With An Evil Gleam: Giving Treasure a Personality
All too often, treasures in a game – be they gadgets in a high-tech setting, high-powered sports cars in a modern campaign, or arcane thingies in a fantasy campaign – are about as interesting as the cardboard cut-outs sometimes used to represent them in play or on a battlemap.
While it’s always possible to overdo such things, I want to propose that you consider putting as much care into giving a personality to some of the inanimate objects that surround your PCs as you would in defining an NPC.
It’s not all that difficult.
Coins
What do the coins have stamped on them? Do the faces seem to be frowning, or smiling, or winking rogueishly, or smirking? Are they a little off-center, or stained and dirty? Take some of the terminology that you would otherwise have used to describe the surroundings where the coins were found, and apply them instead to the coins themselves.
Transport
This is one of the easiest types of equipment to give a personality. The horse that’s always willing, or always throwing a shoe; the car which develops a squeek anytime a repairman is more than 100 feet away; the wagon whose wheels behave like those of a shopping trolley as soon as they have to carry a light load. Loose floorboards, carpets that like to move, gearboxes that like to jump out of gear, cars that are always whispering “just a little faster” in your ear…
Chests & Furniture
Probably something of an anticlimax after that last section, but nevertheless, here we go. While this section will discuss Chests specifically, many of the options can be applied to furniture in general.
Chests are often considered less interesting than their contents. Why not do something sneaky the next time the PCs find a treasure map – put a false map in the chest and the real one hidden amongst the fancy scrollwork of the chest itself? Then let the PCs recieve a slightly-too-generous offer on the chest en route to their wild-goose chase and ride out into the sunset congratulating each other!
Hinges that squeek no matter how often they’re oiled. Doors and Lids whose latches catch, or with a splinter that always catches a sleeve when someone puts something in or takes something out. Chests that never quite hold as much as they look like they should (and let the PCs have fun looking for non-existant false bottoms). Chests or Mirrors with rude or disturbing motifs carved into them.
Chests that always make anything stored in them dusty or impart a musty odour, that wobble on their feet as though drunk, that groan and creak alarmingly. Chests that are greedy, always fitting in slightly more than will permit the lid to close. Chests that like to share with the world, popping open at the slightest bump when in the back of a wagon or cart, but which lock tight at all other times.
Food
Food creates strong links with people’s pasts. The right flavours and odours can transport you back to your childhood with greater immediacy than any photograph, can create a mood more tangibly than the most florid poetry. Consider the paranoia that can be wrought by an innkeeper who always happens to have a serving or two of a character’s favorite food on hand – even if he’s never met them.
Food can be a weapon to the GM – use it!
Weapons & Hilts
And, speaking of weapons – hilts that are more reassuring than usual in the grip they offer, or get slippery when a character sweats, or that are vain and demand constant polishing.
Clothing
The clothes maketh the man, according to an old saw. But what of the personality of the clothing itself? Brash, or always riding up in the back, or can never seem to keep the rain out. Buttons that will NOT stay sewn on, zippers that always catch, boots that are too worn on one heel to be quite stable, shoes that tend to trip, or that have excessively slippery soles, or that pinch the toes. We’ve all worn lots of clothing and have experienced all of these or something very much like them. I have one shirt that refuses to stay buttoned up, and another that will not permit itself to stay tucked in, and a pair of jeans that seems to change size at will, and a jacket that makes me sweat no matter how cold the room – or I – am.
Art
One mistake that I frequently make is making the artworks too fancy, too poetic if you will. Surely, some art by brilliant painters is of puppies, or the breakfast table, or his mistress. Some will be lewd, some will deliberately provoke, some will be intentionally anti-social. Some will be gauche, and some cliched, and some will simply look cheap. Just because it’s by a famous artist, and incredibly valuable, it doesn’t have to be beautiful!
Quills & Pens
Quills and pens that are miserly, holding onto their ink for far longer than they should, or that are practical jokers who like to drip or leak, or that somehow twist to make a word look like something it shouldn’t. I’ve had pens that liked soft surfaces, and others that liked firm surfaces, or that refused to work unless the surface was perfectly flat, or refused to write on the bottom of pages, or at the start of a page, or that always managed to rip or mark or scratch the paper. And I’ve had pens that kept on and on and on, long after the ink was seemingly exhausted.
Jewellery
The brooch that is always getting lost, or that has a pin that likes to stab the owner when it is being put on. The chain that is always getting itself tangled and knotted, or that always seems just a little too short. The ring that is firm on the finger until we’re not looking and then likes to make a wild bid for freedom – Gollum would sympathise!
