Treasure as a storytelling tool

[BishopMcQ]

I'm curious how groups handle treasure and incorporate the story aspects into the campaign. There are different perspectives as a GM and as a player. Every group likely has their own way of settling the distribution of loot, but when it comes to the actual story how do you interact with treasure either in generating the loot lists from a GM perspective and from prioritizing what to keep and sell from a player perspective?

As a GM, when I'm putting out permanent magic items, I tend to decide is the piece of loot linked to the story or just generic loot. In PF1, the ring of protection +1 that became ubiquitous at a certain level of play generally wasn't a story item. Though, the Signet Ring of Admiral Tyrannius, which was a ring of protection +1 and provided water breathing for 10 minutes per day, had a greater story impact than the GP value attached to it.

When adding in temporary items, I often weigh what the character that is carrying them would use and also implications for the future. One of the APs for example gives the party a wand of Quench. During the next chapter, low and behold, there's an army with bonfires that are just right to be put out. One time through the AP, the party kept the wand and used it. Another group ignored it's mundane fire uses and focused on the damage dealing capacity to fire elementals. That item had the ability to impact the story, other items like a potion of cure moderate wounds becomes something that just fills up bag space after awhile. As a GM, I am more forgiving with providing a bag of consumable items than a permanent item because I know the wealth will eventually balance back out, even if a few encounters are made easier for my party.

As a player, unless I have a specific purpose, I rarely make consumable magic items. I earned that gold and want to keep it around with me. I, however, love to find consumable magic items. Sometimes they are solutions looking for problems--I have a potion of fly and so now I'm looking for an opportunity where flying will make this easier. Other times, they live in bags and when the party is stumped in how to handle something, everyone checks their lists for a wheelbarrow and a holocaust cloak.

How does it work at your table?

[Ediwir]

Most items I set for my AP conversions are at least aligned to the story’s development and to what the opponents do with them. There’s the occasional nonsense (a +1 flaming sword rather than a much cheaper +1 striking sword, for example) but if it fits the flavour I am more than willing to overlook it.

Story-driven items are a major favourite as well: when I rewrote WftC’s book2, for example, I wrote in Count Bartelby’s Cane, a sword cane that can be split into a rapier and a magic staff. It doesn’t have much background in itself, but it’s the kind of item that can become a favourite later on once the players obtain it because it reminds people of the previous adventure arc.

Comsumables are... tricky, but useful. I tend to ignore healing potions when setting treasure and just sprinkle some as extra afterwards. They get used. It’s everything else that I want to emphasise.

[BellyBeard]

I try to flavor my Consumables to make them more interesting. For example, the scroll they find in the gremlin's lair is a Primal spell scratched into a piece of bark. Maybe they killed an ankheg and can salvage its gall bladder as a makeshift acid flask. Stuff like that is at least marginally more interesting, for me anyways. I will concede, however, that plenty of players will just write down "scroll" or "acid flask" and then it becomes just like any other vendor trash loot.

I also like to have enemies using some of these Consumables, to remind players how effective they can be. Of course this ups the difficulty and needs to be accounted for.

[rainzax]

BellyBeard wrote:

I try to flavor my Consumables to make them more interesting. For example, the scroll they find in the gremlin's lair is a Primal spell scratched into a piece of bark. Maybe they killed an ankheg and can salvage its gall bladder as a makeshift acid flask. Stuff like that is at least marginally more interesting, for me anyways. I will concede, however, that plenty of players will just write down "scroll" or "acid flask" and then it becomes just like any other vendor trash loot.

I also like to have enemies using some of these Consumables, to remind players how effective they can be. Of course this ups the difficulty and needs to be accounted for.

As to the last part, what if you added a Modification bit to said items?

For example, the Bark-Scratched Primal spell could apply a +1 bonus to learn or cast, or the Ankheg Gallbladder Acid Flask a +1 bonus to persistent damage.

That might get 'em to record which one was different because if they don't they miss out on the Modification!

You could also do negative Modifications too (-1 to learn/cast, -1 persistent damage) if you wanted too...

[Henro]

If all goes well my players may find a scroll of Insect Form next session (which is a great big deal for them since they won't be able to cast that spell for a while). It's not any old scroll however, it's in fact the holy text for a long-gone insect-worshiping druidic cult.

A descendant of one of the cult's members knows of the hidden cache containing the scroll, and is willing to tell the PCs about it if it means it will help with preventing the fall of Plaguestone.

[BellyBeard]

rainzax wrote:

As to the last part, what if you added a Modification bit to said items?

For example, the Bark-Scratched Primal spell could apply a +1 bonus to learn or cast, or the Ankheg Gallbladder Acid Flask a +1 bonus to persistent damage.

That might get 'em to record which one was different because if they don't they miss out on the Modification!

You could also do negative Modifications too (-1 to learn/cast, -1 persistent damage) if you wanted too...

You want to be careful with that, as too much fiddling with numbers becomes hard to remember or keep track of. There is a balance to making things mecha ically interesting without being too much to remember. It also depends on the players, as some might enjoy the added benefits while some might see it as a hassle to keep track of.

[Tender Tendrils]

Sometimes cosmetic differences are actually enough - my starfinder players seized an entire ship and made it into the party starship simply because I used the art of the pirate ship with the shark teeth painted on it from one of the SFS modules to represent it.

I've seen that happen in the 5e group I am in as well - three of our six players are currently wearing the pelts of beasts we have killed that they paid large sums of gold to turn into cloaks with no mechanical benefits.

[Perpdepog]

I can almost never predict what a party will want to hold onto, so I try to roll treasure placement with what they enjoy as best I can. As an example I placed a spiresteel rapier in as a bit of extra fun in my Tyrant's Grasp game, and after rolling poorly in a couple fights the party decided in-character it must be cursed and haven't touched it since. Conversely, we have a Pharasmin priestess who collects all the bones she can find, always.

Basically my rule is the more the party seems to enjoy or be attached to something the more important I may make it later on. Rewarding their interest with a small benefit or special power later on seems to go over pretty positively.

We'll see how the nightmare silk chain armor goes over later on :P