Have they bought a wagon and horses to haul all the junk? Honestly, it's fine if they want to do that. But they will need to have a place to put the mounds of short swords they find. If they sell them, they flood the market, and no one will buy short swords anymore. If they have goals of having a keep and a militia, then those items will come in handy.
In the mean time, make them rent storage. That's a good money sink. They'll find less people willing to buy their stuff, and they'll need to hoard more and it'll cost them more.
Also, if they are looting from random people, get the law involved. Their stuff can be confiscated.
Muker wrote:
I found the perfect solution to this problem in my pirate campaign:
* Include cursed and trapped items
* Give them plenty of stuff to waste their gold on.
And in order to facilitate the latter, I allow them to:
* Upgrade their ship, which costs a lot of money.
* Buy larger ships, which again are very expensive
* Hire people, but they do need to pay their wages
* Build a fortress, which is again a giant gold sink.
* Allow them to buy expensive weapon upgrades.
First, there is not expected wealth factored in to the game so it will not affect their power level. If that is your main concern then you have nothing to worry about.
Second, YOU are in control of what they find. You can say they find nothing. You can say they find just a few coppers. You can give them cursed items as someone suggested. You can say they find trouble. In the end, you determine the results.
Third, looters attract unwanted attention. Whether guards or hobgoblins or whatever, people are going to get angry at looters. Let them know lawless activity has consequences.
My group used to take weeks or even months of in-character time stripping any adventure location of anything they could get even a copper piece from selling, and traveling about to enough different cities to sell off everything looted.
The thing which stopped that behavior was what you are saying you already do, but being very clear about what was going on by saying outright at the beginning of the campaign "looting anything and everything isn't going to be profitable - there is no one interested in paying money for the majority of stuff that you guys packed out of the dungeons last campaign. If it isn't coins, gems, jewelry, art, or magical, you can't sell it."
Though most of my players also play video games, they happen to be used to games that, like Skyrim, have limits to what the character can carry - and they have even developed an opinion that unless the value of an item is a certain ratio to the weight of it, that it isn't worth picking up as loot to sell later (the result of which is actually to accumulate money at a much quicker pace - just like it is in a table-top RPG when they can spend the two weeks it would have taken boxing up and selling off all that junk-loot going on another adventure instead).
I do that in Skyrim too(the value to weight ratio). It actually drives me nuts that I do that to get gold. I hate it. But it's gold! FREE GOLD!
But that actually brings up my other point about letting them know looting could lead to trouble. You steal the wrong thing at the wrong time and you might get your ass handed to you(killed, prison, bad beating, etc.) and not be welcome back in town. Let them know it's risk/reward and NOT free gold.
Thanks for all the replies. I should've added some more information to make everything more clear.
PC are currently in a semi abandoned city and are trying to get inside a nearby dwarven stronghold. The path leads through old catacombs.
They tried opening every single coffin or sarcophagus they've encountered. I didn't expect that so I had to prepare what they will find in some of them - the trinket list did it job here. This is one of the examples.
What I'm trying to say is that after some time I've got tired of thinking what loot they could find:
- so that they want get too much money out of it,
- so that it seems probable that they could find that in that house, container or on that corpses,
- so that I don't have to make all corridors, rooms, and containers empty.
Unfortunately the current setting limits some of the option mentioned in previous posts. For the mindless grave robbing I think I'll give them some disease, with the cure cost being equal the value of the things they've found. But knowing them they'll probably try to rob the priest that could cure them :)
If they are doing something that you don't find very fun, then I cannot recommend disincentivizing the thing they're doing with negative consequences in-game. I think it is better to address the issue and come up with a solution together. Trying to deal with an out-of-game problem with in-game disincentives smacks of dealing with the problem in a passive aggressive manner.
With that situation, perhaps the disturbance of so many burials awakens angered spirits that come to violently reclaim the party's ill-gotten gains (I'd go with a wraith that shows up, and focuses on killing the character carrying a specific piece of loot, then collects that specific piece of loot and leaves, having not so much as taken an incidental swipe at any other character - though I still say it's better to handle out of character by saying that you don't want the players looting so it isn't going to be profitable to them to continue with looting, especially engaging in actual grave robbing).
