Dividing Treasure

[Severus Snape]

I was reading the latest post in the Annoying GM thread, and a thought occurred to me and I figured I'd ask how other people do this in their campaigns.

When you kill a bad guy, and you loot his still-steaming corpse - as well as the room he was in, finding the secret chest and cracking it open - how do you divide treasure amongst the party?

There are several ways I know to do this, and I've been involved in several campaigns that have used different ways to do this. My favorite way - and the way I always prefer to use:

• Money is split completely evenly. Any remaining cash after splitting (say, 4 characters and 3 copper pieces left) get donated to a random charity determined by the GM
• Any normal items can be kept by whoever can use them, with no option for choice picking. If they get sold, see the first bullet point above. We've actually sold items just to make it so we don't have an uneven amount.
• Art objects and valuable items are sold, no questions asked. If someone wants to buy it for the appraised amount, they have to give up that much of their monetary share.
• Any gems or jewelry that is found is also sold, no questions asked. This includes objects that can be used as spell components. If someone wants to buy one for the appraised amount, they have to give up that much of their monetary share.
• Magic Items are given to the character who would benefit the party most having the item in his possession. You wouldn't want the warrior choosing the spell book just to irk the mage, and you wouldn't want the magically enchanted mace going to the thief when the thief has zero proficiency in it.
• If there are Magic Items that would benefit the party as a whole, the GM keeps a list of those items AND who is carrying them so there is no confusion. When the time comes to use them, whoever is in the best position at that time (or needs it the most) gets to use it.
• Any Magic Items that are not usable by the party, or are not needed, can be sold. See the first bullet point on money.

That's how I prefer it to be done, and when I GM a campaign I insist that this is how it's done. I can't force the players to do this, but I let them know that this is how it should be.

So how does everyone else do this?

[St. Evil]

If your talking about me, that is the way we used to do it. Now we pretty much do as you do, except the party is mostly selfish, and you have to come up w/ whatever an equivalent value would be, and pay it back to the group. It became a problem when a lesser rune sword was acquired, and one of the party members wanted to keep it. Oh yeah no charity either. Like I said,"selfish".

[Johnathan]

The way my group usually does it is as follows:

• Monies are divided evenly amongst the group members (most of my GMs are considerate enough to make the money we use an evenly divisible...)
• All other items/objects/weapons/etc are utilized by those whom the item would be most appropriate for.

Thankfully, our groups tend to be rather level headed about loot.

[The Dark Elf]

I give my group no guidance whatsoever. I let the characters dictate what they would do and how they would do it. It frequently doesnt end up being even but most of the time they will only "loot" the really valuable stuff or the most useful.

I dont think the players have ever stolen artwork or other items that weren't for use by themselves (so magic items, weapons, armour etc.). They haven't ever played a thief character in a campaign yet though who would fence some stuff.

[Damian Magecraft]

Loot division in groups I played in depended on the group dynamic.
In one group I played in the rest pf the party needed the services of my character... so they had to draw up a contract (My highly educated thief drove a very hard bargain) so for that group my character got half of all loot. But in another group we divided the loot equitably.

[St. Evil]

In most of our games it is just left up to the group to divide up the loot. I never give my players any guidance on dividing the loot, this has lead to some division within the group. In one case this even led to two of the characters scheming against the player that always took the best loot.

Always good role playing when that happens.

[Cinos]

100% up to players, it's their loot, they can murder each other all day long if they want to.

It typically ends up getting split on need first (i.e gear to be used to best effect to the party gets dibs on it). Cash is either roughly split via quick math, or just an account sum managed by a player who tally's up expenses they collectively draw from.

[Colt47]

I just use reward cards for adventures. Shuffle the deck, let the players draw from it, and what is written on the card is what that player gets. They can trade the cards between each other before handing them back or they can just redraw and try again as a group. It takes a bit of work to translate the cards to palladium however, and the GM still has to do a lot more work setting up the rewards in a Palladium game than some of the other systems I've played.

Edit: Now that I think about it, the reward cards I made are pretty simple and I have a PDF file somewhere with them on it. If I find the file I'll see if I can upload them somewhere and give out the download so other people here can try them out. Again, these help more with local games then online games, but I'm certain an inventive person could find a way to make these work over the net.

[Dog_O_War]

I was reading the latest post in the Annoying GM thread, and a thought occurred to me and I figured I'd ask how other people do this in their campaigns.

