Loot drops - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Loot drops

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
destructus
Oct 03, 2011 7:55:16 I was thinking about bending the rules with loot drops after a monster is killed by adding a token to where the monster fell to give players a choice to go get the loot or keep fighing.

Any ideas?

#2
yronimosw
Oct 03, 2011 8:55:04 I don't see why not... go for it. You might want to make numbered loot-drop tokens, with a key to the loot listed in your notes that you can add a corresponding number to, so that the loot pile tokens are easier to keep track of.

There might be an easier way of doing things, though... for 3.5E, I've always held off loot-drops until after the battle, and just described narratively what was found in the room/area ("the last Hobgoblin falls to a quick sword strike from the Ranger, and you search the room... you find that the sergeant was using a masterwork heavy mace and shield, and has a gem worth 60gp hidden in his boot; you also find about 45gp worth of used muggle weapons and armor on the seargent and his soldiers, about 35gp worth of silver coins in the Hobgoblins' pockets and in a small chest on the desk, and an unusual stringed instrument worth about 10gp hanging from a hook on the wall. So, that's a MW heavy mace, MW shield, and 150gp worth of gems, coins, and trade goods....) Basically, the room contains all the treasure, including the stuff on the bodies, rather than the bodies themselves. This sort of thing seems to have always worked out with absolutely no problems for my group, though your group may prefer something more specific.
#3
ToeSama
Oct 03, 2011 13:36:26 I'm confused. What is the general goal to this?
#4
yronimosw
Oct 03, 2011 15:44:17 What was the point to my reply?

I was trying to follow what the original poster was saying, and in doing so I was envisioning something similar to video games, where the PCs mow through a bunch of monsters, who leave little floating back-pack models indicating a bundle of loot is there, and then when the fighting is over the PCs come back and search the bodies one-by-one to steal all the dead guys' loot. I suppose you could model that pretty easily, using the loot-drop tokens to mark the locations of fallen bodies.

But, for my part, I prefer just to handwave the grave-robbing and abstract it into a single scene of finding all the cool stuff in the room after the battle, in the name of just moving on to something more interesting to me (and hopefully to my group), so I said so.

If you meant what is the the original poster's goal, then I don't completely know. I can only assume the answer is to model a familiar experience from video game RPGs. Maybe I'm wrong?
#5
ToeSama
Oct 03, 2011 18:23:51 I was asking the goal to the OPs idea. I'm not sure what his intended outcome with the idea is, and I'd rather not try and help without knowing what he wants to do.
#6
destructus
Oct 03, 2011 19:06:00 I was just trying to distract the players with something causing them to break formation during battle that's all :-)
#7
mcmillan
Oct 03, 2011 19:36:31 If all you're trying to do is give the players something to distract them, it seems like there's more interesting things you could do then just giving them loot sooner. Better to give them some goal to accomplish during the fight other than just to kill all the monsters.

While the loot drop probably won't break things, I doubt it will do more than slow things down as the players ask about what cool thing they picked up in the middle of a fight, and if it's a serious distraction they may just end up ignoring it until the fight is over.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 destructus Oct 03, 2011 7:55:16	I was thinking about bending the rules with loot drops after a monster is killed by adding a token to where the monster fell to give players a choice to go get the loot or keep fighing. Any ideas?
#2 yronimosw Oct 03, 2011 8:55:04	I don't see why not... go for it. You might want to make numbered loot-drop tokens, with a key to the loot listed in your notes that you can add a corresponding number to, so that the loot pile tokens are easier to keep track of. There might be an easier way of doing things, though... for 3.5E, I've always held off loot-drops until after the battle, and just described narratively what was found in the room/area ("the last Hobgoblin falls to a quick sword strike from the Ranger, and you search the room... you find that the sergeant was using a masterwork heavy mace and shield, and has a gem worth 60gp hidden in his boot; you also find about 45gp worth of used muggle weapons and armor on the seargent and his soldiers, about 35gp worth of silver coins in the Hobgoblins' pockets and in a small chest on the desk, and an unusual stringed instrument worth about 10gp hanging from a hook on the wall. So, that's a MW heavy mace, MW shield, and 150gp worth of gems, coins, and trade goods....) Basically, the room contains all the treasure, including the stuff on the bodies, rather than the bodies themselves. This sort of thing seems to have always worked out with absolutely no problems for my group, though your group may prefer something more specific.
#3 ToeSama Oct 03, 2011 13:36:26	I'm confused. What is the general goal to this?
#4 yronimosw Oct 03, 2011 15:44:17	What was the point to my reply? I was trying to follow what the original poster was saying, and in doing so I was envisioning something similar to video games, where the PCs mow through a bunch of monsters, who leave little floating back-pack models indicating a bundle of loot is there, and then when the fighting is over the PCs come back and search the bodies one-by-one to steal all the dead guys' loot. I suppose you could model that pretty easily, using the loot-drop tokens to mark the locations of fallen bodies. But, for my part, I prefer just to handwave the grave-robbing and abstract it into a single scene of finding all the cool stuff in the room after the battle, in the name of just moving on to something more interesting to me (and hopefully to my group), so I said so. If you meant what is the the original poster's goal, then I don't completely know. I can only assume the answer is to model a familiar experience from video game RPGs. Maybe I'm wrong?
#5 ToeSama Oct 03, 2011 18:23:51	I was asking the goal to the OPs idea. I'm not sure what his intended outcome with the idea is, and I'd rather not try and help without knowing what he wants to do.
#6 destructus Oct 03, 2011 19:06:00	I was just trying to distract the players with something causing them to break formation during battle that's all :-)
#7 mcmillan Oct 03, 2011 19:36:31	If all you're trying to do is give the players something to distract them, it seems like there's more interesting things you could do then just giving them loot sooner. Better to give them some goal to accomplish during the fight other than just to kill all the monsters. While the loot drop probably won't break things, I doubt it will do more than slow things down as the players ask about what cool thing they picked up in the middle of a fight, and if it's a serious distraction they may just end up ignoring it until the fight is over.