Gems are a frequent form of treasure; Weight for weight they are more valuable than coins but are still purely monetary in value, unlike magic items that will impact game play in other ways. And of couse since both B/X D&D and AD&D use treasure as the main basis of experience points, this makes gems little nuggets of XP. They may have symbolism, and thus may be used in the creation of magic items or crushed to use in potions or scroll ink but on their own they have no special powers. Way back in the early days of this blog I already did a blog post on this topic and this post is more of an update.
In the real world gem value is not easy to determine. Gems are named primarily according to their chemical composition - colour, shape and clarity are all secondary, You can have yellow sapphires, blue spinels, pink diamonds and black pearls. And of course the price someone is willing to pay will depend on rarity, size, clarity, cut and colour. That’s not simple to translate into D&D gp value. So there will be compromises and simplifications here, shown by random dice rolls to determine the value of each type of gem for any given size. A low roll indicates either an uncut stone or one with clear flaws - likewise a high roll indicates a well-cut gem with no flaws. Size is left up to the DM but it is assumed that most gems are medium size. As always these are suggestions and the DM has a final say, particularly if a certain amount of treasure-based XP is required. Similarly the assumption is that the largest gemstones found are no more than 3" across; the DM is welcome to place even larger ones with commensurately higher value. On this list the largest piece of Malachite is usually worth a maximum of 120gp but if the PCs found one the size of a man's skull, particularly if it was well-carved and pure, it could be worth maybe 500gp.
I was thinking about fantasy gem types here - I included them in my old post. But these days I reckon that there are enough weird and wonderful real minerals and crystals that I don’t need to add fictional ones. Besides, if I wanted to add new types of fantasy gemstone, I would probably want to give them particular properties or powers, similar to Eldritch Crystals, or the Arkenstone from The Hobbit, while the ones listed here are pretty and valuable, but not magical.
The alphabetical list here are the lower value stones, particularly the opaque ones. I hope to look at the more expensive jewels in another post. I've included photos of each stone type borrowed from the web. Although this has increased the size of this post considerably, I feel (at least for myself) it is good to have an image of whatever the PCs find in the treasure hoard - it makes the obscure mineral name more real.
Ornamental Stones
Agate
 |
| Source |
Colour: Varies, usually bands of different colours
Clarity: Opaque
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 2d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 1d10 x 5gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 2d10 x 5gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 2d10 x 10gp
Azurite
Colour: Bright to deep Blue
Clarity: Opaque
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 2d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 4d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 2d10 x 5gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 2d10 x 10gp
Banded Onyx
Colour: Black with White Bands
Clarity: Opaque
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 2d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 4d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 1d8 x10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 3d6 x10gp
Bloodstone
Colour: Black or Deep Green with Red Flecks
Clarity: Opaque
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 2d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 1d6 x10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 2d6 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size) 2d12 x 10gp
Blue Quartz
Colour: Pale Blue
Clarity: Transparent or Translucent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 1d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 2d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 1d6 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 3d6 x10gp
Colour: Pale Blue
Clarity: Transparent or Translucent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 1d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 2d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 1d6 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 3d6 x10gp
Carnelian
Colour: shades of Red (orange to deep red)
Clarity: Translucent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 2d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 1d6 x 10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 2d6 x10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size) 2d6 x 20gp
Chalcedony
Colour: Varies but usually white or pale blue or pale grey
Clarity: Translucent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 3d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 6d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 2d6 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 4d6 x10gp
Charoite
Colour: Purple or Mauve
Clarity: Opaque
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 1d4 x 10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 1d10 x 10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 2d10 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 2d10 x 20gp
Chrysoprase
Colour: Pale Green or Bright Green
Clarity: Translucent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 3d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 2d4 x10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 2d8 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 2d8 x 20gp
Colour: Pale Green or Bright Green
Clarity: Translucent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 3d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 2d4 x10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 2d8 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 2d8 x 20gp
Clear Quartz
Colour: Clear
Clarity: Transparent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 2d10 gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 4d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 1d10 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 3d10 x 10gp
Colour: Clear
Clarity: Transparent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 2d10 gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 4d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 1d10 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 3d10 x 10gp
Coral
 |
| Source |
Colour: Pink-Red
Clarity: Opaque
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 2d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 4d10 gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 1d10 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size) 2d10 x 10gp
Dioptase
 |
| Source |
Colour: Deep Green
Clarity: Opaque
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 2d10 gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 4d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 1d8 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size) 2d10 x 10gp
Labradorite
Colour: Grey but with Iridescent sheen
Clarity: Opaque
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 1d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 2d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 1d10 x 5gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 2d10 x 5gp
Lapis Lazuli
Colour: Deep Blue
Clarity: Opaque
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 1d20gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 4d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 1d12 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size) 3d12 x 10gp
Malachite
 |
| Source |
Colour: Pale to Deep Green
Clarity: Opaque
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 1d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 2d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 2d6 x 5gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size) 4d6 x 5gp
Moonstone
Colour: White or pale gray
Clarity: Translucent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 2d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 1d6 x 10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 2d6 x10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 4d6 x10gp
Obsidian
 |
| Source |
Colour: Black
Clarity: Opaque
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 1d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 2d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 1d6 x 5gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 3d6 x 5gp
Rhodochrosite
Colour: Bright Pink
Clarity: Translucent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 3d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 6d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 2d6 x 10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 4d6 x 10gp
Rose Quartz
Colour: Pale Pink
Clarity: Translucent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 3d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 1d6 x10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 3d6 x10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 2d10 x 20gp
Smoky Quartz
Clarity: Translucent or Transparent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 2d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 4d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 1d8 x10gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 3d6 x10gp
Tiger’s Eye
Colour: Golden Brown & Black or Dark brown
Clarity: Translucent
Suggested Value
- Small (Pea-size): 1d10 x 5gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 1d10 x 10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 2d10 x5gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 2d10 x 10gp
Turquoise
 |
| Source |
Colour: Bright Cyan
Clarity: Opaque
- Small (Pea-size): 1d10gp
- Medium (Hazelnut-size): 2d10gp
- Large (Walnut-size): 1d6 x 5gp
- Huge (Tangerine-size): 3d6 x 5gp
