Managing Equipment Creep in Fantasy RP?

[Sylrae]

My players often fight against NPCs, and less often against Beasties without equipment. As a result, the quantity of equipment owned by the PCs grow rapidly.

Is there some way I can cut down on their equipment growth without having them fight beasts all the time? Last game they defeated a pirate crew, and now they have a WAR-SHIP to sell, on top of the pirate's gear.

I intend to have the 23 dwarves on their ship put forth note that they expect some of the take, particularly where they lost 1/3 of their men, but I'm still having this problem?

How do I stop the characters equipment from almost doubling every fight? Then they take what they don't want, and sell it, and have a fortune.

It seems like my level 5 party have the equipment of level 9s in Pathfinder, and all I can think to do is raise the encounters to compensate, but the creep is meaning higher and higher challenges which are way out of line with their level. It's getting rather irritating.

Should I just have them continually fight drow whose Items disintegrate in sunlight until they are of appropriate level for their gear? It seems like a dick way to deal with the problem.

Any suggestions?

 

[Celebrim]

So, they have a fortune.

This is only a problem if magic items are readily available to purchase.

If they want to amass mundane gear, strongholds, retainers and warships, it only gives you more hooks to draw them into stories.

But, as to the specific problem, do the PC's have a letter of marque? If not, what makes them think that they can sell a captured vessel without be accused of being pirates? And just exactly how do they plan on selling something as big as a warship without the tax man coming to call?

 

[darjr]

Maybe the bad guys are planning to scuttle the boat. The blades are chipped and ruined or poor quality. The other non loot equipment is rendered undesirable, either filthy or clearly marked by evil or are so fouled that others would only ever want them for raw materials.

The PC's could also find that much of what the bad guys have is severely damaged by the PC's as they defeat the bad guys.

Finally give them disincentives to collect that crap. Make the actual loot very heavy so they have to choose between mundane equipment or the good stuff. The animal ball guys had a very ingenious way to git rid of a lot of extra loot. Small caverns. Tunnels and fissures that the PC's must go through but are barely big enough for the PC's to squeeze through. Actually the tunnels get smaller and smaller so the pic's leave a trail of abandoned equipment. Then the other bad guys who are opportunistic collect it so if they ever find their way back the equipment is long gone.

Finally, crash the economy. If no one can buy the crap because they can't afford it, then maybe only the really valuable stuff is worth keeping.

 

[Asmor]

One, wealth is not equivalent to combat prowess. Make it difficult for the PCs to turn wealth into combat prowess. They can have all the money in the world, but that's not going to help if they can't find someone to sell them +x swords and healing potions.

Two, don't let the players find things which are "dense" in value. By that, I mean they're not likely to find, say, a bag of valuable gems on every bandit and red-shirt they encounter. If they kill a hundred people and get a hundred plain old short swords... Well, sure, that might be worth a fair amount of money, but they're not easy to transport and they're also not easy to sell. You could probably sell a couple here or there, but it's not like every thorp and hamlet is going to have a need for a hundred short swords.

 

[darjr]

Oh, almost forgot. Looting laws. If you get caught looting, your in trouble with the law. So the smaller amounts and sizes of more valuable things that are easier to conceal and carry are taken.

 

[Tewligan]

I hope you're not letting them sell all that equipment they snag at full book price, are you? Used weapons, armor, etc. should only get them maybe half the listed price AT BEST - more like 1/4 to maybe 1/3 listed price is closer to my taste, but you may be more generous than I am.

Do they have enough skilled crew to get both their original ship and their looted ship back to a port large enough to have a ready market to purchase it, especially considering that they've already lost a third of their crew? And remember, where there's one pirate ship, there may well be more in the area - one more attack from either pirates or a surly sea serpent (yay, alliteration!), especially if a lot of the crew are still wounded from the first wave, and they may not have enough hands to sail both ships.

Keep a tight rein on how much they claim to be able to carry when they're travelling overland. Just because they wiped out a bandit camp somewhere doesn't mean they can realistically expect to carry away a couple dozen swords, shields, suits of armor, etc. unless they have plenty of pack animals or a wagon with them.

