Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 NoBacon4U Jan 19, 2015 8:51:49	Okay. First things first, I'm a rather new DM. I started DMing a game for my family, and am testing out a campaign that's sort of a work in progress. I got stuck at one spot while creating the campaign, which is where the players have to find a way to carry roughly 4000 pounds of treasure out of a cave (and maybe a young dragon corpse), down a 200 foot tall cliff, into a boat, across the sea, through a jungle and back to one of the towns. How do you transport 4 tons of treasure across all that? I'm open to any suggestions. All together, the pcs can probably life-Maybe lift - maybe under the best of circumstances- 3000 pounds, as a team. But even then, HOW would they carry it all? They're all lvl 3, and only a select few of them are strong (muscle-wise).   If you need any more info than I have given, feel free to let me know. I would be grateful for any help.
#2 Noctaem Jan 19, 2015 9:01:58	- Have the 4000 gold be instead in the form of gems each worth a specific amount that don't weigh 4 tons. - Give them a bag of holding magical item (the dragon wouldn't have been able to carry 4000 gold in the event it needed to flee, so it was smart enough to keep a bag of holding available just in case it needed to leave quickly and carry it's hoard) - Ignore the weight limit rules when it comes to coin and the like.  If you're going to give them 4000 gold, why then punish them by saying "Ah!  I've got you now, you have no way to drag 4 tons of gold back to town Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk!"
#3 ChrisCarlson Jan 19, 2015 9:02:05	Forge (or otherwise craft) some of the gold into a small cart with which to carry off the rest...
#4 AaronOfBarbaria Jan 19, 2015 9:03:41	Answer #1: You do it one bit at a time - take what you can carry and haul it out of the cave to the cliff-side. Rig block & tackle and rope, creating a sort of elevator, so that you can lower a bit of treasure down the cliff, unload it, and then lower some more down. Then you get it all onto the boat, which hopefully has the cargo capacity (any sea-worthy vessel should, unless already loaded with many tons of other cargo). You follow similar process getting it from the boat through the jungle to town, though you might also leave the treasure on the boat, head to town and hire help sufficient enough to make it only the one trip from the boat to the town with tresure.   Answer #2: All of that treasure should fit into a single portable hole, with a little space to spare.   Answer #3: You take what you can carry, and you leave the rest. Maybe you come back for more at some point, but just what you can carry easily is likely enough to keep you living well for a while - at least until your next adventure. No reason to be greedy and risk falling down a cliff to your death for no reason by a bit more coin you couldn't stand to leave behind.
#5 iserith Jan 19, 2015 9:09:33	It's not your problem.   You're the DM - your department is to come up with challenges, not solutions. Coming up with and implementing solutions is the players' department. The challenge is to transport a bunch of treasure over water and land under the threat of perilous situations. Once you've framed to them the difficulty and challenge, ask, "What do you do?" Then judge their solutions fairly with an eye toward interesting conflict and fun situations.
(Reply to #2) NoBacon4U	Noctaem wrote:
(Reply to #5) NoBacon4U	iserith wrote:
#8 NoBacon4U Jan 19, 2015 9:20:13	Thanks everyone who replied, I think I have what I needed. I'll still take suggestions if anyone wants to post more.
#9 Coredump00 Jan 19, 2015 10:16:22	Iserith said it.  Your job is to create the obstacle, their job is to solve it.  They may surprise you... and it lets them decide just how 'greedy' do they want to be.  Do they want to take each and every copper?  Do they hire some people to bring a horse and cart? Or perhaps a mage to assist?  Or leave some and come back for it when they need it?   If you think of the solution, it matches what *you* want to happen, if they think of it, it matches what they want to happen.   Side note: Is this all gold??  I ask because if using standard weights, you are talking about 200,000 coins.  That is a *LOT* of money for 3rd level.  Now, you could make it a young copper dragon, and make most of the treasure be in copper coins...  could even up it to 3-400,000 coins at that point. (sure, throw in some silver and gold also...)  Of course, your campaign may have more gold flowing than 'dmg standard', so adjust accordingly.
