Right. After playing a character that resulted in me not questing for nearly 4 months (give or take) I got to do some scripted quests again and found them very much the same way I left them all through the quests it went fine.

Then it came to the splitting of loot.

Now please someone tell me when this whole "rolling" came in? Since when are we all packing 1d100 dice? This is a trend that I am finding furstrating and phenomenonally stupid. People are of course doing it so no one can argue over loot. BUT THAT IS A BAD THING. Arguing is good! Conflict is good! It's *gasp* RP on an *gasp mark II* RP SERVER! What is up with that? Are people so desperate to get on with the next quest and level that they'd rather forgo any bashed heads over who wants that shield? The increasing number of people who barely roleplay on quests I can deal with, playing like you're in WoW I can ignore. I even tried going against it with a character saying that I only wanted those so I would just take them, it was like I had commited some capital sin against THE ALMIGHTY DICE.

Please for the love of God, forgo the dice, try RPing something out!!

You never know, it might even be fun.

I personally favour the 'Take what you damn well need and resolve conflicts as they arise' method. It's great fun to see people squabble over the big piece of loot!

This really is a topic that is blown out of all proportion to its worth.

On most quests, the loot is so mediocre that there's really nothing worth arguing about overmuch. Some adventurers might be inclined to leave these things to Tymora's fate, and yes, avoid conflict over minor pieces of loot. Others might be inclined to handle distributing it a different way. If you want to do this, propose it ingame, and get it to stick ingame. If your party doesn't go along, tough luck.

When there's good loot up for grabs, usually a DM quest, I really don't see die being used as much, if at all.

I agree whole heartedly, but I'll keep this short as my long posts seem to go astray.

Sometimes rolling for loot makes sense!

9/10 it does not.

The cool people find much more natural ways to handle loot. I remember back in a certain Gaugauth faction, we pretty much got whatever we could steal on each quest, and we all hated each other. It was great!

That's all, and yes I agree, it seems people OOCly cling to the dice rolling a bit too much.

Starry Ice This really is a topic that is blown out of all proportion to its worth.

On most quests, the loot is so mediocre that there's really nothing worth arguing about overmuch. Some adventurers might be inclined to leave these things to Tymora's fate, and yes, avoid conflict over minor pieces of loot. Others might be inclined to handle distributing it a different way. If you want to do this, propose it ingame, and get it to stick ingame. If your party doesn't go along, tough luck.

When there's good loot up for grabs, usually a DM quest, I really don't see die being used as much, if at all.

I beg to differ, having compained IC each time this occoured and either being outright ignored or at one point being told in a tell "Just roll it, it's quicker".

What's wong for rolling for loot?

I agree that rolling a 100 side die is stupid, as it must be emoted in this manner: "PROCURES A HUGE 100 SIDED DIE AND ROLLS IT".

But there's nothing wrong with, say, rolling a 1d2 and saying you're flipping a coin (obviously, in that case, you're not trying to get higher than the other person, rather, one of you picks 1, that is heads, and the other 2, that is tails).

Arguing over loot after a quest can be turgid, boring RP. Why argue over who gets the purple crystal when you could be doing something infinitely more productive?

I use dice in divvying loot. Not to decide who goes first... whenever that drivel comes up, I try my best to shoot it down, because it takes a bloody year to do. I rather just say what I need, ask if anybody cares, and then grab it. And if they do care, I'll roll then.

Yeah, "RP" over quest loot is almost invariably tiresome. Squabbling for a short period over a disagreement is fine, but I do think after a disagreement has come up and been acknowledged, then its fine to produce a 1d6 or as Lado suggests, flip a coin (1d2).

I do think people should give IC loot distribution more of a chance, but I'm also wary that a free-for-all can sometimes feel oocly unfair to someone who is slow to type or grab what they want and misses out on all the best loot.

Skrillix I personally favour the 'Take what you damn well need and resolve conflicts as they arise' method. It's great fun to see people squabble over the big piece of loot!

Same here, but sometimes priests of Tymora think otherwise ;)

You don't have to rp along with the dice.

I mean, they're rolling it IC right?

Consider:

Vrirkuk wants a statue his party has. They want to roll dice, he says--that rolling dice is stupid. We should all go to the Arena and fight for the statue. They all agree, so Vrirkuk picks up the statue says we'll all meet in the Arena in ten minutes. Then he walks to Fort Mur.

