New GM working my first group through Lost Mines. The players have just begun discovering their first magic items which is really exciting. The only issue is that it's a single player whose bold "I'm the hero of this outfit, role playing" style (which admittedly fits with the character itself) who is snapping up all the items. She does not seem to actually intend to use them, but just hang onto them, unidentified because (who needs magic anyway?). I can see how this will be detrimental to the whole party down the road but cant think of how to manage this. So far the other players dont seem to know how or even that they can advocate for themselves and their needs and I'm not sure what I can do as a gm to mitigate.
Tell them out of character. There’s magic item here that will help you going forward. You really shy figure out who will make best use of them and distribute accordingly. They’re new to the game, it’s important to teach the unwritten rules along with the PHB rules.
Thank you, yes. Though I did say in-game that the items seemed to be magical but their properties could not be fully accessed until one of the arcane casters spent some time identifying them, I probably do need to be more specific - out of the game as you suggested - that the best practice for the good of the party is to have them identified ASAP so decisions can be made on how best to distribute and utilize them. We covered item and treasure sharing at session zero, but not this, and frankly this individual may need a reminder about the treasure sharing that was agreed upon at session zero.
It just threw me a bit. I didn't anticipate someone being quite so adamant that they did NOT want a potentially magical item identified. It was weird.
On another note but similar vein. As I mentioned, this could be seen as a role-playing choice - the character in question is kind of a spoiled brat noble playing at being a hero, having stolen the identity of a young household servant who actually WAS an altruistic hero. (They were killed by a bandit, and this guy...coming upon the scene, held back until the bad guy left, then stole the kid's cloak and name and shuffled off to parts unknown to be the new and improved 'hero'. That said, where and how do you draw the line when role-playing character traits have the potential to make things less great for the rest of the party? In backchannels outside of the game, I'm trying to encourage other players to push back on him in game, but they seem reluctant to do so. In this last session, the individual basically entered each room saying, "I'll look here, I'll look there," and just took everything they found for themselves - again, totally in character for this guy - but the rest of the party just let them. That can't be good long-term for the game or players.
Tell the player, out of character, to stop being greedy and share treasure with the other players. Taking all the magic items found is not a character problem, it is a player problem.
"The only issue is that it's a single player whose bold "I'm the hero of this outfit, role playing" style (which admittedly fits with the character itself) who is snapping up all the items."
"I'm the hero of this outfit" would not justify taking all the loot for themselves either in a fantasy world or in a real world. This is especially true if the character isn't even using the stuff found but is just hoarding it.
This is a group of adventurers, out to earn their fame and fortune, protect their patron, maybe the town of Phandalin - completely in character, the other characters should insist on equal shares of treasure found despite this particular character's ego. If the other character refuses then the rest of the party wouldn't adventure with them. Would a character be willing to go out adventuring, risking your life, just so one of the others in the party can take everything of value? No.
In a good party, the rest of the characters would tell the selfish one to either share or go find their own path since they obviously are not a good fit for adventuring together. In a neutral party, the characters might talk with the other character and if they still refused to share then they'd might beat them up and dump them at the side of the road while taking the stuff they refused to share. In an evil party, the characters would notice the behavior of this character, realize that it isn't in their best interest, then possibly kill the character and take all their stuff since they clearly can't trust them to divide treasure fairly.
The common theme is that in every party, one character is never allowed to hoard all the treasure found since it isn't fair to the other characters.
However, in a cooperative role playing game, the other players usually figure they are supposed to get along with this other character and so accept behaviors that their characters really never would accept because they don't want to the situation turn into a character vs character conflict. This just tends to fester and create unhappy players BECAUSE one of the players is making inherently player vs player or character vs character decisions and using the excuse "That is what my character would do".
It is up to the DM to step in and discuss with the players whether they want to have a PVP game, where if one character decides to take all the stuff, is it ok for the other characters to kill or otherwise deal with that character for being greedy and treating their characters unfairly. If that is NOT what the players want, then the DM needs to help the players set table rules around the fair distribution of magic items and treasure for the characters since this will help prevent player conflicts later.
