Do you let them search the bodies, and sell the loot?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Toadkiller_Dog

And D&D. largely. "Yours by right of conquest" is thoroughly built into the game.

D&D is generally set in medieval-ish worlds where the wealth and magical technology level was much higher in the past and vast ruins full of the debris of these ancient civilisations litter the landscape. So it's both low TL and post-apocalyptic.

Certainly the early Gygaxian settings were intended to be that way and majority of imitators have followed suit (not always consciously).

[Anthony]

The basic issues with selling of loot are (a) are the PCs the legal owners of the loot, (b) what is the loot actually worth, and (c) is there someone who actually wants to buy it.

In general, if you kill some bandits and then turn the bodies in to the authorities for a reward, you'll be expected to turn in their loot as well -- though you should also expect a reward for doing so, and that reward may be scaled based on the value of the loot, or even a share of the loot. If you kill some bandits and try to sell their loot yourself, people will make the (reasonable) assumption that you are the bandits. Depending on the state of the law, this may or may not pose a critical problem, but is likely to reduce what you can get for them.

Assuming you have legal ownership, the next step is the value of the loot, which will be the original value, less any wear and tear. Weapons retain their value pretty well, armor generally needs to be cleaned and repaired before being resold, and badly damaged armor has no value beyond scrap (non-metal armors are not valueless, but are less durable, harder to clean, and heavier for their value, so they may well be abandoned).

Finally, you have to find a buyer. For this, you can either sell directly to the new owner, or you can sell to someone who will resell it (or mixtures; if you sell a collection of weapons and armor to a local lord, he'll probably keep some of it and resell or recycle the rest). You'll get more money in the first case, but it's also a lot more work, because most of the time the demand for weapons and armor is low. Again, armor is harder than weapons; a suit of armor is less likely to fit an arbitrary potential buyer, and the demand tends to be lower.

[JP42]

My favorite variant on this was the group that meticulously collected every bit of gear from their fallen foes, carted it back to town, and gave it away to the local folk who could stand to be a little better armed. Eventually had one of the PCs effectively in charge of the town militia, as he'd equipped them and trained them.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Icelander

D&D is generally set in medieval-ish worlds where the wealth and magical technology level was much higher in the past and vast ruins full of the debris of these ancient civilisations litter the landscape. So it's both low TL and post-apocalyptic.

Certainly the early Gygaxian settings were intended to be that way and majority of imitators have followed suit (not always consciously).

Yes, exactly. That's I why I brought up D&D right after quoting you - you described it exactly. Low tech, post-apocalyptic, and you can keep the stuff you find. :)

[TheCrispyBit]

Thanks for the thoughts guys.

I very much like the idea of making difficult for PCs to sell loot, I guess they could use some of it themselves. I will be running a sci-fi campaign with tightly control spaceports so, the whole idea that the guards simply won't allowed all thosed blood-splattered weapons through the gates makes sense.

I also like the idea that body searching will ellicit odd response from both PCs and NPCs. Truly GURPS seems a game full of depth, depth that D&D (particularly 4e) just misses entirely.

Chars Team.

[TheCrispyBit]

Also a further question. Do all the merchants in your campaigns sell different selections of things, or is it more of a town by town (or world by world) affair when deciding what can be bought in each different place?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by TheCrispyBit

Also a further question. Do all the merchants in your campaigns sell different selections of things, or is it more of a town by town (or world by world) affair when deciding what can be bought in each different place?

Both: If a town is big enough to support a merchant (or at least a market day) it will rapidly aquire at least token competition and/or specialization. If it isn't, then you're definitely buying directly from the tradesman/farmer/whatever, and no two people will have the same stuff.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by TheCrispyBit

Thanks for the thoughts guys.

I very much like the idea of making difficult for PCs to sell loot, I guess they could use some of it themselves. I will be running a sci-fi campaign with tightly control spaceports so, the whole idea that the guards simply won't allowed all thosed blood-splattered weapons through the gates makes sense.

Unless the loot is from an incident the guards know about (and thus being watched for specifically) the problem with getting loot past security is less likely to be the violence of its origin (blood washes off) than the lack of documentation. Your cargo manifest checks out...that's a crate of miscellaneous personal energy weapons all right...but no port of origin, no documentation of purchase...are these stolen or what? We're going to need to run the serial numbers.

Also, of course, importing small arms may be subject to various restrictions, taxes, and licenses even if nobody's bothered about the origin of the material.

Of course, there are bound to be ways around this for the determined. If it's a 'legitimate' looting exercise, you declare your booty to the appropriate authorities and after settling accounts what you get is yours in the clear, at least in the view of those authorities. And there's surely a port somewhere that doesn't ask any questions, though you can't expect to get full price there and you'd best not ask questions of the buyers either.

Originally Posted by TheCrispyBit

I also like the idea that body searching will ellicit odd response from both PCs and NPCs. Truly GURPS seems a game full of depth, depth that D&D (particularly 4e) just misses entirely.

Of course, this depends. A bunch of space pirates probably don't hesitate to go through the dead guy's pockets, or maybe they'll object if they liked the guy. Soldiers are probably okay with retrieving weapons and ammunition from the dead if you need them but may not approve of looting for profit.

On the other hand, in a civilian context looting the body is probably both offensive and criminal, even if there wasn't any crime involved in the body being there in the first place.

[Kalzazz]

Bodies may also be loot, maybe someone needs cadavers for spell components or surgical studies

[Ed the Coastie]

It also depends on the player and the character in question.

One of my all-time favorite characters started off as an AD&D thief. On his very first adventure, he acquired a Portable Hole. Since he was something of a packrat, pretty much everything not claimed by another PC wound up going into the Portable Hole; he was known for even stripping the clothing off of slain bandits and pulling down tapestries from dungeon walls. During his downtime, he would sift through the contents of his Portable Hole and clean/mend/repair anything that he thought may have resale value; when we visited a city or town with a weekly market, he would rent booth space and sell what he could. Once he dual-classed into a wizard, he made extensive use of various cantips and the Mending spell to augment this sideline. None of the items ever brought much money, but there was a regular turnover of merchandise. (His crowning achievement was selling a matched set of two dozen red-and-black uniforms along with an equal number of scimitars, shields and spears to another PC, a would-be nobleman looking to outfit his troop of mercenary guards. What he never told the PC was that the "uniforms" had originally been taken off of the bodies of a bunch of zombies, while the scimitars had belonged to hobgoblins.)

Yet another character, however, is a swashbuckler who eschews looting as "vulgar". He may take an interesting-looking ring or bracelet as a trophy, but for the most part is content to let the rest of the PCs squabble over the remains of slain opponents...and be burdened by the weight of their loot. Why would he need an entire crate of personal energy weapons or a golf bag full of magic swords? He can only use one at a time, anyway, and the one he has is not only familiar to him but is, in his opinion, rather stylish.