Shamus wanted to make sure an evil necromancer did not get a powerful evil tome. The party wanted to roll for treasure, so Shamus grabbed the tome--then ran off with it.

Dungal once wanted a kama, his party wanted to roll for it since there were two monks in the group. Dungal beat his group senseless, then took the kama.

Lots of ways around dice provided they're rolling IC.

I've been at work and I'm tired so I'll be brief in my replies

But there's nothing wrong with, say, rolling a 1d2 and saying you're flipping a coin (obviously, in that case, you're not trying to get higher than the other person, rather, one of you picks 1, that is heads, and the other 2, that is tails).

I agree with this holeheartedly. But that isn't dice

Arguing over loot after a quest can be turgid, boring RP. Why argue over who gets the purple crystal when you could be doing something infinitely more productive?

From my experience RP is only turgid and boring when it is powered by OOC greed, if there is a good IC character based reason for having the loot (See Oroborous' post) then good RP will follow.

I do think after a disagreement has come up and been acknowledged, then its fine to produce a 1d6 or as Lado suggests, flip a coin (1d2).

Agreed, I'm not asking for a ban, but it;s the fact that it's become (as far as I have experienced) an accepted standard that people do without even being asked is most unnerving for me

You don't have to rp along with the dice.

Tried that, but when you do people get confused and don't know how to act, almost as if I'd started using smileys and going ROFL in my IC talk. Like actually taking the steps you took would be seen as cheating.

I see a lot of d20 rolling, which isn't much better than rolling a d100. My favorite (yet time-consuming) method is "auctioning" off the loot. If you read the 3.0 PHB, it actually recommends this style. But I'll get to the point.

If you're going to roll a dice, roll a good 'ole d6 knucklebone, not a d20, as it's a very OOC thing.

Who cares if a few select people consider handling loot distribution differently to rolling dice "cheating"? Don't worry about what people think in regards to IC actions, and if they complain OOC ask them to stop. If they persist? Use the tell filtering system or take a screenie and send it to the DMs. Or both!

Most of my characters see rolling dice as a child's game, and become very patronizing to people that suggest it as a solution.

d100 is what you use in World of Warcraft after/during a raid. You are free to, and encouraged, to come up with more creative things than that, even if the loot is mundane.

I will relate a story that happened-- way back when in EFU.

I was partied with a group of people, and we did one of the harder fixed quests. When we were finished, all beat up, bruised, out of spells, etc... we put all the loot on the ground and started to discuss what to do with it. Now as is usual in most of the fixed quests (from my experiance) there was two very nice and very desirable items found, as well as lots and lost of -- well-- "crap". And six of us. So we started to discuss what to do.

We had gotten maybe two sentances out, when one of the players had her character walk over and take both of the desirable items and walk away with a glib "Taking what I want, bye!"

The rest of us were furious, and ran after her, but of course, she was long gone. I sent a tell to that player, "What the hell was that all about?" And she said, "You have a problem with it? Deal with it IC and IG. Nothing wrong with what I did...."

Right or wrong, its just greedy and mean. Personally this behavior ranks right up there with keeping loot for yourself during a quest, or dry looting your own parter members when they fall in a QA, and leaving them to respawn on their own. (I have had this happen to me as well-- its not fun) Whenever I want to do something like this, I get a DM involved.

And why ruin someones day and get them all torqued up over a few items, anyways? Play nice, and save the ruthless behaviour for situations that involve lots of role play. Stealing from your party in a fixed quest isn't role play, it just poor gamesmanship.

[EDIT] Damn. Heh. No worries. I had a ridiculous rant, but whatever.

Spirrowmint Words

See this is the kind of attitude that is fueling the problem in my eyes. You complained to her when she took the loot, and she actually INVITED you to RP with her to get it back. There was absolutely NOTHING stopping you and the rest of the group finding her and beating seven bells from her and taking the stuff back as well as a few extra things for the trouble. This being an RP server and all I would see that as being fun as opposed to a bland need for awesome loot for your character.

