My group had our first session last Sunday, and all went well. We went over character sheets and talked about their backgrounds and setup the beginning of our story line. We discussed TOR philosophy and the rules.

We held off on running the Marsh Bell, but decided to do a quick and dirty combat scenario with 5 Snaga trackers just to play with the mechanics.

All went well but after the battle someone asks, "What kind of loot are they carrying?"
My answer was somethng on the order of "Errrm...welll..."

So I promised to look more into treasure and I went on to say they might find enough with these Snaga to support a frugal cost of living for one character for one month, though I had no documentation to back me up.

In MERP I had adopted a practice of assigning a hoard of treasure after an extended campaign just to make life easier.

Another thing we adopted was that Mordor, Gundabad and Isengard had their own economies and currency, and many times depending on where they were, thats what treasure the enemy had and they could not easily exchange the treasure they found, the locals refusing to take the "dirty" money, some seeing it as evil or cursed.

Anyway, How do you dispense with "Treasure" on an adventure?

What are they carrying? Foul Orc stuff that no right-minded hero from the free peoples would want to touch with a barge pole. Now, anyone want to risk a shadow point by looting the bodies?

Getting away from the D&D / Munchkin attitude of "kick down the door, kill the monsters, loot the bodies"* is difficult. Treasure hoards are a rarity (IMO, or at least untainted ones), the treasure generally comes from a lord or other NPC gifting the party with treasure for services rendered.


* (stab your buddy)

Try this:

"You can see nothing of value here. The orcs bear the misshapen ugly weapons and armour that you'd expect from such foul and craven folk. Even their supplies of what you believe to be food are beyond hope - mouldy bread, reeking and maggot ridden meat, and stale smelling acrid water. What trinkets and evil devices they have about their person bear disturbing imagery and symbols and just looking upon them fills you with dread."

After saying something like that I'm guessing your players won't be too interested in looking through such possessions again! If they do then hit them with Corruption Tests due to the taint of such items.

Although I agree with Valarian and Rich, I will point out that there is mention of a Goblin Hoard in the treasure section of the Lore Master book. Also the goblins in Of Leaf and Stewed Hobbit has a treasure room. I suppose it could be made up of loot taken from raids but it does point to Goblins and Orcs assigning value to coinage.

I guess everyone likes shinies.

That's true. I presumed the OP was asking about tips on avoiding his players strip searching every goblin and orc they attack a la some games. For me a treasure room or hoard constitutes something a little different and something which the adventure writer has deliberately added to the game and therefore wants (or is okay) with the PCs finding.

Ok thanks for the replies.

I get what you are saying and I concur. I can shuck and jive around doling out treasure for each and every lackluster encounter.

But I realize that along the way in a campaign, there will be untainted treasure accumulated obviously as there is a chart for it.
What I am after are some suggestions.

So, for example, how many orcs does it take to accumulate an Orc Hoard worth?
I am guessing many will say it would probably be according to the scenario the LM comes up with.

Is clearing out a cave complex of a tribe of 200 craven yub-yub Orclings and their Shaman leader enough?

Or... more like.. at an early stage in their development...Finally locating and Killing the Great Orc Chieftain named "Gary the Couper" and his band of murderous, bad-ass, "coup-de-gras-happy" Uruk Maruaders?

And since gaining treasure for purchasing stuff is not the goal, So then why not just say, Ok... you guys are all Rich for life, now stop bothering me about the treasure... and lets get on with the task at hand of saving Middle Earth!

The best advice I have is look at published material for guidance of how much treasure to mete out.

Usually it's quantified as "1 treasure point each."

In TfW - Don't Leave The Path, the merchant you escort across the Elf-Path offers each character (the equivalent of) 2 treasure Points to do so. Though breaking this down into exact science of how many pieces of silver this is - goes beyond the scope of the game's design.

Thus you can assume that 2 points of treasure is ALOT of money - certainly not something you'd find amassed in a major stronghold.

For most encounters - the descriptions by Rich and Valarian above are spot-on; but in the instance of the goblin's hide out mentioned above (in Stewed Hobbits), does provide a precedence and example of existence of such stashes the fellowships can uncover - and provided they can snatch and carry enough - and get out of there, and return home without being burdened with more Encumbrance (there are no Bags of Holding, Leomund's Secret Chest spells) the LM should award the players with fair number of treasure points - per his/her discretion. Perhaps 4 or 5 per player.