Generally speaking the concept of "looting" was actually invented in D&D, its as much part of the game as combat or magic missiles so while PC and Console gaming have continued the tradition, in a sense for players its part of the fun to aquire things, sell them and build wealth/power etc..
There are a number of tricks and ways to deal with it, some of have already been touched on but 5e actually offers some pretty good advice on the topic.
Useless items. First and foremost 99% of all "monster" items should be defined as "useless" and holding no value. A Kobold spear, a Orcs long sword ... they have no value. No one will ever buy them, they can't be broken down into anything usefulf they are essentially by definition have no value and this is how you describe them.
Push encumbrance. Carrying around lots of items is burdensom and you need to make sure that players are always making hard choices about what they lug around. It shouldn't be a question of what useless items to bring but a hard choice about what useful items to bring. Useless items shouldn't even be making the equation.
Finally hit them hard on selling. No one ever buys magical items. No one buys monster weapons and equipment. And even when anyone does buy anything they do it at significantly reduced prices, 75% at absolute best. Finally all merchants have a severe minimums of how much available gold they have aka ... I can by 3 of those 8 crossbows, I don't have any more gold than that unless you buy something.
D&D is not an economic simulator, power is built through finding and purchasing good gear and wealth is built through finding wealth (opening a chest and finding a valuable gem). The reality is that a weapon sitting in a tomb unless its magical is probobly useless and even if you do take a weapon of a fighter somewhere, its a used item, its like a car, its value dropped 75% the second you drove it off the lot.
Ah, the mindless grave robbing requires curses! Curses and undead! Ghosts hauting what they steal!
Ah an abandoned city and catacombs provides a great breeding ground for all sorts of monsters, especially skeletons, zombies, and ghouls in the catacombs. Maybe each time they check something they have a 1/3 chance of finding something of some value(whether a few coppers or a few hundred gold pieces), 1/3 chance of finding nothing, and 1/3 chance of attracting or finding a monster.
A purple worm is a great monster to have in your arsenal. That thing is tough and scary and will keep the characters moving instead of looting(unless they are very high level). It could have been attracted by all of the undead and/or other monsters in the area.
Maybe they stumble across a humanoid stronghold in the abandoned city, say maybe Bugbears using the cellar of some large building. The noise the pcs make looting attracts their attention.
I do like the idea of potentially contracting a disease while grave robbing. And if they rob a priest that cures them, someone saw it and reported it to the authorities. Now they are wanted in that town.
These are just a VERY few examples to get you going. There are so many possibilities and you are only limited by what you come up with. If you keep rewarding the looting behavior by imposing no penalties then they will keep doing it. Let them know that even in seemingly abandoned areas they can draw unwanted attention if they hang around too long. Take what you see has obvious value and get out.
Edit:
Can't believe I forgot to mention ghost type creatures!
Also I do agree that you could try to talk to them out of the game. I don't agree that it's an out of game problem. This is a reward system problem, not two players being passive agreesive towards each other or something that NEEDS to be solved out of the game.
If you fix how you are rewarding the behavior of grave robbing the players will change the course of their actions because it makes sense storywise. Looting is a messy business. Make it so.
Lots of good advice here. This is my advice: Spin this behavior to your advantage. Greed is a strong, simple motivation that you can use to craft great adventures. By now, all the NPCs in your campaign know that the PCs are greedy as hell. So they would start using that behavior to advance their own agendas. For example, a wealthy merchant hires the players to rescue his kidnapped daughter from a monster that he claims has a fabulous treasure hoard. In fact, the players discover that the monster has a paltry amount of treasure. And the merchant is really a dirt poor farmer in disguise, desperate to save his loved one. And the gold he paid the players is lead covered with a cheap coat of paint. Meanwhile, when the players were off rescuing the farmer's daughter, a greedy noble passed a decree that allowed him to confiscate the player's wealth, which he has now used to hire a group of adventurers or mighty monsters. If the players move directly against him, they get caught up in the courts or find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Additionally, the players are targeted by a thieves guild that tries to take whatever money they have left. Eventually, the players discover that the noble and the thieves were set against the players by the BBEG who's plots they've wrecked on their previous adventures. The point here is to make sure that none of this feels punitive. Instead, it should get the players fired up to get revenge against those who took what was theirs.