Thank you, yes. Though I did say in-game that the items seemed to be magical but their properties could not be fully accessed until one of the arcane casters spent some time identifying them, I probably do need to be more specific - out of the game as you suggested - that the best practice for the good of the party is to have them identified ASAP so decisions can be made on how best to distribute and utilize them. We covered item and treasure sharing at session zero, but not this, and frankly this individual may need a reminder about the treasure sharing that was agreed upon at session zero.
It just threw me a bit. I didn't anticipate someone being quite so adamant that they did NOT want a potentially magical item identified. It was weird.
On another note but similar vein. As I mentioned, this could be seen as a role-playing choice - the character in question is kind of a spoiled brat noble playing at being a hero, having stolen the identity of a young household servant who actually WAS an altruistic hero. (They were killed by a bandit, and this guy...coming upon the scene, held back until the bad guy left, then stole the kid's cloak and name and shuffled off to parts unknown to be the new and improved 'hero'. That said, where and how do you draw the line when role-playing character traits have the potential to make things less great for the rest of the party? In backchannels outside of the game, I'm trying to encourage other players to push back on him in game, but they seem reluctant to do so. In this last session, the individual basically entered each room saying, "I'll look here, I'll look there," and just took everything they found for themselves - again, totally in character for this guy - but the rest of the party just let them. That can't be good long-term for the game or players.
Being committed to the roleplaying is great and to be rewarded...up until the point that it negatively impacts the other layers experience. If the other players are on board and fine with that degree of roleplaying and are participating in it, thats great, probably don't need to do anything, but if thats not the case, or might not be the case you need to have a conversation with the player about where the line is of them roleplaying crosses to detract the other players play experience. Ideally this conversation would take place during Session Zero, particularly when you have a character specifically intended to be in or potentially be in conflict with the others, with the whole party part of the discussion on how the group wants to play, where the line is that the roleplaying stops being fun, etc. In my current game I have a player playing a character who is basically a misanthropic ******* working with the party out of neccesity. We had a discussion as a group of what kind of dynamics the group wants or is ok with, would someone being basically a grumpy ******* all the time , not neccesarily playing nice with the team, be a problem for anyone and we set boundaries on how far it is ok to go with causing conflict in the party. Since you have already commenced, you are basically going to need to have a frank conversation with the player outside a session and express your concerns and that if he is going to play that way, that commited, he needs to talk to the rest of the party out of character and ask them if they are ok with it. I think your concerns about the long term viability of the group if its not addressed are spot on so better to do it sooner rather than later
Also, just FYI, by RAW, any character can identity any item by studying it during a short rest. If you have a house rule about arcane casters, that’s cool, obviously. Just if you open up identifying the items, maybe other players will better understand why they might want them for their characters.
Thank you everyone for the advice. It's been very helpful. We'll plan to have a frank discussion about these issues before our next session. I will keep trying the house rule of arcane skills required for identifying items, I'm hoping it helps engage them all with the casters in the group. I think I will also try, after describing rooms and objects within, asking each person to tell me what they wish to examine, to make sure everyone gets a chance. Overall everyone seems to be enjoying things; the group brand new to dnd (I played as a kid), and is mostly family with the one individual being a friend of our daughter's (all adults), that's the over-exuberant individual.
Another thing you might consider is changing how you allow the loot to be discovered. As the DM, you control the world the players interact with. If the problem player keeps finding the magic items and won't share, you can adjust the narrative so that only certain party members get the opportunity to make the discoveries in the first place.
"Warlock, as you're lagging behind your friends in the cave, something shiny catches your eye from the grotto to the left. In their focus on stealth, they seem to have missed it."
"A grimy orphan runs into the tavern and bumps into you, rogue. You feel something heavy go into your pocket."
"A priest from the local temple knocks on your door late at night, wizard and cleric, just before you go to bed. He says he heard about your plans and had something from his adventuring days that might help you succeed."
How is this "hero" always being the first one into each room?
If there are several rooms, aren't some of the other PCs able to enter one of the other rooms while the "hero" is searching a room?
I agree that the argument "It's what my character would do" basically means that the player has come up with a selfish personality for their character which doesn't fit with your session 0 agreement.
