With this system, Copper Pieces, Silver Pieces, and Gold Pieces are changed into Primitive Goods, Basic Goods and Scrap, plus the inclusion of Valuables, and each piece of treasure is a single item. Since the Mutant Lord has to roll to see what each item is, the amount of items found are going to be kept short. With Hoard Class VI-VII, characters will find 1d10 items instead of 1d100 coins. And with the larger "Lair" hoards, you do not multiply the results by a thousand. That is, if you find a monster with a Hoard Class of "VII, X", each monster would have a 25% chance of 1-10 Basic Goods and 10% chance of having 1-10 bits of Scrap instead of 1-100 for both silver and gold coins. And their lair would have a 70% chance of having 2-20 bits of Scrap, instead of the standard 2,000-20,000 gold coins.
The list brakes down to the following:
Primitive Goods
These items are simple makeshift items used by Cavemen and Wasteland Savages. Unless they have some truly useful properties, they are seen as worthless to all but to those who live off the land and have nothing better available. They include crude versions of basic items (like a backpack that is nothing more then an animal skin bindle on a stick), crudely made tools, medical herbs (including mutant barriers), animal byproducts (like a cape made of the hide of a laser-deflecting creature or explosive seeds) and the like.
Basic Goods
These are items you'll find in the basic equipment list, as well as any sort of mundane items, like crafting, domestic and farming implements. They have a trade value equal to the GP value on the lists. They are considered far superior then Primitive Goods, even by primitive people.
Scrap
This is mostly useless bits of junk found in old ruins or complexes. This is the sort of stuff you'll find in the old Gamma World treasure lists -- basically a list of sundry items, in differing states of conditions, that look like it was compiled by rummaging through a garage (old drill bits, a dart board, a ragged old teddy bear, football trophy, etc.). The value of these items are based on the fact that they might by useful in some way. Ignorant savages might see them as magical in nature and use them as talismans, while anyone with technical understanding would use them to repair damaged artifacts. As such, they can not just serve as an economic backbone for the setting (with each Scrap Piece being equal to one GP in weight and value), but can be used to improve Repair Rolls (only a percent of your total scrap could be used to find anything useful, and if you find anything useful, you would loose some of it to make the repair).
The biggest danger with finding scrap is that some of it might be radioactive. The chances if there being any irradiated scrap is based on the quantity found per pile (basically, 2-5% plus 1-2% per piece, for each time a group is rolled up on the Hoard Class table). Unless your Mutant Future game has that Silver Age Comic Book/Classic Gamma World vibe to it, irradiated scrap would appear quite normal and harmless. Otherwise, I highly recommend reading The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft for best effect. Muhahahaha!!!
Valuables
(Ether use Gems or Jewelery entry from Labyrinth Lord, but keep to one or the other for all classes.)
This is the assorted jewelery, gemstones, collector coins, and works of art you can find in old art museums, safety-deposit boxes and jewelery stores. The value of these items are all purely esthetic, and would have little or no value to anyone who cannot afford to be weighed down by "shinny things", so unlike LL, you do not roll the value until you trade. City dwellers who have the luxury of being materialistic with art and jewelery place the most value on them, while merchants value them as a means of portable wealth.
Technological Artifacts
(as is; no change)
It should be noted that weapons and armor do not appear in what you can find within Primitive Goods, Basic Goods Scrap and Valuables (although, you might find ceremonial weapons as valuables, and anything can be used as a club), as it is assumed that anyone who can use weapons are already armed and armored with the proper gear.
To make this work, one would need expensive lists for each entry, and to make character advancement less dependent on gold value -- how this is setup, you get a lot less treasure for the value. You might rule that each scrap and valuable is worth several times their basic value. With lists, they would have to cover a wider range of goods. That is, Valuables covers both gems and jewelery, as well as artwork and opulent odds and ends. Plus, like in Basic D&D, the players would get board finding the same old silver broach in every damn treasure pile.
You might just take the simplest approach by using the labels from the fourth edition Gamma World Loot table in place of normal coins. The book notes Junk (worth ether 1d10 or 5 Đomars), Baubles (worth 4d10 or 20Đ) and Curiosities (worth 2d10x10 or 100Đ). (Domars in that edition had no gold value) Using this, you can note Copper Pieces > Junk, Silver Pieces > Baubles, and Gold Pieces > Curiosities, with each maintaining their basic Labyrinth Lord/Mutant Future values.
So what do you guys think? Do you have you own ideas for an alternative to Treasure Hoards?