That is a great example of turning a potential problem into a plot hook.
You can use their grave robbing tendencies to build suspense as well. There was the example of the wraith haunting a specific item, earlier. But another thing you can do, is if they open a casket, they find a corpse inside, wearing a precious ring. Now are the players going to remove the ring? Maybe it is stuck. Will they cut off the finger? Maybe the corpse turns out to be an undead, and he gets a free grapple attack on the nearest player. Undead are your best weapon here. Make players afraid to open graves.
My players roleplay very well, and their characters have respect for the dead. They are superstitious, and with good reason. Because they know that I as a DM would punish them from descecrating the dead if they did it too much. So they might open one grave, but not every grave they find.
They like looting. It's part of their fun. Rather than disincentivize it, integrate the looting in your game, I say. Tell the story and point them towards adventure using the locations they visit, the objects they interact with and the treasure they gain.
In my opinion, anything worth interacting with deserves special attention. Robbing random coffins or houses doesn't award anything special (maybe some trinkets every now and then) because there's no drama to it. Don't waste your time on that.
Instead, hand them clues and guide them to their main objective through their looting. Describing magical runes on certain sarcophagi or corpses riddled with arrows telegraph challenges and threats that await them. As any treasure hunter worth its salt knows, that usually means there's something special nearby. And because you're telegraphing these threats, you can feel free to use a variety of traps and monsters (other people have already suggested lots of dangerous things). On top of that, if they're very thorough, they might find hints as to how to overcome these obstacles. The looting and searching now becomes a part of the game's story and process instead of a chore; as iserith put it, you're now playing Indiana Jones, not Hoarders.
Just make sure not to pull off something along the lines of "You didn't look into the drawer which had the key in it, and now there's nothing you can do about the trap" -- your game is about exploration, looting and adventure, not pixelbitching. Try to be somewhat obvious when there's something worthwhile.
And of course, talk to the players about your experience so far and the changes you want to bring.
This is a timely and topical thread for me. I recently started a new campaign, the theme of which is revisiting classic modules. I'm picking up old adventures from dndclassics and running them with 5e rules. So far it's a blast. I'm even using the old-school blue and white dungeon maps in our VTT. We started with Against the Cult of the Reptile God and then we're moving on to The Isle of Dread.
Pretty early on in the campaign (like 10 seconds in), I decided to severely limit the amount of loot the party was going to find. In their first session I gave them 6 copper pieces total treasure. My reasoning, which others above have alluded to, is that too much treasure spoils the game to a certain extent. First, it's not practical to haul around tens of thousands of coins. Second, it reduces the incentive to adventure when the party's already rich ("you want us to clear out that haunted graveyard and you're only offering 100 gold? Forget it"). Lastly, it minimizes the impact of the reward when the party really does find valuable treasure. In The Isle of Dread, one of the big rewards is the discovery of a black pearl worth 3,000 gold. If the party has already found thousands of gold in treasure leading up to that, the black pearl isn't really a big deal. On the other hand, if the party only ever finds copper and silver, just barely earning enough to survive on, then when they find that pearl it's going to be a huge, meaningful reward rather than just something to shrug about and throw on the pile of treasure they already have.
I don't really have a problem with the party looting everything, because I almost never allow them to find anything worthwhile. Most of the enemies they defeat have no treasure of any kind, other than occassional coppers. When it comes to equipment, I describe most of the loot as obviously worthless. Anything used by a goblin or orc or similar monster is inferior junk with no resale value. If they defeat someone with decent gear, they can take it, but the resale value is a small fraction (like 5%) of the item's cost in the PH. If the party started to get into video game mode and try to open every container and dig up every grave, I'd just have it precipitate an extremely challenging combat encounter (or trap), with no treasure at all.
