Treasures of Middle Earth?

[Phantom]

I am currently working on the background and admin stuff for a chronicle, and I was thinking what type of treasure should I include, when I do, in the story. I have one or two Heroic/Magic items in mind, but as this is Middle Earth and such items are far-and-few-between it got me to thinking what else could be included...Money? To a certain extent, I don't want this to turn into a D&D Monty Haul.

So, I thought I would ask those of you out there that have/are running a LotR game "what sort of 'treasure' items have you included?"

[Ineti]

Depends on what kind of game treasure you're running. IMO, The Lord of the Rings doesn't have much in the way of treasure. Money isn't a big factor, as the Fellowship doesn't have much to buy.

Galadriel and co. give them gifts, but would you call that treasure?

The best source for ideas would be The Hobbit, I guess. They find Orcrist, Glamdring, and Sting in a troll-hoard, and then find a ton of treasure in Smaug's lair. I'd say that's more the exception than anything else, though.

I'm also in the middle of planning my chronicle, though I haven't gotten to thinking about magic items and treasure just yet. I'm pretty sure money will be modestly handed out, and any items of magic value will be few and far between.

[Ergi]

Although I am currently not runnig a LOTR game I think I can help you anyway. (Or at least try to.)

I think money isn't such a bad thing to place in a treasure since there are so many ways to prevent the PCs from using it.

In "The Hobbit", for example, the party finds lots of money in Smaugs lair, but they couldn't use it. Bilbo would have been unble to carry large amounts of it back to Baggins End because one, he was small, and two because he would have had to pass through several different coutries which would have all demanded a share of it.
And last but not least all the money has to come from somewhere. And the original owners or their offspring surely will demand their property back.

[calguard66]

All of the above are excellent advice.

I would also consider that, in Middle-Earth, a well made weapon or item "masterwork" if you will, can usually substitute for a true magic item. What magic there is will be subtle... like Sam's rope that untied iteself. You can also have the magic manifest itself only under rare occasions... like Merry & Pippin's "Daggers of Westernesse"... well made but apparently mundane daggers, but one of few weapons that could actually harm the Witch-King, and in fact caused him to become corporeal so that Eowen was able to kill him. Who would have thought?

Knowlege is often very valuable, especially in a neo-medieval culture. One of the greatest treasures ever in my MERP campaign was a library of medical journals, passed down for generations. Not only were they sources for medical and herbal knowlege, they also served as references on historical events.

Influence and access are also valuable resources. Save the kidnapped daughter of the blacksmith, you'll probably get free weapons repair and horseshoeing for life. Uncover the evil threatening the small village, you will probably have the ear of the headman for quite some time.

[Phantom]

Originally posted by calguard66

Knowlege is often very valuable, especially in a neo-medieval culture. One of the greatest treasures ever in my MERP campaign was a library of medical journals, passed down for generations. Not only were they sources for medical and herbal knowlege, they also served as references on historical events.

DOH! Never thought of that. Werid, because this is usually the type of treasure I include in my other games. My L5R game proved that you don't need to go all D&D with treasure, each character had one magic item, well 2 for one. One had an ancestral sword that was an item of power, the other had a similar sword (slightly less powerful) and a magic coin.

This is the level that I am looking at for the Lotr games. So, very few items of note, money is possible (as said it isn't very portable), and I really like the knowledge (books and stuff) I will think on that subject. Thanks.