So I'm a very fresh DM. Done a one-night campaign and started our second one and played it for one evening so far.
I write the campaigns myself, create the world, Encounters and NPCs.
So far I think we are doing good, gameplay is a little slow due to flipping rules etc and the players don't know their characters but we're all aware of that so.
But I'm not sure how to handle Loot. First round I only had Loot for some boss or mini-boss Encounters. The players requested more Loot so I got a Loot Table online and created some different ones depending on encounter/search area for our new campaign.
However I'm not sure how to handle a few elements of the looting process.
1. Loot order, after a battle is finished who gets to Loot the most powerful unit and who gets the scraps? First round we continued turn order for a full round after battle was finished to allow looting after combat. But now I'm thinking of reversing turn order once battle finishes, so whoever takes the finishing blow is also the first to Loot. Or to create a pool of Loot and everyone gets a roll on the pool. This is my most uncertain topic.
2. Magic Loot, right now I've let people know they get a generic item and they can go to a major city to identify if their items are magical. With the effects of the items being in effect before that. I.e. extra rolls, damage or curses. I've been thinking of adding a fee for identifying. How do you handle magic items?
3. Announcing Loot? Should everyone know what a certain player finds or should I keep it a secret? I'm biased towards the latter since it feels more realistic and creates some tension between the players.
Thankful for any feedback on how you're handling these topics or ideas on how I can improve.
1. Most DM’s just announce the loot and let the players decide who gets what, with some problematic groups this may not work, so you can give everyone the exact same amount of gold, and as of magic items, let the players decide who needs the item to fix em up, and if that doesn’t work because of problem players, feel free to be the one to choose!
2. As per the rules taking a short rest with the magic item in your possession allows you to know what it does along with attune to it, if there’s a very cool magic item that you don’t want to reveal too much about that’s cool too, a use of the spell identify does basically the same thing as the short rest and perhaps maybe gives some more information, it’s up to DM discretion!
3. In my group everyone knows who has what, I personally feel adding that extra tension could wreak havoc around your table (especially if they can’t agree on who gets what items [from point no. 1]) but if you can make it work that’s pretty cool.
As DM i completely let my players handle the treasure they find up to the last coins, i would only interject if there was conflict or request. Usually, they will split coins as evenly as possible, leaving any leftover in a party fund and for gears, weapons and armors, as well as magic items, it normally goes first to the character that can use it most efficiently, and they tend to keep an eye on who got one last so everyone gets something in turn. When something can go to multiple characters and they all want it, they will let the dice decide and roll 1d20.
So I'm a very fresh DM. Done a one-night campaign and started our second one and played it for one evening so far.
I write the campaigns myself, create the world, Encounters and NPCs.
So far I think we are doing good, gameplay is a little slow due to flipping rules etc and the players don't know their characters but we're all aware of that so.
But I'm not sure how to handle Loot. First round I only had Loot for some boss or mini-boss Encounters. The players requested more Loot so I got a Loot Table online and created some different ones depending on encounter/search area for our new campaign.
However I'm not sure how to handle a few elements of the looting process.
1. Loot order, after a battle is finished who gets to Loot the most powerful unit and who gets the scraps? First round we continued turn order for a full round after battle was finished to allow looting after combat. But now I'm thinking of reversing turn order once battle finishes, so whoever takes the finishing blow is also the first to Loot. Or to create a pool of Loot and everyone gets a roll on the pool. This is my most uncertain topic.
2. Magic Loot, right now I've let people know they get a generic item and they can go to a major city to identify if their items are magical. With the effects of the items being in effect before that. I.e. extra rolls, damage or curses. I've been thinking of adding a fee for identifying. How do you handle magic items?
3. Announcing Loot? Should everyone know what a certain player finds or should I keep it a secret? I'm biased towards the latter since it feels more realistic and creates some tension between the players.
Thankful for any feedback on how you're handling these topics or ideas on how I can improve.