My general plan is to have the party earn about 1 silver per day per level per party member. So with 5 PCs, at level 1 I'm allowing them to find about 5 silver a day. By level 20, they'll be up to about 100 silver (10 gold!) per day. Anything beyond that, like finding the black pearl on the Isle of Dread, is a pure bonus. Keep 'em poor, is what I say. Take away that attitude of entitlement so many players have when it comes to treasure, and they'll start to appreciate it when they do find some.
Ok for the looting of toumbs and crypts .... and especially coffins/ bodies of the dead ... I go with a simple chart each time they loot the chart advanced one level
1) you feel an uncomfortable chill after disturbing the dead body
2) a disembodied voice whipers something just outside of your understanding
3) the dead bodie twitches and a voice whispers give it back thief
4) a spectral hand grabs your throat and starts to choke you you suffer one level of fatigue
5) a ghostly hand throws you across the room you suffer 1d4 levels of fatigue and take 1d10% hp damage
6) you fall over and are at fatigue level 5 and reduced to 1HP
7) you fall over dead
You start off by telling the Players that looting the toumbs and graves of the dead is not an acceptable behavior for heros like them. Once you have warned them you go to a simple chart. No combat. no chance of loot. No chance of escape, just they preform said action and such and such reaction happens. It happens no discussion no rolls no checks just it happens. Afther you inflict the consequence for their action you repeat the first step and tell them that a hero would not and should not loot a grave. then when and if they do it again have the effect and repeat. You will eithor teach them with the stick or kill the character ... eithor way the problem will be solved ... dead heros don't loot graves.
Have someone loot them. What goes around, comes around.
The looting is their story.
Granted it wont be a complicated story if they have no moral boundaries in regards too looting.
Your problem as GM is thinking the only story there is is the story you wrote before the game (or the module you bought)
No, the players are making a story.
They aren't interested in your story because they are interested in the story they are making by their characters actions.
Which I think is a way people instinctively play (when new to roleplay) and by that measure, the right way to play.
A more complicated story from their actions would come if they have various scruples, moral principles, NPC's they care about, etc. Sometimes the looter PC has these, you just don't see it. Sometimes the player can add these to the PC after play has started, if you talk about it.
The players are not like book readers and you a book author - you are not a book author trying to get your book reading audience to care about the story. The players are authors of the story themselves - every time they have their PC's act, they write some story.
The question is, how do they get YOU to care about their story?
I'm guessing hard rejection of this premise - because you only asked about how to make them care about your story. That's all that matters to you. So they wont be getting you to care about their story any time soon, I guess?
bonethug0108 wrote:
One way to tamp down the looting mentality might be to show them some IRL video from Ferguson MO. Tell the offending players, "This is how the locals see YOU."
Then send the Law, angry mobs, offended ghosts, previous owners, paid assassins, the Thieves Guild, and other freelance looters/plunderers after them; whose grievance was a previous gratituous episode of PC looting.
Also note that building wealth requires respect for Other Peoples' Property, so the more they loot the poorer the world should become for them.
Eventually the only way to get tons o' loot should be tackling Hardest-Possible enemies in a fight. Risk/Reward can temper Greed.
A lot of my D&D expereince has been playing Battle Interactives - get through a really tough fight/campaign before you get the really cool trophy stuff as a reward for your efforts.
There is definitely "good" looting and "bad" looting. So looters need to make sure they don't piss off the wrong people. But, as Noon suggested, it's your job to make it fun for the players regardless.
One more idea... somewhere out there in D&D lore there's a cursed bag of holding that consumes or destroys everything put inside it. So that one writes itself. You could also have a merchant sell that to the players. When the players realize their loot is missing, they go back to the merchant seeking revenge. But his shop is empty and rigged with a death trap. Make it big. Like the trap summons four fire elementals that blow up the entire building and then try to kill any survivors. The merchant could be the wizard that runs the thieves guild that has targeted the players.
