If you only give them gold and jewels, that might be why. There comes a point where purchasing power is nearly infinite, and magic items become the currency instead.
Traditional loot is.. boring these days. Players seem to enjoy getting treasure that's a little more something their character needs and can use. More personal rewards based on character needs and backstory.
Example. One of my players couldn't see in the dark. First gave the party a light globe which shined light enough to see and it would follow the player around. Wasn't quite what the player was looking for based on character role play comments. So next reward was a steampunk ish pair of goggles that gave darkvision. That was the ticket! Player is now very happy.
So yeah. Gold and jewels are nice but just boring unless you have really good shops around.
I'm not keen on adding loot just because a player needs it, I think it limits their desire to find loot and makes it less true to their chosen characters. If your a human, bad luck - you don't have nightvision - you've got other advantages.
If they're not interested in finding loot I would ask myself: - are the challenges to easy? (they don't need to improve) - do they have too much gold? (then I would look into how well they work with materials they need for certain spells, change the amount of gold they find etc.) - make even more obvious hints as you already described, e.g. on the sword I would add "As it falls, the hilt seems to move on it's own, pointing the blade downwards and as it sticks in the ground you hear the blade scorching the dampened floor of the cavern. The blade seems to radiate with magic energy. Suddenly you're surprised to hear it calling your name "Amrodel, release me from solitude, put me to use!". (adjust to what fits the magic item) - a mechanic I used once to trigger them into becoming hungry for loot is that I added an NPC which was a relic hunter, he had a map and a stack of papers with rumors of ancient items containing magical power, he was reluctant to share anything with the players and I let them role-play the heck out of it until they (offcourse) managed to find some way to have a look at some of his maps and papers revealing, partly, the location of these items. They where suddenly motivated to beat the NPC to finding this loot.
I agree, if there isn't an interest in loot, then the characters don't feel challenged and therefore aren't seeking ways to increase their power. Tougher and maybe more frequent encounters would make them start looking for options to become more powerful.
Alternatively, maybe that just isn't their cup of tea in which case, its not like the game will unravel if players aren't really loot hungry, at least not until challenges become more demanding.
I kind of disagree with the comments about challenge. I think it's unlikely that players would make the mental connection from "the fights got harder" to "and now we need to investigate more when we fight things to see if they drop loot". Challenge is determined by the DM, not by the players' loot - the DM can always scale fights up or down to make them easier or harder, irrespective of player level and loot.
My last couple of sessions have included something along the following lines :
Me : the crevasse near the dead Nothic has an odd chill rising from it. You can see the bottom 20' below. It seems easy enough to clamber down.
Them: we move on.
Later on, returning to the chamber : rocks and rubble provide an easy climb down.
Them : we move on.
Eventually, crossing the bridge, "the bridge collapses, tipping you into the crevasse".
Then : do we get a dex test to hold on?
This also makes sense to me. Why on earth would characters want to clamber down a chasm, instead of crossing it to do, well, whatever they were in the dungeon to do in the first place?
Useless hassle treasure is boring. You need to sell it, find a buyer, or just deal with things that don't fit the character you envision. A lot of players have more interest in the story, and random treasure just clutters up the story to many of them. Is better to have less treasure that fits the story, finding out what the characters are going for to get there. Find out what your players want from the game and go from there. Nothing more boring than having a bunch of plans for a character and ending up with a plot the whole way through of random shit.
I kind of disagree with the comments about challenge. I think it's unlikely that players would make the mental connection from "the fights got harder" to "and now we need to investigate more when we fight things to see if they drop loot". Challenge is determined by the DM, not by the players' loot - the DM can always scale fights up or down to make them easier or harder, irrespective of player level and loot.
My last couple of sessions have included something along the following lines :
Me : the crevasse near the dead Nothic has an odd chill rising from it. You can see the bottom 20' below. It seems easy enough to clamber down.
Them: we move on.
Later on, returning to the chamber : rocks and rubble provide an easy climb down.
Them : we move on.
