Palegoldenrod

When you are in game, sometimes (usually near a boss) you will find a chest, like the one shown below. When you hold your cursor over it, your cursor turns into a cog, indicating that it will take a little time to open the container. Now listen carefully n00b guys and gals, there are a few things to think of here.

If you are partied (grouped with other players)

Regardless of the loot settings that your party is using, chest opens are not governed by the Need or Greed system. Only one person can open the chest at a time, and the first person who opens the chest can take everything if they want.

When the chest is empty, it will disappear and maybe in a while respawn somewhere else, with different random contents. With that in mind –

1. Don’t even think about the chest until the mobs (monsters) nearby are all killed and you and your group are safe.
2. Don’t just walk over there and open it, even when the mobs are killed!

Type /roll (just like you type /p to start talking to your party) and hit enter. It will cause the game to roll dice for you, producing a number between 0 and 100. Your group members will do the same, and you should wait for them to do so. Once everyone has rolled, the person with the highest number will go and open the chest.

If you aren’t sure if you won the roll or if everyone has rolled, ask politely. Your group will tell you if you have won.

If you do win a chest, take whatever you like. If there is something in there that you don’t really need but you know that someone in your group could use, you can do one of 2 things: either loot it all and trade it to them (free or at cost, its up to you); or you can close the chest and leave those items in there, then let the person know about it.

When you close the chest and there is something still in there, another person can open the chest and take their turn (usually in order of the /roll). The chest will only disappear when it is empty.

If you are soloing (by yourself)

If someone else is killing monsters around the chest when you get there, then, like that age old fight over a parking space, it is theirs. If you both arrived at about the same time, then its up to you whether you want to negotiate with that person (ask if they want to roll for it, or duel maybe) or if you want to be rude and jump in before them.

So if you follow these general rules and play nice then people will love you, and nice things will happen.