So far my only experience with Pathfinder is as a player. I am not new to running games, only to running pathfinder. I am playing in the Rise of the Runelords.
However there will come a time that I will run Pathfinder, and I want to be ready for when that happens. So I bug you guys for advice. :)
On page 399 of the Core book there is a chart that many of you are likely familiar with. It gives GP by level. I have read that entire section, and in so doing some ideas popped into my head.
First off. I am thinking that it may be easiest to just say "since you got this much XP this session, you also got this much GP". This is really easy to do, just figure out how much GP each XP is worth. A simple matter for a computer. The benefit is that we do not have to total loot found, divide it up, sell it, etc. it is all hand-waved.
Second, if a player wants to keep a particular piece of loot, he or she can buy it with his cut of the GP for that session. Again it is pretty straight-forward. You buy those 25 GP earrings and move on.
Third is where it can get tricky. Players love getting Magic Items, I know that I have loved it since I started gaming in the 80s. I do not know anyone that does not love Special Loot.
In that section of the Core book, it mentioned how the GP amount will vary based on the magic-level. So in addition to each GP value each character could also have Loot Points that are spent specifically on loot. The amount is based on the magic level. And a character can still spend GP on loot. A player can also save Loot Points to get an item later.
This helps to keep the loot fair and gives the player a method for choice of loot. It can be acquired in game either through adventuring or shopping.
I have tried many methods over the years. Sometimes interested people roll for first pick, sometimes it went to who would use it most. Sometimes the GM made something cool with a specific PC in mind. But in Pathfinder we have a nifty price breakdown that we can make use of. With this loot system a GM can still add in goodies (especially used by NPCs). The PCs can either keep them by spending Loot and GP or they can be sold or whatever via hand-wave.
Comments, criticism, and links to something someone else already devised as a better idea are welcome. :)
You're right, computers can handle this easily. And they do. Diablo, Everquest, World of Warhammer, and a thousand other games. Kill the monster, a few gold and some XP drop. Occasionally an item. Rarely, a useful item to upgrade.
Your system sounds like a computer game. If that's what your players want, a paper-and-dice table-top computer game, then more power to you, you're definitely on the right track. If the point is to just crunch the monsters and tally up the loot, then "since you got this much XP this session, you also got this much GP" might be perfect.
But if your players want a game that feels more organic, a game where they actually explore the world, encounter creatures that seem to live in the world, and find treasure that might seem like it belongs in the world too, rather than just having set amounts of GP magically appear in their backpacks, then you might just want to consider sticking to the old tried-and-true method of placing specific piles of treasure in specific locations, sometimes hidden, usually defended, occasionally trapped, and let the players feel like their PCs are actually finding coinage that belongs in a game world, rather than just numbers on their paper-computer-game character sheet.
I'm not saying your way is wrong; it might just be perfect for your group. Wouldn't work for me though, or for any players I currently game with, and probably not for any that I've recently gamed with, although maybe I can think of a couple guys that might have been OK with it. The whole idea of "Monster is dead, you get X amount of XP and Y amount of gold." followed by a player saying "I convert my gold into a pair of earrings for 25gp" regardless of whether there were any earrings in the monsters pockets or not, just seems too mechanical and too disenfranchised from a game world that has any hope of verisimilitude.
I see your point. I just thought that perhaps it might make things simpler (and "fair" across the board). Several years ago, I bought the 4th edition players guide, looked at it, and said to myself "this is WoW or Diablo on paper. I hate computer RPGs". So with that in mind it is ironic that in a way I was thinking about going that way.
All of my experience with Pathfinder is as a player, and what we get is in the Adventure Path. When I gamed and GMed in the past, that was also what was done, roll for treasure, make it up, whatever. The effect is the same: the GM gives the players a list of things they have to add to the "party treasure", the exception being when a PC pockets it and keeps quiet.
But as I was reading I was thinking that it would be simplified by doing it as a calculation, but I guess I forget to mention the verisimilitude part. You will still find the earrings and whatever, the idea is that you just don't have to bother writing it down.
Another way to look at it is that PCs see loot and, like in the aforementioned computer games, want to acquire that loot is that is "the treasure that the GM placed before me". If they do not take it then they are missing out on what should be their loot. So, instead of having the "take, take, take" mentality of CRPGs, you get XP and money. You do not have to loot every nook and cranny.
Another benefit is that you can theoretically have a magical item that levels up with you as you level up. There was a product in 3rd edition, I think it was called Swords of Our Fathers. There were some spin-offs for staves and rings, too. Anyway, the idea is that you can keep that family heirloom or sword that you found early on in your career but as you level up, it can also "level up" with you. No more tossing that +1 Family Heirloom sword when you find a sword +2.
My goals with this idea are as follows:
1) stop having a long list of loot. It is really not all that much fun to track, total, determine sell value, divvy out, etc. Having spent years as "the party treasurer", I can declare it as not fun.
2) if you want an item, find an in-game rationale for having it ("I just bought this from that merchant" or "we looted it from that room, remember?"). If it is minor, I see no reason to bog game play for it.
3) The money can assume that the PCs might actually have a job. :) As is the PCs generally get more money by looting everything they see. This is something that is even worse in CRPGs.
The game already explains that we should not bog down play with shopping trips. I was glad to see it in the rulebook. I had learned it the hard way. :) I have seen many sessions wasted over the years on shopping trips.
Does this disrupt some of the verisimilitude? Perhaps it does. But in theory it should also speed up that aspect of play. Perhaps people will be less apt to search and steal as before.
But this does produce a dilemma. If they get money just hand-waved, that does seem like it would eliminate most, if not all, attempts to search and explore. I mean, why go into that dungeon when you can go beat up a bunch of orcs and acquire the same loot? Why play a burglar? I have had some fun campaigns as GM and Player where we had some fun playing as members of a Thieves Guild. Especially the Guild Wars after we got tired of burglarizing and picking pockets.
With that in mind, I can see why the "tried and true" method of party treasure lists has endured. However, as I stated above, recording such lists is tedious and not fun.
It is also not fun to fight over loot. The Loot Points idea is good in that it helps to keep the PCs equal. It sucks when one or a few PCs get all of the goods because only their character can use it without a decent Use Magic Device skill.
So maybe I should just have it be the Loot Points allowance, as the magic items and divvying them out is where things get frustrating for players.
We have five kids in our game, ages ranging from 9 to 13. I am the only adult, and my brother is the GM. Some characters get left out on the Cool Loot. Sometimes we "just happen" to find two of something. They fight over the silly things like a masterwork flute we acquired. "Oh, did I say one? He had another one in his backpack".
It would be fun to be able to "level up" your character's item as he/she levels up. It happens in novels. I read several Sword of Truth books (I stopped when I could not take the Super-Magic-Trumps-All of Richard Rahl any longer). It became kind of silly in that series, but there are many cases "hey, look, I can do THIS with my sword".
If the magic items were made to be part of a "Loot Points" system, then they could be kept within reason by limiting them to XP. Magic items is where the issue really is anyway.