Looting Bodies

[wayne62682]

Had they voiced the "We would have looted" BEFORE you told them the amount, I would say you are in the wrong. One thing that really cheeses me off is DMs who know what the PCs typically do but will screw the players if they (the players) happen to momentarily forget to specifically mention something. If every single damn game for the past 3 years, my character has always checked for traps before opening a door, you're a real rat bastard if you spring a trap on me one day because I forgot to specifically say it.

However, given that they only said "But we would have looted!" after you told them it was 100,000 gold or so, I say you were right with your decision.

 

[Dracorat]

This is a case where I beleive that if the players were physically IN the dungeon in question, looting would never had gone undone.

Now, forgetting to tell you, the DM, should carry some penalty, but not the entire take. Perhaps the tooth fairy has unloaded the coins ahead of time, but the magic items are still there for them. (She does have to get a good supply of gold coins for all the children of the world, after all!)

Or something similar.

 

[Question]

Why is it a problem to ret con it? It was a simple, honest mistake. Where do we go from here?

Player : "I draw my sword and charge the ogre with my war cry!"

DM : "Oh you didnt say you were taking your SWORD with you when you left the inn this morning........"

Player : "What. The. F-?"

DM : "Oh btw you are stark naked......make a fort save for running around naked in the chilly dawn air........oh and no shoes either so make a fort save for running around without shoes.......and you havent said you have been washing your hands either so..." *roll some dices* "Congrats you got food poisoning for eating food with unclean hands!"

Or even something as simple as "I down my potion of cure light wounds!" "you cant, you havent unstopped the bottle".

If it had been the other way round, you as the DM would surely have retconned it in your favour.

DM : "The orcish reinforcements charge into the dining room, over turning the cook pot. FOOD FIGHT!"

Player : "Hey the DM didnt say the orcs were wearing anything, so they are stark naked and unarmed!"

DM : "Of course not, if they were this would be a CR 0 encounter. They are obviously armed and armored."

Player : "What happened to "If you didnt say it, it didnt happen." eh?"

 

[mvincent]

you havent said you have been washing your hands either so..." *roll some dices* "Congrats you got food poisoning for eating food with unclean hands!"

Player: ha!... I didn't say I was eating either.

 

[Jubilee]

If they had been adventuring from 1st to 15th and forgot to loot, they don't deserve the loot, or didn't really need it.

If they are new players and just settling into their characters, I'd consider letting them backtrack to loot, possibly with proper adventuring-rolls (knowledge dungeoneering or tactics, survival, intelligence or wisdom checks..) to see whether the "my character would have done that" attitude pans out. It's hard to get into the right mindset right away, especially with high level characters.

/ali

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Why is it a problem to ret con it? It was a simple, honest mistake. Where do we go from here?

Player : "I draw my sword and charge the ogre with my war cry!"

DM : "Oh you didnt say you were taking your SWORD with you when you left the inn this morning........"

Yeah, that's really the very same thing. Only complaining they didn't loot after they heard about the big wad of money and not taking your sword.

 

[Crothian]

They forgot to loot, it happens. Move on and don't dwell on it but no reason to think they should get the loot anyway.

 

[Ceska]

I think Krel did the right thing by not letting the PC´s automatically loot the stuff, but telling the players afterwards how much they forgot was not a lucky decision. Anyway, sometimes there are situations when it is absolutly okay to forget to loot. For example when the characters are on the run or in a hurry. happens.

 

[frankthedm]

Why is it a problem to ret con it? It was a simple, honest mistake. Where do we go from here?

Player : "I draw my sword and charge the ogre with my war cry!"

DM : "Oh you didnt say you were taking your SWORD with you when you left the inn this morning........"

Player : "What. The. F-?"

DM : "Oh btw you are stark naked......make a fort save for running around naked in the chilly dawn air........oh and no shoes either so make a fort save for running around without shoes.......and you havent said you have been washing your hands either so..." *roll some dices* "Congrats you got food poisoning for eating food with unclean hands!"

If you have that problem with your group, I'd recommend a fantastic invention called

The Character Record Sheet!​

With just a small amount of writing and honest bookkeeping, you too can have the gear you've fought long and hard for! 1000's of varieties are available for uncountable RPG systems.

 

[mvincent]

Yeah, that's really the very same thing. Only complaining they didn't loot after they heard about the big wad of money and not taking your sword.

It could be. A wizard's spells are similar to a fighter's sword, and I can envision the following:
Player: oops, I didn't say I was prepping spells this morning. Were we going to have any encounters today in town?
DM: Yes.
Player: Can I have my spells then? I'm certain my character would have remembered to prep them.

See: the player ask for the (reasonable) ret-con only after realizing it was going to be important.

I'm curious: how would players react if the DM said: "Some of the loot on the bodies in the previous room was cursed. Who's carrying it?"... anyone think they would say "We never said we looted those bodies!"?