SilentSin wrote:
Another thing that I would do, is let the players get caught by a griefing widow, while robbing a grave. Confront them with their crime in an emotional way, and they will respect the dead more often. Plus, it adds drama. I'd also use it as a plot hook. Maybe the widow has been revisiting the graveyard a lot, to make sure that nothing happens to her husband's grave? Maybe there's been a large increase of grave robberies lately, and people suspect a necromancer might be at work. Wether this is really the case, or a direct result of the players and their massive grave robbing, is entirely up to you. You can also let the local guards double their watch around places that have been robbed a lot by the players. But there should be consequences that do not ruin the fun of looting for the players.
And another thing I would do, is to NOT make it easy for them to sell stolen stuff. Someone is bound to find out that a particular ring was stolen from a grave, and refuse to buy it. Which forces them to go into the shady part of town, to find a fence. This can get them into contact with the local thieves guild, or in trouble with the local thieves guild for tresspassing on their territory. Maybe the thievesguild isn't happy with all the looting, because the guards have doubled their watch, and blaim in on the thieves guild. I'd have the leader of the local thieves guild have a serious talk with the players, and maybe make some threats. Or maybe he'll try to make a deal with the players. Maybe there's a tomb that none of his thieves dare to steal from, and he wants the players to do that for him. See? Plot hook!
Use dmg rules for finding buyers; random treasure; lots stuff little value
No way to buy magic stuff so they can build nice temples etc with all the silver they find!
How and where are they selling the stuff? Where are they storing it while they sell it? Have them pay upkeep while they try to peddle their wares, which are going to be at a discounted price because there is so much of the stuff lying around. Most of the goods are going to be old/damaged and those things of value have probably already been picked over.
If the city is in ruins, how long has it been in ruins? Why hasn't anything of value already been looted by previous groups?
If there is little risk and they can still make a profit, have them do the looting as down-time activiities so it doesn't interfere with game time.
Or, as others have said, just sit down with the group and ask them why they think they need to loot, and point out that you have awesome campaign. Wouldn't they rather play the campaign? After all, unlike a video game there is no limit to the content of the adventure, just a limit to how much time you can spend running the campaign.
Is the main problem the momentum your losing in the story every time the party stops to loot a room or catacomb? If that's the case I'd just tell the players that you'll work under the assumption that they loot as they go and that you'll go over what they've looted during a break or at the end of the session. That will probably need a few exceptions (For instance if they attain a magic item of significance .) But it should speed your game up and reduce your stress.
First, I want to stress Isirith suggestion that you just taalk to them.
Second, They are trying to sell the equivalent of what you find at garage sales.... there is no way to sell that stuff in bulk except for pennies on the dollar, if that. That assumes there is enough money available to but it even if its wanted.
Last.... does the money really matter? One of the 5E complaints is lack of things to spend money on.... if they have more... what does it matter. Except for Plate Mail, cost of armor is pretty trivial, and even that isn't a big deal for a party to acquire. After that.... are they going to buy a longboat? An entire caravan of wagons? Sure they could buy a whole lot of healing potions, but... eh....
What result are you concerned about?
Stop putting things that they can sell in the loot.
Go from
I open a sarcogophagus, what do I find?
A corpse dressed in what was once fashionable apparel, that has since rotted and decayed much faster than the bones behind it.
I check for valuables
He has what you think is a silver filling in his back tooth, a broken copper watch, cracked glasses, a wedding ring and a non magical prayer book.
Cool, I pry the silver out, snag the watch, glasses ring, and book.
to
I open a sarcogophagus, what do I find?
A corpse dressed in what was once fashionable apparel, that has since rotted and decayed much faster than the bones behind it.
