One of my players complained recently about how tedious the collection and disposal of loot was compared to the rest of the play experience. On the one hand, selling treasure means you get good stuff so the players want it to happen, but on the other hand it's just looking up item after item and calculating the sum of their resale value.
Are there any elegant solutions? I'm picturing an app or spreadsheet or web page that contains the items of the SRD and can just give a sum after having the appropriate checkboxes selected. If not that, then is there anything similar?
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We distribute items that people want to keep then we have "the pile." It's assumed that the pile is stuff to be sold when we get to town. Assuming time isn't a factor the selling happens offstage. That's about it.
Same. Stuff is stocked up in a list, people claim what they want at the time or out of game, either or. Then between sessions someone in the group is delegated to sell it, calculate it up, and present the divided profit to the group next session.
Right, that's the way to it. The thing is, the person "delegated to sell it, calculate it up, and present the divided profit to the group" is hoping for a game aid. It seems like this is something that, once automated, would take about 10% of the time it currently takes.
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I as the GM do all the prep work in advance. I make a list of all the magic items etc the party has acquire, with their sell value listed next to each item on the list. The PC's then decided what the want to keep and say we want to sell the rest. We do a little RPing of the selling, haggling with merchants etc. Then with a handy dandy calculator I have a total done by then. So it is quick and easy when we do it.
Edit to explain better.
A example say I am running them threw Rise of the Runelords. I make a list of every magic item in the book, where it is found and the resell value listed next to it. I do this before I ever start the adventure. This makes it very easy to do resell during the game. Then once they have a gp total I divide that number by the number of PC's and then they can all right it down. Very quick and very easy. Just takes about a hours prep work on the GM's part to make the list. Personally i copy and paste the items from the PDF and print out the list.
I have an app that has most items in it. I just do a quick search per item and notate it for when we sell it. It's easy and it saves the DM that much time.
Assuming the selling of loot is easy to do in your setting without any RP involved and prices are more or less stable:
When the loot is predetermined by the GM it's good to note the value of objects beforehand and give it to players when loot is given as Dark Mistress noted.
If the loot is totaly random I can point you to Karui Kage's random loot generator. It generates loot showing value of each item.
BTW: Anyone seen Karui lately?
Well with a premade list you can RP it out and let them haggle. Which can effect the starting value up or down by a certain %, still if you have a calculator handy it is pretty quick.
Haggling with merchant's just isnt a part of the game my group likes to spend much time on. Technically everything is haggled over, but the net result is 50% of market.
Well with a premade list you can RP it out and let them haggle. Which can effect the starting value up or down by a certain %, still if you have a calculator handy it is pretty quick.Haggling with merchant's just isnt a part of the game my group likes to spend much time on. Technically everything is haggled over, but the net result is 50% of market.
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I include it all just in case. But in the example of say Do Slicer I would list it once, then put it's value and then list the maxium number they could find next to that so like Dog Slicer 3gp x22 (just random numbers cause I don't want to look it up), then keeping the sheet handing during play if the PC's pick one up I can make a slash next to it and at the end I add up the slashes to know the number they picked up. Or example
Dog Slicer 3gp x22 ///////
That would tell me the PC's picked up 7 of the total 22 possible dog slicers and their base value would be 21gp
So it sounds like the consensus is that either the GM should spend more time on game prep or else the players should just suck it up. My players are willing to do the job; they just don't enjoy it. They take turns, and it isn't too onerous on anyone, but I thought it was worth checking if anyone knew of an automated method.
Thanks for the input, everyone!
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I run similarly to Dark Mistress.
I pre load an Excel sheet with every item of Masterwork or better or treasure items that have a list price. I give every item a number code so that I can track the item. I have a column for where the item was found (Ex: BO27 for Burnt Offering pg 27) and one for who is carrying it. There is a column for its price in gp and its Identify DC for appraise/spellcraft . And there is a notes column as well for anything I need to know about an item (ex: the name may be +1 longsword but the notes column may say -1 longsword or intelligent 15 or +3 animal bane longsword or this is not a longsword…)
If someone uses a potion they tell me I drink Potion #16. I then find 16 and note that it was used. I color code each item as it is removed as well Red for sold, green for used.
I then have a player sheet that copies the master list. It doesn't have all the same columns only the code, the name/description of the item, who has it, and its known monetary value. I usually make this one a larger font for the players, as I have excellent eyes and now have my laptop at the table so I can also use the search function if I really need to find an item so I can use 8 point on my main list.
So I can find an item, who most likely has it (the party can easily trade items around and not let me know but usually they stay put) I played with a group a while back that had some sort of communal use policy. If one got a potion of cure light it could be used by anyone at anytime and would drive me crazy. I finally came up with this system to track who had what and I never really took the character tracking out of the system. “Wait I thought Bob had the potion of cure light” “No I do” was a problem for a while with that group so I had them tell me when they moved stuff around. It isn’t nearly as big a deal anymore but all my groups happily help me keep my Item Lister as I call it as accurate as possible.