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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7464498" data-attributes="member: 2629">This is how I do it: When a campaign begins, I talk with players about the PCs they are creating.  One of the things I discuss with them is how they picture the PCs at higher levels.  They are not committing to a path, but I try to get a feel fro where the PC is likely to go.  I always ask a bit about the kinds of magic items they like.Then I roll up all the treasure hordes they will find from level 1 to 20 using the DMG, but with the caveat that whenever I roll up a magic item, there is a 50% chance I'll make up an item rather than using something from the books (and I give 2d4-1 scrolls or potions whenever a spell scroll or potion is found).  Rather than roll, I choose a few items from the DMG that are from the appropriate tables and place those in the hoards.  If a player has mentioned an item by name that they wish to find, I often select to add it, but within reason.  Sometimes I create a fun variation on it.  There is a lot more that goes into this process, but I'm giving the simple version here with the big steps...  It is one of my favorite things about starting a new campaign - peering into the future. Then I make index cards for every magic item generated.  They're stacked up behind my screen in the order they'll be found.  Then I hand out the items as they find them.  They 'karmaicly' appear when PCs have done cool things, or when it would be cool for a monster to have a particular treasure.  I'm always looking at the top 3 or so items to look for the best story place for them.  There are markers in the "deck" of items to indicate PC levels, so that I do not get too far ahead or behind of the level at which I think they should be found.  Knowing what items will be found soon also influences campaign design - if I know the PCs are soon to encounter a crystal ball, I think about who might have it as I design a dungeon area and how they might use it.  If the PCs purchase an item, I make a card for it (or hand them a blank card and they make it).  Also, if a PC dies and is replaces, I often tweak the "deck" to suit the new PC.When I hand the index cards over to the PCs, they keep them in envelopes and each card has a place for them to fill a few details - like where they keep the item, how many charges it has, etc...  they can put additional data on their character sheet about the items, but the envelopes stay with the DM.  I also use cards for valuable non-magical things as well - like expensive armor, artwork, jewelry, etc...  We also use small chips (many colors representing a decimal system - copper, silver, gold, platinum, mithril, adamantine, Crysteel (my own magic metal - a translucent metal as hard as adamantine)) to represent GPs.  They go in the envelopes, too. There are banks throughout my campaign worlds, so money changing for a very small fee prevents too many coins in the envelopes.  When they find lots of coins (10,000 copper), I give them a card for those coins instead of the plastic chips until they change the funds.Bags of holding and other extradimensional storage have a card and their own envelope as well.  A player holding such a bag will have the card for the item (which they put in their PC's envelope), and have the envelope for the card.I've been using (roughly) this system since the early 80s.  It works well.  No lost magic items.  No arguing about who has what item.  Organic placement of items that make sense for the story and players getting a nice blend of what they hope to find and surprises.</blockquote>

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