Loot distribution and tracking

[CigarPete]

My group is starting a new campaign and discussing methods of distributing and tracking loot on an on-going basis. Anyone have systems that have worked well for you in the past and some reasoning as to why?

We are, at the moment, considering two options.

1. Tracking cash and items and their respective cash values and keeping a running tally of each character's position, positive or negative vs the party. This is similar to the 3.5 PHB suggestion, but without bidding. If two people want the same item, it will go to the one who has not recently received one, needs it most or is rolled off. The balances will be adjusted en masse if most are in one direction - i.e. if everyone has a debt of 10-15k to the party, we forgive 10k and go from there or forgive 15k and give cash to those with the smaller debt.

2. Cash found and from sold items is distributed equally. Kept items are lent to characters that need them but they are considered party loot and tracked. This is the system we used in our last campaign and it got very tedious to track after a while.

[dungeonnerd]

My group typically chooses one person to be the "stashmaster" who keeps and sells items.

We rarelyh hit the point where multiple people can use an item, and then it basically becomes "who stands to gain more".

Granted, you also have to make sure A) the player responsible is good at roleplaying and B) you give it to the LG paladin if at all possible.

Otherwise you get the ooze that embezzles... oh wait, that's me.

[White_Drake]

Am I correct in assuming that rolling a d6 and highest roller picks what they want is out?

[Mithril Leaf]

The artificer (me) typically drains items of experience for crafting reserve. Then people get an allotment of the reserve off of me. Simple tally keeps them balanced against each other.

[bobthe6th]

Or free the game of the stupid metagame capitalism that is "LOOTZ"? The rule system requires that effective characters basically take whatever they can carry, with no real consideration for morals or even sanity. Those that don't will be left behind as their oponents grow in strength. When a paliden has to start looting every goblin he kills or else be unable to play effectivly... you have a broken game mechanic.

Why not just give each character their WBL at level up? Then looting becomes a role-play choice, and not a mechanically enforced kleptomania.

The WBL just works as a "personal skill"/magic bonus, without being tied to physical objects. So a +1 long sword just means you can use a long-swords to a magical degree, and so they have a +1 enhancement bonus in your hands.

Mundane equipment can just be handed out, or you can give some flat amount of gold to buy it with.

Rewards can be character based, so you can give in game wealth to a rogue(with which they can do no mechanical things with like hoard it all), or the paliden might save some innocents.

[nedz]

It depends upon the party.

A CE party ought to distribute loot on a Might is Right basis, but that rarely happens.

[TypoNinja]

We have a pretty straight forward system, but then again we've also had essentially the same D&D group for several years, so YMMV with new groups.

We have a convention called "Party Loot" Basically we loot the loot, and unless it happens to be something somebody wants right away everything goes in Party Loot. Somebody tracks this (noting the GP value of everything as we go) usually me, since I bring a netbook to games.

If somebody yoinked a direct upgrade their old piece of gear goes back in (IE ROP +3 taken, old ROP +2 goes into loot).

Scrolls/wands tend to get handed straight to whoever can actually use them. There tends not to be a lot of caster overlap in my group, and UMD use nearly unheard of, so this usually works fairly well

Potions, one shot wondrous items, or other utility things that "might come in handy later" just kind of hang around in Party Loot, and get used if/when they come in handy.

Everything else just gets added up and sold next time we hit a sufficiently large enough town to unload in. After that its a matter of dividing the GP by the number of party members.