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DKP, Loot systems and Your Guild
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By Black Label
August 2008
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To begin, Dragon Kill Points (usually abbreviated with the acronym "DKP") designates a kind of
currency which is earned by participating in endgame raids, and spent by acquiring loot from endgame
bosses. The term DKP is also frequently used to designate raid-level loot system in general.
In this article I will go into the depths of DKP systems and which one would be right for your guild.
When setting up a guild, one of the most important aspects of guild management is loot distribution.
Many guilds have been disbanded and dissolved due to loot arguments. Loot distribution should be as
fare as possible. For this we look at the two most commonly used DKP systems, The Bidding System
and the Fixed Price System.
The Bidding System
The Bidding System is where members attend raids and when loot drops, members interested in the
loot sends a message to the loot distribution officer with a bid of their chosen amount. However, the
bid sum cannot exceed the amount of DKP points said member has earned thus far. When everyone is
done sending their bids, the loot distribution officer then awards the item to the person with the highest
bid, and records the amount of DKP spent on the item.
I have found two problems with this system. One, members will end up paying a different amount of
DKP for the same item. Two, there are situations where members may forge agreements to inflate the
bid on an item due to discontent for a potential member bidding.
Despite the flaws many guilds around the world still use this simple system.
The Fixed Price System
The Guild Leader or Loot Distribution Officer goes over the list of items that may drop from all
applicable raids, and assigns a value to each item. After the group has defeated the encounter, and it is
time to distribute the loot, the Loot Distribution Officer requests that members send him/her a tell
informing that they are interested in the item. When all requests are sent, the loot distribution officer
then checks the DKP list and determines which member has the highest amount of unspent DKP, and
awards the item to that member and records the value of the item and who looted it for use with
awarding points for said raid.
Example: Bob has 135 points. Fred has 147 points and Joe has 69 points. The item is awarded to Fred
due to him being the highest DKP holder interested in looting the item.
Pricing Items
I recommend that you do not price each individual item and instead do it like this;
Tier Two Items – 10 DKP
Tier One Items – 7 DKP
Non- Tier Epics – 5 DKP
Non – Tier Blues – 2 DKP
The better the item, the more DKP it is. It’s simple, it's easy, and it's fair.
Awarding DKP
Whatever system you choose to pick, awarding DKP is just as important as the system you use. How
will members be awarded DKP?
- Will they get DKP for showing up on time?
- Will they get DKP for every hour they stay in the raid?
- Will they get DKP when a boss/encounter is defeated?
This is how I would design my system;
- Everyone that shows up on time gets 1 DKP
- Every hour in the raid/instance each member still in, gets 1 DKP
- Every time you defeat a boss/encounter each member gets 2 DKP
- When the raid/instance ends every member gets 1 DKP
- Any member with bad behavior gets 2 DKP subtracted
- Any member kicked from the raid gets 5 DKP subtracted
- If you do raid sign-ups - anyone that signs up and doesn’t show up should lose 1 DKP
You’re probably thinking … Holy ****! How do I keep track of this!?
There are many add-ons that help you keep track of adding/subtracting, I found a bunch at www.
curse.com
Instead of doing that, I tend to do something a little more different. I print out a roster of the guild
(every raid) and I circle the people at the raid. Everyone that shows up on time gets a +1 (or whatever
you give to members for showing up on time) and a +2 for every boss defeat etc.. At the end of the
raid go into EQDKP and add DKP to the members. It requires a little more dedication but it’s accurate
and I know everyone is being awarded properly.
Some guild hosting sites that come with a DKP system are;
Guild Launch – www.guildlaunch.com
Guild Portal – www.guildportal.com
DKP System – www.dkpsystem.com
The program called EQDKP can be found here – www.eqdkp.com
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