hey, just picked up the game and am going to be starting a campaign soon and have a quick question. how does loot distribution go? like if they find a treasure chest or something? I know in D&D it's randomized with dice rolls, but I see nothing in the books about how to do it? is it all GM planned on who gets what and when?

Okay, so... a few things.

First off, I'm disappointed to learn the D&D randomizes loot. Truly and wholly disappointed. If I once knew it, I have forgotten, and so now have another reason not to play the game.

Secondly, as with most systems, Anima sees both its GM and Players as mature-enough to distribute loot fairly, or at least fairly in-character. Monsters tend to not carry around gold or items, though there may be some precious materials to be had from killing, say, a dragon (like its head, or its heart, or its hide), so, in general, players are given 'loot' as a reward from actual people, or by finding it in chests and whatnot. As always, what's found is up to the GM.

Thirdly, and this is just a pet peeve of mine, but people shouldn't be looting in general. Killing a soldier and then stripping him of his gear is so... silly most of the time. Unless it's a part of the character's culture (like it has been in some cultures), or is done en masse after a battle in a war, it's simply an excuse for people to pick up stuff to sell later and that's not how heroes live. Given how most people view the dead (and the bodies left behind), defiling them by rooting around their pockets for their purse is generally seen as bad form. Again, not everywhere, and not all the time, but in general it bothers me that the first thing people think about after killing another living being is what sort of loot they can get off the body.

You may or may not have been talking about looting dead bodies, but I wanted to bring it up because it bothers me. Personal thing.

tl;dr: It's just like real life. If five people find a pot of gold, they decide how to divvy it up.

Most games assume that the GM will decide the available loot, and Anima is no exception. Unlike D&D (which was right to derandomise loot in fourth edition) if you find the Vorpal Sword (+5, +30vs Jabberwockies) it's because the GM put it there for some, probably story driven reason. This can backfire if a GM is stingy with loot, although awesome gear isn't as much a requirement as it is in D&D and a warrior can use the same sword for his entire career. With enough points in forging, access to materials, and a source of magical knowledge for spellcasters a party never needs to loot anything they don't want to.

In general I expect PCs go leave most equipment on the enemies they defeat, at the most taking rations and money. Of course, they always seem to carry 5 spears and 2 Arquebuses each back into town, so I'm going to start applying weight limits properly.

Thirdly, and this is just a pet peeve of mine, but people shouldn't be looting in general. Killing a soldier and then stripping him of his gear is so... silly most of the time. Unless it's a part of the character's culture (like it has been in some cultures), or is done en masse after a battle in a war, it's simply an excuse for people to pick up stuff to sell later and that's not how heroes live. Given how most people view the dead (and the bodies left behind), defiling them by rooting around their pockets for their purse is generally seen as bad form. Again, not everywhere, and not all the time, but in general it bothers me that the first thing people think about after killing another living being is what sort of loot they can get off the body.

You may or may not have been talking about looting dead bodies, but I wanted to bring it up because it bothers me. Personal thing.

Okay you make a good point if your referring to more modern day warfare. But if your talking about in general I would say your wrong. Think back to the renaissance or dark ages, sure your knights and nobility they probably wouldn't be stripping their dead foes for loot, but on average your gonna have your grunts and or mercenary soldiers that were notorious for doing this. As for PCs being heroes, well thats up to the PC if they want to act like a hero then they can. In my games my players tend to be more like mercenaries, they are hired to do a job, they do the job and if their is any other gain to get, they go for it. Sure you gonna have that one player that is high and mighty who is a hero that is against it, but not all always.

Okay you make a good point if your referring to more modern day warfare. But if your talking about in general I would say your wrong. Think back to the renaissance or dark ages, sure your knights and nobility they probably wouldn't be stripping their dead foes for loot, but on average your gonna have your grunts and or mercenary soldiers that were notorious for doing this. As for PCs being heroes, well thats up to the PC if they want to act like a hero then they can. In my games my players tend to be more like mercenaries, they are hired to do a job, they do the job and if their is any other gain to get, they go for it. Sure you gonna have that one player that is high and mighty who is a hero that is against it, but not all always.

