One to six things. More than six and they’ll never finish dividing it.
The chest is empty.
Press Conjure and it isn’t.
If everything is treasure, nothing is
The quickest way to flatten a campaign’s economy is a loot table where every draw is exciting. Players stop reacting to the rare result, because there is nothing ordinary for it to stand against.
So the weighting here is lopsided on purpose — roughly two thirds mundane, just under a third genuinely useful, and about seven percent rare. Most of what a party finds is stuff. That is what makes the seventh roll land.
Mundane does not mean worthless
The ordinary tier is written to be usable rather than to pad the list. An iron key with no lock in evidence. A journal in a cipher, its last pages blank. A corroded leather belt. None of them are worth gold, and all of them are worth a question — which is a better use of a die roll than another handful of copper.
Where they found it changes what is in it
Context swaps the whole table rather than reskinning it:
- Dungeon — spikes, oil, lockpicks, manacles with the key still attached, and things that were sealed in for a reason.
- Market — cartography tools, a physician’s kit, a strongbox disguised as a travelling trunk, a manifest for cargo that does not exist.
- Wilderness — snares, waterproofed cloaks, a birch-bark map of local landmarks only, a fresh-cut wooden figure left at a trail marker.
Matching loot to place does more worldbuilding than describing the room does. A sealed cache marked with an unfamiliar symbol tells the party someone else is out here, without you saying so.
Handing it out
Read the list in one go rather than item by item — the ordinary things become the texture the interesting one sits in. And leave the rare result unexplained. “A vial of liquid that pours upward” is more useful to you before you have decided what it does, because the party will decide for you and be more attached to their answer than yours.
Questions
How is the loot weighted?
Across three tiers, and deliberately not evenly: roughly two thirds mundane, just under a third useful, and around seven percent rare. That ratio is the whole point. If every chest holds something remarkable then nothing is remarkable, and the rare result stops landing. Mundane items are not filler either — a length of knotted rope, a journal in a cipher with its last pages blank, an iron key with no lock in evidence are all things a player can do something with.
What does the context option change?
It swaps the table entirely, so the loot matches where it was found. A dungeon yields spikes, torches, lockpicks and things sealed for a reason. A market yields cartography tools, physician’s kits and a deed to property three weeks’ travel away. The wilderness yields traps, snares, waterproofed cloaks and objects left at trail markers by someone. Choosing Wherever draws from a general table of small, portable, slightly odd things.
Does it work with D&D 5e and other systems?
Yes. The items are described rather than statted, so nothing conflicts with any system’s magic item rules or economy. A rare result like a blade whose grip adjusts to the hand that holds it is a prompt — you decide whether that is a +1 weapon, a cursed heirloom, or just a very well-made sword with a story attached.
Is the loot generator free, and is there a limit?
Free, no account, no limit. It runs entirely in your browser, so you can roll a hoard mid-session without anyone waiting on a server.