Right or wrong, its just greedy and mean. Personally this behavior ranks right up there with keeping loot for yourself during a quest

Congratulations! There are a lot of greedy and mean characters in efU and there always have been. And it sparks great RP. You've got a character to hate on! Do the same to her when you get the chance! Mug her when she leaves sanctuary! And please please don't be so IRL bitter that she didn't share just because it's over loot.

Any way you do it, diving phat lewt when you do the little place what we found on the floor thing always takes so bloody long.

Personally, when I collect phat lewt, I give it to the people my character believes need it the most. Like, I'd prefer to give a magical cloak to a character who is wearing rusty armour and weilding a bent spoon than that fully phat lewted up LG Paladin of Tr0M who weilds a holy avenger and already has six thousand cloaks, rings and amulets weighing him down, not to mention the Hellball 1/day item he keeps shoved up his arse.

Halfbrood Any way you do it, diving phat lewt when you do the little place what we found on the floor thing always takes so bloody long.

Personally, when I collect phat lewt, I give it to the people my character believes need it the most. Like, I'd prefer to give a magical cloak to a character who is wearing rusty armour and weilding a bent spoon than that fully phat lewted up LG Paladin of Tr0M who weilds a holy avenger and already has six thousand cloaks, rings and amulets weighing him down, not to mention the Hellball 1/day item he keeps shoved up his arse.

That's highly general, if the said paladin used protection from elements on his party members over and over, and saved someone from death, I would say the cloak could be a nice item for him, to compensate for the items he used.

I rather divide items by the contribution to the mission plus the character's needs.

I actually dont see the problem in rolling dice to divide up loot. Such methoods as well as other gambling type ones were used in real life to decide who got what involving the spoils of war and its simpler than some of the other methoods used. As for the argument of rping to get loot back when someone picks it up it can be difficult when the person logs about a minute after doing it (seen it happen once or twice admitadly it was over fairly trivial things but it can get annoying)

Maybe if you dont like the way a character behaves or how a particular person plays, you avoid them and play with someone else?

As regarding to Creamsoda and Spirrowmint, if a char insults/was unfair/stole spoils, he might got it now. But next time he will not join to the group, and my char will speak about it with others.

I think items are great, but reputation - RP is the best. Items can get lost, but when we speak about reputation, well, it's more consistant.

Actually, I see why Sparrowmint was so pissed.

The chick stole the loot without setting anyone hostile so they could deal with her AS she did it. If you're going to steal loot from your party, leave the party, set them all hostile, then steal so they have an option to stop you. Because frequently, by the time I realize what you did--and have set you hostile, you're long gone.

Of course, sometimes I'm tempted to just forget to set you hostile when you don't think things like that through.

Good point you raised, Oro.

I would think someone who acts against other players by stealing should be treated as pvp. It might not need a dm in there (Needs if NPCs are there) but the offender should set the victim on hostile ahead.

I agree with Oro in that stealing loot should be treated in all ways as initiating PvP

My quickly self-deleted post was a rant on a char who refused to roll for spoils, but then got really salty when my char beat his ass down. I left the party, set EVERYONE in the party to hostile, and gave several warnings. I didn't kill him, didn't even rob him (he used the loot he stole in his fight w/ my char). He still somehow felt cheated, and I ended up having to get a DM to tell him to lay off the Tells. I guess all I'm trying to say is, PvP is an incredibly valuable RP tool, whether you like it or not. EfU is a full PvP server for that reason. Of course you need to warn people, watch out for NPC's, and all that jazz. But don't get pissed when your "RP'd" poor strategist upsets my Red Knight worshiper and ends up on the cavern floor.

So much over something so little...gambling is gambling, if you dont like the fact that someone wants to roll the dice then like it has been said, argue over it, sure it might take longer and unless someone has a specific reason to hurry up the procedings (like having to log off) the so be it...

Pure theft is annoying when the character doesn't give a chance to react to their actions but have it out later on and mug em for everything they have!

Admittidly this this post of mine is a little weak in content but at the end of the day as long as the loot gets dished out then why worry? :D

There are four questions I ask, in every situation are these:

1. "Does this make the game more fun for other people?" 2. "Does this make the game more fun for me?" 3. "Does this include more people in what is going on?" 4. "Am I making sure that the players I interact with understand that even though my character is being mean or underhanded, that its just role play, and I am trying to have fun with them and make the game more interesting?"

