This is related to Who Gets the Magic Item You Found?
Who is actually going to use it?
Another option for handing out magic items is simply, who will actually use it? This approach hands off items - especially charged or consumable items, although not always - to the person most likely to actually use it. Yes, the high-DX Thief might actually be the best person to give a grenade-type potion to, but if the Thief isn't ever going to be ready to throw it, it's not a great choice. The wizard might be the most likely to use a wand, even if giving it to another PC means you have multiple sources of magical attack. The cleric might benefit the most from an undead-turning item, but if the cleric will generally end up healing and not turning, giving it to someone else might be a better solution. Somethings this isn't template or character based, but player based - some players are more likely to hold on to items until they really need it, others to use it whever it seems like a good choice. Conversely, you might keep certain items away from certain PCs or players because they're unlikely to use it well - the guy who insists on using his new-fangled Wand of Fireballs every fight, or who tosses back rare potions just to get to use them up. This approach chooses actually basic utility over maximal utility, either chosen to avoid waste or avoid lack of use.
Finders, Keepers
Even in a cooperative game, sometimes the person who gets it is the person who finds it. Or the group that finds in. In a rotating cast of PCs game, a delve might leave out the dwarf fighter because that player is busy on game day, only to find dwarf-sized magic armor . . . and sell it, trade it, or give it to some dwarf NPC because the PC wasn't around to earn it. You may have to have some part in the finding to have any part of the keeping.
Any I missed, in this post or the previous one?
As far as I can see, just one (and it's the one I most often see in play):
ReplyDeleteNo One/Purchase Item Out Of Your Share Of The Loot
"No One" means just that, all loot is sold, everyone just commissions/buys equipment off the rack.
In the later system all loot is calculated as though it were to be sold, everyone is told what their share size is, and then if someone wants a piece of kit that is being sold, they can "buy it" using their share (plus any pocket moneys if necessary) from the group's loot total. This way everyone still gets an equal share, but if someone really wants a piece of kit, they can exercise the option* to get it.
Only time I've ever seen two PCs want the same piece of kit, we auctioned it to them, with the starting price being it's loot value. The winner of the auction ended up buying for double it's loot value, which was still less than it's commissioned price, and everyone else got a bump in their loot share for that adventure.
This method requires a bit of 'meta-coordination' from the Players... or just one very diligent bursar, who probably also acts as the party's Face/Merchant/Agent, who is doing this job IC as well as OC. (Yes, frequently that ends up being me or my buddy when we play, one of us always ends up playing the PC who is super concerned about the party equipment, loot, etc, makes investments int eh company's name, etc... and tries very much to organize "the Party" like a mercenary or Privateer org.)
* Which can get complicated or simple, it all depends on who the party is organized (formally or informally, loosely or tightly, etc), if there is "money owed" to one person or another, tenure/hierarchy within the org, etc. I've played 'ye olde murderhoboery' as well as 'highly detailed mercenary/privateer charter' games with this "loot disbursement' system and both are fun, just in different ways.
Interesting. I've never encountered that, as far as I can remember. One issue I'd see if I used that in my games is that I don't toss around a huge number of magic items, but I do hand out unique, especially powerful items. The Razor, Gram, Shieldslayer, Sigurd's Sword, and Agar's Wand to just name a few weapons. No one would be able to afford those out of their share, so I'm not sure how that would play out. Owe cash until the putative price is paid out? And how do you price unique items that don't come with a game system calculable price? "How much we'd get at the market" is just tossing the cost issue back to the GM, honestly, and if I didn't put a price on it I'd get grumpy if I had to do that later.
Delete"...if I didn't put a price on it I'd get grumpy if I had to do that later."
DeleteWhich is why I always put some sort of price on it, or if I skip those details it's because I know my system and the artifact well enough to adlib it on the fly.
Because I know if I don't have a price, and I don't understand the item or the system well enough to adlib it, the PCs //will// decide to sell it, because that's just how it goes.
It's like having a door in a dungeon without knowing what's behind it yet because you're not done drawing in the map. The PCs will beeline for that door and it'll be the only one they "just have to open".
(Above Anon post was mine as well, don't know why googs decided to do me wrong like that.)
I can and will set a price, but it won't be what people think it's worth.
DeleteAnd I don't actually set prices on items until they're being sold. You can set a floor - if it's not worth at least X, we won't sell . . . but there isn't a market of people evaluating prices and giving you a no-commitment offer. If you want to sell the Unique Thingee of Doing Stuff, you put it up for sale and you get what you get. If you want to value it for internal party treasure division reasons, you do it yourself, I don't see a need to get involved.
"I don't actually set prices on items until they're being sold."
DeleteRight, I don't set "prices" until something exists - I don't run megadungeons, so stuff doesn't necessarily exist until it does. But I have Players who make PCs with skills like Connoisseur, Merchant, and Current Events (Market Trends), specifically so they can evaluate goods in advance to get a feel if they're getting swindled, or how best to swindle themselves into making more money (when I'm running a game where that is possible of course).
So even if they aren't selling something, I often have need to tell them how much something might be worth selling in "known cities/big towns".
I have PCs with exactly the same skills, but if the price is "whatever the market will bear, and we don't know until we offer it up for auction or sale" then that's the answer they get.
DeleteMaybe I'm being unreasonable, but if I have to price everything just in case, I am less likely to put in things with powers that are hard to price. Insisting on a price, therefore, has a tendency to make me, the GM, less likely to hand out unique items with unique powers because it's too much work to price them out. And if I do, I'm likely to lowball and not highball because I put the item in because I want to see it used, not as a way to hand out cash in disguise.
Pushing to price things, even with an in-game explanation of why they should get a price, makes a lose-lose situation for PCs in this case.