Dragon kill points Dragon kill points ( usually abbreviated with the acronym DKP ) designates a kind of currency which is earned by participating in endgame raid s and spent by acquiring loot from endgame boss es . The term DKP is also frequently used to designate raid - level loot system in general . The most popular systems for endgame loot distribution are point - based ( and thus DKP systems ) . The very first endgame loot distribution system was developed by the guild Afterlife in 1999 and named for the original two EverQuest end bosses , both of whom were dragons . Creating a DKP system gives an example of how to build a DKP system from scratch . EQ origins . From EQDKP - About : DKP automation . Most guilds using a formal loot system will use a website to communicate current standings to their members . There is a plethora of ways to do this ranging from simple lists updated manually , to highly tailored full - fledged graphic mods . When setting up such a system it helps to keep it simple at first , and not to get carried away with fancy features and time - consuming projects . The technically simplest method of dealing with DKP is to just have a list on the guild forums or a flat html file in which the standings are manually updated . The disadvantage of this solution is that there will be no item history , and it ' s not easy to do fast searches while raiding . Updating can also be time - consuming and error - prone . If a simple system ( like Suicide Kings ) is used , this approach may still be appropriate . The vast majority of raids though use some ingame mod to collect data , and a website with a database to display the statistics . These DKPSoft systems need some time to set up , and a little learning on how to use them , but offer a lot of nice features , and are quite safe and simple to use . The most popular such systems are eqDKP , eqDKP Plus , bbDkp , nDKP , AutoDKP . Most are PHP / MySQL based , thus need a website supporting that . eqDKP is something like a gold standard , the grandfather of all such systems . It is rather well documented , and sports support forums on its website . It ' s not a bad idea to simply start there if there are no specific reasons to use one of the other systems . A recently popular dkp system is called GDKP or originally created as Perfect dkp which is essentially a zero sum gold exchange system . A Project ( namely eqDKP Plus ) with extended Functions and as well supported Games has evolved from eqDKP . It has an included Raid Planner , Boss Progressing Graphs , an Importer for Raids from WoW and supports many CMS and Forums to login with the same username . If you wish to integrate your DKP within a phpBB3 forum then you can use bbDKP , includes multiple dkp pools , multiple guild support , headcount & ct _ raidtracker import , bossprogress , automated guild application template , bbTips plugin with item , itemico , spell , quest , achievement tootltips , Guild roster with Armory update . Games supported : WoW , Aion , EQ2 , Lotro , FFxi Some live DKP standings examples : There are also addons that use Officer / Public notes to handle DKP . As such DKPs are tracked in real time and everyone has the latest standings readily available , in the expense on not being able to handle DKP tracking for people outside the guild : And there are also systems that don ' t use the Officer / Public notes , but keep their own storage mechanism : Scientific research on DKP systems . Meanwhile , the economics of MMORPGs in general , and the loot distribution systems in particular , have become the subject of scientific research . Notable articles include : , general article about the origin and some basic variants