How Does Your Party Divide Treasure?

[Ibram]

coins and gems are found in amounts easily divided by the number of players ("OK you five finish searching the orcs and come up with 50gp).

Magical items are given to those who can use them (and I only give out a handful of magical items in a campaing they are always custom made for the party).

 

[wingsandsword]

I leave it entirely up to the DM, the DM has absolutely no place dictating how players divide up their possessions and playing their characters (at worst, the few characters with restrictions or requirements may face sanctions for breaking their strictures, but they can still make the choice).

In practice, I describe to the PC's what's in the treasure they find and leave it all to them what they do with it. They always keep a big communal party treasure pool (the bookkeeping being done by one PC, and it generally presumed that they're sharing the burden, unless they have a keep or other base, in which case it's generally stored there). New items that are useful are handed off to the person who could get the most use of them (after short discussion) and obsolete items are passed down to other members (or cohorts after that) otherwise they go in the treasure pile. If somebody wants to buy something, they ask the others, and get permission before taking money to go buy something. They never bother with detailed "shares" or buying objects from the party or other complicated systems. Of course, they are friends in and out of game and deal with it in a friendly manner.

 

[Monte At Home]

how does your party divide the spoils/loot, etc.?

In my opinion, not so well. Or at least, not with any kind of equality.

But it's up to them, and for the most part they don't seem to mind. They've all gamed for so long, and been a part of enough who-gets-what arguments that they'd rather get treated unfairly than argue and get what they want.

This is bad, though, because if a PC comes along who decides to care enough to argue, they just always get what they want. Fortunately, that hasn't been an issue for a long time.

However, recently everyone totaled up their "net worth." Lots of people had far less treasure than the DMG table suggests they should have. A couple had more. At least one had far, far more. This wasn't due to greediness. It was due to the "give items to those people who can use them best" idea. But over the course of a campaign, certain types of characters are going to be able to use "best" more than others (some characters only had any decent items at all because I specifically put items into adventures for them). And the definition of "who can use them best" changes over time. Basically, the cleric ended up with the lion's share of the loot, because she could use weapons, armor, spellcasting items all well. Plus, since she was the kind of cleric that didn't mind playing a support role, she'd get anything that benefited the group as a whole or was meant to be used outside of combat. Plus, since everyone relied on her healing, they were all more than willing to pile protective items on her as well.

Now, is that really that bad? Nah. Like I said, it was their choice. It wasn't until some of them looked back over the course of the campaign that they said "hey, you know, I don't have that much stuff." I think some of them felt it was because I was a stingy DM--which might be true in part. On the other hand, one of the players that accused me of stinginess walked around with a minor artifact for most of the campaign, so I guess it's all relative.

I will point out that I really favor characters who are equipped with found items rather than bought items. You can spot a D&D character who bought all his items a mile away. They're all stat boosting items, AC or skill boosting items, magic weapons and armor, and so forth. Basically, all items that add bonuses to what that character already does best. Few such characters have an immovable rod, a bag of tricks, or a cloak of the manta ray. Which is a shame, because it's just such quirky, oddball items that give characters a lot of flavor and force players to come up with interesting tactics and solutions to problems. Thus, I often subtly make it a lot easier for PCs to just keep what they get rather than sell it and buy more straightforward items*. Maybe that makes me a mean DM. Oh well.


*Actually, in my current campaign, I've been bending over backward to avoid allowing "straightforward" bonus items in the game at all. A few have snuck in, but for the most part it adds a lot of flavor.

 

[Samothdm]

As a DM I don't get involved. They record all the stuff and distribute it amongst themselves. Then, nine times out of ten, they forget they have the stuff and never use it. I've got a 10th level sorcerer/cleric player with a deck of illusions that he's had since about 3rd level and he's used the thing maybe twice.

However, recently everyone totaled up their "net worth." Lots of people had far less treasure than the DMG table suggests they should have. A couple had more. At least one had far, far more.

