Party Treasure: How Do You Divvy?

Kastil · Nov 6, 2003

A recent discussion came up amoungst online buddies of mine on how party treasure is divided between players. They are in a game I choose not to participate in (trying to limit myself to two games a week) and some of the other player's suggestions threw them for a loop.

For example, one suggested they use some sort of buying system. Meaning, you have to buy said item at PHB price or some such and there can be bidding 'wars' ALA E-Bay. If you can't buy it then and you're the only person the party capable of wielding it, the item is loaned to you until you pay it in full. All money found is split equally.

Okkkaaay....that said (the short and skinny of it anyways), I will now state the way every group I've ever played in divvies treasure:

As above, all money is split equally. Gems, with the exception of useful ones like pearls for the mage's Identify spell, are sold for 'cash'.

If an item is useful to any party member, it is given to said party member especially if it will enhance the party as a whole. Basically we share the wealth and don't bicker (MUCH) like children.

Same goes for any magicial items. Granted, it took some heavy convincing to tell the fighter of the group a magical bastard sword is better suited to them than the rogue of the party.

Do some of the party members have magicial items while my character doesn't? Yes. Do I care? Not really.

In my opinion, as long as the party as a whole is balanced, it shouldn't matter who has what and divvying down to every red copper is just insane. Perhaps if you were a band of mercenaries with no 'companionship-like' ties to one another, the nickel and dime system would be for you but most adventuring parties aren't like that. We all pay our dues and shed our blood for whatever task we take as a team and as a team, we all get our fair share. If not right away, it comes soon enough.

Terraism · Nov 6, 2003

I talk fast and see how much I can manage to weasel away with!

Wormwood · Nov 6, 2003

My favorite method of dividing treasure is to roll for initiative.

Losers weepers.

Crothian · Nov 6, 2003

Most of the money goes into a group fund for the party to decide to do with later. Items go to whomever needs them.

Henry · Nov 6, 2003

Money is split equally.

Magic Items usually follow the policy of Need before Greed; the person to get the unarguable best use out of an item (say, a plate-mail wearing fighter getting the ring of swimming) gets it, then it's down to personal preference and bargaining with your share of the money.

clark411 · Nov 6, 2003

Character Wealth System

Fundamental Concepts
All Items have a value equal to .5 market price.
All Cash Items have a value of 1.0 market price.
All Items bought at character creation have a value equal 0.0 market value.
All Items acquired out of encounters (say, by followers, rogue solo spelunking) equal 0.0 market value.
Save unique situations, Character Wealth never decreases. CW the history of what you've earned in adventuring, not what you have on you at any given minute. Selling 2 .5 value shields at .25 to buy a .5 value sword (at full 1.0 market price) does not lower your CW, for example.

Step 0- Sort out obvious items from non obvious items and Cash
In this step, the Paladin gets the Holy Avenger.. The Ogre hatin' ranger gets the +5 Dagger of Ogre Slaying.. the Wizard gets the Scroll of Prismatic Wall.

Step 1- Evaluate Character Wealth (CW = sum of market value)
Step 2- Lowest Wealth Character picks item.
Step 3- Re-Evaluate Character's Wealth.
Step 4- Return to Step 2 until no items remain.
Step 5- Divide Cash items (art, gems, coin) until all Characters are as close to even as possible.
Step 6- Record Character Wealth for each character at the end of the game session.

Step 7 (for Some)- Question why you put the LN Cleric with a tendency towards fairness and bookkeeping in charge.

ArielManx · Nov 6, 2003

All items, magic and mundane, are divided based on who needs/can use them most. Sometimes one character comes away with more loot than another, but it all evens out in the end. Items that no one wants are sold or donated to local folks who need them (like MW weapons to the local militia).

Coinage and gems are added together for a total value (those 100 gp pearls excluded), which is divided by the number of characters to determine everyone's share, and then everyone rolls a d20. Highest roll gets dibs on the nice gems and platinum pieces...the poor schmuck with the lowest roll is left with the silver and copper after everyone else is done picking out their share.

We've found this to be the easiest and quickest method with little arguing involved. We all hate dividing treasure - takes time away from the crux of the game - so we aim to get it done as painlessly as possible. We also deem one player (me) to keep track of the treasure so there's no, "What about that shortsword we got off the bugbear?" "No, that was a longsword!" "I thought it was a scimitar..."

Ariel

Dark Jezter · Nov 6, 2003

All money is divided equally among the party members.

Gems and art objects are sold off, and the money divided up among the party members.

When magical items are found, they are usually given to the person who can get the most use out of them, such as the party's archer getting the Quiver of Ehlonna. Magic items that are of little or no use to anybody in the group (such as a +1 Guisarme) are sold off and the money divided among the party members.

LcKedovan · Nov 6, 2003

Kastil said:
A recent discussion came up amoungst online buddies of mine on how party treasure is divided between players. They are in a game I choose not to participate in (trying to limit myself to two games a week) and some of the other player's suggestions threw them for a loop.

For example, one suggested they use some sort of buying system. Meaning, you have to buy said item at PHB price or some such and there can be bidding 'wars' ALA E-Bay. If you can't buy it then and you're the only person the party capable of wielding it, the item is loaned to you until you pay it in full. All money found is split equally.

Okkkaaay....that said (the short and skinny of it anyways), I will now state the way every group I've ever played in divvies treasure:

Oddly (?) enough we had one guy in our group early on who insisted on calculating every cent worth. Like that suggestion. So if someone got a ring then they had to pay the rest of the party. It was a bit rediculous, especially when it was something say only the mage could use. Eventually the mage said "Ok, you can have it, and pay me the difference". Since they would lose money, and the usefulness of the item, he eventually got the point that working as a team and trying to be fair about magic item distribution rather than bean counting is generally more productive.

-W.

hunter1828 · Nov 6, 2003

LcKedovan said:
Oddly (?) enough we had one guy in our group early on who insisted on calculating every cent worth. Like that suggestion. So if someone got a ring then they had to pay the rest of the party. It was a bit rediculous, especially when it was something say only the mage could use. Eventually the mage said "Ok, you can have it, and pay me the difference". Since they would lose money, and the usefulness of the item, he eventually got the point that working as a team and trying to be fair about magic item distribution rather than bean counting is generally more productive.

-W.

There was a guy in our group for a while (Ariel mentioned him in another thread here as a "magic hoarder") who frequently insisted on magic items being purchased from treasure recovered by the party ("I'll hold on to the large icy burst bastard sword, even though I can't use it because I'm too small and I'm not proficient with it...but if you want it you can pay up"...or something to that effect).

I'm the DM, and I always want the treasure divying done as quickly as possible so we can get on with the story. When he played we would sometimes need two or three hours just to divide up treasure...

He would frequently argue in favor of magic rings and amulets going to his wolf companion instead of a PC that could use it. That really infuriated some of the others.

hunter1828