1. I let the players work out who gets what and try and stay out of it. Any player that wants can search for loot, but they have to tell me pretty specifically what it is they are doing and roll a investigation/perception check for anything beyond the obvious like weapons or armor the bad guy was wearing that no one could miss. So it is possible for two players to search the same area and find different things if one rolled poorly. But again, I generally stay out of it and let them work out who gets what, unless its obvious that they missed something I said or misunderstood me and I want to clarify that the person getting the item really couldn't use it or would have disadvantage, etc.
2. For generic stuff, basic weapons, common magic items I just tell them what it is. For anything uncommon and above I'll describe the item and say something like "You find a well made bow, the tips appear to be stylized as dragon wings, you sense power emanating from the bow" and then they have to get it identified. They can't gain any of the magic effects of the item until it is identified, and generally can't even equip it, unless for some reason they lost their other weapons and that was all they had or something like that, in which case I'd let them use it as a mundane version of the item until identified. The RAW let any player spend a portion of a short or long rest to identify an item, so identifying an item shouldn't be a problem. I use modified rules to make it a little more of a process, but I still make sure to introduce NPC's at a fairly regular basis that the players could pay or convince to identify items for them if there was an item they were struggling to get identified.
3. If it is loot they are finding that everyone is present for, I just announce it. My party is fine with that because they are not a party that is RPing any characters that are actively or maliciously trying to deceive or exploit each other and generally are working together, so if your party is playing a more contentious group, I can see how not announcing the loot might add to that, but i would still say if its loot being found in front of other people, anyone present would know about it. The only exception I have is if it is relevant to the characters story and would make sense the rest of the party wouldn't know, and the character should have the prerogative to share or not share with the party, same as their back story. For example, recently one of my characters received a delivery from his family of his grandfathers sword. The rest of the party was present and know he received a sword, but they don't know its his grandfathers or its properties, only the character does, and its their choice to share what it does when (or since it comes with some pretty serious familial obligations if he does) if they decide to take it up.
It's not a video game, and I know it took my group and I a good while to figure that out. "Looting" in DND isn't typically picking up every scrap of armor, weapons, knickknacks etc that the enemies have. Usually, you as the DM will have only a few items geared towards either specific party members (you have a rogue that loves daggers? Introduce a magic dagger!) or more general items that anyone can have.
The idea of people getting to keep a powerful item just because they found it first is pretty against the idea of DND's open storytelling collaboration imo. I'd steer the party away from doing that and tell them that sharing loot is better. Again, just my opinion though.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
As a rule, when any characters 'loot' something, declare everything that's discovered to the whole group. No slyly pocketing magical rings, or pretending there was no gold. Everyone knows instantly. Then let the players work out what they do with it.
Giving out too much loot too soon is one of the most common mistakes for new DMs and can really mess up a game.
A +1 weapon or armor doesn't seem like much but it does tip the scales more than a new DM might think. This is especially true when they feel like they need to reward members of the party equally and end up giving something like that to everyone.
Not only do these items change the balance of combat, they are also pretty uninteresting in that they only change up some math.
I highly recommend giving them magic items that are more for utility that allow for more creative solutions and feel more magical than just modifying combat math.
Quote from Bodanger>> I highly recommend giving them magic items that are more for utility that allow for more creative solutions and feel more magical than just modifying combat math.
this is REALLY good advice. I try to really limit the magic weapons they find to just boss fights and generally don't even bother with the +1's 2's etc and just have those stocked at shops so if they want them they can get them. leaning in to the utility items makes for some extremely interesting, and entertaining, actions from the party as they come up with more and more creative ways of using them. I have a party that is all about out side the box approaches (MFers just spent the last 2 sessions running a shadow black ops campaign against the redbrands, picking them off and destroying them psychologically using a hat of disguise and ever smoking bottle, scary bastards when they put their mind to it)before hitting their hideout), so it works. I know a lot of players are all about the bigger and better weapons so it wouldn't work at all tables, but it makes for some HIGHLY entertaining sessions.