In this last session, the individual basically entered each room saying, "I'll look here, I'll look there," and just took everything they found for themselves
Searching a room takes time. Maybe 10 minutes for a simple room, maybe an hour for something like an arcane library or noble's junk room curio museum.
GM: OK, <Character> is searching the room, what are the rest of you doing? Player: What do I find? GM: Hold your horses there, you'll get the results once you have finished searching, right now we are finding out what the other characters are doing for the next 10 minutes.
If someone else declares they are also searching then now there are two characters for you to give loot to. Even if the other characters just stand around doing nothing, they are still watching the first character, so they will see everything they find.
The key is, don't resolve the first person's action until its over.
So this is another struggle with this group of 100% dnd newbies. Lack of curious engagement with the world. Most all of these are people who play or have played some form of crpgs and it seems sometimes that they are just waiting for me to hand them the world and the story rather than having to engage and look for/create the story itself.
To accommodate the newbie syndrome I try to give them little goals to work on in the days prior to a session. They've included; choose an unused ability and look for an opportunity to use it; think of one thing youd like to find out about a party member's background and how youd ask them; and the big one, be curious about everything and everyone.
I'm hoping these things become habits but the curiosity isn't catching on. This last session the rest were like "nah, he can search, I'm staying here." Now that said, the session before one member acted rashly and barged into a room that set in motion a series of events that nearly went badly for them all. They may have been gun-shy as a result.
Still...this post has resulted in some REALLY great advice. I'm so happy I asked the question!
I might be late to the thread here, but I think what this player is doing is both awesome and terrible at the same time. Having a character who eschews magic enough to refuse identifying obvious helpful items is an awesome commitment to roleplay over metagaming. As long as the player is aware that what they're doing makes things harder (sounds like they are), I'd highly encourage that type of anti-metagaming behavior.
On the other hand if one player is scooping up all the treasure and not sharing with the party then that's completely unacceptable and needs a Session Zero type solution or maybe just DM intervention if the other players are too new to know what's going on.
So this is another struggle with this group of 100% dnd newbies. Lack of curious engagement with the world. Most all of these are people who play or have played some form of crpgs and it seems sometimes that they are just waiting for me to hand them the world and the story rather than having to engage and look for/create the story itself.
They need to be encouraged to EXPLORE.
Explore includes roaming through dungeons and the countryside, as well as the smaller exploration of looking for treasure and secret doors.
Keep a turn order going. This doesn't have to be an initiative order, you can simple go counter clockwise around the table. When one player commits to an action you allow then turn to the next player and ask what they would like to do. Put the players in a position to be active in the game. They can learn that Player A can search the room, but Player B can loot the bodies of fallen foe, and Player C can scout ahead 20 yards, etc
Also, limit the ability rolls to single instances for the party. Ask the group "Who has the highest Investigation? Perception? etc." Now if the same person searching and has a mediocre investigation, and they fail, well the party finds nothing. Meanwhile if you have a player with proficiency and passive values, then let look and be successful. This will teach the party to rely on each other more. And learn what the player characters are good at so you can implement ability checks into the game to get them invested.
When the party finds an item, in your description feel free to emphasize which party member(s) might be more interested in it. A metal ring looking like a shield would compliment attire that is more casual or dressed; not something that can be easily worn with adventurer gloves or armor. This dark cloak is not large enough to conceal the reflecting light of polished armor, but enough to cover and lay more shadows over someone in studded leather. This ax looks sharp and well crafted, but is also battle worn as if it has seen many days leading a charge. Over time, they may figure it out on their own but feel free to over suggestions. Out of session remind them they can always swap and attune to different items. But this will help remind the party that one person should not be collecting and that there should be a process to distribute to the team.
Finally, remind the party (and this one member) that the strength of the party is the most important element to success. Items with such benefits need to be dispersed and be dispersed to party members who can benefit. The Rouge shouldn't get +2 scale mail, rewarding the Wizard with magical maul is not helpful, and the hat of disguise might be put to better use by someone other than the Fighter. Not to say these scenarios can't work; but the point is the party should discuss the best assignment of items. There is some room for negotiating and in fighting: the melee fighters should argue over who gets the magical greatsword. That is fine. However, the party needs to realize that when they find something one of the first things they should do is identify who in the party can put it to the best use. Try to push that conversation when something is discovered.
