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As noted, this is a player decision rather than a GM one. However, here is the system that one of my groups used to good effect in the past: Loot is pooled until the end of the night or adventure (although particularly powerful upgrades may be lent out on a temporary basis). Calculate the total sell value of the pool of items (that is, how much the players ...

The biggest difference between fantasy and sci-fi notions of value is that: ideas have value Therefore, besides the standard stuff players receive, they can also discover what amounts to IP. One of the oddest forms of IP is actually Real Estate, as it's a purely symbolic agreement that X owns area Y, even though X may not sit on Y with guns. (Note how this ...

Choose whatever looks appropriate, plus a few flavourful items for theme, from TreantMonk's Guide, and Bunko's Bargain Basement. Choose flavourful items that will prove to be macguffins for your campaign. He explores all the magic items someone would have. An 18th level wizard will have 3 categories of items. "Junk I collected," "Stuff that's applicable to ...

I notice that you didn't tag this question with a D&D tag, so I'm going to add an answer that doesn't assume D&D party dynamics. If both players want their characters to get a particular piece of loot, awesome! They have their characters in a conflict, which is what makes stories interesting. Run with it. In this case, I would turn it over to the ...

Most people don't keep piles of gold under their beds, especially when they're as wealthy as a Lvl 18 character. Furthermore, wealth doesn't need to mean gold pieces either, but can be tied up in all kinds of assets. Finally, the wizard is evil. That gives us a lot to work with. Here are a few suggestions: The money is safely tucked away in investments. ...

DMG2 has a good suggestion intended for DMs wanting to run a low-magic game that I have adopted to help my problems with the treasure parcel system. Basically, you incorporate the average bonuses all those magic items provide into the character advancement. If you start with this, you take away the problem of players NEEDING x number of magic items to be ...

This is my crazy idea for playing D&D 4: make the characters some sort of elite strike force. They've already got the powers for that. If there's this military organization that they are part of, then they can requisition items they will need. Before adventures, they can go to the quartermaster and get the magic items they've requisitioned. The items ...

Hopefully, you've got one PC acting as group leader. Assuming he's trying to be fair, all loot should be evenly divided at the end of a story arc. Of course, if you've got this, you probably wouldn't need to ask the question. As GM, you can give gold to each player while looting an area. This may lead to PCs trying to loot areas first and keep everything ...

Earthdawn explicitly includes a system where players who keep a scribe or cartographer among their characters to chronicle their journeys get a reward. My one caution to doing something like this is to make sure that there is something that everyone can do, or distribute the rewards evenly (or at least sanely cap them) so that there's no huge boost to one ...

To preface this I am a relatively new DM, (only DMing for a year and all of it 4E) so my advice may not hold the weight of experience some of these other may have. What I do for loot is hand my players about eight playing cards (any kind will do as long as they all match.) Then I have them write the items they want on them. I do the same with about double ...

The players should be able to work this out on their own, with minimal DM involvement. However, as the DM is generally held to be the moderator of the game, it may occasionally fall to them to resolve disputes. Of course, there are probably as many ways to solve this as there are DMs in the world. Probably the most commonly-agreeable method is a d20 ...

I like the idea, but it's too rich. You're basically saying a 1 HD creature is worth 75 gp equivalent value (as it's one to one to gp when used to make magic items), so it needs to give 75 gp less in cash money. Refer to the Pathfinder treasure value per encounter guidelines. Let's compare against the example they use of an EL10 encounter with an 8 HD ...

I was first introduced to this idea in the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game, which encouraged player involvement by awarding Good Stuff (a mix of character-building points and general karma) for out-of-character actions. The main ones used there were more fitting for the Amber setting - drawing character cards (Trumps) of the characters, or writing ...

I ask my players to email me anytime they think of or read something they'd like their PC to have. I keep these requests in a list. Then I tap this list often: When equipping NPCs. I especially like NPCs who strutt around wearing or brandishing stuff PCs want. One time an NPC fop used his ring of invisibility to impress girls at a feast and play tricks on ...

You can leave stuff that isn't important lying around. It's possible/likely that he'd have a few basic pieces of treasure lying around as mementos. +1 spears, swords and other exotic weapons are pretty much decoration to an 18th level wizard. The big stuff should be in a vault - something that is going to be difficult for other people who aren't of a ...