As a player I prefer to share the loot equitably generally wrath is totaled and then split evenly so everyone gets a rated share magic items are identified (detect magic and identify spells) the shared out to however can best use them with extras no one wants either sold at auction or held for trade/ NPC/follower/sidekick use. That or each party member rolls “initiative “ and then selects what they want from the pile in initiative order.
As a DM I don’t always tell them something is magical but describe it as being “masterwork” in quality or special some way letting the party know they should use detect magic to see what is and isn’t magical then use identify to determine just what it is then the party divides as they see fit.
in the damage I’m running now both of these apply The party took out an evil merchant then rather than slaughter the 2 bugbear guards they hired them. One is now the majordomo for their Aquisitions Inc headquarters while the other is a party member. They have equipped him with stuff found that no party member wants/needs and so he is surprisingly well equipped.
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Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
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So I'm a very fresh DM. Done a one-night campaign and started our second one and played it for one evening so far.
I write the campaigns myself, create the world, Encounters and NPCs.
So far I think we are doing good, gameplay is a little slow due to flipping rules etc and the players don't know their characters but we're all aware of that so.
But I'm not sure how to handle Loot. First round I only had Loot for some boss or mini-boss Encounters. The players requested more Loot so I got a Loot Table online and created some different ones depending on encounter/search area for our new campaign.
However I'm not sure how to handle a few elements of the looting process.
1. Loot order, after a battle is finished who gets to Loot the most powerful unit and who gets the scraps? First round we continued turn order for a full round after battle was finished to allow looting after combat. But now I'm thinking of reversing turn order once battle finishes, so whoever takes the finishing blow is also the first to Loot. Or to create a pool of Loot and everyone gets a roll on the pool. This is my most uncertain topic.
2. Magic Loot, right now I've let people know they get a generic item and they can go to a major city to identify if their items are magical. With the effects of the items being in effect before that. I.e. extra rolls, damage or curses. I've been thinking of adding a fee for identifying. How do you handle magic items?
3. Announcing Loot? Should everyone know what a certain player finds or should I keep it a secret? I'm biased towards the latter since it feels more realistic and creates some tension between the players.
Thankful for any feedback on how you're handling these topics or ideas on how I can improve.
Fantastic welcome to D&D!
1. Most DM’s just announce the loot and let the players decide who gets what, with some problematic groups this may not work, so you can give everyone the exact same amount of gold, and as of magic items, let the players decide who needs the item to fix em up, and if that doesn’t work because of problem players, feel free to be the one to choose!
2. As per the rules taking a short rest with the magic item in your possession allows you to know what it does along with attune to it, if there’s a very cool magic item that you don’t want to reveal too much about that’s cool too, a use of the spell identify does basically the same thing as the short rest and perhaps maybe gives some more information, it’s up to DM discretion!
3. In my group everyone knows who has what, I personally feel adding that extra tension could wreak havoc around your table (especially if they can’t agree on who gets what items [from point no. 1]) but if you can make it work that’s pretty cool.
Hope everything goes well! Sweet Adventuring!
As DM i completely let my players handle the treasure they find up to the last coins, i would only interject if there was conflict or request. Usually, they will split coins as evenly as possible, leaving any leftover in a party fund and for gears, weapons and armors, as well as magic items, it normally goes first to the character that can use it most efficiently, and they tend to keep an eye on who got one last so everyone gets something in turn. When something can go to multiple characters and they all want it, they will let the dice decide and roll 1d20.
1. I let the players work out who gets what and try and stay out of it. Any player that wants can search for loot, but they have to tell me pretty specifically what it is they are doing and roll a investigation/perception check for anything beyond the obvious like weapons or armor the bad guy was wearing that no one could miss. So it is possible for two players to search the same area and find different things if one rolled poorly. But again, I generally stay out of it and let them work out who gets what, unless its obvious that they missed something I said or misunderstood me and I want to clarify that the person getting the item really couldn't use it or would have disadvantage, etc.
