Just an interesting article on the practice from Classical times (Greco-Roman)
http://www.strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic289b.asp#one
Apparently, it was considered a great honor for the triumphant warrior to strip the dead of his gear, especially for a high ranking commander to strip his enemy if felled in single combat. Maybe players grubbing those orcs for every copper isn't as far off the heroic scale as I'd like to think :(
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In D&D, looting is pretty mild, by real world standards. It was traditional for a dead person to not only be stripped of valuables, but also of their boots, as halfway decent boots were pretty good sellers, back in the day.
In some places, hangmen/executioners got to keep the boots of the people they executed as a perk of their job, for instance, and there are still places where it is traditional not to bury people with their actual shoes on, but to remove them before burial.
Well, looting the dead is part of the game afterall. It's how most folks acquire those shiny magical weapons from the cold dead fingers of the previous owners!
That being said, my group has to be reeled in every once in a while as they collect EVERY weapon / suit of armor from the heap of bad guys they just killed. It usually goes like this:
PC: "Okay, how many weapons and sets of armor did we get?"
Me: "18 orcish scimitars, 3 orcish axes, 1 orcish greataxe. 21 sets of grungy scale mail, 1 set of chainmail. 21 light crossbows and 172 bolts. 26 daggers of assorted quality."
PC" "SWEET, that's a chunk o change!"
Me: "Okay, first I need a list of who is carrying what and the new encumberance for each person and what bags / backpacks are they in?"
[Muted grumbling from the wizard, sorcerer, rogue and monk.]
PC: "Um, does anything look to be a higher quality than the other stuff?"
Me: "Well, now that you're taking a closer look, you notice.....
And that is how it usually goes in my group. They are desperately looking for some handy haversacks, bags of holding and the like so they can become their own bloody Sanford and Son!!!! I rue the day they find one....the sheafs of items they are gonna have to wreck the local economies is gonna be legendary!!
Have Fun out there!!
~ W ~
I don't have a problem with PCs looting the dead before they start taking mundane, and often filthy stuff, like clothes and boots. At least there is no pulling of teeth for profit, THAT is a pretty good indicator of when it's gotten to the really iffy parts of looting.
Another thing to keep in mind is that, back then, most weapons weren't masterwork, they were just hunks of iron with bad edges installed - if they were using swords in the first place.
Europe had iron everywhere, so not all weapons were neccesarily worth a lot.
When we started our current campaign, we won our first fight against a couple of bandits. Then the rest of the party looked at me.
"You serve Death, right?"
"Yes."
"Are you going to have any problems with us looting the bodies?"
"No. I am concerned for souls, not bodies. They no longer need their earthly possessions. Better someone gets some use out of them."
The party was happy.
"But," I added, "I willbe pronouncing last rites, and I will need help burning them."
And it's worked out ever since.
...so they can become their own bloody Sanford and Son!!!!
What a hilarious visual...
I think I'm going to name my next rogue Redd Foxx.
Heh, most games I've been in either myself or another of the group goes out of their way to collect every weapon and suit of armor, polish them up and repair them or melt them back down into useable ingots and fortify every militia and village we pass through, just because it's the right thing to do.
Which tends to annoy the DM as suddenly the sleeply little village he was planning on having the Goblins raid after we left is now armed to the teeth.
Pack-ratting can be fun, but just be aware the GM/DM is always the final arbiter on what you can and cannot loot. Taking the dead Knight's sanctified and heavily enchanted armor and weapons back to give back to his order is one thing. Trying to take the simple copper pendant his mother gave to him back as a child, that he has worn as a good luck charm for the past 40 years ... expect to have some extremely bad karma fall down on your ass sometime soon.
I don't have a problem with PCs looting the dead before they start taking mundane, and often filthy stuff, like clothes and boots. At least there is no pulling of teeth for profit, THAT is a pretty good indicator of when it's gotten to the really iffy parts of looting.
Ummm...once my 3.5 party became aware of alchemical tooth capsules (from Complete Adventurer IIRC) it became something of a standard practice in the group to check any significant NPC (i.e. leader or officer) for them.
Plus...you probably don't want to introduce the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar into your campaign. ;)