How do you handle loot in your game? Yes a lot of the items they collect from slain enemies will be actively used by the party, but what about the items that don't get used? There is no currency system set up in RT like there is in DH, so what do they do with the unused 20 autopistols sitting around that are too crappy to even assign to crew usage?

Does anyone have any houserules? I was thinking about letting players use loot in a kind of barter system. Whenever you make an acquisition roll, you gain a bonus on the roll equal to any negative modifier you'd be faced with if you were acquiring the item.

For instance: If a player trades enough Krak Grenades (-10 for Rare) to equip a Regiment (-10 for Quantity) of men when making an acquisition test, he'd gain a +20 bonus on that test.

Does anyone else think this would be overpowered? Maybe to tone it down a little you only gain half the bonus. So instead of +10+10=+20 in the above example, you'd only get +5+5=+10, maybe to represent wear and tear or something.

Thoughts? Opinions? I'm tired of my players having such vast amounts of loot just sitting around collecting dust.

WhiteLycan said:

RT characters are so far above the need to loot the mundane that it is almost painful to hear of a crew that does.

My players got the speech from me: Looting is irrelevant to someone of your status. If you want a run of the mill weapon you can buy them new by the crate, without noticing any financial loss. If there is something special for you to loot from a corpse, you will know it, I will make sure you know it.

They got the picture that mundane loot is just extra weight and generally crap.

They may have crew members that will loot. If that is the case there is a possibility for a black market trade in looted goods to show up on their ship. I would handle that in a boost in morale with a reduction in crew size. More stuff for the menials makes them happy but leads to violence and unrest.

No offense but I just don't buy that. Telling someone that they shouldn't loot things because they're rich is like telling Brad Pitt (fairly wealthy) he can only have that free coke if he actually pays for it. And there's absolutely nothing at all mundane about most of the loot that can be acquired throughout a typical RT mission. If the players assault an enemy base defended by well-equipped mercenary forces (Say, enforcer light carapace and hellguns and heavy weapons) with a few force field generators, no RT in his right mind would think "I'm just gonna leave all that trash there."

I was more hoping for some constructive advice, not simply "No." My players DO loot things, so I want advice on what to do with it. I'm not telling them no. That's not my style.

. in terms of large hauls of equiptment like the mercenary force described above, a increase in the efffectivenss of their armsmen might be appros. in your first post you mention run of the mill weapons like autopistols, which, to my mind, might be worth the pc's underlings finding and repairing but shouldn't bother the PC's themselves. Black crusade has some advice on bartering rules for larger quantities, but i would give the inverse of the modifer as a bonus to profit factor if you are trying to use a good for barter. Therefore a group of twenty autopsitols would not be worth your PC's time.On a war stricken world, however, they might be worth more.

Generally, a rogue trader has somuch money he can make more money simply by having themoney in the first place e.g. they can make more money by gambling in the casino then they could make twenty autpistols in the same amount of time. It isn't that they don't want free stuff because they do, its just they have much larger fishes to fry in the same time it takes them to sell twenty autopistols.

I hope this helps.

WhiteLycan said:

I told you how I do things, that's what you asked. In my games the little things are beneath the explorers.

Explorers taking down a heavily defended base is a radically different thing from looting goons who jumped them in an encounter. That said, looting the base is beneath the explorers , the Senechal should have a team to handle that so they can focus on important things.

Picking over the bodies of common folk is, and should be, socially demeaning to someone of a Rogue Traders status, as well as his staff. From the perspective of a Rogue Trader, hellguns, light carapace, and most heavy weapons are mundane junk. Force field devices fall into that category of: The players would notice this during a fight and think LOOT!

My players quickly took to the idea that unless it's ancient, gaudy, or best quality it is junk for the menials. A common quality hellgun doesn't even register to them as being worth something.

I find in most encounters loot is of no real value. Information on rivals and enemies, locations of resources, stable warp routes, out of the way planets, asteroid fields, space stations, and trophy's for the dining room are of far more value to my players and their schemes. My players like to wreck things just like everybody, it's their love of information warfare, corporate espionage, and back room trade deals that motivates them and makes them true profit. I guess I got lucky in that I have two players who truly embraced the long/sandbox game aspect and the others just went with it and started to enjoy it.

I find that once players get past the D&D loot mentality the game becomes much more enjoyable.

