It’s no secret. I am a fan of Travis Hanson‘s art. When I saw the cover of Andrew Cawood’s Treasured Finds I liked it immediately. His art was paired nicely with Gordon McAlpin’s illustrations and graphic design so I had my fingers crossed that the guts of this product would look as impressive as its cover. I also hoped that I would find not only a nicely put together resource but useful one too. Does it deliver on its promise? I guess we’ll find out.
Treasured Finds: Orgainzed Loot for 5th Edition
Creator: Andrew Cawood
Publisher: DMs Guild
Cost: $5.95
Product Length: 56 pages
In my youth, my oldest brother ran our games. They were typically Monty Haul campaigns which suited me just fine. My favorite thing to do in between sessions was to browse his old school DMG for the treasures section. I would read, and reread, this section. In my opinion, you cannot have too many options for treasure. It’s one of the reasons I took such a liking to the game in the first place. It would be years and a few sessions at other tables before I realized how juiced my characters were. Like the home run race of 1998, it was an exciting time even though I didn’t realize my characters were jacked, even by the standards of a high fantasy campaign. Nonetheless, I love treasure and this book is a collection of treasures (magical and mundane) and the monsters and NPCs who may be guarding them.
You won’t find new and exciting treasure here and I know that will be a deterrent to many. But you will find grouped treasures which I find nostalgic. When I played with my uncle as a kid his knack for awarding treasure was to always have it in a chest. Sure, you could loot a kobold’s dagger if you wanted, but the good stuff was in a chest. Using the chests in these tables the adventurers may find a Rod of Lordly Might, a Robe of Stars, and a diamond valued at 5,000 gold pieces. Or lower level characters may find a Wand of Web and 6 lapis lazuli valued at 10 gold pieces each.
Final Thoughts
Andrew Cawood has competently created a wonderful set of useful tables which are nicely complemented by the usage of NPC guardians for available treasure. Where the creator succeeds is in creating a tool for DMs that saves time and inspires creativity. Both the format and the content of these tables make them easily accessed, used, and put away. One could expect these tables as appendices to official WotC-published material. It’s 56 pages but it’s largely filled with tables and a healthy dose of NPCs. Cawood doesn’t bog us down with verbosity and in that spirit, I won’t either.
Pros
- CLEAN and ORGANIZED layout
- beautiful artwork
- simple to use tables for myriad situations
- lots of imaginative NPCs with full stats and bios
Cons
- no new treasures (official published content)
