Mediums and Messages

What Does the Bandit Have In His Pack?

Blue photograph of drawer on pedestal. Image: Thomas William Smillie, untitled photo of Smithsonian furniture, 1896.

I've been too socially overloaded for the last couple weeks to add any RPG sessions to my plate, but I have been replaying The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The game really shows its age, but I have been pleasantly surprised by a couple things here and there. One, strangely, has been the contents of bandit's chests. Oblivion fills them from a leveled list, but somehow they've hit the sweet spot of feeling reasonably realistic, kinda like garbage, and studded with just enough useful items that I always end up taking something.

I've never found a loot table that really satisfies and my players are always rummaging through people's stuff. Rolling for coins alone just feels too coarse. Rolling on the sundries table from Knave or something always ends up too immediately useful, plus a 10' pole has too much memetic content to go unremarked upon. Tables like 5e's trinket table are too twee and not particularly resilient against rolling the same entry twice.

So, here's a d20 table for items found in a bandit's pack, a guard's locker, or in a hollowed out stump 100 paces from camp. Roll a couple times for a group of bandits and 5 or so times for a hidden stash. Season with an appropriate amount of coin as desired.

d20 Items In a Bandit's Stash

  1. Food waste (e.g. chicken bones, apple cores, bacon grease in a jar)
  2. Straw doll
  3. Toiletries (e.g. bar soap, toilet paper, shaving cream)
  4. Small instrument (e.g. jaw harp, ocarina, whittled flute)
  5. Religious symbol
  6. Crowbar
  7. Hammer and nails
  8. Lockpicks
  9. Torch
  10. 10' hemp rope
  11. Pewter bowl / goblet / plate (worth 5 coin)
  12. Silver bowl / goblet / plate (worth 10 coin)
  13. Silver ring / amulet / bracelet (worth 5 coin)
  14. Gold ring / amulet / bracelet (worth 15 coin)
  15. Fancy hand weapon (e.g. filigree, engraved, or antique)
  16. Potion of 1st Level Cleric Spell (e.g. Cure Light Wounds, Light, Purify Food and Water)
  17. Scroll of 1st Level Magic-User Spell (e.g. Charm Person, Floating Disc, Magic Missile)
  18. Bottle of poison
  19. Crude map of local area
  20. Roll twice.