D&D 4E 4e's Inorganic Loot System: Yay or Nay?

[eleran]

It's not so good for my table. The other day I caught one of my players ticking off the packages the party was receiving from the back of his character book. To be sure they got them all. And it did seem to me that it was breaking suspension of disbelief a bit - mine if not the players. We don't do conventions or the RPGA so we agreed to drop the parcel system and go back to more organic treasure placement.

This cant happen in my group because no one else has a DMG so they dont know about the parcel system and also because I dont give out the treasure as parcels. I use the parcel system to make a treasure "list" for the adventure. But then I stock the treasure in such a way as to split up and combine parcels so a player who wanted to be a smartass and check off parcels as treasure is found would be hard pressed to do it with any accuracy.

Barring that, I too might have to smack that player in the head or dock him XPs for that kind of punk behavior

 

[Arbitrary]

Sending grief monsters after a player as punishment breaks the illusion just as much as checking off parcels does. It's blatantly obvious and a good deal childish.

 

[Henry]

...caught one of my players ticking off the packages the party was receiving from the back of his character book. To be sure they got them all.

I'd probably feel the same way if I found one of my players in a game breaking down all the monsters they fought to be sure I assigned experience points "properly".

 

[Runestar]

I'd probably feel the same way if I found one of my players in a game breaking down all the monsters they fought to be sure I assigned experience points "properly".

What's wrong with that? An extra pair of hands to help the DM check for mistakes and inconsistencies in his own planning never hurt. Except maybe the DM's pride when he realizes he has made a mistake and inadvertently shortchanged the PCs.

 

[Cpt_Micha]

Personally, I find the new magic item system an improvement over what we had before. I mean what kind of world hands em out like pez candy to the point they have to have their own random table? Why not you know.. pick what is necessary for the party instead? Also it gaurantees pretty much you won't have under equipped pcs running around.

Another interesting thing to note about the parcel system is they do make a note to say a "more organic and indepth feel" to simply hand out the parcels over several encounters not -every- encounter so that gradually the items filter into the party rather than happy coincidence you find the treasure on each and every single monster, or one big nasty monster.

 

[Stogoe]

Actually, I think it is more that any magic items an npc may be using is considered to already have been factored into his stats, rather than you not using them altogether. For example, if you want to give the drow fighter a +2 weapon to make him more effective in combat, simply improve his attack and damage figures by 2 instead. But you still won't get the +2 weapon after defeating him if you don't want the PCs to get it (possibly because all of them are already using +3 weapons or greater and would have no use for it).

No, I think the idea is that monsters and NPCs don't need magic weapons to be a threat. It's not that you're not allowed to pick up the drows' magic blades, it's that the drow don't need magic blades to whup you something fierce. In essence, you can't loot the monsters' years of training.

If you want them to be a bigger threat, don't give them dozens of +x blades to loot, just give them a higher attack (which is what I think you're saying). Magic items should be special, rather than "the whole regiment has +1 halberds, so that's, um, a thousand magic halberds you haul back to town."

 

[Runestar]

Magic items should be special, rather than "the whole regiment has +1 halberds, so that's, um, a thousand magic halberds you haul back to town."

This is something I don't necessarily agree with (having played in FR settings quite a bit, with its thayan enclaves making minor magic items rather accessible, I didn't feel that ready access to magic gear/services took anything away from my gaming experience), but I realize this is more an issue of opinion, so I won't press it here.

No, I think the idea is that monsters and NPCs don't need magic weapons to be a threat.

Or rather, that designers did not want them to have to be decked out from head to toe in magic gear just to be effective. Else, you get the problem of magic item glut when you kill them all and get to loot their bodies like no tomorrow. 3e classed npcs were extremely weak without access to proper gear, that much I admit.

 

[Starbuck_II]

If you want them to be a bigger threat, don't give them dozens of +x blades to loot, just give them a higher attack (which is what I think you're saying). Magic items should be special, rather than "the whole regiment has +1 halberds, so that's, um, a thousand magic halberds you haul back to town."

What if you need more parcels used/wealth? If you can't find a good way to incoporate lots of gold: multiple leathers +1's works (same cost if base it on sale value).

 

[Runestar]

Well, some players do find the concept of hauling multiple sets of +1 eq back to sell ludicrous. So the parcel system would resolve that to some extent, in that your party now just get they what they want/need, nothing more or less.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I don´t have anything to say about the treasure system (because it works), but i wanted to comment that right now a monster called "The Mountain That Walks" is scouring a destroyed Ork city with his Azer minions, trying to find something that was stolen long, long ago.