Concerning the first issue, the items getting snatched up by one character... I would suggest that the GM stay out of it and let the characters handle it. You mentioned that this was the player roleplaying their character, so let the other players roleplay their characters. By stepping in, you may seem like you're trying to tell the players how they should play their characters. It may be possible that the "hero" character made a compelling argument as to why this is going on and the other characters bought it...
how great would it be if the "greedy" player tripped a lonely snare trap. hanging by their ankle, their overburdened knapsack spills it's guts across the floor. the DM takes a moment to note that some of the items are magically strong and show no wear from being dropped. also, upon inspection the cable holding them appears to be resistant to non-magic weapons. there seems to be no alarm and no danger for the moment. what will the party do?
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unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: providefeedback!
the players follow a long tunnel and come across a side tunnel plugged up with a barricade. there's a sort of lookout hole on one side and a figure there sees you. they shout "hey, come over here and halt! adventure tax! one magic item or you can't pass. we have an ogre, so no funny business!" which is then corroborated by the end of a very large club or log bobbing up and down above the barricade along with a chorus of what someone thinks are very convincing ogre noises. what do you do?
if they consider paying, they'll probably want to make sure they're not giving away good stuff. if they begin to wonder (because you're teaching them to ask, not spoon feeding), definitely let them know that yes this is an unreasonably expensive toll. if they realize they have good stuff, they might not want to pay at all. players might then express distrust whereupon the DM reminds everyone about insight checks. you might imply that insight checks can also aide a character in understand (perhaps quietly and without offense) another character's intentions regarding, saaaay for instance, hording incremental quest rewards. if they were curious. just gotta ask. oh, and if players want to fight, the bluffing gnomes on the other side run nimbly away at the drop of a hat. just make sure they hold the line long enough for the players to begin asking questions.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: providefeedback!
In short, VERY WELL. In the weeks leading up to our next session, I directed everyone back to our session zero notes and those notes that described how we agreed that magic items and identification work in our game. We are going with a homebrew system where items require identification by someone with the appropriate skills or spells; Arcana, Religion, or identify spell in the party or by a private vendor (at a significant cost).
The player in question was still reluctant but somehow found themselves in a pit trap filled with enchanted ropes that could not be severed with non-magical blades ( one of our spell-casters determined this). What resulted was a series of amazing and highly entertaining acrobatics and skill checks some of which succeeded wonderfully and some of which failed in spectacular fashion. All in an effort to; get to the player in the pit without getting snared by the ropes themselves, retrieve the unidentified blade, identify it, return it, cut the ropes, climb out, and then get the rest of the party past the pit. The failures actually resulted in the most fun, most conversation, and most engagement, as well as a new theme song the group adopted;
New GM working my first group through Lost Mines. The players have just begun discovering their first magic items which is really exciting. The only issue is that it's a single player whose bold "I'm the hero of this outfit, role playing" style (which admittedly fits with the character itself) who is snapping up all the items. She does not seem to actually intend to use them, but just hang onto them, unidentified because (who needs magic anyway?). I can see how this will be detrimental to the whole party down the road but cant think of how to manage this. So far the other players dont seem to know how or even that they can advocate for themselves and their needs and I'm not sure what I can do as a gm to mitigate.
Tell them out of character. There’s magic item here that will help you going forward. You really shy figure out who will make best use of them and distribute accordingly.
They’re new to the game, it’s important to teach the unwritten rules along with the PHB rules.
Thank you, yes. Though I did say in-game that the items seemed to be magical but their properties could not be fully accessed until one of the arcane casters spent some time identifying them, I probably do need to be more specific - out of the game as you suggested - that the best practice for the good of the party is to have them identified ASAP so decisions can be made on how best to distribute and utilize them. We covered item and treasure sharing at session zero, but not this, and frankly this individual may need a reminder about the treasure sharing that was agreed upon at session zero.
