Treasure Distribution in Multi-Character Campaign

[KanedaX321]

I'm currently in the early stages of running a 4th ed campaign with six people. However, just three sessions in and I've never had a full group, I've already had one person drop out due to work conflicts, one person take their place, a third person only show up to one session with two last-minute cancellations, and an outsider who's willing to take his place should he decide to drop out. Add to that an out-of-town friend of one of the players coming in to play a one-shot character this weekend, and I'll have had nine different players all playing different characters, and have yet to have one consistent group.

For sanity of the group and for consistency of play and story I've decided to lay this option before the group this weekend: retool the series into a more episodic format, possibly more than one "episode" running simultaneously, with the possibility of allowing multiple characters per player should the need arise. Setting up a headquarters/base of operations situation where characters can be deployed when needed for a quest.

The DMG2 has a pretty decent writeup about players more than one character in situations like this and others. They discuss levelling up both characters equally, allowing the exp earned by one character in one session to be also be given to the other character in the other session.

However, it doesn't say anything about treasure distribution.

Has anyone here had experience running multiple character campaigns? How did you get past the danger of under- or over-equipping characters whose parcels may be split, equally or unequally, between the two characters, or between players who are there more than others? Do you double the number of parcels available per level so you're sure both sides get what they're due? Do you allow characters some sort of extra stat boost at level up? Or do you just fake it?

My fear is, for example, putting a level 10 party up against a level 10 dragon with the equivalent of level 5 gear because their other characters have the other half of the treasure that's been earned over the course of "10 levels".

 

[drothgery]

I've never actually been in the situation you describe, but here are a couple of ideas anyway.

1) Use the Inherent Bonuses system from DMG2 and Dark Sun, so you won't have to worry about PCs being behind the curve on the 'big 3' magic items (weapon/implement, armor, neck slot item).

2) Set up a campaign framework where it's reasonable that the PCs can grab new and upgraded equipment for every adventure.

 

[WalterKovacs]

I remember when 4e was first coming out that one of the 3PP's had a campaign setting that basically equated to the PCs being part of a task force that was sent out on missions. Part of that involved equipping the party with specific ammounts of magical gear before they went out, etc. If going with the HQ concept, there can be a sort of "oversight" involved that splits the gear up amongst the party.

Other ideas are to use 'non-transferable' magic items that are either so specific to a character as to be unusable to other characters (like a superior weapon only they are proficient in) or something inherent (like the boon/guildmaster training/etc that becomes 'part' of a character). And make sure you have enough of those items to have all the characters getting their share. Then, for 'shared' items, assume a normal sized party. So rituals, scrolls and components (which are used by the group basically) and stuff that more than one person can use don't need to be doubled. Now, it's a question of allowing say ... two characters to "share" say, one neck slot item. If you don't want that, having simultaneous adventures means that overloading one of the groups causes the other group to be weaker in terms of what gear they have. It might be a good idea at that point to consider the treasure to be for a larger party (but not two sets of treasure parcels). This basically means more magic items, but in terms of cash to spend on rituals and healing potions and the like, it stays even. Since they'd only have X PCs in each fight, and the XP value is given to even the characters out of the fight, they'd be consuming resources (like rituals, pots, etc) as that party size, the extra characters only need to be equippable. Even with two simultaneous adventures, the total number of encounters for either side is decreased, with the other group helping to get XP. (i.e. a group of 10, each 5 person party doing 5 encounters would level them up based on the '10 encounters to level' rule concept)

 

[S'mon]

I think it's good practice to put a lot more treasure out than the 4e norm - that way you can have hidden treasures, magic items not tailored to the PCs, 'big scores' etc. And the way 4e works IME it really doesn't matter if the PCs have x5 or even 1/5 of the expected treasure value by level, at most you're looking at +1 to hit & damage.

If you're worried about PCs not getting appropriate items, hand out lots of cash and let them buy or make stuff.

But if you're really worried about PCs being short a +1 - which is what "5th level treasure on a 10th level group" actually means - then I think inherent bonuses are the way to go.

 

[Aulirophile]

Suggestions in order of how much you trust the players:

Inherent Bonuses so the curves stay correct, no nifty/fun/off-slot magic items unless they happen to get them.

