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The players at my table are way too reasonable and chill. Items are given to whoever needs them or can make the best use of. Then anyone who wants something remaining takes it. Lastly the leftovers are sold and an equal share of the cash goes to each. When someone gets an upgraded version of something they already have they put the old one in the pile being shared out.
The players at my table are way too reasonable and chill. Items are given to whoever needs them or can make the best use of. Then anyone who wants something remaining takes it. Lastly the leftovers are sold and an equal share of the cash goes to each. When someone gets an upgraded version of something they already have they put the old one in the pile bring shared out.
Yeah, those are the best tables. And I've been pretty blessed to mostly have those kinds of groups as well. But I've done pickup groups before with greedy players and if that's the case, you often have to rely on convoluted loot rules to prevent abuse.
So, when treasure is found, players get the item that can benefit them. Swords go to the fighters, wands go to the casters, etc. If it's an item that's worse than whet they have, it can go to someone else, or it goes into party treasure.
When they can find the time and place to sell treasure, it gets sold (usually at 50% value) and the coin is split evenly among the party. After that, they are free to buy what they want. usually at full price from he market. If someone has taken the crafting feats and they have time to craft, they can buy at half cost.
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More often than not, nobody takes ownership of these items, and they end up in the inventory of the person who can carry the most stuff. Someone advocates for hanging onto it, but it's still party treasure regardless.
If the advocate wants to hang onto it, then they're free to do so. If the advocate can't carry it and can't convince someone else to, then it's sold.
We don't have rules to this effect, but this is how it goes down each time.
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DKP.
In all seriousness, a bidding system can work if the players really are in conflict about who gets what. They bid a generic out-of-game currency (points) and whoever bids the highest gets the item. Everyone starts at 0 and gets more negative as they get more items. Whichever bidder starts least negative gets the item.
A = 0
B = 0
C = 0
D = -75
If another item comes up that both Aisha and Dora want, Aisha gets it. It's usually a good idea to put in a minimum bid (say, 10 points) so that Bernard can't just wait until everyone else is at -25 points and then get the next 25 items by bidding one point on each.
The much easier way to do it is to keep a running total of the total treasure earned and how much of the total treasure each party member has taken/spent. Whoever has taken the least gets first dibs. The downside to this method is that the classes that don't *need* as much gear (wizards/sorcerers) tend to always be first in line for the cool and unique gear because, for example, the inquisitor has been spending to upgrade her belt, headband, cloak, shield, sword, bow, etc.
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For neat or in-character interesting items that someone wants even if there's no benefit in game to it (EG: "You find a really nice writing set worth 250 gold") my group has always said "yeah, keep it" when a PC wants it and moves on.
No, they don't track how much value of treasure anyone has taken compared to everyone else, no they don't make the cost of an RP-only item come out of their share of the loot once it's divided.
When they find their first +2 ring of protection they figure out who likely needs it the most, that character takes it, and their +1 ring of protection is passed down to another PC if they don't have one. (If everyone has a +1 already the no-longer-needed one goes onto the loot list and gets sold). But if someone is buying a +2 Ring of Protection their either selling or upgrading their +1. (Sometimes the players will ask each other if anyone needs it, but usually they're too excited about their upgrade and don't think of it / they need the money from the sale in order to afford the new one).
I've played in a group where someone recorded what he bought versus what we found. Found treasure would go to whoever needed it the most, but if we found something that was an upgrade to something he bought he'd take the new one, keep the original and sell it next time we were in town instead of giving it to someone that would benefit from it. (Or he'd offer to sell it to them at the sale price.)
It was weird. Not something I had experienced before, and not something I'd knowingly do again. Yes, it's a game of math, but I don't want to be that much of an accountant.
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In my group, while adventuring people use what is available, caring only about utility.
When is time to sell the loot, we make a spreadsheet with the items sell value and how much money each character will get from the sales. Then people "buy" whatever interests them as a selling price.
If multiple people want an item, there is a friendly discussion about utility or why the characters want an item, usually, we can reach an agreement. If not, we roll a die.
If something cost too much the character can be into a negative balance that will be covered by future loot.
Our system is simple. If someone in the party can use it and wants it they get it. After that if an associated NPC (cohort, hireling, future Empress of Minkai) can use it they can have it. The remainder sits in a big pile on the offchance we can find somewhere to sell it to turn into crafting materials or the rare usable magic items that are on sale.
