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| #1jpowell612Oct 31, 2009 13:28:47 | I am trying to find how other parties divide money, magic items, etc during a campaign and adopt a system for our party. Is the money spilt evenly every so often with each PC getting a share? Does the party just keep one big operating account to pay expenses and buy magic items? How are magic items divided between the PCs and if no one wants an item and it is sold are the proceeds just divided? Also, if a PC keeps an item, does the cost of that item come out of their share? Please share your thoughts and experiences with this topic, I wish someone had an accounting sheet to keep things fair! But I want the focus of the game to be about playing not playing accountant... |
| #2nikitadarkstarOct 31, 2009 14:00:33 | My party just shares money evenly, then magic items are given to whoever needs that item the most, whatever isin't needed or wanted is sold and the money split evenly. And well thats how it's always been done in the groups I've played with. |
| #3koukOct 31, 2009 14:08:13 | PHB 260 touches on loot sharing. You can add to the two examples given "pool monetary resources for buying/crafting necessary items for PCs who didn't find stuff lately" or otherwise for the good of the party. That's probably the most efficient use of money, because splitting it all equally will result in basically pocket change for everyone. Or, you can make shares, with one or more shares going to "party funds" to cover things like rituals and miscellaneous costs that come up like, horse purchases or such. Each party can have their own system though. Discuss it with your fellow adventurers.
Personally I prefer for the groups to divide items on a need-first basis and pooling funds for the good of the party, but from a roleplaying perspective, dividing money equally will work out pretty evenly over time and isn't a real problem.
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| #4delmont_dupOct 31, 2009 14:11:00 | Money we gain from adventuring/enterprises are shared evenly. Magic items haven't really been a problem, if someone doens't want it I usually get it and disenchant it for the residium. Money gained from individual effort, say gambling, are kept by that character. In a recent game we each had the chance to gamble on a fight. Most gambled around 100 gc and since we won recieved about 700 gc. I gambled close to 800 of my gold and so got a lot more, close to 5,000gc. That was all mine. The rest of the party was fine with this, if we had lost I would have almost no gold left as I risked almost everything I had. The counter side to this was that since I got all this money I was able to buy lots of components and make items for me and the rest of the party. Similarly, earlier in the campaign some of the party found work down at the docks and the money they earned they kept. Works well for us, we're not a commune ;) |
| #5oxybeOct 31, 2009 14:30:06 | most of the time, here's how it goes in my group: -everyone present gets a share from minor loot, IE: goblins have a pouch with money, split among present PCs. that's about it really. we sometimes "loan" items to each other, but that's usually quite rare or under specific circumstances (IE:we need to get the wizard's magic stick that can dispel magic in a place only the rogue can get into). |
| #6jpowell612Oct 31, 2009 22:45:17 | Thanks for the great replies, I'll be using several of the ideas. One other thing we are considering is that if you claim a magic item then the book value of that item comes out of your party share. While this could cause a negative balance in the share sometimes, it ensures fair value because the party will not be able to sell said treasure for shared loot. Not a commune approach but I guess it all depends on how business-like your party is... |
| #7koukOct 31, 2009 23:39:48 | You'll never have enough cash to have a magic item "come out of your share." Magic items are several times more expensive than the amount of money you find over an adventure. Plus, an item's level greatly alters its cost, even if the effect is comparable or the same to a lower level item. It's not at all a good mechanic for loot splitting to base things on the item level. You can have a bag that holds a bunch of stuff or a big flaming sword be the same level, but the sword is going to be much more important to the party's overall success most of the time. |
| #8brassbaboonNov 01, 2009 0:14:03 | Well, you aren't likely to have enough gold come out of your share to buy a level appropriate weapon or armor, but there's some pretty nice low level stuff for other slots. When we split up our loot my ranger ended up with enough gold to buy both the "catstep boots" and "goggles of the eagle", both of which are very useful and situationally powerful items, even though they are low level and didn't cost much gold. It was also enough to move an enchantment from a sub-optimal weapon to my spiked chain, meaning I ended up with a much superior weapon for very little gold. Our group has a party treasurer basically who carries all the loot and magic items. When we find a magic item it goes to the character who can use it best, or ends up in the bag of holding. I felt really bad because I ended up getting two magic items in a row because nobody else had a use for them, and the both were very useful to me. But that did not impact the sharing of the party loot when we got back to town. I've had parties who calculate to the copper piece the relative value of all items to the point that useable items were sometimes sold or disenchanted just so the distribution could be "fair". I think that's counter productive myself, but there are some really anal retentive people in the world. I've been with groups who will dip into the party funds to buy a special item for one character, thereby greatly reducing the distribution for all other players. I've only been in one group where loot distribution became a problem, and that was pretty much entirely due to one player who was never happy no matter what the group did.
