One my favorite quirky bits of old-school D&D is Treasure Type. Cross-referencing the letter code to the table and rolling each category to see what goodies the monster has is great fun (to me). Thumbing through, as I glanced at TTs N and O, I was struck with how specific they are: No coins of
any denomination, no gems or jewels, but N gives a 40% chance of 2-8 potions, whereas O has a 50% chance of 1-4 scrolls;
and only those items! What's more, no creature in the BX rulebooks has
either of these listed TTs. The only creature I
did find? The Kopru, from X1's
Isle of Dread, and it has TT: I + N
Another Otus gem!
"I" is another interesting Type, by the way. In the core books, it only appears with
Rocs. It emphasizes platinum and gems with a slight chance of one magic item. I guess when you can eat
elephants, you can be picky about the shiny objects that litter your nest.
But back to N & O, I wonder what creature(s) the gang at TSR were thinking of when creating those listings. Someone (something) that had ready access to potions or scrolls, obviously. Perhaps alchemical-inclined or spellcasting monsters of some sort?
