A Useful Table - Random Values for Things

Recently I had two PCs who were exploring the hinterlands of an island on Tifur. This island was inhabited by large reptilian creatures - dinosaurs. They came upon one such hostile beast, about the size of a bull elephant – 14,000 kg.

Oh lucky you. You encountered a T-Rex.

Sounds like Frightening Animal Encounter time, right?

Wrong.

Their ATV had an Auto-Rifle in a mount on top. The dino appeared at long range, and even at speed 3 it took it three rounds to close in on the PCs. By then the Auto-Rifle had filled it full of lead. [Auto-Rifle vs. Jack armor is +6 to hit; in effect, an auto-hit. And two throws to hit each combat round.]

So now the PCs have this dead dino. What to do with it? There's no way they could have butchered it and saved even a tenth of the dino meat. So they decided instead to skin it.

The PCs returned to the logging camp and the port town with 700 kg worth of dino hide. This presented me with another problem. How do I determine how much a dino skin is worth?

Or how much a pirate's treasure chest is worth.

My last post was about Rumors. The Rumor table uses the alphabet in a randomized sorting across the 36 slots. I decided to use the Rumor table's format to answer my question.

I present to you a Random Item Value Table.See TTB p. 101 for the grid.

Letter	Value
A	10
B	15
C	3,000
D	5,000
E	100
F	50,000
G	2
H	20,000
I	70
J	5
K	1
L	500,000
M	200
N	50
O	20
P	10,000
Q	500
R	250
S	1,000
T	120
U	1,500
V	1,000,000
W	150
X	100,000
Y	180
Z	200,000

And the PC's dino pelt turned out to be worth 3,000cr. Not bad!

Any item or group of items can be assigned a value by consulting the table. For example, a group of PCs might do some work salvaging from a wrecked starship. How much might their haul actually be worth?

If an item appears on the Trade & Speculation tables, use that value instead. When you need a value for the old statue or painting or non-functioning gizmo that the PCs have acquired, they might strike it rich! Then again, that backwater world junk dealer who swore it was a valuable antique may have swindled them with a 5cr piece of garbage.

Either way, there's an adventure to be had!

For more variety, the value from the table can be per item in a group of like items. Or, the referee can take the base value and multiply it by 1D. Or throw 1D. On a 1-2 the value is 50% less; on 3-4 it's the same, and on a 5-6 it's 50% more!

Or the referee can take the base value and throw on the Sale Value table from the Trade & Speculation rules. I've used that variable before.

In any event, the players & PCs should be very interested in the potential value of any bits of scrap they find. 

Image Credit Treasure: Pixabay

Image Credit Dinosaur: Pixabay