Dungeon23: Greystone - Day 12

The Rectory

In addition to running the church, His Excellency also lived here. The rectory (a word for the place where a priest lives) is his private chamber. It's attached to the Sacristia as well. At any given time, there's a 50% chance that the bishop is here, rather than in the Sacristia. In life, this room was his private residence and he won't take kindly to interlopers.

Though I'm using a lot of Catholic terminology for the building, this bishop certainly didn't live by a vow of poverty. In addition to a large and (once) comfortable bed, there's a large trunk.  This is filled with the decayed remains of fine silk garments. Under all of that, there are rings, gold and silver chains and other pieces of jewelry. There's also a stash of coins.

The crowning glory of the room, however, is the portrait a large and perfectly preserved portrait still hangs on the wall here. It's a beautiful rendering of a magnificent Dwarven priest (the Bishop himself, in fact). It's large and fragile, but very valuable indeed.

This actually raises a question that I'd love to get a little bit of feedback on.  If you're following along, you may notice that I'm trying to include the weight of treasures. At least for those that I think will be significant. I'm using the standard weight unit of "coins" for this, to fit with the Old School Essentials system. That's the system I'm keeping in mind while I design. A "coin" weight is 1/10 of a pound. So, in my head I'm guessing how much something would weigh in pounds and converting.

I think it's totally believable that 2 of the silver-plated music stands would weigh the same as a large, heavy portrait. But, though they're cumbersome, the stands would be much easier to haul out of this dungeon without damaging them.  This portrait is probably the most fragile treasure I've placed in the dungeon so far. If I was running this as a game, I'd want to somehow account for that fragility.

I can think of two reasonable ways to account for that. First, it could literally just be up to DM fiat. The DM can rule that it's not at all reasonable for a PC to haul this painting through a sewer, or climb a rope carrying it or whatever without damaging it. On the other hand, I think it could also be reasonable to make a little sub-system for that.  What I was considering was adding 50% to the effective weight for particularly fragile treasures. This would simulate the extra care and special handling necessary to move the painting without ruining it.

What's your opinion?  Do you account for the fragility of treasures in your game?  If so, how?



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