How to handle heavy loot

[Unit_DM]

Hey everyone. I'm looking for advice/opinions/experience on handling heavy loot. My PCs load up with stuff until they're at the edge of a light load before going out on an adventure. Then they battle, say 10 hobgoblins and insist on taking 10 chain mails, 10 longswords, 10 longbows, etc. etc. home with them.

How picky are people about this? I want to tell them to keep track of weight and keep it in mind when they pick loot to take home. However, i'm wondering if i'm too anal about it. We play long-distance over the internet using maptools so it is already pretty laborious to keep track of things using that.

Any suggestions? Is there a happy medium between watching every ounce and just saying "take what you want, don't worry about weight"?

Thanks, as usual.

[Alkwraith]

Bags of Holding. They have a fixed weight no matter what is in them. As long your players don't go too overboard about what they stuff in them you can go with the "take what you want, don't worry about weight" option.

[Deadmanwalking]

Have them buy a cart. Be very picky about what they have on them, and thus readily available, but let the cart carry basically any amount they like (and thus enable them to take loot to town for sale).

That's what my group usually does.

[tonyz]

Generally one assumes that they carry the heavy loot in sacks and drop it before a fight. Shouldn't be a problem unless they lose the fight and/or have to run away. If it really bothers you, have a few goblins follow them along and steal some of the loot during the fight.

A pack animal or two can carry a lot of stuff.

Throw in the occasional descriptive text about "loaded down under the armor of your fallen foes, you stagger forward..." Maybe make them spend a day or two longer getting somewhere.

At higher levels, portable holes will carry an IMMENSE amount of stuff.

[Maezer]

As far as actual weight goes. Unless speed of the essence, they can probably go to a heavy load with few consequences and free action drop carried loot as their first action. Since they are probably (assume no uncanny dodge) flat footed before their first action anyhow, having the reduced movement/max dex bonus to AC matters very little before their first in combat free action.

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The real issue is how detailed do you want the loot to be. I tell my players, point blank day one, if the players insist on stripping the copper from the wiring as you go through every room that's fine. But frankly its much easier on both the player and the GM if the GM just slips an extra X amount of platinum, gems, diamond dust, and/or magic items into a logical place to balance the scales behind the scenes.

If the players feel they aren't coming across enough wealth, and outside of game time we can review how much wealth is passing through the players hands. And if there is an issue I may start putting more wealth gaining opportunities in front of the player.

And I try to occasionally review (and compare) my players character sheets. And their total character wealth. Usually I do think once per adventure path module or every 4 or 5 session if more free form.

[darth_borehd]

Some people are fans of the Floating Disk spell for this.

[Axebeard]

Bags of holding and hand-wavery.

Alternately, shove everything into a bag and, depending on how you think the spell works (does it work on containers with other stuff inside?), have the wizard cast Shrink Object (or whatever it's called) and you've got a sack of loot that's in the wizard's pocket for 1 day/level.

[Shadowdweller]

As a DM, my advice: Handwave the light stuff, call for a rough audit if they pick up a lot of heavy things. Encourages them to make use of pack animals or hire porters and/or stash heavy things - which can make for some interesting encounters.

Another trick as DM: Since you ostensibly plan the encounters ahead of time, you can calculate how much things weigh as well.

[Frankthedm]

Unit_DM wrote:

Hey everyone. I'm looking for advice/opinions/experience on handling heavy loot. My PCs load up with stuff until they're at the edge of a light load before going out on an adventure. Then they battle, say 10 hobgoblins and insist on taking 10 chain mails, 10 longswords, 10 longbows, etc. etc. home with them.

How picky are people about this?

I used to handle it "Track the weight. Make sure you have it written on your character sheet, NO post it notes."

Unit_DM wrote:

We play long-distance over the internet using maptools so it is already pretty laborious to keep track of things using that.

That actually makes it easier! Tracking gear in Excel or Open Office Calculate makes tracking weight a breeze.

Unit_DM wrote:

Any suggestions?

Use D&D 4th edition's used mundane gear sells for 1/5th the market value, if the DM rules an interested buyer is even found. Then you can stop worrying about a few Full Plate'd warriors being a HUGE windfall.

Unit_DM wrote:

Is there a happy medium between watching every ounce and just saying "take what you want, don't worry about weight"?

No. There can be no happy medium as long as Gold Pieces function a hidden Point Buy system for magic item abilities. It is foolish NOT to hoard every last bit of scrap that can be turned into the Character Points that post 2000 D&D / Pathfinder calls Gold Pieces.

[bfobar]

Get your party bags of holding, handy haversacks, and portable holes. Then you don't have to worry about encumbrance unless the loot gets really stupid. Have them befriend a fence affiliated with a friendly thieve's guild and automatically convert the loot to cash (minus a percentage) between adventures.

[Adamantine Dragon]

"As you examine the bloody remains of the slain orcs, you see that your powerful attacks have rent and scarred the armor to the point that it would be difficult and costly to repair. The crossbows are crude and while effective would not fetch much gold from a merchant."

When I want my party to have loot, I make the loot transportable. It is rarely worth their while to try to pile a bunch of old smelly, beat up armor back to town to try to sell it. The same goes for other stuff they might try to sell. Mostly it will sell for scrap.