Dungeon Master: Low Value Item Lists

When I look at the item tables for D&D, I notice that there really aren't many items that are worth less than a gold coin. However, we know that in context (the lifestyle tables in particular), a gold coin is a significant amount of money. Over the course of this piece, I will be going over ways to add miscellaneous items not in the table that would help give silver and copper coins some use. Some of these may only pertain to Dungeons & Dragons 5^th edition, but most of them should be more universal.

Trinkets

In Dungeons & Dragons 5^th edition, there is the trinkets table that can be used for extra items. The issue is that some of the items are extremely strange and it would make sense that not every shop would have all of them. For this reason I tend to roll a couple of time for some obscure items the shop might have after using the items to construct a table (this table will vary based on campaign).

Souvenirs/Special Items

Depending on the location or region in a campaign, it would make sense for them to have certain goods that other areas might not. This can be something as simple as renaming the ales or slightly changing the prices for the same product in a region (importing costs). Depending on the characters that make up the party (maybe you have a party member who collects eating utensils from all the regions they visit) you may need to come up with specific items just for the party.

Impromptu Items

Sometimes you may have to think of the price for a mundane and cheap item on the spot. When it is something not covered in the usual table and not a weapon, the only real consideration needed is to decide on the price. Either a logical one can be decided on the spot (a fork of that quality would cost 3 silver), or rolling can be used to determine prices. Since the items I'm talking about here are rather cheap (a few silver or copper), using a quick roll to determine prices is an option as the players won't feel the variation too much (prices may reasonably shift with demand as well). The steps to do so would be:

1. Player asks for a miscellaneous item.
2. Choose a coin type (silver or copper usually for the kinds of items I'm talking about here, but it can be used for some more expensive items requiring gold or platinum as well) based on the item.
3. Choose a die type (I usually use a d4-d10, though a d12 or d100 could be used as well) based on the item. Optionally, you can choose to use just multiples of d4's instead (for less randomness).
4. Roll and calculate.

Of course, other ways can be used as well but the above is what I usually use as a guideline. The advantage of this is you don't have to worry about miscellaneous item tables for stores, since the players will ask for something in particular. If you feel inclined, you can make a note and use the same prices for the same items later (often a good idea for more expensive items, even if you add or subtract a couple of silver later) or re-roll prices (chalking up the difference to the economy).

Conclusion

I hope the above helps make copper and silver coins more useful in games. Since they are such small denominations (usually players deal with gold coins), these kinds of small items can be a great way to add specific characteristics to a character (a special pin, for example). The small price also helps encourage players to buy unique items, since they cost so little. In general, the system can also be expanded for more expensive items, but I felt it necessary to specificity address silver and copper coins.