X-From_: ivan@solaris.kala.com  Wed Apr 22 04:46:52 1998
From: ivan@solaris.kala.com
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 07:57:22 -0400
To: b l a d e s@ spiderwebsoftware . com (Note spaces added to thwart spammers. Remove spaces for valid email address.)
Subject: for articles page
X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII

Monty Haul Redux:

The single most common fault in the scenarios list is excess treasure. 

Many novice authours think that if they give the player a heap of
super nifty stuff then the player will like the dungeon and think well
of them. Not so. If you give the party loot way beyond their abilities,
all you have done is spoil the _next_ scenario that that player 
tries to use that party in. It is frustrating to have a party too
low for a scenario and hence dead. But it is just as deadly for playing
enjoyment to have a party which is too high level, too rich or too over-equiped
in a scenario. Can you spell 'boring'?

Over-rich dungeons back in the D&D days were called 'Monty Haul' for
reasons unknown to me (if you know, drop me a note at ig@kala.com).
However, because back then nearly every player at least tried his hand at
DMing and creating a dungeon, most people learnt to avoid this design trap.
With computers, we now have vastly more players of than creators of dungeons,
so this experience is no longer widespread, and it shows on the spidweb
scenario list.

So here's a few rules of thumb for picking treasure.

1) The party should always be resource-short throughout the scenario
itself. This forces them to make serious resource allocation choices,
which adds to the complexity and enjoyability of the game. Should I
buy another level of spell casting or use the money on better armor?
It's no fun if you simply can buy everything all the time.

2) Rely mostly on the automatically supplied treasure that BoE does for
you. Jeff has put a lot of effort and experience into getting the
treasure rewards balanced with the parties that can earn that treasure;
you are unlikely to improve it much by adding to it. Of course, you
will have to add special treasure if you have a lot of puzzles
or other non-combat encounters.

3) Avoid mission treasure as much as possible. You nearly always can
write the plot so that the mission is its own reward, or results in
a non-treasure reward such as information or a key needed in different
mission in the scenario.

4) _No_ legendary items. These are guaranteed to unbalance the next
scenario that the player uses the party in. So no DemonSlayer as a
scenario completion reward, nor any other item you make up which is stronger
than items on the standard list. If you need to use a legendary item internally
in the scenario for plot reasons (say the Orb of Thralni, for example),
make sure that you mark it as a 'special item' in the Editor so that
BoE won't pass it through with the party to the next scenario.

5) Make the scenario completion reward no more than that needed for
the party to buy the stuff that they didn't have the money for
before. In figuring cash, allow for the fact that some of the non-cash
reward may be redundant with stuff they already have and will be sold.
If a final reward is an item, pick one which is about 100-150% of the
value of the best item of that class that the party probably already has
as a result of combat treasure. Make its value no more then say 25% of
the total party wealth. You want the party to go on to the next scenario
better off but still broke.

6) Don't try to correct for early excess treasure by taking it back again
later. If your playtesters tell you 'too much treasure', it's a temptingly
easy way out to add a late encounter where (for example) they have to
ransom themselves out of something. Don't do it; your players will
feel cheated.