Treasure Types, small clarification

In the website treasure generation thread, something was mentioned in passing that I thought I would ask about, in the form of three examples:

Treasure Type D lists “15% chance of any 2” magic items. Does this mean (a) roll 1d100 once, if it is a 15 or less, there are two items, or (b) roll 1d100 twice, and each 15 or less results in an item?

Treasure Type N lists “50% any 4 + 1 potion + 1 scroll,” which is slightly different than the usual way of listing multiple types. If D is (a), above, is N also intended to be a single roll?

Treasure Type R lists “75% 1d3 of each category”. If D is (a), above, is that rolling a single 1d100, and if it’s 75 or less, you get the whole batch? Of D is (b), above, does that mean rolling 1d100 1d3 times per category, or rolling 1d100 once per category?

My perception of the website generator (without seeing the source) is that the interpretation is (b) for D and N, and “one 1d100 roll per category” for R.

I too was confused by this. Good idea using the treasure generator to try and suss out the intended meaning of those treasure type descriptions.

I was also wrong. The website generator appears to use (a) in all cases, even R (you get the whole batch of 1d3 in six categories on a single 71- roll).

I don’t know if that changed since last week, or if my impression of what was going on was that off, but it looks like the authoritative answer vis-a-vis the treasure generator is (a) in all cases. One roll shall rule them all.

I tend to use b here, because my dice never, ever roll a magic item on the first try (except for the Raider-types with their “sword, weapon, or armor” category, which my d%s seem to like a lot). The expected value should be the same under both interpretations, so it doesn’t worry me much.

While (a) and (b) have the same average value, (a) is swingier and (b) follows a bell curve distribution of magic items.

I favor (b) myself, but I was trying to establish and understand the canon first, before I start house-ruling it :-).

While exceptionally convenient, the treasure generator is not strictly by-the-book, so I’m not sure I would look to it for rulings.

As for my games, your first two examples would be a single roll at my table, while the last would be one roll per category. (A dragon’s hoard with no magic items? Almost unthinkable!)

 

Hello!

Treasure Type D lists "15% chance of any 2" magic items. Does this mean (a) roll 1d100 once, if it is a 15 or less, there are two items, or (b) roll 1d100 twice, and each 15 or less results in an item?

APM: Roll 1d100 once, and if it is 15 or less there are two items. 

Treasure Type N lists "50% any 4 + 1 potion + 1 scroll," which is slightly different than the usual way of listing multiple types. If D is (a), above, is N also intended to be a single roll?

APM: Roll 1d100 once, and it is 50% or less there are 4 items, 1 potion, and 1 scroll.

Treasure Type R lists "75% 1d3 of each category". If D is (a), above, is that rolling a single 1d100, and if it's 75 or less, you get the whole batch? Of D is (b), above, does that mean rolling 1d100 1d3 times per category, or rolling 1d100 once per category?

APM: Roll 1d100 once per category. On a roll of 75% or less, there are 1d3 items.

APM: As a closing though, the treasure tables were designed to work without the aid of a computer, so the rules as written favor fewer rolls over greater. If you are using a computer program and wanted to invert the rules, so that, e.g., for Treasure Type R you roll 1d3 for each category, then roll 75% for each, you will overall get better results (by better, I mean "less swingy").

APM: I might actually talk to Tim, our programmer, about changing the TT generator to conform to the above, rather than to the rules as written,  since convenience and time don't matter much to the computer!