How Do You Divide Up The Plunder?

[iwatt]

It did lead to my players getting an Amulet of Natural Armour +1 and a brand new suit of platemail, however.

Hey me too. None of the other players showed up for the game were we were going to divy up the treasure efore going to fight the Hydra. I craft my own plate mail, thank you very much, but I still got dibs on the Amulet of Natural Armor. Every point of AC counts, baby. There was a +3 ring of protection, which is better than my +2, but I can use shield of faith for that . I now have all my AC basis covered, except for DEX.

 

[Bloodsparrow]

My group also tends to give treasure to the most logical person and then divy up the rest in even shares between all members and a "party fund".

If things ever break down and it can't be worked out, then we plan on using the shares/bidding system suggested in the PHB.

 

[Clueless]

Well - my Planescape game does a need before greed thing usually. Gold and money even, and then after that the magic items people usually call 'dibs' on one item out of the list. If someone doesn't want anything out of the current list, then they get first dibs on the neatest thing the next time. It helps that in character we're all good friends - as in players have things on their eq list that are simply gifts from other party members.

The other game I'm in, Saturday, the first defined moment of how we split eq went as follows: The thief looks at the rest of the party, "Well. If we're going to work together... I'm leader. And I get first pick of the gems." No one else spoke up, much to the thief's surprise... and future wealth.

 

[Thanee]

We usually have a pool where everyone can just take what is needed and put it back, when it is no longer needed or replaced by something better. Stuff noone wants is sold. Gold is divided equally.

We do not really care for magic item costs, but we do look that noone is left behind when it comes to item distribution or anyone gets way too much loot. In general items are given to the ones that can put them to good use.

Bye
Thanee

 

[d4]

Or is the hardware usually just dispensed out to whoever can best make use of it without regard to the value of the item, the gold tossed into the communal gold pile, and the consumables spread out among the party?

that's the one. i never really thought of it as a "socialist" method, though.

In Soviet Russia, treasure divides YOU!

 

[Spiteful Dwarf]

Hey! You forgot my personal favourite method of dividing treasure...

Trial By Combat!

You want that <b><i>Helm of Brilliance</b></i>? You gotta fight me for it!

Here's where it pays to have the Diehard feat...

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

We have actually been using the PHB suggested guidelines: Price the items, let people bid on individual items -- bids starting at standard sale price (1/2 market price), everyone gets an equal share of the cash (minus the bids you have won).

It works very well when you have fairly random collections of treasure and a large group. Those PCs that don't get items now get a lot of cash which they can use to get items made to order, or it allows them the opportunity to bid high if a really cool item comes appear later.

The unnatural thing about this method is the concept of having an unambiguous 'market price' for a magic item.

 

[babomb]

Well, first the rogue and rogue/fighter secretly take at least 50% of the money (more if they can get away with it). The rogue also generally keeps any magic items he finds that he can use. Any remaining magic items are given to the people who need them the most. Healing potions and such are given to the people who have the fewest. The remaining gold is divided up evenly. The rogue and rogue/fighter are particularly adamant about getting their "fair share"; the rogue/fighter has even tried demanding that other people who take magic items pay the rest of the group for their shares of the item, despite the fact that he has more than twice the gold of the rest of the party combined. At level 8, my paladin had a +1 defending longsword, but even if he sold all of the rest of his equipment, he STILL couldn't afford plate mail. The psion has a +1 spear and maybe 15gp. Lousy thieves.

 

[madriel]

Magic items and equipment go to whoever can make the best use of them while treasure goes into a party fund. Periodically the party treasurer will tell everybody to mark 50 gp or so on their character sheets. Our current group doesn't have a problem with doing things that way, but we lost half of our original players three years ago over a loot sharing argument.

 

[fba827]

Alas, party treasure division has always been the point of disruption among our groups. They either develop as intercharacter confrontations or, worse, interplayer confrontations. Formalized structures never seem to last long because of the more "chaotically aligned" players and/or characters.

hmm... so, can't really think of one method ever used that was able to work and last for more than a couple sessions...