From publisher blurb:
The battle had been short but intense, with a cloud of flying lead marking a no-man’s-land between us and the pirates we had tracked down. The girl the outlaws had kidnapped was nowhere to be seen, however.
“What now, boss?” Berlin asked, holstering his pistol.
“Now,” The Colonel replied, “We see if any of these varuuds has a clue as to where they might’ve taken that girl. Everyone pick a body and check the pockets. Remember, we don’t find that kid, we don’t get paid.”
Plus, I thought, making for the nearest foe, maybe they’ve got some cash on ‘em…
It’s a trope as old as the Original Role-Playing Game published in the 1970s: kill an enemy, go through his pockets or his stash and see what he was carrying. It might be just junk…or it might be something valuable.
For the Referee, such behavior can represent a chance to improvise…or it can be a big hassle. And parties aren’t going to continually accept the answer “Uh, well…you don’t find anything.” For the Ref whose improvisational skills may not be quite up to the task of coming up with interesting pocket/pouch contents on the spur of the moment, Minor Loot (or, What's In This Guy's Pockets?) can help. Rather than a long list of possible items that other publications offer, we’ll mate the flexibility of 2D6 with the Referee’s imagination to create a few spurs that (s)he can use on the fly, or to help in prepping for a game.
Avoid the major hassle of stuffing NPCs' pockets with Minor Loot.