Money from selling goes into a general pot to pay for crafting, expensive spellcasting, hiring ninja clans and so on. I doubt any of the characters have any money of their own, it all belongs to the party fund.
Maybe stop giving PCs any treasure they can individually use. If any of the PCs wear armor, don't give out magic armor; only hand out Huge or Tiny sized magic weapons; consumables with spells like Restore Corpse or Business Booms? In other words, force ALL magic item treasures to be sold for 1/2 price so you don't have to run into a problem of equitable distribution.
Why does the distribution have to be equitable? Characters get what they can best use or want, the rest if sold and split.
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Why does the distribution have to be equitable? Characters get what they can best use or want, the rest if sold and split.Maybe stop giving PCs any treasure they can individually use. If any of the PCs wear armor, don't give out magic armor; only hand out Huge or Tiny sized magic weapons; consumables with spells like Restore Corpse or Business Booms? In other words, force ALL magic item treasures to be sold for 1/2 price so you don't have to run into a problem of equitable distribution.
Because someone can feel that the PCs working as a collective where everyone gives based on his abilities and receives based on its need is a bit strange for a group of murderhobos interested in loot?
Why does the distribution have to be equitable? Characters get what they can best use or want, the rest if sold and split.Maybe stop giving PCs any treasure they can individually use. If any of the PCs wear armor, don't give out magic armor; only hand out Huge or Tiny sized magic weapons; consumables with spells like Restore Corpse or Business Booms? In other words, force ALL magic item treasures to be sold for 1/2 price so you don't have to run into a problem of equitable distribution.
Because someone can feel that the PCs working as a collective where everyone gives based on his abilities and receives based on its need is a bit strange for a group of murderhobos interested in loot?
if everyone has the best gear for their character that they have come across, regardless of being balanced or not, then the party is probably more efficient in their murder hob activates, thus resulting in more loot overall.
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An aspect to this that should be pointed out: is the Loot Distribution System (LDS) something that the characters set up, or was it done by the players? The players I run for don't RP the loot division, it is a metagame issue handled between a group of friends who all want to have a good time and be nice to each other. Even when their characters are cutthroat, bloody handed cultists.
Why does the distribution have to be equitable? Characters get what they can best use or want, the rest if sold and split.Maybe stop giving PCs any treasure they can individually use. If any of the PCs wear armor, don't give out magic armor; only hand out Huge or Tiny sized magic weapons; consumables with spells like Restore Corpse or Business Booms? In other words, force ALL magic item treasures to be sold for 1/2 price so you don't have to run into a problem of equitable distribution.
Because some people feel like they're being "shafted" if they don't have as much treasure as others. (Those people drive me nuts and I wouldn't knowingly play with someone that worries that much about it.)
I will point out I was asking about the want but not need, need goes to whoever needs it more e.g the magic armour goes to the front line characters and WBL falls where it may.
there is very little difference between want and need when it comes to magic items.... if a player decides his character wants it, then he certainly needs it at that point, and no character ever needs any magic item, no magic campaigns are fun too.
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I will point out I was asking about the want but not need, need goes to whoever needs it more e.g the magic armour goes to the front line characters and WBL falls where it may.there is very little difference between want and need when it comes to magic items.... if a player decides his character wants it, then he certainly needs it at that point, and no character ever needs any magic item, no magic campaigns are fun too.
I want items like a rod of metal and gem detection, snowfall orb, astrolabe or wanderlust map but I certainly don't need them. I need bracers of armour, scrolls, ring of protection, etc. Unless its a no magic items campaign and even then its debateable if your not fighting things at a lower CR.
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Usually, it doesn't come up that two players want the same item and it's not needed by at least one of them, just because of different ideas about what kinds of kooky magic items are cool or fun or just plain neat.
When it has come up, we've had a few different ways of handling it.
Either we roll for it, if it's just two people who want a single item, or if there are multiple people with multiple items in conflict, then we basically adhoc a bidding system based upon how much money is in the party pot, how much money their characters have, the value of the items, and then either roll for it to determine the order in which people make bids or decide in some other manner, such as whose character has the fewest magic items or fewest non-essential magic items.
