| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 11 Dec 2017 : 21:30:01
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.  |
| 6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 16 Dec 2017 : 00:49:31
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. |
| Ashe Ravenheart |
Posted - 14 Dec 2017 : 12:57:44
Too many parallels to real-world stock markets for me here... |
| Lord Karsus |
Posted - 13 Dec 2017 : 20:34:32
-That'd destroy the local economy just a tad. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 11 Dec 2017 : 22:58:57
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. |
| Thojan Ralwens |
Posted - 11 Dec 2017 : 22:46:54
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... |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 11 Dec 2017 : 22:09:15
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. |
|
|
