It's best to talk these things out before there is a problem (or even one gold looted), but you can still have a vote of what system to use after. Here's some sites with different ways to divide loot, with pros and cons: <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.aspx?x=dnd/4ex/20100514" rel="nofollow">http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.aspx?x=dnd/4ex/20100514</a> The Even Split The Random Draft Fixed Draft <a href="http://dungeonsmaster.com/2012/03/dividing-treasure/" rel="nofollow">http://dungeonsmaster.com/2012/03/dividing-treasure/</a> Equal shares Sell Everything Wish List Common Sense Roll Off Pay for Play <a href="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/bs/20021027a" rel="nofollow">http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/bs/20021027a</a> Second option presented is closest to my balance sheet system. Before this they offer splitting the gold evenly and doing draft of items. --- party fund - can be a 'share' or percentage of gold, or gold and items...share of gold and just certain items (healing wands) Missing a session and hoards...this is the one case I might interject as a DM. If you have a large dungeon where the loot is back end loaded and a player can't make it the 2nd week, especially if they give notice they are not going to be able to attend...you may want to sugest they get a share or at least half a share to show thier contribution for the previous week (when the player lets you know, not after they get the items). If there's a legitimate reason for not attending, you could always do some outside main session adventure to get them seperate loot as an alternative. Tipping - This is something a frown on. Some clerics will hold healing hostage for gold, mages won't assist with spells unless paid, etc... Each player has a party roll, are you going to start paying out gold for every damage done by the barbarian...what about the bard singing songs to assist on rolls? While each person's profession, craft, and other skills can net them thier own gold outside the party, they should not be trying to tax the group. Instead, work together for the benifit of the group and in turn each player. --- What I do, is create a balance sheet, very similar to Gauss (and mentioned in the 3rd link), but sometimes items cost more than any player can pay for in gold. Do the same steps he did... If a player takes an item more than thier group share, they can basically 'buy' out the rest of it by putting gold into the group share that splits out to the other players. If they can't afford to do this, they are carrying a debt on the balance sheet and any split from future loot until value is balanced among other players. Pro: Very fair, splits things evenly, isn't random like dice Doesn't gimp the party. No benifit to taking items you can't use just to sell, only added value to items when you can use them, so factor out greed. Con: Math, it can take a good deal of work to track all of this There's some considerations to be made of how consumables will result in lower character wealth (mages particularly) than consumable (fighters more likely to have). You might have to whisper and sneak things in there if you are aiming to keep a balance. That or nudge consumables towards the party share and provide things that are reusable daily like eternal wands and knowstones, rather than potions and scrolls. Also, while settling out who gets what from current session at the end is fine, if people start bargaining for items from previous sessions, things can get out of balance if they don't go by sell value. In a lot of ways this sets up PCs like shops. --- While roleplay is good, this is more addressed to those situations when resentment and arguments are spilling out of game. Some players actually get angry over the pretend items, not just in character. When there is actual conflict (not just role play) DMs sometimes need to mediate before it gets out of hand.