It just threw me a bit. I didn't anticipate someone being quite so adamant that they did NOT want a potentially magical item identified. It was weird.
On another note but similar vein. As I mentioned, this could be seen as a role-playing choice - the character in question is kind of a spoiled brat noble playing at being a hero, having stolen the identity of a young household servant who actually WAS an altruistic hero. (They were killed by a bandit, and this guy...coming upon the scene, held back until the bad guy left, then stole the kid's cloak and name and shuffled off to parts unknown to be the new and improved 'hero'. That said, where and how do you draw the line when role-playing character traits have the potential to make things less great for the rest of the party? In backchannels outside of the game, I'm trying to encourage other players to push back on him in game, but they seem reluctant to do so. In this last session, the individual basically entered each room saying, "I'll look here, I'll look there," and just took everything they found for themselves - again, totally in character for this guy - but the rest of the party just let them. That can't be good long-term for the game or players.
Tell the player, out of character, to stop being greedy and share treasure with the other players. Taking all the magic items found is not a character problem, it is a player problem.
"The only issue is that it's a single player whose bold "I'm the hero of this outfit, role playing" style (which admittedly fits with the character itself) who is snapping up all the items."
"I'm the hero of this outfit" would not justify taking all the loot for themselves either in a fantasy world or in a real world. This is especially true if the character isn't even using the stuff found but is just hoarding it.
This is a group of adventurers, out to earn their fame and fortune, protect their patron, maybe the town of Phandalin - completely in character, the other characters should insist on equal shares of treasure found despite this particular character's ego. If the other character refuses then the rest of the party wouldn't adventure with them. Would a character be willing to go out adventuring, risking your life, just so one of the others in the party can take everything of value? No.
In a good party, the rest of the characters would tell the selfish one to either share or go find their own path since they obviously are not a good fit for adventuring together. In a neutral party, the characters might talk with the other character and if they still refused to share then they'd might beat them up and dump them at the side of the road while taking the stuff they refused to share. In an evil party, the characters would notice the behavior of this character, realize that it isn't in their best interest, then possibly kill the character and take all their stuff since they clearly can't trust them to divide treasure fairly.
The common theme is that in every party, one character is never allowed to hoard all the treasure found since it isn't fair to the other characters.
However, in a cooperative role playing game, the other players usually figure they are supposed to get along with this other character and so accept behaviors that their characters really never would accept because they don't want to the situation turn into a character vs character conflict. This just tends to fester and create unhappy players BECAUSE one of the players is making inherently player vs player or character vs character decisions and using the excuse "That is what my character would do".
It is up to the DM to step in and discuss with the players whether they want to have a PVP game, where if one character decides to take all the stuff, is it ok for the other characters to kill or otherwise deal with that character for being greedy and treating their characters unfairly. If that is NOT what the players want, then the DM needs to help the players set table rules around the fair distribution of magic items and treasure for the characters since this will help prevent player conflicts later.
Being committed to the roleplaying is great and to be rewarded...up until the point that it negatively impacts the other layers experience. If the other players are on board and fine with that degree of roleplaying and are participating in it, thats great, probably don't need to do anything, but if thats not the case, or might not be the case you need to have a conversation with the player about where the line is of them roleplaying crosses to detract the other players play experience. Ideally this conversation would take place during Session Zero, particularly when you have a character specifically intended to be in or potentially be in conflict with the others, with the whole party part of the discussion on how the group wants to play, where the line is that the roleplaying stops being fun, etc. In my current game I have a player playing a character who is basically a misanthropic ******* working with the party out of neccesity. We had a discussion as a group of what kind of dynamics the group wants or is ok with, would someone being basically a grumpy ******* all the time , not neccesarily playing nice with the team, be a problem for anyone and we set boundaries on how far it is ok to go with causing conflict in the party. Since you have already commenced, you are basically going to need to have a frank conversation with the player outside a session and express your concerns and that if he is going to play that way, that commited, he needs to talk to the rest of the party out of character and ask them if they are ok with it. I think your concerns about the long term viability of the group if its not addressed are spot on so better to do it sooner rather than later
Also, just FYI, by RAW, any character can identity any item by studying it during a short rest. If you have a house rule about arcane casters, that’s cool, obviously. Just if you open up identifying the items, maybe other players will better understand why they might want them for their characters.
