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 A Guide to D&D Coins
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 11 Dec 2017 :  21:30:01  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote  Delete Topic
It's long bugged me -- and I've commented before, on it -- how the D&D treasure tables and dragon descriptions don't go well together.

Dragons are big critters, and they are almost always described as pulling a Smaug and sleeping on a bed made of treasure.

But the treasure tables usually give only a few thousand coins -- which if you think about it, is barely enough for a human to make a bed on.

And today I saw this, which really goes into the math of the whole thing:

A Guide to D&D Coins

Of particular note:

quote:
The 3.5 resource book Draconomicon—still the definitive source of all things draconic in D&D according to us here at Dungeon Master’s Workshop—gives the overall length of a great red wyrm as 120 feet, 35 of which is the dragon’s actual body (the rest being neck and tail). From this, we can safely assume that the diameter of the treasure mound is around 150% the length of the dragon’s body, or about 50 feet—big enough for the wyrm to comfortably curl around or even partially bury herself in. For the sake of simplicity, let’s treat it as a slightly-flattened circular cone with a regular (pre-flattened) height of 8 feet and therefore a volume of 5,236 ft³. If we suppose that 2/3 of that is silver (mostly at the bottom), and that the dragon has kept this particular pile entirely of coin (and not, say, goblets, shields, armour, and other items that would take up lots of space and thwart easy calculation), then we arrive at the following figures:

477,695,617 silver coins
129,611,794 gold coins


A dragon isn't sleeping on the treasure the monster book of choice gives him!

Just sharing, since this has bugged me in the past.

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Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 11 Dec 2017 21:32:07

sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11686 Posts

Posted - 11 Dec 2017 :  22:09:15  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
What they don't tell you is that dragon's love chocolate... 3/4 of those coins are actually chocolate disks covered in aluminum foil.

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas
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Thojan Ralwens
Acolyte

Belgium
30 Posts

Posted - 11 Dec 2017 :  22:46:54  Show Profile Send Thojan Ralwens a Private Message  Reply with Quote
My tought exactly. The Draconomicon 3.5 addresses the issue (p278) and concludes:

"For this reason, most dragons don't actually have beds composed entirely of coins (though some collect coppers pieces for exactly this reason). Still, it's nice to dream..."

My next dragon will have kobold slaves gold-plating a ton of copper pieces. I am already picturing the scene...
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist

USA
11686 Posts

Posted - 11 Dec 2017 :  22:58:57  Show Profile Send sleyvas a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thojan Ralwens

My tought exactly. The Draconomicon 3.5 addresses the issue (p278) and concludes:

"For this reason, most dragons don't actually have beds composed entirely of coins (though some collect coppers pieces for exactly this reason). Still, it's nice to dream..."

My next dragon will have kobold slaves gold-plating a ton of copper pieces. I am already picturing the scene...



Or a dragon that specifically collects pyrite.

Alavairthae, may your skill prevail

Phillip aka Sleyvas
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader

USA
3736 Posts

Posted - 13 Dec 2017 :  20:34:32  Show Profile Send Lord Karsus a Private Message  Reply with Quote
-That'd destroy the local economy just a tad.

(A Tri-Partite Arcanist Who Has Forgotten More Than Most Will Ever Know)

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Vol. III- Spells of the Elves
Vol. VI- Mechanical Compendium
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Ashe Ravenheart
Great Reader

USA
3240 Posts

Posted - 14 Dec 2017 :  12:57:44  Show Profile Send Ashe Ravenheart a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Too many parallels to real-world stock markets for me here...

I actually DO know everything. I just have a very poor index of my knowledge.

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Dalor Darden
Great Reader

USA
4211 Posts

Posted - 16 Dec 2017 :  00:49:31  Show Profile Send Dalor Darden a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Holy shite balls! That is a lot of coins!

I think the Smaug look is too much; but there might be a dragon in a world with that much loot...just one in a whole world.

I prefer my dragons to be much smaller...the size of AD&D dragons wasn’t too big.

The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me!
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