Treasure is one of the backbones of a fantasy role playing game. Players like finding it and DMs enjoy trying to make it all seem not so standard. But book after book we see more and more magical items. We rarely see items that have use and interest that are mundane. Thankfully we have 101 Mundane Treasures to give us a full book filled with these types of items.
101 Mundane Treasures is a twenty six page PDF by Ronin Arts. Philip Reed is the author of the 101 series and like the rest of them the books in the series it provides the reader with many options of the subject. Christopher Shy does the art in this book like he does in the rest of the series. I find his style unique and easily recognized. It gives the series a good feel and visual consistency that not many series of books have. The PDF makes a good use of bookmarks but not everything is bookmarked. I prefer to see an it all bookmarked as a linked index making things easy to fine. It saves time when using the PDF at the table be it on a computer or laptop.
The book starts with more unusual materials. Many of them are the hide or skin of certain creatures like a demon or a hydra. Each item is given a value, hardness rating, hit points, how it is uses and any special rules the material may have. The materials here vary in value from fifteen gold pieces a pound to an amazing 3,500 gold pieces a pound.
The book then goes on to the meat of it, the treasures. They are divided up into different sections like armor, weapons, music instruments, etc. Each is fully described in its appearance section and they all have DCs for being properly appraised. There are no histories or any hints as to wear the item may have come from or how it was constructed. That would have been a nice additional detail to the entries. The items presented are varied and will make a more interesting addition to any treasure trove.
101 Mundane Treasures is a PDF that gives exactly what it says. The items presented are easy to use and are ready to drop into any campaign.