Thank you everyone for the advice. It's been very helpful. We'll plan to have a frank discussion about these issues before our next session. I will keep trying the house rule of arcane skills required for identifying items, I'm hoping it helps engage them all with the casters in the group. I think I will also try, after describing rooms and objects within, asking each person to tell me what they wish to examine, to make sure everyone gets a chance. Overall everyone seems to be enjoying things; the group brand new to dnd (I played as a kid), and is mostly family with the one individual being a friend of our daughter's (all adults), that's the over-exuberant individual.
Another thing you might consider is changing how you allow the loot to be discovered. As the DM, you control the world the players interact with. If the problem player keeps finding the magic items and won't share, you can adjust the narrative so that only certain party members get the opportunity to make the discoveries in the first place.
"Warlock, as you're lagging behind your friends in the cave, something shiny catches your eye from the grotto to the left. In their focus on stealth, they seem to have missed it."
"A grimy orphan runs into the tavern and bumps into you, rogue. You feel something heavy go into your pocket."
"A priest from the local temple knocks on your door late at night, wizard and cleric, just before you go to bed. He says he heard about your plans and had something from his adventuring days that might help you succeed."
How is this "hero" always being the first one into each room?
If there are several rooms, aren't some of the other PCs able to enter one of the other rooms while the "hero" is searching a room?
I agree that the argument "It's what my character would do" basically means that the player has come up with a selfish personality for their character which doesn't fit with your session 0 agreement.
Searching a room takes time. Maybe 10 minutes for a simple room, maybe an hour for something like an arcane library or noble's
junk roomcurio museum.GM: OK, <Character> is searching the room, what are the rest of you doing?
Player: What do I find?
GM: Hold your horses there, you'll get the results once you have finished searching, right now we are finding out what the other characters are doing for the next 10 minutes.
If someone else declares they are also searching then now there are two characters for you to give loot to. Even if the other characters just stand around doing nothing, they are still watching the first character, so they will see everything they find.
The key is, don't resolve the first person's action until its over.
So this is another struggle with this group of 100% dnd newbies. Lack of curious engagement with the world. Most all of these are people who play or have played some form of crpgs and it seems sometimes that they are just waiting for me to hand them the world and the story rather than having to engage and look for/create the story itself.
To accommodate the newbie syndrome I try to give them little goals to work on in the days prior to a session. They've included; choose an unused ability and look for an opportunity to use it; think of one thing youd like to find out about a party member's background and how youd ask them; and the big one, be curious about everything and everyone.
I'm hoping these things become habits but the curiosity isn't catching on. This last session the rest were like "nah, he can search, I'm staying here." Now that said, the session before one member acted rashly and barged into a room that set in motion a series of events that nearly went badly for them all. They may have been gun-shy as a result.
Still...this post has resulted in some REALLY great advice. I'm so happy I asked the question!
I might be late to the thread here, but I think what this player is doing is both awesome and terrible at the same time. Having a character who eschews magic enough to refuse identifying obvious helpful items is an awesome commitment to roleplay over metagaming. As long as the player is aware that what they're doing makes things harder (sounds like they are), I'd highly encourage that type of anti-metagaming behavior.
On the other hand if one player is scooping up all the treasure and not sharing with the party then that's completely unacceptable and needs a Session Zero type solution or maybe just DM intervention if the other players are too new to know what's going on.
They need to be encouraged to EXPLORE.
Explore includes roaming through dungeons and the countryside, as well as the smaller exploration of looking for treasure and secret doors.
Keep a turn order going. This doesn't have to be an initiative order, you can simple go counter clockwise around the table. When one player commits to an action you allow then turn to the next player and ask what they would like to do. Put the players in a position to be active in the game. They can learn that Player A can search the room, but Player B can loot the bodies of fallen foe, and Player C can scout ahead 20 yards, etc
Also, limit the ability rolls to single instances for the party. Ask the group "Who has the highest Investigation? Perception? etc." Now if the same person searching and has a mediocre investigation, and they fail, well the party finds nothing. Meanwhile if you have a player with proficiency and passive values, then let look and be successful. This will teach the party to rely on each other more. And learn what the player characters are good at so you can implement ability checks into the game to get them invested.
