Growth, Healing, Invisibility, Levitation, and Poison.
Scrolls - The first 3 slots on the table are taken up with Spell Scrolls with one, two, and three spells respectively. These spells are magic-user/elf spells, but have a 25% of being clerical spells. Next comes a cursed scroll. There are two protection scrolls, one for lycanthropes and one for undead. The last two slots are treasure maps; one to a location of 1,000-4,000 gp value treasure, and one to a hidden magic-item.
Spell scrolls can only be read by magic-users, elves, or clerics. Spell scrolls can only be used by the appropriate classes. Now there's an interesting wrinkle here that's unique to B/X. In OD&D, magic-users apparently act like clerics, with all spells available for levels they can cast. With the Greyhawk Supplement, they were given minimum and maximum spells, which were included in Holmes Basic and of course AD&D. In Mentzer's BECMI (and Rules Cyclopedia), magic-users started out knowing Read Magic, and could learn other spells so that their spellbooks could outpace the number of spells they could cast per day. And the upshot is that a magic-user could always learn Read Magic, but never need to prepare it on adventures. Any scrolls they found could be taken back home, where Read Magic could be cast at their leisure. But in B/X, magic-users only know as many spells as they can cast. And Moldvay notes in this section that magic-user/elf spells can only be read by using a Read Magic spell. This means that if a magic-user wants to use scrolls, they have to use up one of their 1st level slots learning this spell. Even with Expert Rules, they only get
4 first level spells! So magic-user and elf players have to make a choice: use one of their precious, limited 1st level slots to get access to scrolls, or use that slot on another spell they want to cast more frequently. And even if they choose to go with Read Magic, when do they choose it? First level? Second? Seventh? Eleventh? In Moldvay, it seems, magic-users weren't expected to be fountains of powerful magic, but rather hoarders of scrolls (and the ultra-rare wands/staves/rods). Certainly, this explains why scrolls have a relatively high chance of being found. I like this. It gives B/X magic-users a slightly different flavor from AD&D magic-users, who scrounge for scrolls and spellbooks to increase their own personal power. B/X magic-users get their power from resource management, combining their limited personal spells with scrolls and limited charge magic-items.
On the other hand, clerics get access to their scrolls with no problem. The scrolls are even written in Common! Only clerics have the "spiritual contacts" necessary to release their power, though. Protection scrolls and treasure maps can be read by anyone. For cursed scrolls, it's up to the DM to make up the curse, although Moldvay helpfully adds a few suggestions (reader turns into a frog or other harmless animal; wandering monster appears and attacks reader with surprise; one magic item disappears; the reader's prime requisite is rerolled; and wounds take twice as long to heal).
Rings - In Moldvay, only one ring can be worn on each hand, keeping with Moldvay's tendency to limit resources. The available rings are Animal Control, Fire Resistance, Invisibility, Protection +1, Water Walking, and Weakness (natch).
Wands, Staves, and Rods - In Moldvay, wands are thin, smooth sticks 1 1/2 feet long. Rods are thin like wands, but 3 feet long. Staves are 2 inches thick and 6 feet long. It says that in the Basic Rules only magic-users and elves can use wands and only clerics can use staves. But this is only because the two staves (Staff of Healing and Snake Staff) included in the Basic rules are cleric items. In Expert, staves for magic-users would be included. Rods can be used by anyone. The available wands are Enemy Detection, Magic Detection, and Paralyzation. The staves are mentioned above. There is only one rod, the Rod of Cancellation, which will only work once (it drains a magic item of its magic). Rods, staves, and wands are the only class of magic-item in Moldvay Basic not to have a cursed item.
Miscellaneous Magic Items - Some classics here. Bag of Devouring, Bag of Holding, Broom of Flying, Crystal Ball, Elven Cloak and Boots, Gauntlets of Ogre Power (gives STR 18, and an additional 1,000 coins of weight that can be carried before being encumbered), Helm of Alignment Change, Helm of Telepathy, Medallion of ESP, and Rope of Climbing.
The chapter ends with Moldvay giving an example of randomly determining treasure for a lair of 30 goblins. The result is 2,000 sp, 3 gems worth 50 gp each, a potion of healing, and a sword +1, which Moldvay decides the goblin leader will wield. He does note that 30 goblins is pretty much an average amount of goblins for a lair (No. Appearing 6-60), and if the lair only contained 10 goblins (1/3 the average), he'd have reduced the treasure value by 1/3 as well: 600 sp, 1 gem, and 1 magic-item -- probably the potion.