I have a new project in the works.
After some comments from another member of my group who was DMing 5e for the first time and was unsure about how much or how little treasure was appropriate, I put my thinking cap on and started working on the problem.
Long story short, I ended up combining Milestone Leveling (from 5e), Treasure Parcels (from 4e), Wealth by Level (from 3e and 4e), and Experience for Treasure (from BECMI and AD&D) into a single simple and coherent system.
Basically, you ditch experience points, and instead have a series of treasure troves/hoards/parcels (call them what you will). These are mixed and matched and given to the party as a combination of payment, rewards, and found treasure. Then, when the party has been given all of the treasure for their current level this triggers the milestone at which they increase in level.
It’s simple and elegant; it scales easily for parties of different sizes; and it means that the wealth of characters is more closely tied to their level. On the one hand, the DM using it doesn’t need to be worried about being too generous or too stingy with the treasure. And on the other hand the DM knows how much total treasure an average character of any given level will have acquired so the value can be used as a Wealth by Level guideline for new characters joining the party.
The tricky bit was actually coming up with the appropriate values and then coming up with nearly four hundred little blocks of treasure that match those various values.
I’m rather pleased with it, myself – and I’m writing it up into a “Treasure Companion” as much for my own use as anyone else’s (I like having my stuff in hard-copy format).
My only problem at the moment is that it’s a bit short. It’s only around 25 pages so far, which is rather short for a supplement. I need to – not pad it out, exactly – but find more material to include to make it more worthy of being produced and printed as a physical book.
Watch this space for more news as it comes…
Gurbintroll Games 