I ask these questions, and I want to be able to say "Yes" to all of them. Whenver the answer is "No"- I have to back up, look at what I am doing... and make the appropriate changes. If I still can't figure out why the answer is "No", then I talk to the players and the DMs to find a way to make the answer "Yes."

Of course I make mistakes-- but its just a game-- and we are all supposed to be having fun. I don't like making people upset over a game, and arguing over loot isn't much fun.

Want some interseting plot? Let me know whats up, and we can create some kick butt situations that include a bunch of people, and make some memorable stories. (and for me, tells are just fine if you get want to "mix things up")

Lets just not fight over scraps, ok?

Spirrow, I'm sorry, but I think you're making a gross oversimplification.

Getting mugged is hardly ever fun in and of itself. "Haha, you just stole my favorite piece of equipment!" is a hard way to feel about it, and those lucky enough to feel that way are, well, very fortunate (and disciplined)! For the rest of us, the fun comes from the challenge of not getting caught in that situation, or better yet, fixing the wrong! Getting mugged or robbed by whatever means is NOT fun... but trying catching the bandit should be! There is where the fun comes in.

Your heart is in the right place, but you're looking at the situation the way your character should see it, not the player! :)

Well, if anyone is interested, when i do roll a die, it's a d6 because i don't believe underdark people are bend on ADD.

Else, i use IG tarot cards. Much better !

The way I see it, it's about the character. Of course, if it can result in RP, then go for it. But some characters just wish to avoid conflict for either being such a goody-goody or for low confidence in his own competence in combat, and roll.

Perhaps the item is not seen valuable enough to fight over. That doesn't of course mean the mighty fighter couldn't declare the item his. It means others won't oppose. They just hate you. :)

Of course things don't always lead into combat. But is your character ready to take those painful, possibly lethal blows over, say, a piece of armor?

Skrillix I personally favour the 'Take what you damn well need and resolve conflicts as they arise' method. It's great fun to see people squabble over the big piece of loot!

Pretty sure we're making a mountain out of a mole hill here. I'd say that 99% of loot distribution situations are dealt with quickly, easily and without conflict. I'd also say that of the 1% that aren't, 99% of them end up in a sweet fight where the decision is forcibly decided, much to the merriment of those who get to watch.

Rolling is fine. Even if you do it with a 1d100 roll, you won't be penalized in any fashion. Knucklebones (1d6) and coin flipping (1d12) are better. If your character won't roll, don't do it. I played a character who took what he want then challenged anyone who wanted one of the items to a fight. It's not OOC greed; its an IC course of action. On the other hand though, don't be a dick and take the +5 Hide/MS rogue's ring if you're a fighter just to sell it.

coin flipping (1d12)

Wow, what kind of coins are you using?!

They use now coins with 12 shapes, it's the newest a edition!!

Why do they use it? It's easier to make from a stone, rather making a round coin!

Shhh no one told Caddies that we stole all his gold and replaced it with twelve sided rocks... he hasn't noticed yet.

Personally i think either is fine rolling for loot can make sense when there is an item that everyine else wants and if someone wants to fight for it as long as proper rules are followed i see no reason not too.

A roll of 1d112.5 represents many rolls of 1d6.

Either many rolls or just roll of big number both does the same!

I agree that I think a coin toss should be used as it's much more common for folks in the underdark to have a two sided coin or trinket of some kind than to have dice....unless they stole them from the gambling hall.

Also I do think that fighting over loot can be fun, but its when people make that the only focus of RP that it becomes not fun.

Additionally, I do also agree with the 'if you need it or can use it and no one else can then take it' train of thought.

I don't know how many times I've been the only rogue in a group and there'll be an item that'll help a rogue only abillity like open lock or disable trap, and some bafoon wizard or other non-scout/sneak character will say that he wants them.

But again, this is where conflict can come in...which, again, is a good thing.

Though I do prefer the coin toss idea which I've seen more and more lately if there is to be 'luck' decision. I've also dueled in the arena for items that I wanted which I thought was a cool way to resolve it and still stay in character.

Remember haflings add +1 to lucky rolls ! :wink:

Do add that +1 if you do roll dice ! :D

Or is that +5% on 1d100, since it's +1 on 1d20 ?

Geez...

Using 1d12, heads would be 1-6 and tails would be 7-12. Sheesh!