Oh, I know. I know that not every group is full of heroes (and most shouldn't be). I even know that it's not "high and mighty" to not want to loot someone you just killed. But I also know that even most non-heroes are the sort where looting a body is just so out of character that it shouldn't happen, but it's done because "that's what you do in these games." Your mercenaries sound like they're in it for the cash and, I'll admit, in my Iron Kingdoms game I loot anyone and everyone I can because the Resistance needs it. There's a difference though between looting when and where it makes sense and then the vast majority of characters and situations which don't fall into those categories. Heck, in Anima most of the time it's a waste of time for players to even try and root around in pockets because most people aren't carrying more than a handful of Gold Crowns (if that) in the game anyways. Even nobility is better served by keeping most of their money and precious materials elsewhere. And monsters? Pah. Lagors don't need to pay for their child's tuition. You find more gold and more worthwhile gear by accident or behind locked doors than you do searching bodies (at least if Gaia is run the way the books portray it).

So, yes, there are times and places and characters and specific situations that one could call out, but in general looting doesn't improve the game or the player experience unless the GM goes out of her way to make it worth the while to loot constantly. Not saying I don't make it worthwhile on occasion, but usually I give some indication that it would be worth searching this one particular fellow for something valuable, because sometimes people do have something like that on them. As a general rule though, looting is something that players don't need to do in most games, and so I discourage it as a standard practice.

I'm saying, I suppose, that the desensitization of PCs to murder is not something I like to see most of the time, and so I'm very glad for my current group of players that take such things a bit more seriously. One nearly had a mental breakdown when she almost killed someone. It was beautiful.

Looting soldiers, sure, they're probably not doing that. But a group of bandits that have accumulated some decent jewelry or treasure in general, I'd say they do.

Also, even in games like D&D (pathfinder is my preferred crawler, but that's not the point) at some point the party stops looting 'fodder', it's just not worth the time, effort and weight to do it. Someone who has the safety of his hometown isn't going to be dragging 30+ longswords back, unless those 30+ longswords are also magical.

Lol, in some of our games, we've donated more powerful gear than sold it. Because a) it made sense for the plot (helping our hometown), and b) it was just easier than worrying about finding someone who would buy all that crap.

More to the point, in the 2 Anima games we've played, set in Gaia, after about lvl 2-3 we stopped worrying about the random enemies gear as 'loot'. We worried more about if the sergeant had a special weapon, or if one of them was wearing field plate, etc.

Anima as a whole is less gear dependent, even weaponmasters, who practically NEED gear to do their thing, and weapons/armor we quickly learned were either marked, so the average shop won't buy gear the Inquisition has used (for example, bad one, but you get the drift) or they just didn't sell for enough to make it worth it. A lot of times too, we fled from truly dangerous combats, and had 'parting shots' dropping enemies, so we weren't able to collect the gear.

Anima is a game more in the vein of games like Shadowrun, World of Darkness, Unisystem, etc. Where 'gear economy' isn't part of the primary design concepts (granted Shadowrun does have a different kind of 'gear economy', but I'll get to that.)

In games like D&D, mechanically speaking, the Gear is part of the game. The basic idea of games like D&D is; adventure, fight monsters, delve dungeons, get loot, rinse, repeat.

Games like Anima care somewhat about loot, but there's a finite ceiling. Money stops mattering, because at some point you can't BUY the good stuff, you have to find it or make it yourself. Even then, the tone of the game and what they say in the book is essentially you can't really buy the stuff you need for the good stuff. (can't pop over to my local smithy and buy some Malbolgium, or whatever dragon bone is called). Shadowrun is similar. Guards in the runs you're doing aren't going to be carrying stuff you want all the time, even then, your goal may not be to take them out and steal their stuff. Even further, even if you do, it may not be worth fencing it. Easiest goal is to build up your character's funds through jobs, and buy what you want/need. Even then, other than playing a Decker, heavy guy, or cyber guy, there's not a ton of 'stuff' you need to buy. (magic characters need supplies, but foci are typically prohibitively expensive)

They're more organic, they flow in the concept of acquisition. You quest FOR something, not come across something. You look for the ancient sword, or other item. Magic items aren't as common as water, and magic armor is rare too. Anima is 'dark fantasy' for that reason, and D&D is 'high fantasy'