Eventually, crossing the bridge, "the bridge collapses, tipping you into the crevasse".
Then : do we get a dex test to hold on?
This also makes sense to me. Why on earth would characters want to clamber down a chasm, instead of crossing it to do, well, whatever they were in the dungeon to do in the first place?
Maybe it's just me, but having an odd chill come from somewhere would certainly have me curious as to why. I'd at least try to investigate from above. The other items that were mentioned earlier, I'd probably at least try to find out what it was. The wand would probably be the most likely thing I'd not worry about assuming I wasn't a spellcaster.
But then, I'm the guy that figured out what could eventually be sold for the bare minimum on skyrim and saved it and left everything less valuable. Once I had a house, that place got upgraded so I could keep everything I couldn't sell and I'd buy all of the materials that would make a reasonable profit afterward. I had so much stuff the game started glitching forcing me to abandon the game.
That said, a Relic Hunter that's following the party and who could be persuaded to buy the gear for 3/4 of what a merchant would buy it in town would be something that could incentivize me to grab the items. Perhaps an NPC who is running a scavenger hunt or something along those lines. The items could be used short term by the party if beneficial and then traded in for credit on something better.
When there are creatures immune to attacks from non magical weapons, one could easily argue that point. There's no rule in the game saying everyone must play a caster, which means some encounters are basically impossible in some scenarios without magical items.
Try being a little less vague with the hints, also. Just saying "it looks like there's an easy way to climb down in this chasm" makes me think "why would I want to climb down there? Moving on..."
Maybe try something like "there's an odd chill coming from the chasm - you peer down toward the bottom, roughly 20 feet down, and see what looks like a chest that has fallen into the chasm. The sides of the chasm look rough enough that it would be relatively simple to climb down. What are you doing?"
Since 5e is designed that magic items are completely optional, this isn't a big deal.
Which is honestly the lamest decision in all of 5e. Magic is a part of D&D!
I think its fine if there are DM's and campaigns that want to have low magic or no magic. I do however think its a problem for that to be a default assumption, and then we need additional books to come out and flesh out magic item economy instead of it being there from the beginning. I mean what then do players spend their gold and treasure on if there isn't a magic item economy? Decidedly better to assume and create rules for a magic item economy and then offer the option to leave them out, than to do the reverse as was done with 5E. Really like the system, but that is a criticism I have.
With the chasm thing, make them make perception checks to spot whatever it is that’s down there. Even if they fail, the players will suddenly be very interested in what’s down there. Then, just to keep them honest, have them make checks sometimes that lead nowhere.
As far as not wanting loot, that’s just weird. If we learn nothing else from D&D, we learn to always loot the bodies.
Maybe, and maybe they don't care. Maybe they just like following the plot and are following the narrative and want to have their hands held. So they aren't thinking that deep. They expect or desire the DM to just give them what they need. They don't think to loot the wand because they assume if it were important the DM would hold their hand and tell them so. Seems to me the issue is an expectation disconnect between the players and DM. Why are we trying to subtly deal with the problem? Just talk to the damn players.
Maybe it's just me, but having an odd chill come from somewhere would certainly have me curious as to why. I'd at least try to investigate from above.
I'd be curious, but I don't think a character I'm playing would be. After all, a chill coming from a chasm sounds pretty normal, and if they've got some quest reason to be in this dungeon, taking a detour to go down a random chasm doesn't make too much sense. The chasm sounds interesting for a metagame reason, not an in-character one.
But then, I'm the guy that figured out what could eventually be sold for the bare minimum on skyrim and saved it and left everything less valuable.
That's how I played Skyrim too, figuring out optimal value-per-weight and keeping things that had good scores.
In Skyrim, I would 100% go down a random chasm just because it's there, and since it's there that means the devs probably put something cool there. Probably wouldn't do that in D&D most of the time.
Paladin: I use detect good and evil and focus on the creature.
DM: As you concentrate on the creature, you feel a bitter wave of nausea at the evil aura that radiates from it. You do sense however that somewhere inside its gnarled frame a flicker of something else, almost as if there is something trapped...
