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1 year ago ::
May 05, 2012 - 6:49PM
#1
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I noticed that Monster Info includes what they hold such as weapons or money (For Example, Goblins hold Javelins, which makes little sense to me). Do I let my players grab the loot, or does it stay with the corpses? If the items can be picked up if one chooses, then what could be done with them? If you could help me out, that would be great! 
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1 year ago ::
May 05, 2012 - 6:52PM
#2
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If the PCs decide to loot the corpses, they can take the objects if they wish. Money they'll probably grab, most weapons and armor, unless magical, should be left behind because they most likely can't be sold (or if they can be, aren't worth enough to justify the weight and effort).
Another day, another three or four entries to my Ignore List.
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1 year ago ::
May 05, 2012 - 7:05PM
#3
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If the PCs decide to loot the corpses, they can take the objects if they wish. Money they'll probably grab, most weapons and armor, unless magical, should be left behind because they most likely can't be sold (or if they can be, aren't worth enough to justify the weight and effort).
Thanks a lot! For some reason, my books don't mention looting...
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1 year ago ::
May 05, 2012 - 8:20PM
#4
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Yea, the books really don't go into detail about that as much as they could. I think the general consensus tends to be that any old short sword that a monster would be carrying would be of low quality and not well cared for, and that a weaponsmith wouldn't be interested in buying old, crappy merchandise. In my pc's first dungeon run, I actually let them load up on a bunch of old kobald leather armor. They were a bit dissapointed when the shopkeep pratically ordered them out for bringing in a bunch of old, stinky rags.
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1 year ago ::
May 06, 2012 - 11:56PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Mar 10, 2011
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I noticed that Monster Info includes what they hold such as weapons or money (For Example, Goblins hold Javelins, which makes little sense to me). Do I let my players grab the loot, or does it stay with the corpses?
If the items can be picked up if one chooses, then what could be done with them? If you could help me out, that would be great!
I found that to be extremely easy to handle, actually: the first time my players ever asked about the weapons and armor and equipment the Goblins they just killed had dropped, I explained that D&D runs on a barter economy, the "gold pieces" they got from the monsters weren't literally gold, but included "trade items" that could be traded like gold or for gold, and the trade items included anything useful the Goblins were carrying or otherwise had stashed away, such as weapons and equipment.
So, the (random example) 25 "gold pieces" included a couple gold coins, a handful of silver and copper coins with unusual markings on them, a few rusty make-shift weapons made from stolen farm implements, and an eerie wooden idol bound in silver wire and hung from a leather cord... "nothing here seems particularly valuable... you should be able to trade it for about 25gp worth of goods and services."
The group seemed quite satisfied with that, and seemed to find that more interesting than a video-game-style "loot everything you can and sell it piece-by-piece to the nearest shopkeeper" approach to looting. I did that ever since.
I worried a bit that they might latch onto some random bit of junk and derail the game over it ("he went through a lot of trouble to describe that crazy wooden idol - it must be a clue!), but I decided that if they ever did try to go out of their way to find out more about that eerie wooden Goblin idol, I could always take that as an opportunity to improvise and flesh out a bit more of my game world as a Goblin theology expert explains what it means, or to send them on a side-quest to stop a Goblin cult from causing trouble, or to appraise it as being a little more valuable than they originally thought to encourage them to be curious enough about the game world to ask questions. The players always seemed to just take it in the spirit of set dressing that I intended and never persued any of it, but I was prepared in case they ever did pick up on a bit of fluff description and run with it 
New DM Tips
Show
- Trying to solve out-of-game problems (like cheating, bad attitudes, or poor sportsmanship) with in-game solutions will almost always result in failure, and will probably make matters worse.
- Gun Safety Rule #5: Never point the gun at anything you don't intend to destroy. (Never introduce a character, PC, NPC, Villain, or fate of the world into even the possibility of a deadly combat or other dangerous situation, unless you are prepared to destroy it instantly and completely forever.)
- Know your group's character sheets, and check them over carefully. You don't want surprises, but, more importantly, they are a gold mine of ideas!
- "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." It's a problem if the players aren't having fun and it interferes with a DM's ability to run the game effectively; if it's not a problem, 'fixing' at best does little to help, and at worst causes problems that didn't exist before.
- "Hulk Smash" characters are a bad match for open-ended exploration in crowds of civilians; get them out of civilization where they can break things and kill monsters in peace.
- Success is not necessarily the same thing as killing an opponent. Failure is not necessarily the same thing as dying.
- Failure is always an option. And it's a fine option, too, as long as failure is interesting, entertaining, and fun!
"Broken or not, unbalanced or not, if something seems to be preventing the game from being enjoyable, something has to give: either that thing, or other aspects of the game, or your idea of what's enjoyable." - Centauri
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1 year ago ::
May 10, 2012 - 12:20AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Jun 21, 2006
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I tend to take a different approach. If they want to loot the bodies, I tell them what they find. One of the players is responsible for keeping the 'loot list.' This list is a bunch of random stuff gotten off the corpses that the party as a whole is carrying but that none have directly claimed as theirs. After all, sometimes a low level party might want to take those extra arrows or bolts or something. The items on the loot list, unless I specifically tell the party differently, will sell back to shopkeepers for 1/4-1/2 book price. This generally gives the party enough resources to buy what they want or save it for later. I've never really come up against a situation where the party has too much money since not every creature they encounter has anything worth selling.
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1 year ago ::
May 10, 2012 - 8:37AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Jul 21, 2004
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I really like that approach, YronimosW.
[N]o difference is less easily overcome than the difference of opinion about semi-abstract questions. - L. Tolstoy
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1 year ago ::
May 10, 2012 - 2:58PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Mar 16, 2011
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My players gave up taking mundane weapons and armour off monsters when they realised it wasn't worth much.
As mentioned above, I generally just say "25gp worth of coins, gems and trinkets". Sometimes I might elaborate for flavour.
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1 year ago ::
May 10, 2012 - 3:04PM
#9
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My players gave up taking mundane weapons and armour off monsters when they realised it wasn't worth much.
Ditto, and especially so once I decided to stop counting mundane ammunition/rations/etc, and instead of giving them 100gp to spend at 1st level, just said 'take whatever equipment seems reasonable'.
Another day, another three or four entries to my Ignore List.
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1 year ago ::
May 12, 2012 - 6:16AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Nov 10, 2008
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I found that to be extremely easy to handle, actually: the first time my players ever asked about the weapons and armor and equipment the Goblins they just killed had dropped, I explained that D&D runs on a barter economy, the "gold pieces" they got from the monsters weren't literally gold, but included "trade items" that could be traded like gold or for gold, and the trade items included anything useful the Goblins were carrying or otherwise had stashed away, such as weapons and equipment.
So, the (random example) 25 "gold pieces" included a couple gold coins, a handful of silver and copper coins with unusual markings on them, a few rusty make-shift weapons made from stolen farm implements, and an eerie wooden idol bound in silver wire and hung from a leather cord... "nothing here seems particularly valuable... you should be able to trade it for about 25gp worth of goods and services."
The group seemed quite satisfied with that, and seemed to find that more interesting than a video-game-style "loot everything you can and sell it piece-by-piece to the nearest shopkeeper" approach to looting. I did that ever since.
I worried a bit that they might latch onto some random bit of junk and derail the game over it ("he went through a lot of trouble to describe that crazy wooden idol - it must be a clue!), but I decided that if they ever did try to go out of their way to find out more about that eerie wooden Goblin idol, I could always take that as an opportunity to improvise and flesh out a bit more of my game world as a Goblin theology expert explains what it means, or to send them on a side-quest to stop a Goblin cult from causing trouble, or to appraise it as being a little more valuable than they originally thought to encourage them to be curious enough about the game world to ask questions. The players always seemed to just take it in the spirit of set dressing that I intended and never persued any of it, but I was prepared in case they ever did pick up on a bit of fluff description and run with it
Up 'til now I've just been telling my players what gear corpses have and letting them gather it all up if they really want to. It makes for tedium though when they decide they just HAVE to sell it all off at the earliest opportunity and we have to work out a ton of maths. I really like this approach though, and I'm definitely gonna use something similar myself!
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