Allow the home-base to be a headquarters where all characters drop their "findings" for "evaluation" that are then contributed to an "equipment pool." Allow a "special chamber" that will do the transfer enchantment ritual for free. This will basically solve all the issues, since even though the treasure won't be optimal, they can redistribute it as needed. Make sure they talk on a forum or something before the play date to work out who is using what that week. Think James Bond and Q, only random the players find is Q.

Take the number of wealth by level from this thread.

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As if they had leveled normally (parcel number), not the creation number. Allow them to equip w/e they want inside that budget up to level+2 (i.e, give them flat gold, they buy things in that budget). Allow them to redo this every level for a given character, but they lose all items each time they return to home base. Whatever treasure you give them automatically goes to funding w/e organization home base is.

I would always pick the last choice, fwiw. This off-loads a lot of hassle from the DM, you can pick w/e you want for treasure since they aren't keeping it (ancient mysterious artifact? Hell yeah, R&D will love it when we bring this back), and it is a ton of fun for players to feel like they have a Matrix like arsenal ("Guns. Lots of them.")

 

[Obryn]

I'm on board with inherent bonuses. I'm using them for my Dark Sun game, and I plan to use them for every game from now on.

-O

 

[Badwe]

If you're willing to do the work and study, you can use the Living forgotten realms method of treasure distribution. it's a distinct departure from the way things are done in the book, but it essentially completely handles the idea that you never know who will show up. To give you the gist: there's an average amount of gold for every range of 4 levels (subdivided into high and low) that is given to each player, and a list of items that can be picked from at the end of the adventure (some only made available if certain story conditions are met). The catch is a player can only "Find" one magic item per level, so each time they have to decide if they want to take the item or not (if they choose not to, they get additional gold and healing potions).

I have a slightly less variable group, but i do have some players who show up inconsistently, and i've lost a few players over the course of this past year and a half. It's generally understood that whenever someone leaves, they take everything they had equipped with them to make up for the gear any new arrival would be wearing. Other than that, the party opts to spend the remaining treasure collectively. when they get a sufficiently large pile of gold they petition for who should get to construct the newest big shiny.

one thing to keep in mind if you do inherent bonuses is to also cut the lowest and highest level item from treasure parcels and that you still need a +X magic weapon in order to roll +Xd6 on a crit. fairly minor things, but it helps to keep that in mind.

 

[bfiggins]

I'm doing something like this in a current game. I've divided items into three groups.

1) Bonded Items. Weapon, implement, armor, neck. Players choose an item per character per slot. These items automatically level with the character (item level = character level).

2) Group Sets. We keep five 'dummy characters' equipped with magic items, except for the Bonded Items. When we get a group together to adventure, each person grabs one 'dummy character', and uses those magic items for the session.

3) Consumable Stash. We just keep a list of consumable items (and gold) owned by the party as a whole, and characters can take items from the consumable stash as desired.

As per the Inherent Item Bonuses suggested rules, I give out two magic items per level: one of level +3, one of level +4.

 

[BobTheNob]

I think everyone has said it but...USE INHERENT BONUS'S. Thank god they slipped that into the game, it simplifies treasure allocation dramatically, as you dont need to hand out hoiks of treasure just so players can "keep up"

Now, as to handing out treasure, let me tell you my experience. I was jack of trasure issues (by level 15 is was just rediculous how much we had to keep track of) and looking to change. It was at this stage we changed to inherent bonus's and the party was "captured"...tortured, kill and resurrected repitativly for 10 years, then escaped. WHEN they escaped, they had nothing but base equipment.

After that, treasure became a very infrequent occurrence, such that when they fought the final battle at level 28 vs a GOD with all sorts of nasties included (a brute of a fight), they managed without issues...and without much treasure. I have had people argue that treasure is required : ITS NOT TRUE. Treasure is not a requirement at all, and can be given out to give players interest and versatility, but there is not obligation.

As long as inherent bonus's are in place, characters operate very well with little or no treasure. So with your current group constantly swapping characters...let them. Those that stick around and play frequently will get a few items to help "round them out", those that dont wont. But none will be infeasible.

 

[the Jester]

If you tie parcel level to encounter level instead of party level, it will fix itself.

Before the Essentials stuff came out, I used to do this and roll 1d10 to see which parcel, exactly, would represent the treasure in question.

Yes, this means that you might hand out the 3rd level parcel #4 four times. Who cares? It will all average out well enough in the end.