#10 etcetera Jan 19, 2015 12:35:43	That's over 100 million dollars.  They'd have to be nuts to ever go adventuring again.
#11 ankiyavon Jan 19, 2015 12:49:25	iserith wrote:
#12 Devils-Advocate Jan 19, 2015 12:52:19	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
(Reply to #12) AaronOfBarbaria	Devils-Advocate wrote:
(Reply to #9) NoBacon4U	Coredump00 wrote:
(Reply to #10) NoBacon4U	etcetera wrote:
#16 Sanndor Jan 20, 2015 7:46:56	So what is your goal?     If you are setting up this need for all this treasure create an obstacle to overcome creating fun and interesting encounters in the transporting of the treasure, much like AaronOfBarbaria's #1, I think it's best to do what Iserith said and frame it to the players and say "What do you do?".  The players will likely come up with crazy stuff that you would never have thought of.  Listen to them and improv as you go.  They say they want to try to build a cart, you let them find some tools and materials.  Or maybe they say they want to explore the area to try to find a solution, you create a nearby village or bandit camp that they can adventure to to get materials or find a cart. There are an endless amount of possibilities but I think that it is best to pose it to them and let them take it in a direction of their choosing rather than have them follow a predefined path.  It is likely that your players will come up with stuff that will end up more fun and memorable than anything you could predefine.   If the goal is less about the journey and obstacle of moving this huge amount of treasure but is instead is more about the overall goal of building an army then I think you may have some other options?  You could, instead of tons of treasure, have a local faction say they will provide people for the army if the adventurers find a long lost artifact.  Make it less about the size of the treasure and more about the value.  So they travel and have their adventure and instead of figuring out the logistics of carrying out tons of loot, they carry out a small artifact that has value to the faction.  In the end they can get the army they want, still have the adventure, but not have to deal with all the hassle of transporting. This also avoids the possibility that they say, "we have all this treasure, screw building an army, we are keeping it" as it doesn't have monetary value for them, only for the stated purpose.  I think this also opens up a lot of fun and interesting possibilities.  The locals where the artifact is could also value this artifact and could fight to get it back chasing the party the whole way home.  Could be a lot more interesting than logistics.   Just my 2cp.
#17 BRJN Jan 23, 2015 20:38:33	The dragon may want enough coins to make a comfy mattress.  After that, why not some astral diamonds and other pretty jewels to look at?  And a magic item or two that he keeps around "just in case".  Maybe a few books / scrolls / spellbooks that are worth more than they weigh.  Michaelangelo's statue of David is worth more than the marble it's made out of.  Likewise the Mona Lisa is worth more than the paints and wooden frame.  You can get a valuable hoard without making the dragon carry all those heavy bulky coins IN in the first place.   There is also the IRL story of a wrestler who converted all his winnings into a gold chain necklace, then took ship back home.  The ship sank in a storm just offshore.  Being a big strong guy, he decided to make more room in the lifeboats for others, by swimming to shore.  This was all well and good until he got tired about half-way there and the 25-lb necklace started getting to him...
#18 Cyberqat Jan 24, 2015 19:22:01	Its worth noting that there are high level spells that can help with this.  Tesnors Floating Disk comes to mind as  one of the lwoer ones. If they didn't chose to equip themselves to carry a lot then they ca't carry it.  Its not your problem to solve.
#19 Melend Jan 24, 2015 20:08:40	In The Hobbit, Bilbo and the Dwarves can't take away much of the treasure they find in the ogres' cave.  They don't try.  They loot some weapons and armor, and then bury the precious metals and jewels a distance away.  Bilbo comes back much, much later to haul some of it away.
#20 Archon007 Jan 26, 2015 13:02:31	If there is no more threat of injury or death as a player, I'd just say "I can what ever time it takes to move the gold, buy a castle and retire in a life of luxury." Ok so who wants to play another game? Shortest campaign ever.
#21 Archon007 Jan 26, 2015 13:18:28	NoBacon4U wrote: