The Effects of Age on Loot in D&D 

I can imagine a wizard picking up an old book, only to have it crumble in his hands, the dust sifting between his fingers. As the dust falls to the floor, the weight of the book does not go from his hands, and the ancient writing floats in place as if the book was still there. He “opens” this book with a motion of opening some real invisible book, and the weight shifts as the pages turn in the same motion. Now he has an invisible book maintained by the still visible, strongly magical writing within.

GM: "Why are you gathering all that rusty scrap, cleric?" Cleric of the forge preparing his channel divinity: "Just a small project..."

I don't remember where I heard it from, but I like the idea of magical items being almost like radioactive after being left alone for so long. Like a spellbook left in an old tome begins to "leak" magic into the surrounding area. Maybe it contained a frost spell so the room it's in is frozen solid dispite it being in a desert tomb

A small correction, even after 1000 years the sliver will be fine, once the top layer tarnishes it will act as a shield, encasing and protecting the rest of the metal from tarnishing. Silver is inherently a very soft metal but it will not become softer due to this tarnish, as its just a thin layer coating the item. a good sanding will remove the tarnish.

"Do you expect to find a restaurant in the dungeon." A Bard looks at the monster manual like it's a dating app. A Barbarian looks at it like it's a takeout menu. If you aren't eating the monsters your killing, then you aren't getting the most out of your encounters.

On vellum: wizard spellbooks are all written on vellum (if it’s an actual book, anyways), so while yes, dark spells would be written on vellum, most other spells would be too.

Small point of clarification: copper oxide generally protects the metallic copper underneath, so while old copper coins, artifacts, etc, will be oxidized on the outside, they would still be valuable and useful.

an idea i have is food and/or potions that are preserved using salt, which are preserved well and have no side effects but dehydrate the players. the salted food might even be a trap in a desert dungeon with no water, so the players slowly die of thirst. salt can be a curse or a blessing. use it wisely.

Don't forget about the effects of time on the "occupants" as well. Old golems and other automatons gone awry or gaining sentience over time can make for fun characters and might not even stay in the dungeon. The raw power of ancient magical items might leak out in the form of elementals or other critters of pure magic. Sentient magical items might have long gone insane or into a deep slumber that takes its own quest to awaken. Age and decay can be a good way to include or introduce more powerful and interesting critters without wiping the party. An old vat of healing potion in the arsenal may have become mutagenic and started to leak into the water supply around the dungeon creating aberrations, this can also be a way to balance a "better with age" potion. These can be part of the challenge and the hook as to why you're investigating the dungeon or an explanation of how monsters in the area keep showing up.

Side notes: In real life, vellum was the best preservative material for writing for a very long time, such that many important writings were written on calfskin and lambskin. The Dead Sea Scrolls, for instance, are mostly written on vellum. (About 90% of the scrolls are vellum, compared to less than 9% for papyrus. The remainder are on sheets of bronze, which of course means they're not scrolls.) Another long-term consumable is honey. Honey contains natural antibacterial enzymes, such that it was sometimes used for embalming. The record for edible honey currently stands at 3,000 years, found in a tomb in Egypt. (Glad I wasn't the taste-tester, but it must have been interesting.) As an additional point to the deterioration notes, it was thought for many years that Ancient Romans didn't use doors. We'd found many houses, after all, but no doors. Turns out the doors were made of wood, and had thus rotted away.

Another aspect of age might be that the armor with a nice bonus is also terribly old-fashioned, and you wouldn't be caught dead wearing it in public

The D&D module "The Hidden Shrine of the Tamoachan" (You can find a modern 5e version of it in "Tales from the Yawning Portal") had a lot of great stuff like this! All the potions in the dungeon were reduced to piles of magic dust within the bottles, but if the PCs mixed wine with the potion dust they could return the potion to full usefulness! I highly recommend reading through that adventure for ideas on a truly old feeling dungeon.

What a fantastically indepth look into something I'd not usually think of, but you could actually use all of these tips to make an epic adventure. Great ideas, thanks! Hope I can make videos as insightful as yours one day!

Personally I think any leftover weapons and armor would only hold up if they were made of something other than steel. Bronze swords from the classical period often held up significantly better than steel swords of the medieval era.

Very interesting video with some good ideas to add a bit realism to a campaign! 👍 Here are two ideas how DM may circumvent effects of aging: 1. Place non-magical treasures in a sealed vault or describe to the party, that some care was given to preserving delicate items. Think of the tomb of Tutankhamun, where even wooden objects were found after 3200 years! 2. A good source of fresh supplies (food, water, etc.) deep in a dungeon can be a previous, fallen expedition. Finding a group of dead adventures can also be used as a warring to the party (something must have killed the previous group) or as a starting point for a side quest after leaving the dungeon (i.e. returning a letter to a fallen adventurer’s family or learning, that some else is interested in obtaining treasures from the dungeon).

Possible idea: The party enters an ancient fortress and find some monsters, They of course fight, but They find that their weapons do little damage and their armor doesn’t protect them as Well as it should normally for some Strange reason, but the monsters Seem oddly careful around the rusted old weapons, in desperation, the party’s fighter tries attacking with a rusted old sword and find that it cleaves as Well as their Magical sword. The truth: the fortress is surrounded by a Magical field that swaps the capabilities of any item, Magical or otherwise, with a fitting item that is atleast 80 years old in the fortress and only items that have been in the fortress for at least a decade and a half.

You can take the "What type of place was this dungeon and how does this change its food?" and apply that to potions. What's the temperature and environment and how does that affect old potions? If the dungeon is cold, the potions could freeze into magical chunks of ice. Hot and they could pop & evaporate, maybe breathing the air slowly causes the effects to come onto you and...oh no, your party has been breathing the air of an old poison potion for some time now! Better hurry :)

I like to think of the same when it comes to traps, sure a freshly constructed pitfall trap will likely work as intended, but have any wooden components rotted away? the covering for it, have any mechanisms crumbled with age, perhaps that spear trap will not retract properly once triggered, or a trap that drops live venomous snakes on some poor unfortunate under it... well... Snakes need food and water so... snake skeletons... Ooohh, but this is the lair of a Necromancer, the snake bones rattle and reform... or even combine into something resembling a hydra made of tiny bones! delightful possibilities!

I actually had an in lore explanation as a DM as to why potions and such could be found in certain dungeons, still perfectly usable. The answer was : safety standards. The Dwarven Empire (basically an old world spanning empire that collapsed a few thousand years ago by the time the story starts) was extremely magically advanced, and had been around enough to have the equivalent of food packaging and sterilization standards for potions. Thus potion vials and bottles had a seal similar in effect to the 'clone' spell, where as long as the vessel remains undisturbed (not opened or damaged) whatever is in it is effectively in stasis and will endure indefinitely.

the magic potion actually become a slime

I love the narrator's voice- calm, steady, and eell-paced. The creators' ideas are always well-thought out and very well researched. I am so happy to have found this channel!

Honey, honey has antibodies in it and thus even when exposed to dry air will last for at least accouple years; if in a sealed container may even last longer.

DM: "you enter what was at the time the armory, piles of rusted iron, once great blades and plates crumbl-" the hoarding rogue: "I gather as much as i can fit into my bag of holding, the better looking stuff first." DM: "B-but that's all junk..." Rogue: "Some blacksmith is probably dying to get their hands on some iron to reforge!"

8:20 I know it's a year old, but certain vellums like lamb had associations with purity and holiness. So skin books don't need to be evil, they could be good.

A stone archway covered in runes long since collapsed suddenly eats a chunk of the party's magic and shifts to reform the rune structure, the entire archway was covered in runes and so soon the entire passage is clear and safe to use good as new

Amazing video, I love when you introduce realism into game elements that usually get overlooked. My players will love this

I literally have an encounter in "Out of the Box Encounters" where a potion has been left for so long that it has become a sentient ooze.

I love the idea of a spell book where the book itself has decayed away and all that is left is a stack of spells in the shape of a book.

The magic writing surviving longer than the book is cool

For old potions, I use the same "mixing potions" table from AD&D 2e I use when characters drink a potion while another is still active. It includes all the effects you mentioned plus a few more.

Excellent points. One time when I was a sole survivor and I was the mighty 3rd Level . My 1st level newbie had nothing. The DM fully expected I would parley my treasure to get these guys up to speed. I said. I go to the farmer ( someone we had good relation with) and rented his plow horse and cart. I took the group back to our first dungeon. I had these guy grab every piece of junk steel in the place. We also found two sleeping ORCs who was nice enough to donate their stuff. Hell I even took the decorative steel door my late friendly thief companion opened. Made three trips to the local black smith. Who traded serviceable armor and weapon for my new friends in trade for all this smelt. Raw iron to be reformed is far far more valuable then raw iron ore! We even accidently found a +1 dagger we missed the first time. Being a GOOD Character I sprung for these new players to be Trained with my funds. My DM was impressed and granted them 2nd level.

On food; honey last basically forever if it doesn’t get contaminated, and even then, certain contaminats, such as yeast, can cause it to become mead.

How open are you to -crab- spider legs?!

In the last campaign I ran (still technically running), my players found ancient tomes and scrolls from a long extinct race that vanished roughly 89,000 to 100,000 years ago. They had to be extremely careful when handling them or else the tomes and scrolls crumbled to dust.

A concept: healing potions ferment over time, deepening in color from a vibrant red to a deep mahogany, and after long enough, it becomes a more concentrated viscous substance with little color left. Upon reaching this stage, the mundane ingredients now past their prime, makes the potion useless to the living, but not the dead (or undead for that matter). It can be used to resurrect someone who is recently deceased, or be used as a healing potion for the undead :)

the idea of the writing lasting longer than the paper sounds amazing definitely going to try it out

Excellent points to build the story with creativity and a bit of realism.

8:20 I recall a 2nd edition spellbook made from the skins of unicorns by an evil wizard,

Another neat thing to consider, in real life, older versions of a country's currency can actually be a valuable collector's item and could be worth much more than it was when it was the current form of tender to the right collector. So, even if those gold coins have the face of an evil tyrant and might not be spendable, it might be worth hanging onto if you happen to stumble upon a collector of old world artifacts or even a museum.

Europeans in the medival times usually used hemp paper (instead of wood paper), which lasts 3 or 4 hundred years in the best circumstances (vs. untreated wood paper, which would have trouble at about 50 years). Parchment paper could last as long as vellum (around 1000 years), so that could be an alternative for the good-aligned spells.

There were many different writing materials used in the past: clay or stone tablets, papirus (reeds woven and beaten together, then rolled into a scroll), wood, bark, parchment and vellum, and finally wood-based paper. People used to write on vellum as the primary material, but since it was expensive to manufacture relative to paper, it gradually fell out of use.

My easiest go-to for old potions - instability. Sure, they are liable to still work, but they're highly likely (around 100% probable) to have side effects, also known as "roll on the Wild Magic Table"... Nothing like drinking a healing potion, only for the guy next to you to get poisoned, or start levitating...

I always over-think this on my dungeon designs. One was a former university overrun by zombie-wizards. They still had a cafeteria with the mummified remains of coffee in the cups. Occasionally, the zombies would "pour a cup" and forget it again to look over their papers. The concept was that dying didn't interrupt their daily routine. :-P

I remember one time a dungeon we raided, The silver weapons we were looking for we’re starting to tarnish

He defeated dragons,liches and demons, but was taken out by a dubious sausage...

sees rusted gear: EVERYONE in my group, including me: RAW CRAFTING MATERIAL!

Just stumbled across this channel. Love it! Love the artwork and the thought process. Will watch more!

I actually have a similar potion table for “dubious” potions! The effects are almost the same except I have my top spot as a Permanent Effect.

I would have always assumed that a magical potion would never spoil but I actually really like your table and will probably use it as is.

A fun idea for when you want your very large very old dungeon to not collapse by the time the adventure starts and want to throw a spin on the storyline: magic sphere of pure time in the core of the dungeon, it slows down time more the closer you get to it, protecting the inside of the dungeon as though only ten years passed, as they venture back they will find the dungeon degraded a lot during their stay and will emerge a significant time in the future maybe passing a new group of adventurers sent in after the original party never returned after many years

Don't forget, if the PCs found out about the "Ancient Fortress" from a local rumor, they might not be the first group to go inside. Or, to get through it all. They'll still get xp from killing the monsters and parasites that have persisted in the area, but, the ancient goods they're looking for might be long gone. (Don't hate on the locals, it might be the easiest way for them to get rid of local pests while helping the party level up.)

5:24 is definitely me that you have to watch out for. You can definitely melt these metals and make some yourself or sell them back in town, assuming you can actually carry them back. Improvise ways to take them back into town like a bag of holding or drag a large canvas or tarp with the items on it or a wagon with a horse outside.

Have you read the Gourmet Pyramid arc from Toriko? Many of the creatures living it are edible and there are even cook books about how to prepare them.

"And make sure there aren't any fresh rations in a 1,000 year old crypt." Meanwhile, in Skyrim... XD

All those tips are very useful. Just a tip from a GM. Make sure that if you include those, to specify that these are irreperable/magically inert. Otherwise you can bet that your party's magic user will figure out a way to repair them or revert the effect time did.

tried to watch many videos in a row but this music makes me insane!!! feels like a 1minute loop over and over again... cant watch more than one video at one time...

Thanks for the vid.

Papyrus and a lot of other old papers can and do hold up to time (Just look at the Dead Sea Scrolls or even the papyrus found in ancient Egyptian tombs) depending on moisture content, exposure, protection from pests, etc. One of the reasons we have issues is that modern paper has a very high acid content in it from the process used, and so crumbles with age as the acid eats away at the structure of the paper.

Thank you so much for the Old Potions Table. I am taking that! /fransicly notes scribbeling/ Wow! The ideas in this video are real treasures. And I am watching RPG-Content for 7Years now.

Nice video! I was planning an old potion maker's shop and then realized that all the potions would be expired...

The paper we use now did not exist a hundred years ago. We currently use wood pulp paper, a quite modern invention designed to bring cost to rock-bottom in exchange for it disintegrating quite quickly. Before that paper was made from linen (the fabric old money was made from) and was significantly more resilient.

I once gave my players an enchancted 1lbs log of bologna that maintained freshness and if not fully consumed would regrow over time, with it taking longer the more they've used, also if full could be used as a 1d4+1 weapon. It was one of the more memorable joke items I've used, created it as a response for them looking for food in an ancient dungeon

Rumour has it hard tack is nigh indestructible.

Eat you defeated enemies- Bob the Half Orc Barbarian

I am really enjoying your videos. I am learning so much. Thank you for doing them. I hope you continue. If you put out a book I will be the first to buy it. Even if it's composed of all the things you have already spoken about in your videos.

My first ever dungeon I ran was a farmer's market cellar full of goblins holding people hostage

Vis a vis the money one finds in dungeons and the electrum criticism, my players have taken the humble and often undervalued coin and turned it into a central pillar of their roleplaying. Without me ever intending to, it has become an speculation device that dictates market prices across entire regions as they either flood the market after raiding a dungeon or painstakingly acquire every single piece of it from the kingdom's treasury. Playing with accountants and stock traders is something else.

Such great ideas! Neat real-world info too. But the cartoons were the best of all

Unless the dungeon is filled with undead, the enemies may well be edible. Humanoids won't be on the menu unless the PC is a Lizardfolk, but there's good eating on a dire rat.

0:46- Oooh, oh! Honey! Honey lasts basically forever if it's kept properly. Archaeologists found edible honey inside the Egyptian pyramids! Thousands of years old but still just fine to have as a snack. 3:24- "You've been tripping on cactus juice all day and your first instinct is to eat something you find stuck to the wall?!" "I have a natural curiosity..." 5:24- Hmm, perhaps have a character who regularly handles large amounts of broken or rusted items make saves for small amounts of damage from splinters or sharp edges causing nicks or cuts unless they specify taking precautions. If doing the disease route, maybe even have them run the risk of tetanus.

Prestidigitation, Mending, and some tool proficiencies should be enough to fix many broken and rusted items in a short amount of time. Also many of those coins with old figures on them whether bad or good would probably have more value than what they would normally be worth if you can find collectors. Clean them with Prestidigitation and fix them with mending or an Artisan tool. Metal weapons and armor can be fixed in the same way as stated above or you can just smelt everything down into ingots for easier transportation and trade with towns looking for Iron, Silver, Gold, etc. For the books, it would be probably harder to fix but old rare books can be sold for a lot of cash to wizards, historians, or again collectors. Many tools could be used as well to fix and restore old items. Alchemist’s supplies, Calligrapher's supplies. Glassblower’s tools, Jeweler’s Tools, Painter’s supplies, and Smith’s tools all have a case for this. As a DM and as a Player, I go hard on stuff like that because it gives the players small fun goals to work toward during downtime.

Weapon idea: rusted sword, deals additional poison damage equal to half the slashing damage dealt due to rust getting into the victim and it causes the poisoned condition on a critical hit, but if you miss the targets AC by 5 or more and the weapon breaks. Old coins: these seem to be of little value, but if you find a historian or coin collecter they may be interested in paying you well for such rare finds, especially the more unique coins made before the signifying symbols had standard moulds making them more unique. half spell scroll: this scroll has been damaged over the years by humidity and dust, you can still cast it, though it will cause a wild magic surge when you do so. dried food: through time and preservatives this food has dried out, making a days rasions weigh half as much so long as you can find water, also being Jerky, so long as you don't think too much about what it came from or when it tastes pretty good. ancient prototype: this seems to be an early attempt or a predicessor to a modern magic item such as a bag of holding but with half the storage, or a wand of firebolt made before spells above cantrips could be stored reliably in items. this makes good low level loot so players have a taste of what is to come.

Now you have me thinking of players snorting an old, dried out, healing potion Regarding collecting the scrap metals, each lb of iron goes for 1 sp, great early cash source.

After this vidio i had an Idea to make a Dungeon that looks Too old and Aged. Like... Add Rust on things that doesn't usually... Rust. Or something like that and put a magic(cursed) item that looks perfectly fine. Like... Maybe it was Redirecting effects of Ageing(Rust) on the walls or food for an Eternity(Exaggeration) an gaind a new magic Ability to do that. You can go even further and say that it was a sentient Holy Weapon that didn't wanted to d*e so it turned Evil. Yep. I'm Useing it for my campain

Hello MtD, do you remember when Conan meet Subotai? And at one point Conan ask "Who are You!", that's me right now. I was completely blown away buy your video (topic & art style). Really liked the potion idea and chart. Random side effects, I would make the player's hate that one, lol. The rusty weapons back in the day had rules where the weapon would have a -1 to hit and/or damage, or worse just depending what kind of shape there in. Came across that rule again in 5e, can't remember now if it was a monster or something else. Just was surprised to see a really old school rule being used today. Thanks MtD you have a great day.

This Video is very helpful because I'm running a game were my players are adventuring through 2000 year old dungeons and ruins

Dibs on the 1000 year bottle of rum.

I don't usually track rations and any eating in my campaigns tends to be an RP thing rather then a game mechanic. However, I'm currently running a campaign which came to be centered around a Cataco truck. It's essentially the Catbus from "My Neighbor Totoro" mixed with a taco truck. It's not something I planned, the Deck of Many Things did it, but a game that was supposed to be a one shot has been ongoing for almost a year now lol. I may have to adopt some of these tips for the gastronomically focused campaign my game has become O.0

Rare old gold coins could fetch a high price with a few certain collectors

1:21 “Create Food and Water” and “Goodberry” remove that issue. So does a dungeon anywhere with wildlife or plants. So does the presence of any monsters that aren’t Undead or Oozes (usually), or (probably) humanoids…but then, the humanoids should have food. It is almost impossible, RAW, to put a party into a situation where starvation is a possible issue. Even without the “food that talks is not food….or is it?” discussion coming into play.

I'm on board with most of these ideas and allowing people to scavenge from wrecked stuff is always a nice way to find some interesting uses for what people might consider junk items. I think magical books should be somewhat immune to the passage of time. If a wizard is going to spend years/months/weeks working on a magic book I would assume they would spend a little extra time to put some kind of magical protection or runes or something to help preserve it. I like the old potion effects table though.

