D&D General Help w/ Party Loot Tracking

[Fauchard1520]

Hey guys. I could use some help. My folders are disorganized. My record-keeping system is non-existent. My handwriting is so bad that it once cancelled game night.

So here's my question: How do you go about handling the party loot sheet? Any software recommendations, bookkeeping resources, or general advice to help a bungling quartermaster out? Scribbled notes on random bits of paper clearly aren't working for me anymore. How does your group handle it?

 

[Salthorae]

In 5e as a player? I take notes on my Fight Club app as a player for all the things the GM hands out.

As a DM/GM? I use a combination of Google Docs/Sheets/Keep (their version of notes) so that I can access the lists/game notes on the fly and I don't lose the paper scraps somewhere.

I try to spend at least 10 minutes re-capping and noting things that happened after my players have departed in my online notes so I don't forget the next week what happened.

 

[Fenris-77]

I have one player do the secretary thing and I glance at the results at the end of a session. My job is to build and run adventures, not track party finances. When encumbrance is softly tracked it's not a big deal to keep the party loot all in one pot, with items parceled out to specific players. Leave the copper, maybe take silver, and take everything else - my mantra since 1986.

 

[Lanefan]

I think I can help you here.

The system we use is this:

Whenever an item is found, whether magical or not, that's to go into party treasury for later claiming or sale, it gets a unique item number. I-as-treasurer (when I play I usually end up as treasurer) note this item number down on the party treasury sheet, along with whatever we know about it and - if relevant - who's carrying or using it.

The DM, meanwhile, has a sheet going on which is also recorded the item's number at time of finding or purchase, along with what it is and does and sometimes where or on whom it was found or purchased. (this sheet is also the DM's adventure notes and log, so it's not something that's ever going to get lost).

What this looks like in practice, partway through a campaign/adventure:

Player treasury:

157. Longsword (cl 3)*, elven runes (Lanefan)
158. 3 gems, nice
159. Wand? (cl 3)* from MU's desk (Mialee)
160. Various books and papers from MU study (Mialee)
161. Book (cl 5)*, evil? (Aloysius)

DM adventure log:

157. Longsword +2, +4 vs Dwarves, ancient Elvish runes "Shear the Beard", only Elves can use
158. 3 gems, 550 g.p. total
159. Wand: Paralysis, 45 charges, rechargeable
160. Books and papers <placeholder; if these are important there'll be notes elsewhere about them>
161. Book of Vile Deeds

Treasury isn't divided for real until we get back to town; it's considered to be party possession till then, on loan to whichever character might be actually using it at the time. The DM relies on the players to track who's carrying what; if they don't and it becomes relevant, then it's random.

When characters claim and receive items from the treasury on division the players are expected to record the item numbers on their character sheets, along with what it is. That way, if there's any question some years later about what an item is or does, the DM has half a chance of being able to look it up in the archived adventure notes.

If it's of any use, here's a link to an example of a recording sheet that would be used by the players:

Treasury Recording Form

* - where it refers to "class", that's our numeric expression of whether an item radiates as faint-weak-moderate-strong-very strong-extreme when hit with Detect Magic, on a 1-6 scale - easier to write a number than the words every time. Also, the g.p. conversion values on the form would have to be adjusted to suit each campaign's currencies.

 

[iserith]

As the DM, I don't keep track of any of that stuff. Once found, it's on the players to keep track of it.

 

[Azzy]

Yeah, in my groups, we usually elect a player to be party treasurer.

Having been party treasurer, I just used Word (though any other word processor would work).

 

[Lanefan]

As the DM, I don't keep track of any of that stuff. Once found, it's on the players to keep track of it.

A nice theory, that.

In practice, between players coming and going over the long run and few if any of them being any good at records management, it's beyond useful if the DM keeps a mirror track that at least tells what each item is and does.

 

[Lanefan]

Yeah, in my groups, we usually elect a player to be party treasurer.

Having been party treasurer, I just used Word (though any other word processor would work).

That would imply having a computer at the table, however, which I don't. It still has to be recorded on the fly somehow.

It all gets plugged into Excel come division time at the end of the adventure, between sessions.

 

[iserith]

A nice theory, that.

In practice, between players coming and going over the long run and few if any of them being any good at records management, it's beyond useful if the DM keeps a mirror track that at least tells what each item is and does.

The players have an incentive to keep up on this stuff - it affects the capabilities of their characters. It's no loss to me as DM if they don't.

Plus in D&D 5e, you know what magic items do by just taking a short rest and fidgeting with them. So there's very little of that "throw it all into a bag and we'll use it sometime in the future after we have it identified" in my experience.

 

[Lanefan]

Plus in D&D 5e, you know what magic items do by just taking a short rest and fidgeting with them.

Ah, yes.

An awful horrible ghastly mechanic with which I will never play, and upon whose inventor I bestow a thousand curses.

So there's very little of that "throw it all into a bag and we'll use it sometime in the future after we have it identified" in my experience.

Even then, you still have to get it all evaluated come division time; item numbers make this so much easier.