The most rewarding experience
There are so many of these everyday ordinary experiences that are ubiquitously part of the shared human experience, that we will all recognise. It’s hard enough, making a campaign feel realistic, without taking advantage of a touchstone that we can all identify with.
When you mention a small and dingy alleyway in a modern city, you don’t have to mention the dumpsters and garbage cans – these can pretty much be taken for granted. So take the sights and smells, the grime and mildew, and apply it to the treasures and any NPCs that are present. You’ll not only find yourself running out of adjectives less frequently, you’ll make everything else more colourful and more tangible.
Make your objects seem more real, and the characters will seem more real as well. And that’s the best reward you can give your players, and your campaign, and yourself.
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May 6th, 2010 at 8:27 am
Great article!
I like to describe the differences between the part of the world the PC’s are currently in and anything they are familiar with, but usually do not go above and beyond that (except for weapons and equipment). Maybe I should start and see what happens.
Though I DO go into as extreme detail as you mentioned for weapons and armor usually. If a character pays to get equipment made, they can either choose what they want it to look like or have the blacksmith decide what fits the character best. However, the +3 greatsword they loot off of the Blackguard will not change it’s evil and menacing appearance just because the party paladin now wields it. This sometimes leads to some interesting RP encounters, with the whole party having entire sets of equipment looted off of villains (and thus often looking evil) which is great cause one of the campaign’s primary themes is “don’t take things at face value”.
May 6th, 2010 at 9:04 am
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May 7th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
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May 10th, 2010 at 8:24 am
Good article, but I think that Mike overlooked one treasure type. Best described with the following story.
Long ago, in an AD&D campaign, our party went through the original canned adventure for ‘Ravenloft’. After the dramas, problems and things to be killed were all dealt with; we eventually settled Top-Vampire Strahd’s hash once and for all. We did some celebratory looting, then started talking about where we to head next.
Then it began to dawn on us. Basically, we were standing there in a fair-sized (and very cool) castle in an especially good defensive position. Neither it nor the land around it was claimed by anybody. Granted, our Characters were only around 7th or 8th level, but there was nothing to say we couldn’t start establishing a permanent stronghold / base before reaching Level 10.
In short, why not stay? Do some clearing and renovating, and Ravenloft Castle would be a GREAT set-up for us.
So we did. Took the Ref totally by surprise (he had expected to keep using canned adventures for a while yet), but we soon cleared out the rest of the castle. In a couple of special cases, we negotiated mutual defense / aid agreements with certain monsters allowing them to stay. Establihed good relations with the locals – probably rather bewildered by this abrupt transition in rule. The Druid found a nice area close by to begin working on his personal grove. The Wizard took over a castle tower for her lab / workshop, and so on.
Set up defenses to deal with raiders from outside, started doing diplomacy with our neighbours. It was great.
So, in short, maybe a place and/or fixed structure can also be considered a form of treasure. A bunch of adventurers simply decide to settle down someplace; or a relgious type finds a ruined temple (originally dedicated to his/her god) and decides to rebuild (however long it takes); or an arcane-type finds a (vacant) Place Of Power and chooses to stay there (because of the benefits it offers). All these are valid possibilities, I think.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:59 am
Absolutely right, Ian. There were a number of possible reward types that I didn’t include for one reason or another. For example, the time in one of my games when the dice indicated that the players had found a rare book – so I made it a cookbook.
But here’s the big question – how much effort did the ref put into keeping the ‘flavour’ of the haunted castle alive for you AFTER you took posession? Were there strange noises at night, doors slamming shut on their own, the occasional chill in the air, and distant snatches of haunting organ music? Or was it just like any other castle?
I’m willing to bet that the answer is a resounding box number 2.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:04 am
In truth, probably not a lot of effort by the Ref. He was kept busy enough just with all the stuff we had going. As you say, though, some added flavour might have been a way to go.
Then again, we were arguably of the mindset that ANY weird stuff in “our” castle simply meant that there was a monster someplace that we had missed.
May 10th, 2010 at 11:13 am
And that wouldn’t have been fun?
I should probably confess at this point that I know Ian outside of these pages and even GM him regularly. I also think I know who the ref in question was, but won’t name names – first because that’s neither here nor there, and second because I might be wrong :).
June 1st, 2010 at 11:22 am
Great blog! – much appreciated.
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