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

[Agemegos]

I often run material in which the PCs are detectives or intelligence officers in modern or futuristic settings. Killing people is frowned on in the first place. Looting the bodies would be right out.

[Purple Haze]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

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

In my game, people usually surrender before they are dead, then there are the unconcious, but even the corpses can be ransomed. Some can be sold into slavery, if all else fails there are those who will buy them as food. (Mmmmm, mock pork!)

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

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

GURPS DF volume 2 talks about this. IIRC the suggested skills are Surgery to cut out the organs (mana organs and so forth) from exotic slain beasts, and the Hazmat skill to handle and package them.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

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.

Modern soldiers, at least if Westerners, probably won't take jewelry from killed enemy soldiers, becaues they assume the jewelry, usually a wedding ring, had sentimental value to corpse.

In medieval times, jewelry rarely had sentimental value. It was just portable, wearable bragging, to show off how important one was. You were expected to look your Status, and so there's much less sentimentality involved in lotting jewelry from a slain foe.

[simply Nathan]

To give a short answer to the thread topic: Yes.

To give a long answer: I do not like playing in the kinds of games where it is anything less than encouraged. Beating an enemy in a game and not taking his stuff is like roleplaying well and completing your mission without being awarded experience points in my book.

And while it is at best tangentially related, making a character pay earned discretionary points for things he acquired in-play using his other abilities always seems wrong to me (buying Wealth when you get some fat loot or else it all gets confiscated, buying Reputation with points when I earned it through action, that sort of thing). Of course, I kinda hate social traits other than Signature Gear and certain Perks.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Brett

I often run material in which the PCs are detectives or intelligence officers in modern or futuristic settings. Killing people is frowned on in the first place. Looting the bodies would be right out.

But of course, any documentation they have on them is evidence. So searching is still worthwhile.

[Ketsuban]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans

buying Wealth when you get some fat loot or else it all gets confiscated

I seem to recall a Kromm post about this, but I can't find it right now.

Wealth isn't just having that much money - any sensible set of rules for trading points for money show the point-value of "just money" is low. It's also about having the financial wherewithall not to fritter it all away overnight. If a low-Wealth PC comes into money, they're likely to throw it all away on hookers/gigolos, horse races and blackjack rather than invest it and do what actual rich people do with their money. If you want them to be fiscally responsible so that money stays where it is and accumulates interest, then you spend the points to buy Wealth.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Ketsuban

I seem to recall a Kromm post about this, but I can't find it right now.

Wealth isn't just having that much money - any sensible set of rules for trading points for money show the point-value of "just money" is low. It's also about having the financial wherewithall not to fritter it all away overnight. If a low-Wealth PC comes into money, they're likely to throw it all away on hookers/gigolos, horse races and blackjack rather than invest it and do what actual rich people do with their money. If you want them to be fiscally responsible so that money stays where it is and accumulates interest, then you spend the points to buy Wealth.

Only that makes there be two possibilities: competent investor and spendthrift idiot. No way your character could, say, just hold on to the currency. Because nobody ever does that...

[Ketsuban]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

No way your character could, say, just hold on to the currency. Because nobody ever does that...

I doubt most peoples' ability to stuff money under a mattress and then never spend it on anything, otherwise what's the point of having money? But anyway, if they hold onto it but don't use it to earn interest, then spend discretionary points to gain money (not Wealth) as you would during chargen. (Of course, a good GM would just hand the points over because you probably did something to acquire said fat loot...)

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by johndallman

But of course, any documentation they have on them is evidence. So searching is still worthwhile.

Sure. Call the Shooting Squad, Professional Standards Unit, and a scene-of-crime unit, have the bodies photographed, bagged, taken the the morgue, stripped, and autopsied, and the effects inventoried, bagged separately, and entered into evidence.