How do you reduce treasure accounting

[ZombieButch]

My players are on the Conan Budget. They find a bunch of treasure in one adventure, but by the time the next one rolls around they've spent it all on booze, food, and baubles that they've already pawned off.

 

[Lanefan]

Hi Lanefal,

I'm really wondering what your guys are doing. Is there lots of discussion and haggling regarding the treasure?

This is timely, as our crew just finished an adventure last weekend and are heading back to town....

The guy who maintains the list, has really got it all together. It wouldn't be half as efficient without him.

In our group, that'd be me, but I'm not *that* efficient.

Here's the steps we go through, with colour highlighting our current treasury as an example (we've done through step 2 so far):

1. The treasury keeper (me) totals up the coinage found and converts it to g.p. - this takes just a minute or two. Later expenses e.g. paying for spells etc. get knocked off this number. Took me about 5 minutes, but we're using a messy non-decimal coinage system.
2. The treasury keeper sorts out the list and re-writes it (or plugs it into a spreadsheet) separating magic and non-magic items - this takes 15-30 minutes depending on length of list. (can be done outside of session if situation allows) Took me maybe 15 minutes; it's a short-ish list this time.
3. We get values for the non-magic items from the DM - this takes very little time if done between sessions but can easily take 10+ minutes if done during session (sometimes there's no choice on this, if we get back to town early in the session) Won't take 10 minutes this time, and will be done before the real session begins.
4. We identify the magic items, either by guesswork, field-testing (always role-played), or getting spells thrown - depending on the treasury and what's in it, this step alone can eat up an entire session, particularly if curses get triggered and so on requiring action from the whole party. In a small treasury like our current one, it'll take maybe 30 minutes to an hour.
5. We get values for the magic items from the DM - time for this is included in step 4.
6. We determine who gets what share - sometimes a triviality, sometimes a long argument. Time taken ranges from 0 to random. In our current treasury this should take next to no time at all.
7. We claim from the list - this often takes a surprising amount of time as people are indecisive, and can grind the process to a complete halt if anyone is absent that session. A random time-consumption element here arises if someone's claim means they've upgraded a previous possession and want to sell their old item into treasury, thus adding to the list. If everyone shows up this will probably take half an hour, mostly due to loan negotiations.
8. We settle disputed claims - this is the most efficient part of the whole process, usually taking but a few minutes of people rolling dice against each other, high roll wins the claim. If there's any disputes at all, 1 minute tops.
9. We write our new loot on our character sheets and get on with the next adventure.

So, as you can see, what looks like a simple process can become anything but.

Yes, as the party increases in level, it is easier to incur debt to a specific party member (with IOU's). But in the first few struggling levels (1st to 3rd) it is easier to have a debt to the party as whole (the value of magical items are calculated at what the party can get for them "sale value", not "purchase value"). It gets sorted out pretty fast when characters gain more cash, and the magical items get more evenly spread out. And if the debt-incurring character should die, well, then the item is available to be sold anyway, repaying the debt.

Dead character wealth doesn't automatically go to the player's new character! Instead, it tends to get divvyed up amongst the surviving party again.

Yes, dead characters' wealth does get plowed back into treasury. The problem arises if someone who is owed money as part of a "debt to party" leaves the party, retires, or whatever. Things get messy at that point...

Lanefan

 

[green slime]

This is timely, as our crew just finished an adventure last weekend and are heading back to town....
In our group, that'd be me, but I'm not *that* efficient.

Here's the steps we go through, with colour highlighting our current treasury as an example (we've done through step 2 so far):

1. The treasury keeper (me) totals up the coinage found and converts it to g.p. - this takes just a minute or two. Later expenses e.g. paying for spells etc. get knocked off this number. Took me about 5 minutes, but we're using a messy non-decimal coinage system.
2. The treasury keeper sorts out the list and re-writes it (or plugs it into a spreadsheet) separating magic and non-magic items - this takes 15-30 minutes depending on length of list. (can be done outside of session if situation allows) Took me maybe 15 minutes; it's a short-ish list this time.
3. We get values for the non-magic items from the DM - this takes very little time if done between sessions but can easily take 10+ minutes if done during session (sometimes there's no choice on this, if we get back to town early in the session) Won't take 10 minutes this time, and will be done before the real session begins.
4. We identify the magic items, either by guesswork, field-testing (always role-played), or getting spells thrown - depending on the treasury and what's in it, this step alone can eat up an entire session, particularly if curses get triggered and so on requiring action from the whole party. In a small treasury like our current one, it'll take maybe 30 minutes to an hour.
5. We get values for the magic items from the DM - time for this is included in step 4.
6. We determine who gets what share - sometimes a triviality, sometimes a long argument. Time taken ranges from 0 to random. In our current treasury this should take next to no time at all.
7. We claim from the list - this often takes a surprising amount of time as people are indecisive, and can grind the process to a complete halt if anyone is absent that session. A random time-consumption element here arises if someone's claim means they've upgraded a previous possession and want to sell their old item into treasury, thus adding to the list. If everyone shows up this will probably take half an hour, mostly due to loan negotiations.
8. We settle disputed claims - this is the most efficient part of the whole process, usually taking but a few minutes of people rolling dice against each other, high roll wins the claim. If there's any disputes at all, 1 minute tops.
9. We write our new loot on our character sheets and get on with the next adventure.

So, as you can see, what looks like a simple process can become anything but.

Yes, dead characters' wealth does get plowed back into treasury. The problem arises if someone who is owed money as part of a "debt to party" leaves the party, retires, or whatever. Things get messy at that point...

Lanefan

Ah I see it. I think I'm in an incredibly fortunate position of having played with the same guys since High School (And that is back in the 80's. I suddenly feel old and grey.). We weren't so efficent back then; sessions were rocked with Alignment discussions, indecision, rules arguments, rules blunders, general confusion, and yes, lengthy treasure discussions.

These days, after two decades of grinding off each other's rough spots, we know each other pretty well. We know how to deal with Mr Indecision's waffling, and he knows we mean him no ill, but just want to move the game on. Which he does as well. We'll let him waffle a bit, it's part of his charm (and we have to make sure we've understood his point of view)

Secondly, our super-efficient treasure list keeper, doesn't need to rewrite the list. ITs pristine. Spacious. Uptodate. Coded with session and location. I'm not quite sure how he does it. I think it involves the black arts. Or just having a seperate notepad for the purpose, a very clear, precise handstyle, and double checking when in doubt, already when the treasure is picked up.

The others are pretty laid back, and never seem to get worked up about anything. Its almost if an item doesn't have their character's name and class carved into it, they'll just shrug and "Yeah, could be nice, if no one else wants it."

I think 3e's "ye olde magic shoppe" (in a good sense) together with the item creation feats has actually got something to do with it. I mean every player knows they can get pretty much whatever they feel they need for their character anyway, rather than just having to drag around that +2 silver toothpick of doom, just because it is the only magical silver weapon they've ever seen. Back in old skool 1e, you couldn't count on ever seeing a magical gauntlet at all.

 

[Sadrik]

Somebody mentioned rounding to platinum *always*

What do you guys think about rounding to the nearest 100gp *always*

Would this save time?

Also when rounding to 100gp what do I do with the 30gp regular old armor? I think I would say it is worth nothing! It would save in game time by stopping the looting of every possible item off of the corpses they cause!

Or it can be explained away by simply saying, "any loose change gets lechered away". Loose change being anything less than 100gp.