How do you feel when the DM rules that you lose all of your items?

[Kashell]

Regardless of the situation, (except death), putting too much into a bag of holding, falling into the ocean and you drop all of your stuff the bottoms of the ocean, Wizard teleports all of your items to a far away land...etc...

- How do you feel when the DM rules that all of the items are lost?

- Do you think there should be some way of recovering the items?

- If the items were unable to be recovered, (and were unfairly taken) should the DM give the players similar (but not exactly the same) items?

 

[fredramsey]

That's a toughie, especially in D&D, which, good or bad, items are usually important.

My only imput is, in a campaign I played in long ago, the DM took our stuff away just temporarily during a battle, and we freaked out pretty bad.

But in an even earlier campaign, we found ourselves in an arena wearing the proverbial loincloth, and the spell casters had fun figuring out what spells they could cast without material components (one spell I cast used sand, which was on the floor of the arena).

So it depends on a lot of factors. High-level characters are usually more attached to their items; they become extensions of their characters. At lower levels, it would be easier, especially if they got better stuff at the end of the adventure

Regardless of the situation, (except death), putting too much into a bag of holding, falling into the ocean and you drop all of your stuff the bottoms of the ocean, Wizard teleports all of your items to a far away land...etc...

- How do you feel when the DM rules that all of the items are lost?

- Do you think there should be some way of recovering the items?

- If the items were unable to be recovered, (and were unfairly taken) should the DM give the players similar (but not exactly the same) items?

 

[ph34r]

Items help to determine how strong a character is in 3.0/3.5 so not having any gear severely weakens you. If I lose all my items I better be getting something back or I'd be really ticked off. Note that if I'm in a game that's not heavy on combat (I never am, but) I probably wouldn't be that worried with it.

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

One thing I'd like to clarify in the question is is the DM taking the items or are the PCs (in a fit of stupidity, which we all know we sometimes suffer from) losing them?

If its the former and he's doing it just to irk you, then I agree it isn't right.

Off-hand, that is really the only circumstance in which I have a problem with it. The options after that in which I don't have a problem with it is, as fredramsey mentioned, temporarily for a plot purpose. I see it as a nice twist to occasionally pull the PC's away from their "comfy and familiar" zone and really get them on their feet. The other way to lose those items is through foolishness, which is a PC's own fault and something I'll shed no tears over.

The only other way I can think of loosing everything is just as an accident (i.e. - the way the dice roll). Most "storyteller" DM's will, even if this happens, generally have a way to get those items back to you. Why? Because the heroes never really lose all of their items perminently unless is it part of some larger reason. The other type of DM sticks to the dice rolls and if it happens, then it happens. There is no malice on the part of the DM and he's not being mean by not coming up with some way to not give them back...he's just following the dice and the reality (in game terms) of the consequences.

At least, thats my immediate take on it.

 

[devilbat]

The players in my group absolutely loathe losing their equipment. I know that if I use that tactic, I will be facing a mutiny.

On the other hand, they are more then willing to sacrifice their items for the greater good or gain. As long as it is on their terms.

 

[The_Gneech]

Conan d20 assumes that this is going to happen to you on a regular basis, which I think is pretty cool, actually. It's expected and built into the campaign.

In D&D on the other hand, since "kill monsters and take their stuff" is such a focal point of the game, having all of said stuff get yanked away does sorta tend to make players wonder, "What's the point, then?" So it's a technique I'd use sparingly at best. Or if you're gonna steal all the players' stuff, have it be recoverable.

-The Gneech

 

[Kashell]

More on the point of 'taking items away for plot purposes' would it be good to simply give the players similar equipment(if not some items, exactly) what they had before?

 

[Greg K]

Regardless of the situation, (except death), putting too much into a bag of holding, falling into the ocean and you drop all of your stuff the bottoms of the ocean, Wizard teleports all of your items to a far away land...etc...

- How do you feel when the DM rules that all of the items are lost?

- Do you think there should be some way of recovering the items?

- If the items were unable to be recovered, (and were unfairly taken) should the DM give the players similar (but not exactly the same) items?

I had this happen happen under a different rpg system. However, I did not think it was unfair under the circumstances which it occured so despite some initial disappointment I was fine with what happened. The party had been travelling in a swamp trying to catch a black dragon. Unfortunatley, nobody knew that it could cast illusion spells. Well, it disguised part of the water to look like land and my character stepped on what looked like land and fell right in to the water where the dragon was waiting. After mauling my character badly and in pain from my character's own strike, the dragon hurled my character's body a pretty good distance across in one direction and the character's sword was dropped somewhere before the final landing spot.

Luckily, after the party drove off the dragon, the halfling found my character's body in the water. However, he needed to leave my character's backpack and armor in the water to bring the body to the surface.

After the casting of various spells, my character was brought back from near death. The first thing he and the party set out to do was reorganize, reequip, and kill the dragon. They succeeded and, subsequently my character had the dragon's hide turned into armor and his shared of the reward spent on enchanting te armor with with various properties to allow him to get back his sword and a few other items he held dear. After, a long search in the waters of the swamp, he found not only his equipment, but the underwater entrance to the dragon's lair and it's horde.

 

[Henrix]

It would depend entirely on how and why it was done. If done in a cool way that enhances the story in the long run, I don't mind. I'd still hate it, but it would be a good sort of hate!

 

[candidus_cogitens]

I think it's a great idea for the players to lose their stuff at some point, and by no means should they expect to get it all back!

The reason I like the idea is that it reinforces the sense that a character's actual abilities are of the essence. Everything else is accessory.

Besides, the nice thing is that the player's can expect to probably come into possession of some really powerful new stuff, which will give a new feel to the way they are used to playing their characters.