New GM's million questions

[xav++]

No prob. I'm looking at the old island fortress which ill be running in a few minutes and I was wondering about how to get to the second level. I think its only that secret door and but I'll figure it out and have more questions tomorrow.

[Solomoriah]

I assume you've figured it out already, but the three pits on level 1 of the Olde Island Fortress drop into area 17 of level 2. That's probably not the "preferred" way to get there (since you usually take damage on arrival) but it is possible to get there that way. This is explained on page 18 of the module.

Also, you asked about random treasure generation. You should not need those rules when running the module, as all the treasures are already there; but if you are creating your own dungeon or lair, you may well want to use the tables for that.

Let's generate a type A treasure. Though the rules don't actually say it anywhere, type A treasures are usually found in the hands of humans (NPCs). A type A treasure has a 50% chance of containing 5d6x100 copper pieces; I roll 73, so no copper pieces. There's a 60% chance of 5d6x100 silver pieces; I roll 55, so there is some silver. Rolling 5d6, I come up with 20, so there are 20x100 = 2,000 silver pieces in this hoard. In the same way, I generate 4,800 electrum pieces, no gold, and no platinum. There is a 50% chance of 6d6 gems, and another 50% chance of 6d6 items of jewelry. My rolls indicate no jewels, but there are 17 items of jewelry, which I'll detail later. Finally, there is a 30% chance of "any 3" magic items, and rolling 23 on my percentile dice, I find that there are, in fact, magic items.

So far, we have:
- 2,000 silver pieces
- 4,800 electrum pieces
- 17 items of jewelry
- 3 "any" magic items

Each item of jewelry is generated separately. The rules state that each item of jewelry is worth 2d8x100 gold pieces; rolling for each, and also rolling for the type of item on the provided table (page 120 of the core rules), I get the following:

Brooch, 900 gp value; Buckle, 1,500 gp value; Necklace, 1,300 gp value; Clasp, 500 gp value; ...

Okay, I'm bored with that. Let's just assume I've generated all 17 items, and move on to the magic items. That's the fun bit, right? The table says "any 3" magic items, so we use the first column of the first table (the one that says "Any" on top) for all three items. Rolling three times, I get:

Weapon
Wand, Staff, or Rod
Miscellaneous Magic

Turning to the weapons tables, I roll some more, and I get Light Quarrel +1, +2 vs. Special Enemy; the enemy roll comes up "Regenerators." Now, I note that the rules don't mention how many quarrels are found; you might even assume it's just one such item, but I generally roll 1d20 for the number found. Rolling, I get 12, so there are that many quarrels in the hoard.

For the Wand, Staff, or Rod table, I roll 97, so there is a Wand of Trap Detection in the hoard. Rolling 2d10 (as described on page 128), I find that it has 5 charges.

Last, there is an item of Miscellaneous Magic. Rolling percentiles, I get 57, so there is an Elven Cloak in this hoard.

Remember, type A treasures are generally found in the hands of NPCs. It is entirely reasonable to assume that the magic quarrels and Elven Cloak may be being used by the members of the NPC party. Also, some of the jewelry items may be being worn by the NPCs.

....

But I'm too lazy to roll on my own tables, so I go to http://basicfantasy.org/tools.html and use the treasure generator there to do the work for me...

[xav++]

Thank you!!!! That was what I needed! What are the different types of treasure?

[Solomoriah]

They're just letters. You learn from experience what types are generally found with which monsters. It's generally not important to know which is which, except when you create your own monster types.