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| #9CCSNov 01, 2009 0:59:16 | The way it generally works in my groups (past & present) is this; $ (cash or gems/jewlry/misc valuable) gets divied up as evenly as possible. Funds from magic that gets sold gets divied up evenly. Magic kept is discussed & (usually) awarded to those who can best use it. The items value doesn't get "balanced" in coin. Instead it's "OK, we've got x amount of $ from various sources (divide as evenly as possible), & we've got x #of magic items (decide who gets what). Buying items; For the most part our characters purchase/craft thier own items/spells/rituals beyond whatever's been "found" out of their own funds. Even things like cure wands & such in 3.5.
Sometimes it'll happen that our adventures will yeild a greater % of items usefull to only certain classes. This happens becuase on the whole we don't ascribe to the idea of "wish lists". It's assumed that the DMs will stock the adventures with items appropriate to A) the story/area/setting, B) the foes that we find possessing the items. (Btw, we fully expect intelligent foes to make full use of the loot they hold - including enjoying any +s to hit/dam, dailies contained, etc) Every now & then, if someone hasn't gotten much magical loot & can't outright afford to buy/make it themselves, we'll undertake specific adventures seeking items usefull to them. For ex; our wizard RPs with the DM researching the location of a certain staff. Based upon his gather info etc checks, we set off to find the tomb of _____. Depending upon wether he's passed enough checks, maybe we find the item. Or maybe we set off on a wild goose chase..... Either way, more adventuring.
* All of this is also subject to characters pilfering stuff not found by the group as a whole. Afterall, (I) know that player A's character found x while alone in the other room. But my character doesn't. And vise-versa. Unlike in alot of groups, this doesn't cause any ill-will, or whatever between players. IC? "Extra" $ likely wouldn't ever be noticed. But if you just happened to pull out some "unknown" magic item? There'd probably be an IC discussion as to it's origin.... |
| #10LeovenNov 01, 2009 3:30:55 | Hey there, after skimming the edges of some of the posts here I get the feeling that the way my group usually ''shares/splits/divide'' money or any goods of any kind aqcuired in a group is quite different then most groups handle it.
Now this allso refrects in the way they divide spoils or gains. Yes, there has been violence at points but rarely does this happen and if it does it doesn't destroy the game or the mood.
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| #11greygrendelNov 01, 2009 8:56:51 |
The same here. Generally items go to whoever can get the best use of it, money/gems/art objects etc get pooled and periodically divvied up. Usually. Sometimes a character will pocket something they like when no one is looking (never turn your back on a Rogue). Sometimes a situation will come up where they'll use pooled money to buy something for one character (like armor for a fighter, ritual components for the caster), but that's all handled in character. All I do is provide the loot after they've killed the monster/circumvented the trap. After that point its all up to them and they're generally pretty fair about it. |
| #12Man_in_the_Funny_HatNov 01, 2009 9:21:49 | |
| #13jpowell612Nov 01, 2009 17:04:20 |
Some solid ideas here, thanks! |