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| This year's RPGaDay (full text list here) |
A. It’s complicated.
I can remember pouring over the AD&D equipment lists and all the cool items, especially the magic ones, in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. I can recall being super-excited by all the different assault, plasma, gauss and other paraphernalia in the 2300AD rules and linking them back to the Aliens movie and more in my head. The Cyberpunk 2020 gear books were also kind of cool.
These days, I find the whole equipment list thing tedious and boring. I much prefer the approach taken by games like Blades in the Dark, where you pick a load-out that may trigger a mechanical effect, but can select what gear you want as things go along, and perhaps use a flashback to make it credible if you want something outlandish. Alternatively, the GUMSHOE preparedness pool is your friend; a simple dice roll to get hold of something in the event that you really need it (an approach they extended to contacts in their spy game); if you really want it, you spend more of your pool to get it.
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| Chef’s kiss to Blades in the Dark for simplicity |
I do like a good unique item, and I am fascinated but yet to be convinced on Cyphers in Numenera and beyond.
I have posted regularly on OSR games in this blog; they tend to be more mechanistic about this kind of thing, and I’ve actually ended up letting the players drive encumbrance and equipment, or adopted a simple system to manage it. Mausrítter has a lovely simple way of managing this kind of thing.
15 August 2024
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