Okay, I suppose I should address this point. I felt it was inherent in the option itself that only people having the slightest bit of anything to do with one another (I.E., the same party) would share loot, which is why I didn't feel the particular need to put in a "Provisionally..." as The Ensorceler did. Clearly, I was wrong. In that case, I wish to also change my vote to a "Provisional yes" provided that this concept is applied. Resource distribution should be within the party only, unless you're specifically trading with another party for some reason.
Except, as I mentioned, there probably isn't going to be a clear division of "party" for many of these sessions. At this point, I consider myself in the same party as the two half-elves, Caellath, and the gnome - I don't consider myself in the same party as anybody else. I haven't even
met them yet. Do you consider me an actual member of your party? Does scriver? If we've got people who are mostly on earlier in the day and others who are mostly on later, with a person or two overlapping, I can quickly see this becoming a problem in regards to "what constitutes a party". So ultimately, I think if we do it this way we'll have to have some way to tell what a "party" is - probably an agreement among the players. I'm not opposed to this, I just don't think it's going to end up as clear cut as you seem to. But hey, if most people want us to try it out, we'll try it out.
1) This isn't your game, you have no control or authority over any player other than yourself.
I never said it was. But maybe I should specify. If
I end up unconscious in the first ten minutes of gameplay, I don't think I should feel the need to stick around and do NOTHING for what could well be several hours, because for some reason my unconscious body will be getting a claim to the loot. I don't think it's fair to players who have better things to do - you're penalizing them for logging off when they can't play if you allow unconscious characters a say in loot distribution with this system. I don't think that's fair, at all.
And I'm not arguing from a point of view of realism, but I am arguing from the point of view of
in-game sensibility. The clear, obvious one - if you're unconscious, and we agree not to give you a share, what are you going to do about it?