BLOC Loot

loot
#1

This is a concept I’m working on, and looking for feedback on. I plan on play-testing this next week in the campaign I’m running with some friends. You don’t need to know about that campaign to understand this idea, but if your interested you can check it out HERE.

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BLOC Action (I’m open to suggestions on the name)
BLOC stands for: Break, Look, Or Cut

As a Simple Action (yes, it doesn’t take your whole turn):

  • Break a pot
  • Look in a trashcan (I was just being silly, but I might actually use this)
  • Cut down some tall grass
  • Break a crate
  • Look under a rock
    (Just a few examples)

Each of these BLOC actions has a D100 loot table that is broken down as follows:

  • 40% Nothing
  • 45% Something simple but interesting such as healing herbs, a strength giving insect, food, coins, ect.
  • 10% Something bad like a monster or something posinous
  • 5% Loot from another loot table (up to GM if it’s Shabby, Anchient or whatever)

These would be represented directly on a map with minis, or dry-erase, so they can be removed. In theater of the mind you would need to ask the GM if any of these things are around. You could also use these objects in play. For example, you might burn the tall grass, or thow the pot at a monster.

These could be expanded to area specific loot tables. Perhaps tall grass in one area has different loot than tall grass in another area.

Is this something others have done?
Does this sound too “video game”?
Other thoughts?

I’ll update this as I work this idea out, and make loot tables.

#2

This does sound too video game-y for sure but doesn’t bother me at all.
One problem I can think of is that players will try to break anything and everything to get a chance for loot and it may get tedious and repetitive after a while.

#3

That’s why I would try to limit it to no more than 3 of these in a room, and I would make it clear which objects can be looted. Otherwise players might try to loot literally everything in the world.

#4

It does sound video game-y. Immediately I thought today’s EverQuest and ESO. I spent so much time breaking shit and looking into crates that I never really progressed because I was always looking for those small items that really didnt mean much.

I like the ideas with the tables, and can certainly see those as easy loot rolls or otherwise helpful randomizers for a GM who didn’t want to plot out in excruciating details for PCs who DO look into everything. I’d think very hard about presenting this as a full fledged “feature” of my campaign though. Players already look for stuff as it is. Making it a mini-game will be a bad move for reasons @Khan already mentioned.

#5

I might have to rethink this, but I still think there is something here. I’ll keep workshopping this, and I’m still going to test some form of this in my next session just to see how it goes.

#6

Looting it all would definitely slow things down. I do like having barrels and stuff around regularly as obvious toys to smash into monsters or use as cover though.

#7

I love the out-right gaminess of this. It could be fun doing some environmental storytelling with the kinds of loot that people will be picking up from various locations.
Obviously there are some issues transferring from the video game medium to the ttrpg medium, but it’s nothing a little playtesting and analysis can’t overcome. :slight_smile: Best of luck!

#8

I’d say preroll these maybe? Even if you are going to explain to your players it is based on a random chance, do it ahead of time. If you start adding tons of video gamey mechanics to your tabletop games they can get too bogged down in rolling for everything. Video games are good at RNG because its all automated but when you bring these to tabletop it can really slow things down. It’s an interesting idea though.

I like that it gives some obvious extra things players can do though. We’ve all seen it when a player feels like they don’t have anything to contribute to a scene or a combat that they are bummed and end up passing their turn or the dreaded “I do nothing”. Having these things available to them protects against that pretty well.

#9

I liked the idea about prerolling lootable objects, will add that on my next game.

#10

That’s a pretty good idea. I could simply make a bunch of paper minis with different loot on the bottom. Then the players can literally pick them up and see what they got from it instantly.

#11

elegant and succinct.

#12

I would tend to go simple in another direction. My argument would be this:

  1. Having stuff pre-rolled is fun, but it’s not quite as fun as rolling for loot in the moment, at the table, with everyone watching. The random element and surprise are the best part for everyone. So have items scattered around your maps that represent loot rolls, and be strategic about where you place them, but let players actually roll. Roll a 1D6 to figure out which table (ancient, shabby, Warp Shell, bizarre, epic, and Ghost Mountain), then have players roll a d100 for the item. It’s always a hoot.

  2. I would shy away from a chart where there is a 40 percent chance of nothing. That’s a limbic brain crash during your session. Two, if finding one of those BLOC objects means loot every time, then those treats on a board become goldmines for players. As a DM, you can become more strategic about where you place them and create dilemmas for players. Do characters sacrifice a turn to go grab the BLOC object over on the ledge, or do they use that turn to save the princess. Doing the latter may mean they miss a loot roll altogether. It will hurt (in a good way) if they miss out on those rolls, which is also why when players get to make those rolls, they need to be highly exciting and rewarding.

#13

I was considering randomly putting out the BLOC items, with loot hidden on the bottom. That way, neither me nore the player know what is on them. They are just two or three treats scattered around the scene.

So, you don’t like the idea of them being there own loot table? I wanted to keep it simple, and make them small things you pick up and go.

Oh, I totally agree. I don’t think I was clear above, those percentages where just my thought on how I would brakedown the loot for the loot table. The actual table would be a list just like the normal loot tables. Percentages are no fun to think about in game.

#14

This makes sense now. A few random treats it there as scatter seens kinda cool

#15

Got it. That makes way more sense. Fun surprise is always better.

Oh, I didn’t realize that’s what you were doing. Rock on, man.

#16

I like the idea. It’s a bit gamey, but it’s also very evocative of Legend-of-Zelda-type jar smashing and grass cutting for rupees. I think that if you want your players to feel that vibe trying to find game mechanics that also give that vibe will help.

Suggestion: if rolling a bunch on tables is the concern, or printing loot on the reverse side doesn’t work out, you could print out the “table” results onto cards and form a separate deck of BLOC contents. Shuffle the deck at the start of the session, when a player comes across one and break, look, cut, etc the BLOC, they draw a random card from the deck.

If it’s a 52 card deck, that’s 2 Loot items, 5 monsters, 25 simple items, and then 20 “nothing” cards (based on your percentages in the original post). Further suggestion: rather than a blank card, the nothing-cards could be thematic junk on brand for the game setting, like a bunch of feathers or an acorn cap or something. That way the BLOC objects always have contents, and your players might surprise you by doing something creative with the turnip or whatever that was in the last “nothing” BLOC.

#17

Can I offer another suggestion-
I think the odds of finding something should be lower. I would roll a d20 and have them only find something on a 20. Then roll another d20. On another 20 they find something good, any other result is shabby.