D&D 5E Best way to deal with greedy players and magic items in a fun game.

[tetrasodium]

yours has a HUGE flaw though...

lets say 5 players find a +2 longsword worth 8,000gp and a ring of prot worth 2,000 gp and 4 scrolls/potions each worth 100gp and 6 gems worth 25gp each and 400gp in coins... grand total 10,950gp... divide by 5 and that is 2,190gp each... BUT one item alone is worth 8,000. So nobody gets the +2 longsword.
if you sell it for half value (4,000 gp) you just lowered EVERYONE's share from 2190gp to 1,390gp... but now that ring of prot is too much for anyone to take by 650gp (maybe someone has 650gp but if not) that means got to sell that for 1,000gp and that brings each share down to 1,190 gp.

Your way just cost the party 5,000gp of value... but MORE important the use of the fighter having the +2 long sword hitting more often for more damage (aka improving odds of every fight) and the cleric can't have the +1 AC and Saves that again would improve odds of fight

in order to make it seem fair your party is making every adventure harder on themselves

I don't know how he does it but I've done similar to what he described & what tends to happen is that players sometimes run a deficit or surplus where they get more or less gold than others because they got better/worse items one or more sessions back

 

[Blue]

Were those other methods game-able by a greedy player? Every time we've tried any other method it's ended in disaster, mostly because someone* a) looked for, b) found, and c) used some means of gaming the system.

Sorry, the idea that there are no acceptable ways to distribute magic items except by book value isn't a valid one. Regardless if it's the only one you have found.

The lack of book prices is not the root cause of greedy players.

 

[tetrasodium]

Sorry, the idea that there are no acceptable ways to distribute magic items except by book value isn't a valid one. Regardless if it's the only one you have found.

The lack of book prices is not the root cause of greedy players.

Why does "x didn't create greedy players" keep coming up to distract from how x disarms the group of options for dealing with greedy players? The lack of prices and lack of required need might not be the "root cause" of greedy players, but those kinds design choices sure do make it harder for the rest of the group to restrain their greed.

 

[niklinna]

Sorry, the idea that there are no acceptable ways to distribute magic items except by book value isn't a valid one. Regardless if it's the only one you have found.

The lack of book prices is not the root cause of greedy players.

50 DKP MINUS!!!

 

[Jack Daniel]

Every group has one of those.
They are normally called Dave.
Ours is.

Oof. I've got one of those in my regular group. Always lays first claim to every single magic item the party finds. Always tries to justify it with the old, "I was brave enough to pick it up / swing it around / put it on / say the command word and risk a curse before casting identify, so of course I should get to keep it!" And if the rest of the group "gangs up on him" and points out that he took the last five magic items for himself? He gets all "fine, whatever" sulky and stops paying attention to the game.

Rational conversation with myself and the other players has never managed to make a dent in curbing this tendency. So now I just avoid playing with him to the extent possible.

 

[Blue]

Why does "x didn't create greedy players" keep coming up to distract from how x disarms the group of options for dealing with greedy players? The lack of prices and lack of required need might not be the "root cause" of greedy players, but those kinds design choices sure do make it harder for the rest of the group to restrain their greed.

@Lanfane said that the cause of this was lack of prices. I don't accept that premise. I see that method of distributing items as one option, and a decent one, but among many useful ones. So it may be a minor contributor, but it is definitely not the cause.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Sorry, the idea that there are no acceptable ways to distribute magic items except by book value isn't a valid one.

@Lanfane said that the cause of this was lack of prices. I don't accept that premise. I see that method of distributing items as one option, and a decent one, but among many useful ones. So it may be a minor contributor, but it is definitely not the cause.

yeah, I have found that 1st best way to deal with items is to just all be fair and act like adults...talk it out.

We treat gold and items as 2 diffrent groups.... we split gold even. We then split items to 1st who can use it best and 2nd to who has the most need 3rd to who has the least items

 

[tetrasodium]

@Lanfane said that the cause of this was lack of prices. I don't accept that premise. I see that method of distributing items as one option, and a decent one, but among many useful ones. So it may be a minor contributor, but it is definitely not the cause.

I don't believe that he did in this or his other posts. In that post "this" could be the broader problem of not having good ways of dealing with treasure distribution & given how the rest of that post is about exactly that it would be an exceedingly odd reading to assume that "this" was simply "greedy players"

 

[Blue]

I don't believe that he did in this or his other posts. In that post "this" could be the broader problem of not having good ways of dealing with treasure distribution & given how the rest of that post is about exactly that it would be an exceedingly odd reading to assume that "this" was simply "greedy players"

Please go read the first sentence again. They said: "IMO this is a natural outgrowth of 5e not having magic item pricing."

That really is saying that this is caused by not having magic item pricing. And when talking about other methods they shot them down.

I've been going back and forth with them and they aren't saying I misunderstood their point which would have cleared things up - earlier in this thread I have an email where someone clarified, I apologized and agreed with them. If there was a misunderstanding between Lanfane and I on their point it had every opportunity have come up, leaving that you thinking it's a misunderstanding is the true misunderstanding.

 

[Blue]

yeah, I have found that 1st best way to deal with items is to just all be fair and act like adults...talk it out.

We treat gold and items as 2 diffrent groups.... we split gold even. We then split items to 1st who can use it best and 2nd to who has the most need 3rd to who has the least items

This is very similar to one group I'm in. Gold and things convertible to gold we split into N+1 shares - everyone gets a share, and a share to party funds for things we do together. Items go to whomever needs them most, and often whomever gets it, often giving up a lesser item if they have more than others.

Other groups have different splits, including one where the players didn't want a meta game split and want to call dibs and argue things out because that group enjoys it (and the players aren't actually greedy so it works out).