D&D General Treasure - how much, how often, and how does your group divide it

[S'mon]

Also, I specify who gets what magic items. I don't let players decide that for themselves.

How does that work?

I can see NPCs handing rewards to specific PCs. Do you actually say "The dragon hoard has X for Bob, Y for Shirley, Z for Ahmed"?

 

[Lanefan]

Also, I specify who gets what magic items. I don't let players decide that for themselves.

I'd have a rebellion on my hands if I ever tried that, and were I a player I'd quickly join said rebellion.

Treasury division, no matter what else or how else things work, is a player-side affair; preferably done in character but it doesn't have to be.

There's always one person who gets exactly what they want and another person who doesn't get anything at all. I can't abide that.

Then the person who doesn't get anything should do a little in-character advocacy - ideally with some support from the rest of the party - and make the case that s/he should get something.

Same with cash treasure. I just tell players: "You find treasure worth 200 gp each." Done.

For coins this would work. The only thing I'd worry about there would be that now you're asking each player to make a note every time, rather than just one treasurer; and you just know some players will forget...

For gems, jewelry, etc. they don't know the exact values until they get back to town and get it evaluated; with the rare exception being if someone in the party has gemsmith or jeweler as a past profession/secondary skill (and is halfway good at it) and can provide evaluations on the fly.

 

[The Green Hermit]

I run published modules, so most of the GOOD treasure is already listed. However, sometimes players come up with ideas where I have to create a hoard. At that point, I use the charts for 5E. I also sometimes create a randomized roll when players don't automatically find the good stuff, or at least not the REALLY good stuff.

Monetary loot is distributed equally to everybody that had a hand in the battle/discovery. Gems/potions/magical objects are rolled for, with the people that have previously gotten first pick dropped to the end of the line until everybody's gotten first pick once.

We do have a couple of party pieces that we have to wait for a chance to sell in order to split them up. For that, I use Xanathar's guidelines.

 

[The Green Hermit]

There's not actually any guidelines in 5e for how much to give out but the 2edmg had a great section about giving out treasure that still holds true. I tried for probably a year or two to push players towards giving treasure distribution, but the magic item budget is so low with 5e designed to assume n feats & no magic items that there is not much room for them to save for anything do I can't really blame them for not caring much if they don't do a split at the end of the session like always seemed to happen when I ran past editions/pf. Eventually I got to the point where I didn't really care & just told them that they could buy reasonable stuff with a bill to their boss if they pretty much ignored it.

I use Xanathar's guidelines as to how much magical goods to dole out. Of course, half of the stuff I prepare for, they don't actually end up finding/buying. Lol!

 

[The Green Hermit]

I have a hard limit of 1,000 gold coins that can be carried by a player at any time (regardless of strength) before they are encumbered and 5,000 total (again regardless of strength). This means they are encouraged to keep some gemstomes and art objects on them if they want to carry more wealth around. The local dwarven town has a "vaultery" which operates like a bank.

We have a bank that I got from DM's guild, where they can store just gold and gems or pay more for storing larger objects. The original had it where you could access the bank at any point through a magical bag, but I changed it so that there are local branches in most of the major towns. (I want item weight to still be an issue.) Those branches can then access the vault magically.

 

[The Green Hermit]

Another group I am in does something I absolutely abhor, and asks the players what items they want for their characters in the next session or two. Those items then ”just happen” to show up as the session’s treasure. Not a practice I am fond of at all, and don’t do as a DM. In my games, if you want a specific item, you either follow tales or rumors that should lead you to such a treasure, you might be able to acquire it through trade or purchase, or you might be able to consign a craftsman to make it (if you can supply the raw materials). It doesn’t just “randomly” appear in treasures just because you wished for it.

There are times I will ask my players what magical items they would like. This is usually when a benefactor is going to give them something, though, and I want them to have time to think about it, even though I don't tell them when or why it is going to happen.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

How does that work?

I can see NPCs handing rewards to specific PCs. Do you actually say "The dragon hoard has X for Bob, Y for Shirley, Z for Ahmed"?

Yup.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I'd have a rebellion on my hands if I ever tried that, and were I a player I'd quickly join said rebellion.

Treasury division, no matter what else or how else things work, is a player-side affair; preferably done in character but it doesn't have to be.

Then the person who doesn't get anything should do a little in-character advocacy - ideally with some support from the rest of the party - and make the case that s/he should get something.

That would be nice. But in my experience I haven't seen it. Usually there are 1 or 2 players who are very assertive in knowing what they want and claiming it. And then there are 1 or 2 players who do not know what they want and are not assertive. It's just a matter of temperament. And over time the effectiveness of assertive players' characters begin to grow...and the effectiveness of passive players' characters begin to shrink.

 

[Lanefan]

That would be nice. But in my experience I haven't seen it. Usually there are 1 or 2 players who are very assertive in knowing what they want and claiming it. And then there are 1 or 2 players who do not know what they want and are not assertive. It's just a matter of temperament. And over time the effectiveness of assertive players' characters begin to grow...and the effectiveness of passive players' characters begin to shrink.

Which might be a good reason to suggest to the non-assertive players that they a) be a bit more assertive and b) push for an equal-value division system.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Which might be a good reason to suggest to the non-assertive players that they a) be a bit more assertive and b) push for an equal-value division system.

I can't change people. I just try to do my best to maximize enjoyment for the greatest number of people. Obviously you and I seem to have different ways of achieving that.