I know this doesn't really answer your question with specific quantifiable amounts, but as you indicated, it really is dependent on the scenario the LM comes up with. In all honesty, there's no specified "treasure/wealth per level" charts to really go by. Just use what's been written before, compare, and go with your gut instinct.

1 treasure point is enough to raise your standard of living to prosperous for 1 month.

So while this is a substantial amount of money, you're not even considered spending extravagantly yet, and it won't last more than a month.

In Adventurer's Book page 116, a goblin hoard is listed at 10 treasure points. An orc chieftain hoard is 50 points. A troll hoard like the one Bilbo, Thorin a cie found is rated at 200 treasure points. Still, even 200 treasure points is enough for 1 person to live richly for less than 10 years.

Within the scope of the game, 1 treasure point is the equivalent of 1 gold coin, or 20 silver pennies, or 240 copper pieces (as per the Laketown supplement)

Plus, if they're doing work for someone, it's the patron that will be doling out the cash - in goods and services or in coin, armbands, etc. The gifting culture is such that a lord is required to show his generosity for services rendered to him or his people.

1 treasure point is defined somewhere in the book as enough to live at a prosperous level for one month. Equivalent to the Hobbit culture lifestyle, IIRC. So, enough in coin to live like a Hobbit for a month. Fairly comfortable living.

I'd argue then that the Rich level is equivalent to a 2 treasure point income per month. Martial living would eke this out to 2 months and Frugal living would eke a treasure point out for 3 months.

Duplicate Post - unable to remove

I sincerely appreciate all of these enlightening replies.

I want to be fair and reasonable when deciding how much reward should be given.

But in the long run I realize the true reward is not in the King's ransom worth of treasure your players have accumulated, but what is most important are their Virtues and Valor and the Hope they bring to the world, Bringing their power to bear in troubled spots with a reasonable measure of success to be expected.

I am sure our new group will come to realize that too.

Early on in MERP my old players scored a King's Ransom in treasures. Being set financially it was surprising how quickly their interests turned to pursuits with higher ideals in mind.

Treasure was not the goal anymore. New Experiences and Glory became what they sought. Being benevolent lords and having a voice in the community they operated out of was rewarding in itself.

I will endeavor to make it the same (or better) with TOR

Thanks

Standing, standing, standing!

(Especially when you consider it can play a role in the year-end fellowship phase - in allowing the players to interrupt Loremaster story designs if they have means of changing the outcome of the narration.


"even the smallest person can change the course of the future."

Another option is give to your players no treasure but a buch of crappy yet curious items:

Items table

When they realise there is no profit in looting the bodies, they will stop. However, I agree they should be discouraged as the very idea is disgusting.

Venger, on the flip side, while you want to discourage the "looting" mentality, awarding treasure, as near as I can tell, using the Tales from Wilderland as a precedent is also not a good idea.

My players have played through 3 of the adventures in Tales from Wilderland and one of my own design, and after 20 game sessions, not a single one has enough treasure to increase their standard of living for more than a couple months and no one has enough treasure to even come close to maintaining their standing. If you are using the published adventures, you'll need to supplement awards greatly to even get their standing to 1.

I agree with the others though, the way you award treasure is more important than how much you award (to an extent). Having patrons gift the players is a great way to do it. Also, I think a single planned big score is much better than nickle and diming them all the way across rhovanion. Were it me, I would, once they stopped asking me about loot and such, then and only then award them with the big find after a plausible experience. Something pretty substantial; like 50 or more treasure.

Describe the findings: art pieces, gems, jewelry, gold chips and pennies and silver ingots stamped with the device of some foreign and long past kingdom. make it something worth celebrating over rather than 2 treasure here, 1 treasure there. And I would never, ever advocate ritual stripping of the dead.

Did you say something about a ritual involving dead strippers?

What a loss.....

sounds more like a D&D adventure than a TOR one, Sir Kic ;-)

Tu che'

Still - it's a tragic loss when they die.

Not if they were Troll strippers.