Phat Loot!!!

[Dr_Chill]

((Made you Look!!!))

All,

I am looking for recommendations here on the various methodologies used around alliance for loot splitting, besides the obvious need before greed approach. Do people draw cards, roll dice, ffa?

Thanks!

-Ryan

 

[Polare]

Honestly I think you might be better off asking that in-game. My characters would answer differently, without question, and it's kind of an IG question

 

[Dr_Chill]

Honestly I think you might be better off asking that in-game. My characters would answer differently, without question, and it's kind of an IG question

Thanks, but I am looking for an OOG response here.

 

[jpariury]

I'm confused. Are you looking for recommendations, or just a report of what people have seen done?

 

[Wraith]

Kill things. Loot them. Split the profits with your team as agreed.

It isn't rocket surgery.

 

[Dr_Chill]

I'm confused. Are you looking for recommendations, or just a report of what people have seen done?

Good point recommendations is the wrong word. To clarify, what methods have people liked/disliked. Thanks!

 

[evi1r0n]

At the end of the event we host an OOG Kumite, Bloodsport style.

But in reality it's usually a split of equal value. People can buy out expensive items. How it will go IG for you is greatly up to the other characters. If you are in a group than an even split is much easier. Also actually knowing how much things are worth (merchant skill) IG can greatly sway things for you.

 

[Polare]

To clarify, what methods have people liked/disliked. Thanks!

I don't know that I can answer the "liked/disliked" part OOG. Some of my characters like and dislike different methods, while other characters like and dislike other methods. But it's definitely a character preference as opposed to a player one.

Some that I've seen used widely:

- Hand out items to people based on efficiency and who needs what, trying to keep a reasonable power balance among participants
- Equal shares divided by coin value, with items that cannot be split bid on and the bids placed in the pot to be split
- Randomized picks, where shares are divided in some method and handed out randomly
- Mutually agreed contests to determine who gets to pick an item first, second, etc. and round-robin until everything is gone
- Everyone agrees (explicitly or implicitly) to loot everything possible during the mission; there's no split at the end as finders-keepers rules the day
- Powerful individuals (by dint of rank or prowess) divide shares up as they see fit based on participation
- A specific "fair" individual is chosen to divvy shares out either as equally as possible or based on participation

Several of these methods are despised by most and liked by a few; others are liked by many and despised by a few. It really, really comes down to character preference in my experience.

 

[Wraith]

Personally, I really feel the game loses something important when making treasure distribution an OOG matter instead of purely an IG one. If monsters aren't dropping treasure, then there is no fun to playing a PC thief, for example. Nor is there any real encouragement to apply oneself, since you will get the same treasure for showing up and swinging a little pipe as the guy who just burned 15 gold worth of gasses to take down that big bad.

As such, it should be a simple matter. Kill an NPC. Loot it. Argue over who keeps what once in a safe place, and maybe *gasp* roleplay a bit.

 

[markusdark]

I have personally disliked the use of a "bag man" in the game - where every bit of treasure during a module is turned over to one person - or only one person is allowed to search and loot the bodies. Then, when they get back home, they take what he has and split it evenly amongst those who went. Some items are sold immediately to players (such as components for 1gp each) and that money is put into the overall total.

I witnessed one event where the big boss man died and dropped all of his loot on the ground. There were still other critters about that had to be destroyed but one enterprising individual decided to clean up the pile while no one was looking. The PLAYERS (not the characters) were extremely pissed - so much so that plot actually walked in with an NPC that was the 'shade' of the big boss man, stood in the middle of the tavern the next day, and exploded in another shower of treasure so that the players could be appeased.

Meanwhile, the person who stole it (I usually notice such things) felt like a complete heel for what they did and I had to really convince them that if it what their character would do, don't let the player griping bring them down.

 

[Dreamingfurther]

I would also say that this is a sticky area of the game that folks should be VERY careful to keep in game. When people start expecting OOG that they are going to get good treasure just because and then get upset OOG if other players play characters that don't share so readily that really just kind of ruins the fun in my opinion. Its a game, I'm sure somewhere in the definition of the word game is included a note that there is a level of competition, and I think a certain level of friendly competition is fine of treasure and can make for some engaging RP.

I am not so fond when plot arbitrarily doesn't put treasure out on all the different monsters and just "dumps it all at the end" personally because it ruins this chance for competition and character interaction. That is my main OOG feelings on the matter. Otherwise I think this is an area that is going to "learn" about as characters in game.

 

[jpariury]

I'm confused. Are you looking for recommendations, or just a report of what people have seen done?

Good point recommendations is the wrong word. To clarify, what methods have people liked/disliked. Thanks!

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, that makes much more sense as an oog question.

Treasure split, as a player, doesn't really bother me one way or another. I tend to play three types: charismatic enough to get more or less what he wants, bastardly enough to take what he wants, and innocent enough to give away anything he doesn't have an immediate need for. My mood for how any given event's distro went is more or less based on how well I got to play those aspects. For instance, if I'm playing bastardly guy, and I got to get away with kyping something, I think it was cool. If I'm playing innocent guy, and end up losing all my coin because I gave it to the thief guy just because he seemed like he needed it more than me, then I feel it went well.

As a player, I generally like to see about 75% of the loot get split evenly, and about 25% obtained by bastardly means. As such, one method I like to see is the bag-man method, where one person is in charge of collecting the loot. That tends to lend itself to my player-preferred distribution. As for how that 75% gets split, coin and production items are generally pretty easy to distribute: it gets tallied and evenly split out. Magic items, I dunno... I like it when a lowbie is given the cool item outright for having done their part or going above and beyond; I also like it when the highbies get the item in an auction and the subsequent coin gets split out.