Paladin: I think we should all go into the next room.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Our party is usually too stupid to find the items. We oftentimes ignore rooms because we are too scared to waste all our ressources before the final fight or just not look thorougly enough while in them. It's actually a bit funny how many items we missed according to our DM.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Let chaos rain... uh, reign!
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Me: You lop off the wight lord's arm and his blade of ice drops to ground.
Them: Cool! We leave!
Me: The portal closes decapitating the beast with glowing collar.
Them: Yay! We leave!
Me: The priestess readies another blast with her wand.
Them: We push her into the lava pit! Then we leave!
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
DM: Well, no legendary loot for you.
Player: Why don't we ever find cool stuff?
DM: Sigh...I don't know. Bad luck, I guess.
#OPENDND
If you only give them gold and jewels, that might be why. There comes a point where purchasing power is nearly infinite, and magic items become the currency instead.
My last couple of sessions have included something along the following lines :
Me : the crevasse near the dead Nothic has an odd chill rising from it. You can see the bottom 20' below. It seems easy enough to clamber down.
Them: we move on.
Later on, returning to the chamber : rocks and rubble provide an easy climb down.
Them : we move on.
Eventually, crossing the bridge, "the bridge collapses, tipping you into the crevasse".
Then : do we get a dex test to hold on?
Me : nope, down you fall, landing at the bottom where you see a chest in the gloom.
Actually, they didn't draw from the scabbard the sword they found in the chest .
Traditional loot is.. boring these days. Players seem to enjoy getting treasure that's a little more something their character needs and can use. More personal rewards based on character needs and backstory.
Example. One of my players couldn't see in the dark. First gave the party a light globe which shined light enough to see and it would follow the player around. Wasn't quite what the player was looking for based on character role play comments. So next reward was a steampunk ish pair of goggles that gave darkvision. That was the ticket! Player is now very happy.
So yeah. Gold and jewels are nice but just boring unless you have really good shops around.
I'm not keen on adding loot just because a player needs it, I think it limits their desire to find loot and makes it less true to their chosen characters. If your a human, bad luck - you don't have nightvision - you've got other advantages.
If they're not interested in finding loot I would ask myself:
- are the challenges to easy? (they don't need to improve)
- do they have too much gold? (then I would look into how well they work with materials they need for certain spells, change the amount of gold they find etc.)
- make even more obvious hints as you already described, e.g. on the sword I would add "As it falls, the hilt seems to move on it's own, pointing the blade downwards and as it sticks in the ground you hear the blade scorching the dampened floor of the cavern. The blade seems to radiate with magic energy. Suddenly you're surprised to hear it calling your name "Amrodel, release me from solitude, put me to use!". (adjust to what fits the magic item)
- a mechanic I used once to trigger them into becoming hungry for loot is that I added an NPC which was a relic hunter, he had a map and a stack of papers with rumors of ancient items containing magical power, he was reluctant to share anything with the players and I let them role-play the heck out of it until they (offcourse) managed to find some way to have a look at some of his maps and papers revealing, partly, the location of these items. They where suddenly motivated to beat the NPC to finding this loot.
I agree, if there isn't an interest in loot, then the characters don't feel challenged and therefore aren't seeking ways to increase their power. Tougher and maybe more frequent encounters would make them start looking for options to become more powerful.
Alternatively, maybe that just isn't their cup of tea in which case, its not like the game will unravel if players aren't really loot hungry, at least not until challenges become more demanding.
I kind of disagree with the comments about challenge. I think it's unlikely that players would make the mental connection from "the fights got harder" to "and now we need to investigate more when we fight things to see if they drop loot". Challenge is determined by the DM, not by the players' loot - the DM can always scale fights up or down to make them easier or harder, irrespective of player level and loot.
This also makes sense to me. Why on earth would characters want to clamber down a chasm, instead of crossing it to do, well, whatever they were in the dungeon to do in the first place?
