It would be both a lot harder to determine what is a spot and what isn't, and much much easier to just randomly happen upon a wand.

The way I'm imagining it, which may not be the original intent is that if there were say 50 spots for each wand type, and in your random exploring you hit one, you've got 1/50 chance of it popping there, so 2%. Each spot after that increases your chances by 1, so 2/50 for second spot, 3/50 for third and so on. I think the level thing will be more in your ability to actually obtain said wand, since you probably aren't offing an archmage at 35.

If you know 20 spots you would have to be extremely unlucky not to pop a wand after checking (and by checking I mean essentially being in the room) those 20, but at the same time, just randomly wandering around with detect artifact isn't your worst idea.

Imagine the alternative, where you have to check each and every one of those 50 spots. Being a newbie, you aren't going to know all of those spot, but if you know 10, and stumble across a few more, you've got a decent shot of noticing something with detect artifact.

I actually really like this idea, because while it includes the exploring aspect, it isn't a static thing where I know, ok I have to run down my list and hope a wand is in one of those spot, otherwise I'm screwed and will be begging every mage I see to give me locations.

I think this might also decrease the benefits of OOC info sharing. Sure a group of people could compile a list of all 50 spots, but if you only know 20, you don't have a 40% chance of finding a wand versus their 100%, but a much higher chance based on each spot being a potential spot for you when you reach it. I'm not good enough with statistics to do the math, but I'm guessing that knowing even half of the available locations would be enough to virtually guarantee success.

Tac