I've been playing in a few AL adventures (Expeditions) and a few situations came up during play. I'm curious how those should be handled.
1. We completed the adventure with 4 characters, and found one permanent magic item. Two of us didn't have any already, and wanted it, so we rolled off. I won the roll and got the item. The party & DM said that since I got the item, I don't get a share of the money, so they split it three ways. What would you do?
2. Another game. We went through the adventure and got to the final fight. One player decided to sit out the entire fight and withdrew from the battleground. He came back after the fight. He got a full share of XP and treasure, and won the roll-off to get the magic item from the final fight. What would you do?
3. Another game. A player decided his character was just going to give up on the adventure and take off, leaving the rest of the party during a fight in the middle of the adventure. He got XP for the parts he completed, but no treasure or XP for the parts after he left. What would you do?
4. Another game. The party finds a lockbox with 100 gp. The thief decides to steal some of it, rolls Sleight of Hand, easily beats all the other players' passive Wisdom (Perception) scores. The DM rolls percentage dice, says the thief gets 65 gp. The remaining 35 gp is split among the players. What would you do?
Note: The WWYD question not only includes the division of XP/treasure, but also, if you disagree with the outcome, would you have said anything about it as a player at the table?
1. Tell you before the roll that the person who wins the roll misses out on a share of the gold.
And if I somehow found out that if the other guy had won he would also get a share of the gold because of GM favoritism, I would kill them and take their stuff. Might also kill their characters.
2. Who is running these roll offs?? The party or the GM?
3. It depends on social contract whether that's okay behaviour. In more public games I could accept it. And I'd do the same thing, XP wise.
4. Make it considerably less of a percentage. Maybe 10% of the gold. Parties who are a hive mind are really pretty emotionally shallow. But I tend not to be interested in a huge rip off of other party members - just enough to raise tensions a little, if the rogue is going to do it at all.
I agree with everything TheBreen wrote. Including the very last sentence. 
Oraibi wrote:
I DM for encounters at my YLGS and have run into some of this. My responses below:
Oraibi wrote:
ewspy69 wrote:
What would I do? Talk to the other people at the table and ask 'why are we doing this?'
My experience with these kinds of situations is that most of the people at the table were OK with this and were assuming you were OK with it too. If you weren't, you should speak up and demand an explanation that makes sense. There isn't much anybody not at the table can do.
--
Pauper
TheBreen wrote:
ewspy69 wrote:
If you aren't okay with something, it's your responsibility to speak up. You can't rely on other people reading your body language or mind or whatever. If you don't say anything, it's your fault when you feel cheated.
1) You got hosed. The AL rules are clear on distribution of loot. Should have said something.
2,3) Sounds fair. No problem I can see. Only seems weird because of #1.
4) DM was overly generous, at best (at worst, he/she was a total wanker). Thief was a dick. I would have said something. I might not have been nice, depending on the specifics.
kaisch006 wrote:
Pauper wrote:
To echo many here*:
1.) This should've been stated as part of the roll off, especially since the rules say otherwise. Since it wasn't mentioned, you should have gotten equal gold and then NEXT time the winner doesn't get a share, if that's mentioned. If anyone whined "but that's how we did it before!" explain that you weren't there for that session, so you obviously did not know that. The burden is on THEM to convey that, not on you to magically know!
2.) There's no friggin' way I'd let that guy in on the treasure in or out of character (well...depending on the character I guess, but still!). XP is up to the DM and maybe his share was akin to a quest reward to get the party to that point. But honestly he should have given maybe 1/2 XP and 0 treasure unless he begged and pleaded in character, or there was stuff no one wanted. That is, if the treasure was in that room, and not just magically awarded at the end of the session (which happens sometimes in AL)
3.) Seemed fine. Even at a non-AL event that seems reasonable. Different from #2.
4.) All I have to say is: 65 gold is NUTS to steal with a sleight of hand. 10? Sure. 6? Definitely. But he either rolls at disadvantage ("I take whatever I can get away with!") or does it normally with a max cap ("I take what I can, but safely!"). Rolling % dice isn't wrong. But the DMs use of that was. He needed to talk to the player to see what he wanted exactly (greed or stealth) and base the rolls off of that. I would've given him 20 MAX (if I rolled 100%). Remember, 65 gold is a LOT to "palm" and then have land somewhere out of sight without making noise...We've all had one of those players, and they can get sorta annoying (in and out of character). There are ways to non-antagonistically reel them in though (but that's another discussion)
*(I am not an AL DM, but have great experience in DM-ing and a lot of AL knowledge. Others may come in, and indeed have, to say what the official rules say about things, though)
Oraibi wrote:
TheBreen wrote:
AL rules on thieving are so weird it breaks my suspension of belief.
In scenario 4 - as DM I would allowed the thief to skim 5 or 6 coins, I would have made the chest have 106 coins not 100. If the thief is caught by the party the character will have to deal with the RP consequences of that which might include ejection from the group. If the thief is not caught they get a little extra on top but the party dont 'lose' anything.
Its also weird to me when playing a thief, that when I attempt to steal a purse from a merchant or a noble in a tavern that mysteriously their purses are empty of meaningful coinage. The thief player is taking a risk in thieving and if they are successful they should get some -small- reward and if they are not they should ave to deal with the consequences.
Fenian: Ive got no issue with characters stealing from people in town. Hell I encourage it in Phlan. Do you know what happens to thieves?
They hang. They swing from Stojanow Gate by order of the Black Fists to provide an example to others.
I had a character in Secret of Sokol Keep who was stealing in Phlan. He made about 2 gold (in silver and copper), I simply deducted that money from the total coin pool the party could earn to keep in in with the strictures of AL play.