When you kill a bad guy, and you loot his still-steaming corpse - as well as the room he was in, finding the secret chest and cracking it open - how do you divide treasure amongst the party?

My players tend to just liquidate everything into cash. Unless there is something they really wanted, in which case they call dibs on it and take it (still taking an even portion of cash as this rarely happens).

I am more than fine with this method because they are completely in agreement with this method.

[jedi078]

I leave it up to the players how to distribute loot/treasure. I have seen in some games where this leads to PvP combat.

[Cinos]

I leave it up to the players how to distribute loot/treasure. I have seen in some games where this leads to PvP combat.

I love it so much when that happens myself.

[Jorel]

I divvy up my loot based on a character damage output ratio. Those who do the most damage get the least loot. (I kid).

[Jorel]

I leave it up to the players how to distribute loot/treasure. I have seen in some games where this leads to PvP combat.

I love it so much when that happens myself.

I bet you give them 1 awesome rune item/weapon, or better yet a dope PA.
"Sorry guys, there is only one. The demons are about to bust down the door, but you guys could always fight each other for it's awesome powers first, and whoever wins will easily defeat those demons and everyone else in the party. So who's rolling initiative?"

[lather]

I was reading the latest post in the Annoying GM thread, and a thought occurred to me and I figured I'd ask how other people do this in their campaigns.

When you kill a bad guy, and you loot his still-steaming corpse - as well as the room he was in, finding the secret chest and cracking it open - how do you divide treasure amongst the party?

They roll up new characters because the undetected trap smoked them.

Otherwise I would just let them figure it out in character.

[Cinos]

I leave it up to the players how to distribute loot/treasure. I have seen in some games where this leads to PvP combat.

I love it so much when that happens myself.

I bet you give them 1 awesome rune item/weapon, or better yet a dope PA.
"Sorry guys, there is only one. The demons are about to bust down the door, but you guys could always fight each other for it's awesome powers first, and whoever wins will easily defeat those demons and everyone else in the party. So who's rolling initiative?"

It might have happened a few times. There was a time when there was a rune weapon they where trying to get, and the first to touch it, it created an instant bond with that character no matter what (They knew this), and then that person got to know it's powers. Problem is, the alter was rigged so the building would start to collapse when the weapon was taken, something they found out IN that room. It was started off with a calm discussion about who was the most likely to get use of it, and in the end, drawing straws. Well, someone passed me a note saying they where going to use Magic Net on the lucky one, and try and snatch it anyway (a two other players tried basically the same thing!), so it turned into a mad dash across the final temple room to get it. Was the first time I needed to make rules on running and who got there first

[Jorel]

I leave it up to the players how to distribute loot/treasure. I have seen in some games where this leads to PvP combat.

I love it so much when that happens myself.

I bet you give them 1 awesome rune item/weapon, or better yet a dope PA.
"Sorry guys, there is only one. The demons are about to bust down the door, but you guys could always fight each other for it's awesome powers first, and whoever wins will easily defeat those demons and everyone else in the party. So who's rolling initiative?"

It might have happened a few times. There was a time when there was a rune weapon they where trying to get, and the first to touch it, it created an instant bond with that character no matter what (They knew this), and then that person got to know it's powers. Problem is, the alter was rigged so the building would start to collapse when the weapon was taken, something they found out IN that room. It was started off with a calm discussion about who was the most likely to get use of it, and in the end, drawing straws. Well, someone passed me a note saying they where going to use Magic Net on the lucky one, and try and snatch it anyway (a two other players tried basically the same thing!), so it turned into a mad dash across the final temple room to get it. Was the first time I needed to make rules on running and who got there first

Awesome. Did one of the guys say, "Throw me the idol Indy, and I'll throw you the whip."? Oh wait, wrong adventure.

[Cinos]

Dividing loot is the players problem when I GM. When I'm playing division of the loot is dependent on whether anybody is watching when I find it.

Which reminds me, there is a long standing 'rule' among our players which is if your character can't count his own treasure cuts, they're gonna get screwed.

[Jorel]

Dividing loot is the players problem when I GM. When I'm playing division of the loot is dependent on whether anybody is watching when I find it.

Which reminds me, there is a long standing 'rule' among our players which is if your character can't count his own treasure cuts, they're gonna get screwed.

I like your style, dude.

[lather]

You need Math: Basic for something after all.