OSNPC Treasure Hoard #2301

A GREAT D&D 4e System for Handing Out Treasure

I hope everyone’s new year is off to a wonderful start.

The D&D 4e Dungeon Master’s Guide is a gift that keeps on giving. I’ve owned the book for more than 10 years and every time I pick it up I find something wonderful to help run any game.

This week I took a look at Treasure Parcels (p126). This is an awesome method for ensuring that the heroes receive the appropriate amount, and type, of treasure as they make their way through each level.

Check out this week’s featured video and then continue reading for some exclusive subscriber content.

---

How to Make It Interesting?

While this section of the Dungeon Master’s Guide provides great information about WHAT treasure to award at each level, it does not spend a lot of time discussing HOW to reward it. Let’s look at a couple ways you can make awarding the treasure more interesting.

Make Them Look For It

A key pillar of D&D is exploration. Despite this, many parties will simply defeat the monsters, take whatever loot is lying around and move on to the next location. And nothing can be more discouraging to a player than taking time to investigate every nook and cranny only to be told over and over that there is nothing there.

If a player is going through that trouble, make sure you throw a few gold their way or maybe a potion. It doesn’t need to be much. Just enough to encourage the party to be thorough in their exploration.

After a battle, don’t just tell them what they find or have everything out in the open. Make them look for it. If they want to just move on, you can even ask them, “Does anyone want to loot the bodies?” After a couple times asking the question and providing treasure as a reward when they take the hint, they will start looking on their own.

Hide It

Once you’ve conditioned the party to do a better job looking for treasure, you can get more creative with where you hide it. Valuables are rarely carried in a pocket or set on a table. They are hidden. Plan to have some of the treasure locked away in a secret compartment in the wall or under the bed or in a locked safe behind a picture.

As you describe the room, include some details about strange breeze that seems to be coming from the stone itself. Or a mention of how a painting on the wall is hanging slightly askew. Small clues to guide the party to the treasure.

As with looting the bodies, once they realize a couple times that there might be treasure in more inconspicuous locations, they will be start looking for those spots in the future.

Guard It

While the party might have defeated the main enemy in a location, that does not mean they get free access to everything in that location. As mentioned earlier, valuables are stored in safe places.

The most valuable treasure should be in locked chests or safes. It should be protected by traps. Or maybe it is sitting in the middle of a large nest of spiders.

It can be a lot of fun to make collecting the treasure a mini-encounter in itself.

---

The Mines of Kashtel Gale

I am currently working on a dungeon crawl campaign that stretches through the entire year. Each month will bring a new module that ties to the larger story.

The campaign for 2023 is called, “The Mines of Kashtel Gale”, and it is set in the frigid far north of the world of Vakrova. The adventure is a dungeon crawl in the spirit of old school adventures. Lots of levels and rooms to explore with plenty of traps, monsters, and treasure along the way. The adventure is system-neutral so you can adapt the campaign to whatever system you prefer.

You can check out my other modules and map bundles over at DriveThruRPG.

---

Paid Subscriber Exclusive

Paid subscribers get free access to each module as they are released plus at least 2 exclusive bonus maps for the adventure.

Here is a sneak peek at the title location for the upcoming campaign.