I also like it, as a player, when big walking wads of coin and magic items known as "Adventurers" lose half their stuff. More than that, and I feel it's a bit overboard, less than that and it's shrug worthy, whether or not I'm the one who loses out. Not as a regular thing, but as a thing that happens.

 

[obcidian_bandit]

get upset OOG if other players play characters that don't share so readily that really just kind of ruins the fun in my opinion

If you're playing that kind of character, you've really got to be willing to accept the consequences of your vulture looting. I finally got tired of it, and started putting the quash on it as one of my PCs. Part 1 was easy: stop giving plot info/module hooks/etc to characters who are doing it, and don't take them along on modules. Part 2 was more substantial, but it made a serious impact. Someone known for doing it was attacked by wandering monsters in the middle of town. At this point, the local healers had all decided to charge him for healing. He bled out and resurrected with 20 people standing around him, watching. I stood over his body and shoo-ed away would be looters who felt he'd done them wrong, and when one non-local healer came up and asked me why no one had helped him, I told him that he'd (indirectly) stolen from so many people that no one else cared to, but that he was welcome to use whatever healing he felt was appropriate.

In the second case, the player took it much more IG and started shaping up. In the first case the affected player just got upset OOG that he couldn't do anything all event. That's where I think the problem really lies. If people are being told that other people keeping all the treasure is an IG problem, then the solution (module denial) is an IG one that I absolutely think should be used, and that the offending player has no business getting upset about, even if it ruins their event.

 

[obcidian_bandit]

Personally, I like "Who can use it?"
The two PCs I play usually are both pretty high level. One runs with a group at approximately the same level, and people get roughly even shares, with more things of a type that the recipient can use then might be fair, if necessary (traps to the trap rogue, scrolls to the scholar, etc). When bigger stuff comes up, it's usually "who needs/can use this" which usually breaks down by race and class, really (a third of our group is Biata and Barbarian, third is dryad, all of which have restrictions on that sort of thing), and whoever gets 'the thing' usually gets a smaller cut. When in doubt, bidding happens. This works great in a set adventuring group, but in a larger 'random folk' or 'town mod' setting, pretty much everybody except your vulture looters are going to feel like they got shafted, because more people always means less loot per person, even if it's split evenly. For those situations, I prefer to split it among the groups, and let the groups divvy it up themselves, but that assumes that everyone there is in a group. (Which usually isn't the case.)

 

[dragonfire8974]

i am really sorry i opened this can of worms. i just wanted to know out of game if we were going to be honest about loot because i just wanted to know. i don't care either way, i just don't want someone to OOG tell me that we're being honest and then not contribute anything to the loot.

the response to me was, "whatever happens in character is in character" if i summed it up correctly, and that's all the answer i needed.

i don't know if it will come to stressing out over loot, i think everyone generally doesn't care except for a couple people. i was hoping we could have a divvy up system so crystal (and to a lesser extent maria (i think that's how to spell her name)) don't have to really get so stressed out over loot. so don't you go stressing over loot ryan, cause that's totally against the point!

if you want my advice, just come in and tell everyone what to do. make up your own thing, cause that would be kind of cool. you are kind of in charge

-Adam

 

[Dr_Chill]

@dragonfire8974

Thanks! No worries here, and yes, I will be telling you what to do. :twisted:

I will be postin an in-game response in a few days, I did not want to have to recreate the wheel, and if someone had an awesome idea I wanted to hear about it.


@everyone else

Thanks for the ideas, and input, keep them coming!

-Ryan

 

[Talen]

I witnessed one event where the big boss man died and dropped all of his loot on the ground. There were still other critters about that had to be destroyed but one enterprising individual decided to clean up the pile while no one was looking. The PLAYERS (not the characters) were extremely pissed - so much so that plot actually walked in with an NPC that was the 'shade' of the big boss man, stood in the middle of the tavern the next day, and exploded in another shower of treasure so that the players could be appeased.

Meanwhile, the person who stole it (I usually notice such things) felt like a complete heel for what they did and I had to really convince them that if it what their character would do, don't let the player griping bring them down.

Which personally, I think is cheesy. If you're dumb enough to leave a pile of treasure on the ground in a town full of thieves and NOT expect someone to lift it, you didn't deserve the treasure to begin with (but the smart guy who yoinked it did.).

Reminds me of a story where a LARP newbie simply snuck around a fight with some BBEG's and proceeded to loot a treasure box that was sitting there, coming up with a town's worth of treasure in the process...and then getting castigated OOG and metagamed into IG punishments for doing so. Rogues and thieves are only appreciated when they're stealing for you, it seems.

 

[Gandian Ravenscroft]

Reminds me of a story where a LARP newbie simply snuck around a fight with some BBEG's and proceeded to loot a treasure box that was sitting there, coming up with a town's worth of treasure in the process...and then getting castigated OOG and metagamed into IG punishments for doing so. Rogues and thieves are only appreciated when they're stealing for you, it seems.

I almost did the same thing not too long ago. Everyone was fighting something and I noticed a box a little off to the side, walked over to it, picked it up, and began stealthily edging away from the fight. Unfortunately, I was hit by an NPC throwing paralyze poison, so the rest of the people found me frozen clutching a box of loot. What I did was totally in-character, but if I'd gotten away with it, I have a feeling that people would have been pretty pissed off out-of-game.

 

[markusdark]

If you're dumb enough to leave a pile of treasure on the ground in a town full of thieves

Isn't that every town though? Actually this town didn't really have thieves, just a new player who wound up feelin' bad about playin' the character to the concept.

 

[evi1r0n]

Some people just take things too seriously. It's way more fun if you wake up in the middle of the night to check for your coin purse.