Useless hassle treasure is boring. You need to sell it, find a buyer, or just deal with things that don't fit the character you envision. A lot of players have more interest in the story, and random treasure just clutters up the story to many of them. Is better to have less treasure that fits the story, finding out what the characters are going for to get there. Find out what your players want from the game and go from there. Nothing more boring than having a bunch of plans for a character and ending up with a plot the whole way through of random shit.
Maybe it's just me, but having an odd chill come from somewhere would certainly have me curious as to why. I'd at least try to investigate from above. The other items that were mentioned earlier, I'd probably at least try to find out what it was. The wand would probably be the most likely thing I'd not worry about assuming I wasn't a spellcaster.
But then, I'm the guy that figured out what could eventually be sold for the bare minimum on skyrim and saved it and left everything less valuable. Once I had a house, that place got upgraded so I could keep everything I couldn't sell and I'd buy all of the materials that would make a reasonable profit afterward. I had so much stuff the game started glitching forcing me to abandon the game.
That said, a Relic Hunter that's following the party and who could be persuaded to buy the gear for 3/4 of what a merchant would buy it in town would be something that could incentivize me to grab the items. Perhaps an NPC who is running a scavenger hunt or something along those lines. The items could be used short term by the party if beneficial and then traded in for credit on something better.
Since 5e is designed that magic items are completely optional, this isn't a big deal.
Which is honestly the lamest decision in all of 5e. Magic is a part of D&D!
When there are creatures immune to attacks from non magical weapons, one could easily argue that point. There's no rule in the game saying everyone must play a caster, which means some encounters are basically impossible in some scenarios without magical items.
Try being a little less vague with the hints, also. Just saying "it looks like there's an easy way to climb down in this chasm" makes me think "why would I want to climb down there? Moving on..."
Maybe try something like "there's an odd chill coming from the chasm - you peer down toward the bottom, roughly 20 feet down, and see what looks like a chest that has fallen into the chasm. The sides of the chasm look rough enough that it would be relatively simple to climb down. What are you doing?"
I think its fine if there are DM's and campaigns that want to have low magic or no magic. I do however think its a problem for that to be a default assumption, and then we need additional books to come out and flesh out magic item economy instead of it being there from the beginning. I mean what then do players spend their gold and treasure on if there isn't a magic item economy? Decidedly better to assume and create rules for a magic item economy and then offer the option to leave them out, than to do the reverse as was done with 5E. Really like the system, but that is a criticism I have.
With the chasm thing, make them make perception checks to spot whatever it is that’s down there. Even if they fail, the players will suddenly be very interested in what’s down there. Then, just to keep them honest, have them make checks sometimes that lead nowhere.
As far as not wanting loot, that’s just weird. If we learn nothing else from D&D, we learn to always loot the bodies.
Maybe, and maybe they don't care. Maybe they just like following the plot and are following the narrative and want to have their hands held. So they aren't thinking that deep. They expect or desire the DM to just give them what they need. They don't think to loot the wand because they assume if it were important the DM would hold their hand and tell them so. Seems to me the issue is an expectation disconnect between the players and DM. Why are we trying to subtly deal with the problem? Just talk to the damn players.
I'd be curious, but I don't think a character I'm playing would be. After all, a chill coming from a chasm sounds pretty normal, and if they've got some quest reason to be in this dungeon, taking a detour to go down a random chasm doesn't make too much sense. The chasm sounds interesting for a metagame reason, not an in-character one.
The number of times PCs don't take the bait!
Paladin: I use detect good and evil and focus on the creature.
DM: As you concentrate on the creature, you feel a bitter wave of nausea at the evil aura that radiates from it. You do sense however that somewhere inside its gnarled frame a flicker of something else, almost as if there is something trapped...
Paladin: I think we should all go into the next room.
Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Never tell me the DC.
Our party is usually too stupid to find the items. We oftentimes ignore rooms because we are too scared to waste all our ressources before the final fight or just not look thorougly enough while in them. It's actually a bit funny how many items we missed according to our DM.
Let chaos rain... uh, reign!