Treasure Pogs: How Big is Too Big?

[The Widowed]

Picture this (because stuff like this is bound to happen sooner or later):

After a pitched battle with two guardian statues animated through ancient sorcery, Antinidia and the Ainsleys locate a secret door and force it open. A narrow passage beyond leads down a slight grade into the dark, silent tomb of King Zarvoros, who was duly entombed with all the treasures he intended to take with him into the afterlife. And so I show the Gametabled-out room the party has just entered:

http://mypetdungeon.tritonius.com/TreasurePoll1.jpg

As I start rattling off the contents of the hoard, Scarf Girl looks again at Yavana's pog, takes one look at the pog representing the nearest diamond and goes into a gleeful rapture. "Oooh! Yavana's the first one into the room, and that diamond over there in the corner is clearly bigger than her head! Dibs!" :D

Then I have to inflict a little disappointment on Scarfy by revealing that no, the diamond is actually only about as large as a bottlecap. And then I feel like a heel for crushing Scarfy's hopes like that. Granted, a bottlecap-sized diamond isn't exactly chump change, but still....

Or am I worrying about this a little too much? :think:

So what's the view of the consensual majority here? How important is scale to you?

On one hand, you have the suspension of disbelief; diamonds that look as big as your character's head can be very distracting, so distracting that you may not think to have your character search for traps or cast Finger of Death at the wyvern coming down the hall or whatever. Along with that there's the function of scale and space management; If a pile of treasure consists of 200 Gold, 500 Copper, a diamond, a silver tiara, a fine oil painting and a magic shortsword, I have a better chance of squeezing all of them into the same 5' x 5' grid square if the icons representing them are smaller.

On the other hand, there's the function of attraction. Nothing screams "HEY, LOOK, THERE'S A DIAMOND, GRAB YOUR LOOT SACKS AND GET IT!!!" like big huge treasure icons as big as, well, Yavana's pog's head.

http://mypetdungeon.tritonius.com/TreasurePoll2.jpg
* Ashton and Thornton sold separately.

Yes, I made all these treasure icons myself (except for the magic sword in the stone, which came with Gametable). So whadayathink? Poll away. :)

*casts Circle of Protection from Grae, 20' Radius* :P

[The Widowed]

Bah. No one takes me seriously anymore. :|

I probably should just shrink them, though. I could stand to chop the gem sizes down by at least 50%, but the coins aren't that bad...maybe about 10% for the coppers and up the scale proportionately, till about 40% or 50% for the platinums. :think:

[Akamaz]

I say make the gems about the same size.


off topic- isn't there an "Impale" combat feat? (like cleave but lets you stick through the guy in front of you and into the guy behind him?)

[The Widowed]

I say make the gems about the same size.
The same size as what? Click the poll. :D

*sees Gaia's stealth vote*

Hi, Gaia. I'll reply tonight! :)

off topic- isn't there an "Impale" combat feat? (like cleave but lets you stick through the guy in front of you and into the guy behind him?)
There's an Impaling Charge, but I can't find any Impale. :|

[Knightward]

Odd, I never saw this post before. I say don't worry about gem size, it's not like the rest of the map isn't an abstraction. I highly doubt anyone will look at the map and say "Ok, now my character will act like a mime stuck behind a wall. Each side of the wall will perfectly line up with the lines on the floor. Convenient that I'm standing in this box!" Likewise, while Antinidia's ego in proportion to the rest of his surroundings may be an accurate size on the map, his actual head is not that big. :P

[Amoeba Man]

I like them as is. It's treasure. It should look grand and make you want to dive on it.

[The Widowed]

Good points, and all taken. The gems stay put, then. :)