I check for valuables
He nothing you think you could sell for more than a few coppers and some sidesways glances from merchants in the best case scenario. Worst case, some stuff that might get you reported to the guard for grave robbing. In total, you find what you think may be a silver filling in his back tooth, a broken copper watch, cracked glasses, a wedding ring and a non magical prayer book.
The first few times you might get the same response, but after a couple of poor sales results of "No one wants to buy any of that, and they think you are a grave robber. They call the guard." or "You get someone willing to buy the lot for 5 silver in the alley behind the inn." they will get over it. Especially if the actual loot is impressive and "Enough". You will start to see a shift where "That stuff isn't worth the effort it takes to bother with".
Generally this sort of thing crops up when players think a DM is being stingy with the loot.
I've also never played a game of DND (2,3,4,5) where "The players have too much gold" has ever been a problem. Most of the time its an asset to the story.
raithan wrote:
Kinda sounds to me like the problem is less about the looting and more about the emphasis you are putting on it. My group in my current campaign searches/loots just about everything but it's not a big ordeal. We cleared out Cragmaw Castle, at the end we said "we search the corpses" then DM said "you find XXcp XXsp a necklace you estimate to be worth 50gp". Done! Then we split up and each "searched" a room to which the DM said a lot of "you find nothing of value". a few times he said "you find some crude weapons and armor, none of which seems to be of any value".
In the end the searching/looting the entire castle took less than 5 minutes and was not a chore or something that interupted the game. My DM puts a value (or at least what we estimate a value to be) on things and most of it has no value so we don't hoard crap, we just collect the bits he calls out as being something that is worth selling. So maybe when your group makes it's way through the catacombs, just let them say "We open and search the coffins as we go" and you say "you find a necklace worth XX and a few coppers" and then move on? Or say "who is opening the coffins?" As you open this specific coffin a XXXX undead comes to life and attacks".
In the end, as adventurers the motivation a lot of times is money and XP which is fine but if you telegraph that generic stuff has no value and call out the value of the things that find that are worth looting, they will grab those items and move on. On the other side of the coin, as others have said, having a group that searches and loots everything gives you great opportunity to insert plot points and side quests.
I would like to third the suggestion of the DM and players talking to each other out of game.
"You're all having fun even though I'm not. How can we change the game so that everybody has fun?" works better than "You're all having fun even though I'm not. I'm going to change the game so that I have fun even though you might not."
Sanndor wrote:
There are a number of things you can do, but I say hit them in their Alingment. Who's tombs are they? If it's a ruined dwarf hold, then the dwarfs would be aghast at these humans looting their ancestors. You know they would throw up a hissy fit. Good and Lawful members of the party should be threatened with an alingment change if they continue to loot.
If the lost city has no heirs, then the restless spirits of the good people who died can appeal to them. Have some restless souls who now have to wander eternety due tot their looting show up to them. It would be too much to put it back, but maybe if they spent the money on some sort of memorial to them (statue, expensive ritual, etc), then it could put their souls to rest. It should spend their existing cash and prevent them from looting more.
I'm a firm believer in using Alingment to keep the players true to their characters. If they are ignorant, just show them the error of their ways. If they refuse to comply, change their alingment for them.
Muker wrote:
Lashan wrote:
How realistic is your approach to carrying stuff?
Cool video about that topic: http://youtube.com/watch?v=llPAuGy6XvQ
Beldak_Serpenthelm wrote:
Muker wrote:
Lashan wrote:
Ugh.....once again I feel that you are caught up too much in how I worded that sentance. I say ignorant and error because most of the time when I point it out to my players, they realize that what they said was not in character for them and they stop doing it. I don't tell them they have to stop or penalize them, but they just get caught up in the moment of something and blurt something out.
Do they stop doing it becuase they want to, or because they feel that they have to?
Muker wrote:
OK I see I have been a little misunderstood.
(English is not my native language so it's a bit harder to tell things the way I've intented)
I'll try to write my thoughts point by point.
1. I try to make my world realistic as much as it can be. So no random super magic traps on just a random sarcophagous or empty pockets and houses everywhere.