2. For generic stuff, basic weapons, common magic items I just tell them what it is. For anything uncommon and above I'll describe the item and say something like "You find a well made bow, the tips appear to be stylized as dragon wings, you sense power emanating from the bow" and then they have to get it identified. They can't gain any of the magic effects of the item until it is identified, and generally can't even equip it, unless for some reason they lost their other weapons and that was all they had or something like that, in which case I'd let them use it as a mundane version of the item until identified. The RAW let any player spend a portion of a short or long rest to identify an item, so identifying an item shouldn't be a problem. I use modified rules to make it a little more of a process, but I still make sure to introduce NPC's at a fairly regular basis that the players could pay or convince to identify items for them if there was an item they were struggling to get identified.
3. If it is loot they are finding that everyone is present for, I just announce it. My party is fine with that because they are not a party that is RPing any characters that are actively or maliciously trying to deceive or exploit each other and generally are working together, so if your party is playing a more contentious group, I can see how not announcing the loot might add to that, but i would still say if its loot being found in front of other people, anyone present would know about it. The only exception I have is if it is relevant to the characters story and would make sense the rest of the party wouldn't know, and the character should have the prerogative to share or not share with the party, same as their back story. For example, recently one of my characters received a delivery from his family of his grandfathers sword. The rest of the party was present and know he received a sword, but they don't know its his grandfathers or its properties, only the character does, and its their choice to share what it does when (or since it comes with some pretty serious familial obligations if he does) if they decide to take it up.
It's not a video game, and I know it took my group and I a good while to figure that out. "Looting" in DND isn't typically picking up every scrap of armor, weapons, knickknacks etc that the enemies have. Usually, you as the DM will have only a few items geared towards either specific party members (you have a rogue that loves daggers? Introduce a magic dagger!) or more general items that anyone can have.
The idea of people getting to keep a powerful item just because they found it first is pretty against the idea of DND's open storytelling collaboration imo. I'd steer the party away from doing that and tell them that sharing loot is better. Again, just my opinion though.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
As a rule, when any characters 'loot' something, declare everything that's discovered to the whole group. No slyly pocketing magical rings, or pretending there was no gold. Everyone knows instantly. Then let the players work out what they do with it.
As a side note I'd like to add:
Giving out too much loot too soon is one of the most common mistakes for new DMs and can really mess up a game.
A +1 weapon or armor doesn't seem like much but it does tip the scales more than a new DM might think. This is especially true when they feel like they need to reward members of the party equally and end up giving something like that to everyone.
Not only do these items change the balance of combat, they are also pretty uninteresting in that they only change up some math.
I highly recommend giving them magic items that are more for utility that allow for more creative solutions and feel more magical than just modifying combat math.
this is REALLY good advice. I try to really limit the magic weapons they find to just boss fights and generally don't even bother with the +1's 2's etc and just have those stocked at shops so if they want them they can get them. leaning in to the utility items makes for some extremely interesting, and entertaining, actions from the party as they come up with more and more creative ways of using them. I have a party that is all about out side the box approaches (MFers just spent the last 2 sessions running a shadow black ops campaign against the redbrands, picking them off and destroying them psychologically using a hat of disguise and ever smoking bottle, scary bastards when they put their mind to it)before hitting their hideout), so it works. I know a lot of players are all about the bigger and better weapons so it wouldn't work at all tables, but it makes for some HIGHLY entertaining sessions.
As a player I prefer to share the loot equitably generally wrath is totaled and then split evenly so everyone gets a rated share magic items are identified (detect magic and identify spells) the shared out to however can best use them with extras no one wants either sold at auction or held for trade/ NPC/follower/sidekick use. That or each party member rolls “initiative “ and then selects what they want from the pile in initiative order.
As a DM I don’t always tell them something is magical but describe it as being “masterwork” in quality or special some way letting the party know they should use detect magic to see what is and isn’t magical then use identify to determine just what it is then the party divides as they see fit.
in the damage I’m running now both of these apply The party took out an evil merchant then rather than slaughter the 2 bugbear guards they hired them. One is now the majordomo for their Aquisitions Inc headquarters while the other is a party member. They have equipped him with stuff found that no party member wants/needs and so he is surprisingly well equipped.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.