Since 4e came out, I’ve seen endless discussion on many of its aspects like monster damage and class powers, but it’s been awhile since I’ve heard much about treasure parcels. Here’s the brief summary for those of you who don’t normally GM (like me):
The idea of parcels is that along with the standard 10 encounters that the players need to go up a level, there are 10 “parcels” of treasure that the party will acquire at the same time. These are a mixture of magic items, gems, art, and money.
In the olden days, the DM had the option to roll up random treasure for each group of monsters encountered. In 4e the connection between the monsters and the parcels is abstracted, and the DM has the choice to distribute them how she or he sees fit. My personal approach is to figure out what my treasure budget is for an adventure and then to fill up the individual parcels.
In the recent adventure I wrote for my group, I planned for three encounters. Since I award experience for skill challenges and for completing quests, I knew that I would be giving out at least four encounters’ worth of XP plus the minor quest award, so I chose to give out five parcels. The 10 parcels per level in the DMG are not of all of equal value, so attention has to be paid to how you want to pace them. Since I wanted to plan a relatively even and interesting distribution, I decided on the two middle magic items, and the biggest and two smallest money rewards, which to me seemed about average for the total level’s worth of treasure.
After I figure out which parcels to hand out, I next like to figure out what to fill them with. The last time I planned an adventure, I had random treasure tables to fall back on. I actually like the treasure tables because I enjoy exploring all the neat items there are; and when I play, I enjoy the puzzle aspect of figuring out how to use some random item. However, I do appreciate the 4e philosophy that items should be useful to the characters. With the limited distribution of items, it sucks to be hauling around a bunch of useless junk. In addition, with the DDI Compendium, it’s easier to pick something in particular rather than randomly.
I had an easy time choosing items for this adventure. Only two of the players had sent me info on their characters, so I chose the magic items that would benefit them. One send me his character sheet and so I found an empty item slot and looked to fill it with something that worked with the character concept. For the other I chose a neck-slot item that worked with the character: a healer’s brooch. I figured it would be likely he picked up a basic +1 amulet or cloak already, but odds are with 5 players that there would be one character that he could give the old item too. That way one parcel would benefit two characters. This at least worked to plan. Deciding on the monetary was pretty easy too. I see all the gems, art, and coins as interchangeable values, and so I feel free to re-distribute the total gp among the parcels. To this end I made the MacGuffin item that they had to retrieve and sell to the local Prior worth a round value, and put the leftover in random coins.
The final act of parceling out treasure is sprinkling them around the adventure. Parcels don’t have to show up in a 1:1 ratio with encounters. With parcels, you can think about where they make sense in the context of the setting and story. I had one encounter taking place in a trash compactor and figured some of the treasure would be buried in the muck. I also buried some of the coins in an old Dwarven storeroom in a side corridor. Finally I gave one magical item to the end boss and gad the MacGuffin artifact double as an art item an made it central feature of the final encounter. Unfortunately for the first time in the history of my group, they didn’t do a thorough clean-out and so I moved some of the treasure around on the fly, and had to save some treasure to hand out in a future adventure. At least this lets me really deck out the next dungeon with sweet loot.
In summary, this is my process for distributing treasure with 4e parcels: (1) Choose a number of parcels from the list for the level that match the same percentage of experience for the adventure, (2) fill those parcels with items that help the characters or fit the story, (3) spread them around the adventure, but be prepared to be flexible.
my group tried using parcels in our last 4e campaign, and we all pretty well hated them by the end. in my current campaign, i’m just handing out random treasure, but somewhat more of it, and we’re much happier.
I handle treasure using a reverse wish list. I tell player X they found a level 9 magic item, and they tell the group what was found. It uses the wish list system, but the DM doesn’t need to keep track and update them.
And it pulls the players in a bit, it’s fun having them describe where odd magic items come from. Player finds a key that unlocks a chest, a map to a hidden room with the item, a summon magic item scroll that the player recites.
Makes treasure a small rp event all in its own way….