OTOH, a lot of the wackier items tend to just stay collective property of the group, even if one or two characters may use it the most or be the default carrier(s). In some cases, it's because people want it in the group but don't want it enough to reduce their share of the party pot when we reach a point where individual shares are divvied up. Especially when it comes to magic items with ridiculously inflated price tags.
I think I wasn't clear, if multiple people want something and neither has an obvious need e.g. its a +4 ring and one player has a +1 while other has a +3. That's a dice roll higher on the 20th gets it. What I was thinking about was the fun items if a player wants them. I'm going with if you want it, you get it and keep an eye to ensure they actually do want it and have plans aren't just grabbing items to sell for their own benefit.
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I think I wasn't clear, if multiple people want something and neither has an obvious need e.g. its a +4 ring and one player has a +1 while other has a +3. That's a dice roll higher on the 20th gets it. What I was thinking about was the fun items if a player wants them. I'm going with if you want it, you get it and keep an eye to ensure they actually do want it and have plans aren't just grabbing items to sell for their own benefit.So far, that hasn't been an issue, both because the way we divvy out loot shares takes into account the value of items and because no one's ever really wanted to try to hoard wealth to get a leg up on the rest of the party.
The closest we've had was a minor surcharge on magic item crafting, and even then we agreed to have that go towards collective purchases/creation/action. Like upgrading strongholds, buying more wands of CLW or similar healing items for the party stockpile, carpets of flying or folding boats or other vehicles, etc.
And, honestly, if that ever did become an issue, I'd prefer to just address it directly OOC instead of trying to address it indirectly via how we divvy up loot, either IC or OOC.
Hence the keep an eye out for it and speak to the player if someone is doing it.
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I think I wasn't clear, if multiple people want something and neither has an obvious need e.g. its a +4 ring and one player has a +1 while other has a +3. That's a dice roll higher on the 20th gets it. What I was thinking about was the fun items if a player wants them. I'm going with if you want it, you get it and keep an eye to ensure they actually do want it and have plans aren't just grabbing items to sell for their own benefit.
Not a problem in my group. We divide the loot on the basis of the standard sell price, so, unless a character can devise a way to sell the item for more (and that usually is a side adventure) there is no way to get extra money.
The characters generally use their knowledge and contacts to sell the party loot at the best price possible and then equally divide the spoils, so there is no problem with someone "cheating" the other characters.It is easier when people get what they want and can use. In that system, it is possible that the only guy who uses a greatsword will get the new greatsword +3 and sell his old +2 greatsword while the guy who uses a mace is still using a +1 mace.
Sure, "The GM controls the drops, so he should drop a +2 mace before dropping a +3 greatsword.", but micromanaging the drops so that everyone gets what he needs from the loot isn't exactly fun and requires constant audits of the character sheets.
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In Home Games the treasure is always a mix of what the CR/product says and GM intervention & taste. You'd be hard pressed to find a GM that doesn't tinker with the treasure. In scripted or Org Play it is prefigured for the GM.
Sure, and often the GM will place what he feels is needed or what he likes. Those aren't necessarily the items that the players want or like.
The process of a "fair distribution" is going to be defined by the group. I'm not surprised that it ranges from casual to a online spreadsheet accessible to the group via emails/dropbox/service.
And that sums up nicely this whole thread.
In the campaings I've played, whoever wanted an item could just take it, no "compensation" needed. Of course, I play with people who understand the concept of a cooperative game.
In my current campaign that I GM, it's a non-issue altogether, because I completely removed magic item shops. Wehn you can't sell an item, there is no need to reimburse the party for the sell value lost.
Because someone can feel that the PCs working as a collective where everyone gives based on his abilities and receives based on its need is a bit strange for a group of murderhobos interested in loot?
Only if they're stupid murderhobos. Having well equipped party members increases the amount of loot you get, which makes anything that prevents party members from being well equipped a case of shooting yourself in the foot.
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I've been trying something new in my current campaign. With the exception of a few Plot important treasures, I've been letting my players roll up the treasure they find.
Basically
This Horde is 10,000 gp Your share is 2500, you can roll on Coins, Coins & Gems, Coins and Small objects, etc... as broken down in the Ultimate Equipment book. You can Trade in 1000 gp of your share for a roll on the Minor Magic item chart of your choice (and when the hordes get big enough, 10,000 for Medium and 40,000 for Major. I got these values from the Core book section on creating treasure hordes)
So if a player wants a belt item he uses part of his share to roll a belt item.