Loot In Spelljammer

I've been making the most of my time off to delve into the development of the setting for the NEW CAMPAIGN. For anyone who didn't already know, it's going to be a Spelljammer campaign, so think D&D in space.

One of the issues I have had in this campaign that I would like to rectify is the fair and balanced distribution of loot, particularly magic items. I didn't give much thought to it and that has lead to some characters having powerful items, some having very few, and a pool of items players can draw on which makes it much harder to balance a session as a DM, since the party has access to more magic items than intended. My proposed solution is as follows:

• Instead of finding magical items in adventures, you would find "Astral Crystals" - an ancient and powerful magical resource.
  
• There will always be enough crystals to divide evenly among party members
  
• A number (TBD) of crystals can be utilised to create a random magic item, from class specific magic item tables (So you can roll on a fighter table, and be guaranteed an item useful to your class)
  
• This could only be used to generate magic items up to Rare
  
• Rarer magic items may crop up as rumours, or be available for purchase for a hefty price
  

This idea is still in its infancy, and I'm sure there will be things I have overlooked. I still haven't come up with a good solution to prevent pooling of magic items, other than perhaps saying that generated magic items can only be used by the player that created them.

Are people open to this idea? It's going to take a lot of work to create class specific item tables for all of the classes, so I'd rather not make a start on it if people don't want to go this direction. Please respond with any suggestions, questions or ideas!

Though I like the old fashioned you find x or y I get this from a balance perspective.

Going off the only the person who created it can use it thinking which I agree with, maybe if we defeat something with an item that item then turns back into the crystals.

As well could we request additions to our tables or no?

Cheers Jack, I was also considering the reverting to crystal mechanic upon defeating an enemy. More than happy for you to request additions, I'm going to start by sorting every item in SRD I think. If it's an item like a +1 weapon, I would probably just have "+1 weapon" on the table and you can choose an axe or sword etc as you see fit

Just a thought, I'd be open to players submitting a list of the magic items they want, say 6 uncommon and 6 rare, at character creation. I would then take this, add a few other items in for a bit of variety, and make a custom rolling table for each player. How would you find that?

I'd be down for that though realistically not sure all players will have the time/interest to do it so you may have to do it for some.

Also some common items are cool, shield of expression, moon touched sword and most definitely Ruby of the war mage are all dope.

I'd allow common items on your uncommon lists. I'll make a default table to roll on, for anyone who isn't interested in making their own.

I also probably wouldn't limit the number of items you submit, as it doesn't impact the number of items you actually get.