If you really feel a need to account for loot, keep a simple tab of gathered resources, categories might be war gear, trade goods, and technology. Every time you feel they have gathered a suitable amount of a particular type of good, hellguns for instance, give them a point in the war gear column. When they get to 10 points they can cash those points in for a +10 to one roll that might benefit from trading a small pile of used armor, guns, and other applicable equipment.

If enemies have stuff thats relevant for our PCs we loot it and use it.
If it's not interesting for the PCs the GM decides if it's enough (in volume or worth) to give us some bonus to achievement points.

At least that's how I think he handles it most of the time.

On one occasion whe stumbled upon a well stocked medical facility and just used those supplies and machinery to add a medicae deck to our ship.

My navigator is fond of taking souvenirs from fallen enemies. Teeth of fearsome beasts, a pirate captain's hat, that sort of thing. And he's regarded as a bit weird by the rest of the party for doing that much (apart from the near-constant drinking and renegade house navigator oddness).

Unless the mundane items are in huge quantities or have some significance beyond their inherent utility, most explorers shouldn't care overmuch. It is possible to gain a reputation as a scavenger or tightpurse in the expanse, which could come to haunt them.

Umbranus said:

Wow I have no idea why I've never thought of converting the items into achievement points. Something like 5 or 10 achievement points per -10 on the acquisition modifier chart.

I'd do all this beforehand so as not to bog down gameplay, of course.

I'd also say that looting is beneath a Rogue Trader and his staff, but if it is what your players want, there's no sense in not doing something with that.

Unless the loot is in huge quantities though, I'd say it has no effect on acquisition rolls or achievement points. There is simply too much wealth represented by a single point of Profit Factor to account for some loot.

However, lets say your players loot the previously mentioned enforcer light carapace and hellguns. Keep the sets, have them refurbished and polished, and present them to the local ruler or warlord as a token of appreciation or as a gift. That way they might earn a "good will" bonus to any one influence or acquisition roll while there. And it actively engages the players in thinking about ways of gifting loot appropriately by adding a roleplay element to the process.

Is looting beneath someone like a Rogue Trader?

I'd say yes and no. It might be beneath him personally, but that does not mean he doesent have an expert team of scavengers among his crew to do the looting for him.

we have a house rule. bodies are looted by menials, and loot is catalogued by the (NPC)quartermaster. report is written and the "good stuff" is taken by the RT and co. the weps and armor are put in the armories for ship def. or the occasional imperial guard unit raised. the rest of the mundane is distributed to the crew by lottery. increases the morale of the crew by 1d5 or 1d10 depending on how much loot there is. anything that would raise the morale more than a possible 10 points is either worth the RT's attention or is in enough bulk for achievement points. the morale boost comes from the fun of gambling not so much for the stuff but that is a factor for the winners.

I'd probably say keep the personal looting to a bit of a minimum, personally. I'm not saying don't, and many players will probably want to, at least at first, but I picture Rogue Traders as picking up stuff that seems valuable, where a "standard" mission nets 3 PF, and 1 Profit Factor is already a ludicrous amount of wealth. If you happen to fight the kind of folks who have the same refined taste in weapons as you do (other RTs/retinues, high-standing ganglords, planetary governors), and you can top off your ammo, all power to you, but I'd guess most player groups aren't going to use "mundane" gear, which is what most other people use.

Now, for big hauls of goods, I could see several options available. First, you could easily have one of your investments be a store on a planet, and the goods for it, weapons and armor, could be procured by your actions, and allow for you to not have to buy them, and then sell them. Another option, if you have larger stocks retrieved, would be if you shunted the weapons/armor to some of your Peers. If you happened to "acquire" a quantity of lasguns, or some suits of storm trooper armor, even the "mundane" kind, the IG could put them to use, as could any criminal groups you are associated with. In the same way you might buy a large quantity of a good, for your own uses, I could easily see others buying them from you. Without a money mechanic, I would say that such activities puts good points toward Peer and/or Good Reputation, whether with a PDF, the Guard, various criminal gangs, etc. **** near anyone who isn't as loaded as a Rogue Trader could be thankful to have some help stocking up, whether you help by avoiding the ponderous speed of the Munitorum, or the attentive gaze of the authorities, and if you give them a discount, to get in their good graces, you are even more popular. An entrenched military unit could greatly appreciate a last-minute resuply, if their regular supply lines are crimped, while authorities could appreciate knowing that the criminals they are battling are now down some large quantity of guns and stuff. It's always nice to have legitimate chances to RP up the acquisition of important Talents. certainly most people might be saying "well, duh", but I felt like mentioning it. Keeping your own ship-based grunts stocked is smart, too.

/ramble