You will find all the relevant rules on pages 400-401 of the book. Here is a summary. The basic rule is that an encounter only give you a stack of gold: A lvl8 encounter gives you 3350gp of gold and jewelery, and that's it. However, the DM is encouraged to add Magic Items to the treasure. The DM thinks that the characters could benefit from ...

I had the same problem as a Technomancer: you are basically a Hacker who doesn't have to buy a good commlink or great programs (and as an Alias follower, I couldn't even spend on a Lifestyle). You have two options there: If you don't want to do drones: Buy huge guns. Buy a huge war, and don't worry about encumbrance. You can even consider "burning" one ...

If it's a one-off incident, then yeah, let them work it out on their own. If it turns into an extended conflict that's annoying the other players, tell them to drop it for now and work it out between sessions. If you're having consistent issues of this kind, you need to talk to your players -- and get them to talk to each other. Designing treasure around ...

You should NEVER give your players items they will just sell. A lot of the love for random loot comes from 3.5, where that was how you were supposed to give out loot. It's important to remember that 4e is not balanced around random loot; instead, it is balanced around the idea that every single item the party finds will be useful to them. Consider the ...

It...doesn't The random treasure rules aren't really one of 3.X's prize pieces of writing. There's no table that I'm aware of that provides advice on how to hand out loot for mixed-creature encounters, and modules (Expedition to Undermountain etc) are almost wholly useless as examples since all of their loot comes pre-done with little explanation or ...

The "Artist" and "Scribe" are quite useful the campaign, and I also agree with lisardggY's suggestions about transportation and centralized documentation to follow the game. That said, here are my additions: While the specific game escapes me (I believe it was a White Wolf book), they suggest offering XP to whomever brings snacks for the table. As a ...

Honestly, I never understood the hubbub arround player wishlists. If you have a mage, a sword fighter, and a ranger in any edition of dnd that i played, you made sure they got something they could use. All the wishlist does is inform the gm of what the player would want. When I handle the treasure parcels for my game this is what happens. 1> I decide ...

I'd probably use this for an adventure springboard. It'll buy you some time, and you can then decide later how much of the treasure is left for the players. Examples include: Theft. Have a thief (or, better yet, Thieves' Guild) waltz in and help themselves. The PCs can go and fetch the treasure back, but some or most of it may have been used up sold. You ...

How We Did It When D&D 3e came out, our gaming group decided to go to a rotation model. I was one of our regular GMs and had bought the first fistful of 3e adventures that had come out, mostly from third parties - Death in Freeport, Sunless Citadel, NeMoren's Vault, Reign of Ninshalbur (sp?) etc. We all resolved that everyone should run one as part of ...

The single most irritating task that I would like to delegate is that of scheduling the game. If you have a group that meets on a set day, you don't need this. But groups who meet whenever everybody has free time have a lot of scheduling overhead. I've known a lot of GMs who can't handle that overhead in addition to the game prep and I've seen a lot of ...

There could always be an in-game solution, where the PCs actually start fighting over it. I admit this is unlikely in a normal party, but there's always the chance that someone is playing a chaotic, or evil character, who in-game would actually fight other PCs in the party for the item in question. I'm not sure this is a good solution, as generally you want ...

Take a look at the D&D essentials changes to magic items and loot. It takes a lot of steps in the right direction. Before these changes my group had a similar problem but went it a different direction then what you suggest. We: removed the ability for a player to start with anything other than magic weapons, armors and neck and then only with a basic ...

If you read the 4e DMG 1 the Parcel system in D&D 4 is a recommendation. I.E. "If you want to fight X Monster of Y Difficulty then you will need Z gear." The modules Wizard wrote were designed with the recommended progression of monster power, character power, and attendant treasure. Somehow it this got transformed from a recommendation to "This is how ...

Since you're letting them keep the house, assume that the house's basic fixtures can't be liquidated. Use magic effects if needed to enforce this (if they start prying up the copper bannister, have an illusion of the wizard appear and warn them to stop or face dire consequences). This includes things with sentimental or plot value that can't be sold ...