 

[Relique du Madde]

The pirate ship could always run aground, especially if it's new crew are unfamiliar with the coastal waters they are now navigating in....

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Wanna get rid of a warship? Two words:

Kraken.

OK, that's one word. But it's a lot of tentacles. And it's certainly an exciting way of preventing a ship from getting to a port.

Seriously, you have lots of options as DM to control PC cash:

The Taxman cometh. Salvage taxes. Import duties. Transaction fees. Toll roads. Tariffs. Guild dues. Bribes. Head taxes. Military duties. Tithes. Overdue book fees. Etc....

Thieves: they steal stuff. And the good ones get away with it

No buyers. Who wants to buy another +1 sword? Or maybe people are just too poor, uninterested or afraid.

The Law. It's usually illegal to sell loot (Like that pirate ship? Remember that it was most likely stolen. From the King.). Some places may ban the sale of magic. Other places might limit how much foreigners can bring in/remove from the city. Etc. And working through black markets tends to be more expensive, and risky.

Encumbrance is king! Give out big, bulky, or heavy loot. Carpets, barrels of wine, statues, copper coins, pianos, iron ingots, crates of boots, bolts of canvas, bushels of grain. There's LOTS of valuable stuff that you can't just walk around with. (Remember: stuff is HEAVY. A gallon of water is 8lbs. A like-size chunk of rock is typically in the range of 25lbs to 50lbs. And a chunk of gold that size is about 160lbs.)

Loot is fragile. Some stuff breaks: crystal, potions, glassware, china, intricate mechanical devices, vases. Some stuff burns: scrolls, paintings, books, alchemicals, fabric. Some stuff is old and disintigrates: scrolls, tapestries. Etc...

Difficult to use/understand loot. Titles. Weird mechanical devices. Deeds. Ciphered books. Letters.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Have they thought enough to change out the flags/identifiers present on the ship?

If not, they're in good company...Theseus forgot to change the sails of a particular ship as well.

By not changing the flags, those who were once hunted by the ship may continue to (mis)identify that ship as belonging to the pirates, and attack.

Heck, there may even be a bounty on the ship, so those hunting for the ship may well be their equals or superiors.

If/when such an encounter occurs, the ensuing fight continues until the pirate ship is a mess, resources have been expended, and so forth...but ends without the attackers actually being defeated since they realize the mistake and call a cease-fire.

Of course, the damage being done- possibly to both ships- leads to a change in the campaign's direction.

 

[Sylrae]

I'm liking these ways of dealing with the second ship. If they had to pick, I imagine they would toss their old ship, since it has holes blown in it, and since the new ship has 3 cannons on either side.

Some of those are good suggestions. As for the local authorities, they ARE Pirates. They just left the biggest city when they got on their semi-legitimate sailing ship. It's run by a retired pirate.

You make a good point in not letting them turn all their gold into gear.

But I'm still having the problem of:

"You fight a bunch of Drow"
"There are enough of them that all of you just upgraded some piece of equipment you own, plus the gold for whatever you happen to be able to sell."
"You now have enough good equipment in enough good places that youre better than your CR."

If I tone Down the enemy equipment, they slaughter them. If I turn it up, they all get amazing equipment.

This is my first game with alot of NPCs as enemies.

Should I just be throwing high level NPCs at them with gear? Make the goblins be a level higher than them but with for equipment? (That's what I did with the pirates, the only ones with any decent gear were the captain and first mate: A ring of healing (holds 5 charges of cure x wounds spells), and a Vampiric Large-Creature-Sized Greatsword wielded by the Minotaur Pirate).

Is that a good way to deal with the problem?

I suppose your solution of gold <> (!=) combat gear is a decent point, it's just feeling like an arms race, and I'm trying to make sure I don't make things too easy, but at the same time, trying to make sure I dont have to start exponentially raising all of the CRs of the encounters in the adventure path I'm using..