Love this perspective, and in the case of a survival campaign, more reason that Goodberry is flipping broken lol.

3.5 Permanency: Gentle Repose. Works on any dead body parts of a creature. A hide for vellum, scrolls or leafs for pages. Either way, works perfectly. And even includes itself as the "Lost Magitech of The Before Time" (3.5 bits in a 5e game for continuity); if you'd be so inclined.

I love using age to tell stories, because at the end of the day, a dungeon should tell stories, even if their occupants are away. In my last campaign, the party worked on a digsite for the government and discovered a teleportation statue that sends them to another location from this temple, and upon finding the key after the original holder was mauled by Umberhulks disturbed by the digging, they used it to teleport and discovered them in a ship. I'm not here for the events of the story itself, so that can come up another discussion, but in the rooms prior to this that had been dug out before the Umberhulks attacked the crew (They were about 100ft away from a breeding nest), they had taken stuff out, some of which was sold, others were disposed, and some were even decorating the office built into the mouth of the cave. But the party found a way into this room, opened by 2 casters polarizing baseline magical energy in different manners. They only had one caster working on site, but our party had 2 on hand and pushed onward. This room, cannonically, had been sealed for over 4k years, and while the ship had been falling apart under the pressures of the earth, and it was far from sealed from moisture, a lot of the wooden barrels survived, and when pried open.... dun duh duh duuuuuh.... rotton black sludge from whatever food had been stored in there, moisture sealed for 4k years. There was some usable stuff, but it really established how I world build stuff. Nobody has been here for 4k years, why would everything here be useful. Think of a Terrarium that just rots.

If the blade of a sword has survived and the hilt has not, maybe the hilt of another still remains? The head guard of the dungeon may be long gone and his steel sword could be rusted but the hilt may have been gold and survived, wheras an enchanted blade may be all that's left of another weapon. The players may be able to piece together the remains of a few weapons to form something more serviceable.

Ancient potion makers may have used honey for potions, since it lasts so long. Thick potions might take longer to drink, but at least they will taste better!

When a potion ages, I wouldn't say it "goes bad," but it certainly changes. It could be like an alcoholic beverage where it gets better with age, which is why better healing potions cost more. Or maybe they kind of settle apart and have to be shaken up.

i say potions go bad, but the stronger the longer it takes. recently they found a healing potion that someone tested and it would "make them turn into a liquid for a minute and then turn them back." instead of testing the rest of them they threw it in the hole the found it in with the 10+ extras which I made summon a pyramid full of undead to show up via the effect like that bean magical item.

i once had the party find money from the ancient times meaning it was like finding a penny from the early 1800s. worth more than face value, but only to collectors.

one things that would take a massive amount of time to or perhaps never, ever degrading. Is glass.

The best vellum is actually made out of fetal calf skin, though the only document I know that was made of that was a specific copy of a religious text.

The way I use effect of age on loot in my games has already been pointed out. Being pristine objects "good as new" is my go-to hint that a particular item is special/magic. The second is that even broken down ancient stuff might still be worth something, but to a collector/museum.

You: The food in dungons will probly be spoiled. Me: We have a druid with goodberry in our group, sooo... Also. If equipment is dammaged, I'll just cast mending, or I'll use it for scrap.

I thought you said that the finest velum in the world was written on cat skin at first

"They are up to something" You think? On my time as a player my friend always failed to see when i was up to my bs. And bringing rusted swords to act as poisoned blades to kill using tetanus was not one that he expected.

ahh yes fermentation of healing potions

Im thinking about a small book mimic that runs back to the bookshelf at the first atack but when it does some of the books are revealed to alsow be mimics and the entire bookshelf is a mimic, i can only imagine the player's faces

Everyone knows healing potions get better with age. That's why those supreme potions take hundreds of days to make.

5:30 not necessarily, I have plenty of characters who would horde random broken things for a variety of reasons that isn't being up to something, sometimes it's because it's shiny, maybe they just think it is neat

If an item is magical, then it wont age because it's magical