The requisition system was a little tricky for us. I told them their future requisitions would be based in part on the value of the gear they turned in, so that incentivised the "finding treasure" piece of it that they enjoy and kept them from leaving everything behind. I started by giving them a maximum requisition amount and then letting them turn in gear (that was still in good shape) for different gear. The problem was that it felt almost punitive to use consumables like potions. Since they couldn't be turned back in, every time you used a consumable it permanently reduced your hypothetical max requisition amount. On the other hand, if they get to reset to the same max requisition amount after each adventure, there is effectively no cost for the consumables, so the incentive would be to buy every potion and scroll and charged item and then used them all.
Now we've landed on a "count up" system for how much they have to "spend" requisitioning items instead of a "count down" from the max requisition. The RHC has a stock of items (that slowly rotate in and out). When PCs turn things in, they are added to the sore of RHC-accessible items (unless they need to be studied or returned to someone), so they generally are available to requisition as long as their value doesn't exceed what the player has available to check out. Everything they turn in or turn back gives them credit toward something else. It's ended up being more functionally like a usual campaign (where parties gather obscene amounts of wealth and gear over time), but still thematically fits with constables checking out gear (perhaps rare or expensive gear) as opposed to these cops becoming independently wealthy "adventurers." Essentially each player has a bank account with the RHC that can only be used on gear and supplies, and it goes up and down as they check things in and out. The total amount they can "spend" is the value of what they've turned in plus whatever bonus amount they got for the adventure.
They can use favors to try to locate items (or formulae and components to create items) that aren't "in stock;" this represents RHC staff checking for available items in the city or from other RHC locations and avoids the dreaded "shopping sessions" where players use entire sessions trying to figure out what they can buy with all the gp they've accumulated from the latest massive monster hoard. The power of the item to be located and chance of success are based on their prestige (how hard is the staff going to look?), and the value of the item still has to fit in their requisitional amount.
For "treasure division" players take turns choosing items from the RHC supplies. Once they have something they can keep it forever if they like (unless it is a story item that needs to be returned to a NPC, studied, or put in a museum), but once they turn it back it becomes fair game. Many items stay available, but some appear (as the party or other constables turn things in) or disappear without notice if left in the supply and not checked out.
Because of the "frictionless" economy of being able to turn things in and check things out of the storeroom without losing value in the trade, I will have to lower the top requisition amounts from what is in the adventures and to restrict what items can be found/requisitioned to keep them from becoming overpowered as they optimize their gear. The only tricky part is setting a "correct" and reasonable value for each item. I use the "
sane magical item prices" list as a jumping off point.
To manage it, I use a shared spreadsheet. Each player has a column representing the gear they have checked out and its value. It calculates so as they turn things in or check things out it shows how much they can still get. There is a second sheet that shows what the RHC has in stock at that given moment and their value. All player's handbook and normal gear is always available, so the list is just the rare or magical things. When someone checks something out, their name goes next to it and when they paste it into their column it reduces the amount they can requisition by the value of that item; when they return it to the RHC storeroom it reverses.
So far it seems to be working well. It still feels enough like our old system that the fun of finding and dividing magical treasures isn't gone, but with a thematic twist. It sounds complicated (and was to think through initially) but now it is pretty seamless and can mostly be managed by players without using time in sessions.