When the party finds an item, in your description feel free to emphasize which party member(s) might be more interested in it. A metal ring looking like a shield would compliment attire that is more casual or dressed; not something that can be easily worn with adventurer gloves or armor. This dark cloak is not large enough to conceal the reflecting light of polished armor, but enough to cover and lay more shadows over someone in studded leather. This ax looks sharp and well crafted, but is also battle worn as if it has seen many days leading a charge. Over time, they may figure it out on their own but feel free to over suggestions. Out of session remind them they can always swap and attune to different items. But this will help remind the party that one person should not be collecting and that there should be a process to distribute to the team.
Finally, remind the party (and this one member) that the strength of the party is the most important element to success. Items with such benefits need to be dispersed and be dispersed to party members who can benefit. The Rouge shouldn't get +2 scale mail, rewarding the Wizard with magical maul is not helpful, and the hat of disguise might be put to better use by someone other than the Fighter. Not to say these scenarios can't work; but the point is the party should discuss the best assignment of items. There is some room for negotiating and in fighting: the melee fighters should argue over who gets the magical greatsword. That is fine. However, the party needs to realize that when they find something one of the first things they should do is identify who in the party can put it to the best use. Try to push that conversation when something is discovered.
how great would it be if the "greedy" player tripped a lonely snare trap. hanging by their ankle, their overburdened knapsack spills it's guts across the floor. the DM takes a moment to note that some of the items are magically strong and show no wear from being dropped. also, upon inspection the cable holding them appears to be resistant to non-magic weapons. there seems to be no alarm and no danger for the moment. what will the party do?
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
wait, i want to do another one...
the players follow a long tunnel and come across a side tunnel plugged up with a barricade. there's a sort of lookout hole on one side and a figure there sees you. they shout "hey, come over here and halt! adventure tax! one magic item or you can't pass. we have an ogre, so no funny business!" which is then corroborated by the end of a very large club or log bobbing up and down above the barricade along with a chorus of what someone thinks are very convincing ogre noises. what do you do?
if they consider paying, they'll probably want to make sure they're not giving away good stuff. if they begin to wonder (because you're teaching them to ask, not spoon feeding), definitely let them know that yes this is an unreasonably expensive toll. if they realize they have good stuff, they might not want to pay at all. players might then express distrust whereupon the DM reminds everyone about insight checks. you might imply that insight checks can also aide a character in understand (perhaps quietly and without offense) another character's intentions regarding, saaaay for instance, hording incremental quest rewards. if they were curious. just gotta ask. oh, and if players want to fight, the bluffing gnomes on the other side run nimbly away at the drop of a hat. just make sure they hold the line long enough for the players to begin asking questions.
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
I forgot to say: Welcome to this side of the table! :-)
We have cookies.
We better have cookies *glares meaningfully at players*
Followup with how things played out:
In short, VERY WELL. In the weeks leading up to our next session, I directed everyone back to our session zero notes and those notes that described how we agreed that magic items and identification work in our game. We are going with a homebrew system where items require identification by someone with the appropriate skills or spells; Arcana, Religion, or identify spell in the party or by a private vendor (at a significant cost).
The player in question was still reluctant but somehow found themselves in a pit trap filled with enchanted ropes that could not be severed with non-magical blades ( one of our spell-casters determined this). What resulted was a series of amazing and highly entertaining acrobatics and skill checks some of which succeeded wonderfully and some of which failed in spectacular fashion. All in an effort to; get to the player in the pit without getting snared by the ropes themselves, retrieve the unidentified blade, identify it, return it, cut the ropes, climb out, and then get the rest of the party past the pit. The failures actually resulted in the most fun, most conversation, and most engagement, as well as a new theme song the group adopted;
The Pit: https://youtu.be/vUcE01V7LZI
All in all, a great time, with lots of laughter, lots of party bonding, and a valuable life lesson learned by all! Thank you, everyone, for your help!