2. I'll never tell players how they should play the game, it's their game and their story. It's not that big issue for me to make me tell them: "either we work it out or I'll stop DMing". If they want to be thiefs or grave robbers, they can. BUT...
3. ... They have to know that their action will cause some reprecusion. Basicly this was my original question, what kind of reprecusion will make them think twice is it worth it.
4. Players cannot expect that whatever they'll do there will be no concequences. If they want to play with fire, I'll let them, but remember you can be burned.
5. Our last game has been canceled so I have more time to prepare. I'll probably solve it this way: when they will be leaving the tomb, some ghosts will apear yelling: Thiefs. If they ignore it, they will get nightmares and become cursed if the ignore it. What's more there are few Kelmovar's priests in the city, definetly the players will ask them about the curse.The priest will know why they are cursed, will he help them, what they will have to do to get that help.
6. I think that I'll not try to speed up the looting. Let them work for the prize. "You failed that Athletics test to open the coffin, lets see how will you open it now"
2. I'll never tell players how they should play the game*snip*3. ... They have to know that their action will cause some reprecusion. Basicly this was my original question, what kind of reprecusion will make them think twice is it worth it.
Muker wrote:
OK now I get it.
Basicly this is why I've started this tread.
I needed some inspiration for some natural reprecussion that could happen.
I didn't tell them everything in advance beacuse I didn't thougth of this before. But as I said, they will be haunted for some time, before the curse kicks in, so they'll have some time to react.
I'll accept any reasonable idea:
- donating to kelemvor,
- trying to contact the ghosts and convince them that this was necessery, (this could be fun)
- ask the priest for advice,
- they'll probably come up with something strange, as usual.
It's true that I wont to discourage them a little bit, but not in the way that you guy think.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
This is why the world you create will dictate the player actions. It's okay if you want looting the dead to generally be avoided in your world. I'm not sure though that is your goal.
Muker wrote:
Muker wrote:
Yeah, but if some realistic consequence leads to a whole new plot...and they STILL remain looters, regardless, will you be comfortable with that?
Noon is actually making sense on this issue. I'm wondering if I should go to work or just wait on the lawn for the world to end. 
I believe in time your looters would quit anyway. Maybe at 1st level picking up everything is worth it but at 10th its a total waste of time. Looting seems realistic to me so I don't mind it.
Most of the advices have already been given, but still:
Your players obviously enjoy looting - let them do it occasionally and look for other things they enjoy in order to bring more variety into the game.
Looting is now always directly profitable. One gold is a lot for the common folk and little for the players. Once they have little gold in their pockets - hawling 40 kobold spears and convincing the farmhand that if we gives them 5 coppers for them he can use them to build a nice fence for his goats and no, the kobolds won't come looking for revenge... gets a bit borring. Selling that chair or table from the evil wizard's tower... well, anyone who can affort to spend the money for a chair or a table - probably have already done so and the rest probably value providing food for their children more than having an empty table instead.
Make it clear for them what is directly profitable (you found a mangled gold mask... not much use for it as it is, but a jeweler will probably be interested in purchasing it for half its weight in gold or you can have it repaired and use it as a proper gift to earn the favor of the baroness).
Make it clear when something can be turned into profit with neccessary efforts (the crude orc spears and bows lie among their dead bodies... the weapons are fully finctional despite their uncongenial appearance and if you happen to know someone in a rush to arm a militia force - they might earn you some gold).
Also make it clear when nothing in their immediate vicinity is of any potential value (after killing the warband you find yourself in the gnoll warchief's, while his possesions are fit for a gnoll - the only way to earn some coins for them from a more civilised creature is if you are paid to take them away).
If there is any penalty involved with looting a specific location - make sure that they know the approximate value of the loot and the danger of punishment. Also make sure that it is a punishment for the characters, not for the players.
Also - if your players enjoy looting and you don't want them to be too rich - provide them with enough options to spend their aquired wealth...
Emerikol wrote: