How do you handle loot?

[Ryltar]

Hi folks,

though the following has never been a real problem in any of my campaigns, it is something that keeps bugging me for some time now. I'm talking about how to handle the placement of magic (and mundane) items in a npc's / monster's possession.

Assume you've got four players: one favors the dagger, the second longswords, the third the bastard sword, the fourth short swords. Now, they come across an enemy that owns a decent-sized hoard or cache (not necessarily a dragon, an orc or giant tribe might do). You have determined in advance that two weapons inside this hoard have magical properties. What now? Do you ...

- let them find a dagger and a short sword, as to kind of "fulfill their wish" of getting magical weapons they can actually "use" to their full extent?

- let them finde a magical axe and a club, not out of spite, but because it would be typical weapons for whatever tribe owns the hoard, and in the process starting a small-scale riot within your players, because they feel they have been screwed and want their due reward?

- a mixture of both, say one weapon they can "use", and one that isn't useful to them? If you choose this option, then what are your criteria for determining which player gets a magical weapon and who doesn't?

Now, as I stated before, it's not a real problem, because in most cases you will just choose the third option and thus try to find a balance between realism and providing the players with the magical items they need. Still, I'd be interested in other people's opionion about this.

 

[Darklone]

Roll randomly with the DMG stuff and let them sell it later for 10-50% of it's worth or live with what they found.

D&D3E with it's item crafting rules make sure that works.

 

[diaglo]

let the PCs hear rumors about where they can find the items and magic they want.

if they don't follow the rumors that is their problem. they find what they find.

 

[Henry]

I have my players make a charisma check, with a bonus to the roll equal to the point cost it would take to buy that charisma score from point-buy. If they hit a 25 or greater, then the gods like them enough that the luckily find whatever type of weapon they use. Otherwise, it's a magic butter knife. It ensures that Charisma is the highest stat at the table.

Seriously, I might occasionally give them "what they need," but I'll usually put in what the owner of the treasure would use, AND I won't have it sitting in some pile or chest, either: That magic club/gyrspike/longsword/butter knife will be in the hands of their owners, getting used against the PC's!

 

[JimAde]

I generally do the same as Henry, with the exception that I will occasionally throw in a "special" that's really aimed at one PC. The special is ALWAYS used against the PCs, preferably against the one who will get the most use out of it.

One player in my group told me she wanted to pick up TWF as her next feat, so she "happened" to end up squaring off against a nasty undead warrior packing a pair of magical short swords. She almost died, but scored an excellent reward, and levelled up just in time to buy the feat and start using the swords.

 

[Thanee]

Generally pick weapons appropriate to the NPC not the PC. Of course, it is just pretty random, if it was loot for the NPC, too.

Every now and then make sure, that there is one of those specific weapons, unless they are really weird, among the loot. Weird stuff should be rare.

If you make common choices for weapons (dagger, short sword, longsword, etc), chances are better to actually find a weapon, that suits you.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

I usually grab it with both hands and then rub it all over my bod... ee

Umm, wow, that's not what this thread is about at all...

Haven't run enough sessions of my current campaign to really be worrying about it yet. Since it's a low magic world I have a choice between:
1: Giving them magic versions of exactly the weapons they've trained with, thus removing some of the surprise
2: Screwing them by sticking them with magic weapons they can't use sometimes. Which preserves the low magic feel, but makes the game less fun.
3: Give them weapons they can't use sometimes, but allowing them to somehow ditch them and get what they want. Which stinks for a number of reasons, chief among them, that it blows suspension of disbelief in the low magic setting out of the water.

 

[Stockdale]

back when I first starting running games, I used to tailor the treature to the PCs. As I gotten older, I've found that it a better game from my point of view to have random treasure when I craft my own stuff or leave the treasure as written when I use someones else's stuff. I find this mnore entertaining because it allows (maybe, forces) the PCs to make decisions (keep item, learn new feat or skill to use item, pitch it as junk, or whatever). What I find interesting is that the decisions they make frequently take me by surprise and often into another direction.

 

[maddman75]

Depends. I have a very story-oriented view of gaming. I'm not trying to simulate a real world, I'm trying to tell a story. And in a story personally the hero finding a magical sword in a monster's lair is a better story than finding a weapon he can't use, then going and selling it to buy something else. Doesn't bother me at all to place items the PCs will want and use.

Now if they use an obscure weapon, then their chances go down. But that just means I get extra plot hooks. A character with feats into some exotic weapon will jump at the chance to go and get one.

 

[kerakus]

I roll random treasure most of the time, usually allowing the PCs to see the rolls (I also let them see my combat rolls, so when the dice kill them they know it was the dice's fault). I also custom craft major NPCs with PC level gold and buy their magic items according to what they'd use. Example: 3rd level Grimlock Ranger leading a group of mundane Grimlocks. The Ranger has a Horn of Fog which is how the encounter starts...PCs hear the horn then see the fog and still have no idea what they're facing when they roll initiative. They ended up selling the horn to buy stuff more suited to them.

Q