We had that exact same experience within the past few weeks in my group. We've only got one real spellcaster, a multi-classed sorcerer/cleric so anything like wands and stuff all go to that player, who also tends to get most of the AC enhancing items like bracers and rings of protection and such.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

My group is pretty mature. They look at what they have and who can best use it and move on from there. Everyone wants something, obviously, but the big shiny sword is best in the hands of the fighter. The clerical scrolls are best in the hands of the cleric and so on. I don't seem to ever being an argument in recent years with my group.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Contract

Group has a contract that states each how treasure will be broke down, PC recieve a salary based on their membership (founding member, non-founding member, NPC). Treasure is put aside for group also.

 

[reanjr]

coins and gems are found in amounts easily divided by the number of players ("OK you five finish searching the orcs and come up with 50gp).

Magical items are given to those who can use them (and I only give out a handful of magical items in a campaing they are always custom made for the party).

I find this strange, but my group usually has a money collector that takes almost all the coinage (at higher levels, invariably they get the bag of holding) and pays for the party expenses (occasionally others will find bits of coinage here and there, but the big hordes go to a single person). There's usually someone else who likes gems and will take all those (usually the wizard or sorcerer, just in case a spell requires it). Weapons pretty much automatically go to whoever is currently wielding a lesser version of the weapon (if possible) or to the front-line fighter(s) (if he wants it). Armor goes pretty much to the whoever can wear it and currently has the worst AC. Bracers go to the wizard. Ability enhancing items depend on the ability, with Con items going to the person who is most feeble (often the wizard). Staffs, wands, rods go to the wizards. Others pretty much fall to whoever has been shafted by the previous distribution. I've almost never seen any argument over the stuff being taken by one person as long as it benefits the party.

 

[diaglo]

for 3.11ed for WOrkgroups:

we goto Ye Olde Majick Shoppe and sell everything at 50% of DMG.

edit: then my character blows the money on Ale and WHores.
edit2: my hat of d02 knows no limits. i have to say this is one of the things that really irks me about the new editions.

 

[Lhorgrim]

I'm gaming in a fairly new group(six game sessions together) but three of us have been gaming together for around 8 years. We have three new additions who have been gaming together for about 3 years. My old group have all been playing since the early 80's, and the "new" guys started in 2002. We have very different styles, and treasure division has become an issue.

In my old group we used to distribute based on ability to use the item, need, and party benefit. We started that in the new group and ran into a snag. I play a human wizard, and another player has a human cleric with the magic domain. I did not realize at first that he was going to want every arcane wand and staff that we recovered, but that appears to be the case. Since he can use the items, he tried to lay claim to everything arcane. In order to resolve the situation we went back to dicing for items(coins and gems are divided equally).

Now the item distribution is horribly skewed due to the whim O' the dice and very different gaming philosophies.

 

[Shallown]

We total the value of everything up and split it evenly amongst the party including a half share to the party pool and and the other half share to the cohort bodyguard.

We then use that to purchase any found items at half price which is what we expect to get if we sold it. The party buys certain items that benefit everyone such as curatives and things like dispel magic scrolls or wands of bull str that over half the party can use so those items never show up as part of the split the come off the top going to the party.

So far this has worked out well. The party fund pays for group upkeep and supplies and loans money out to characters if they are a little short and it also covers group useful items we want to buy like bags of holding and is now saving up for a portable hole.

As far as items go when we buy them for the most part my wizard crafts lots of items and the party cleric handles armor and weapons so we have a lot of custom built stuff and don't actually buy that much.

The party fund also pays for about half the scrolls and spells my wizard has. Being a wizard is expensive so if someone wants a spell that I personally don't need the party or they have to pay for it. For example. My character doesn't have much use for teleport so the party bought that spell for his book. They also paid for the scrolls of teleport he carries. on the other hand the scrolls of fire ball benefit the party but it is my job as wizard to provide that firepower so I pay for them. Its a balance. There is that which contributes to the party but is a party members responsibility and that which in general helps everyone that doesn't fall under a single character's domain.

So far this has worked out well.

In the campaign I ran before we did the split according to who could use what best but after a while it came out very uneven due to the type of things they ran into. So every 4-5 levels they totaled everyones items and redestributed the wealth as best they could. Usually waiting for a particularly large haul that allowed the accounts to balance. This worked out well since the characters were very unified and didn't use this as a means to be greedy. Often one character had more but no one cared enough to worry about it.

Later