As GM, I don't want a PC to fire 27 arrows when his quiver really only holds 18. I don't want a PC to fight through half a dungeon using a shortsword and a shield, then pull a two-handed sword that he has no method to carry easily outside of his hands.
These are persnickety details that GMs think about (maybe not all GMs) and players hate that any attention is shot this way at all.
I look at it as part of the challenge of the game--supplies, food, weight, encumbrance, what you have in your hands, etc. I try not to bog the game down with it, and I sometimes use this stuff to help a player really visualize his character.
I mean, an RPG character shouldn't be akin to a computer game character--like those in Skyrim that can swim in their armor and carry 27 different types of swords in their backpack.
So, the question becomes, "How do you manage the bookkeeping without bogging down the game?"
At first, I started my current campaign using a piece of paper for each character, calling it an equipment sheet. Then, I switch to a piece of paper that broke up equipment by carried location.
I found both of these systems lacking. As equipment comes and goes, gets damaged, and the like, the players make an awful mess of these sheets. I always felt like I had to "get onto" my players to take the last loot haul list and separate the stuff to the various characters in the party.
Then, I had the "bad" idea of taking this out of the players hands and keeping it myself. This runs across my grain, though, because, as GM, I've got enough to keep track of, and the players should do their own housekeeping.
Finally, I remembered a system that I used with a Classic Traveller game years ago. The system worked like a charm--so good that I can't believe I forgot to do something similar with my current game.
What I did in the Traveller game was have one sheet of paper per piece of equipment. If players traded or lost equipment, they simply took the required sheets and passed them around. Stuff left on the ship? They gave whatever it was to me?
I found that playing equipment this way gave the players a much bigger appreciation for all the stuff each character carried. Looking at a stack of paper to be placed in their PC 3-ring binders felt like a lot of stuff. If the equipment had a special modification or was damage, you just noted it on the sheet. Some sheets had a lot of info on them, and some had next to nothing.
I don't know I didn't remember this when I started my current game.
So, now, I'm using index cards. Each card represents one piece of equipment. If a character loses his boots, then I take away that card. If a dagger is lost in a fight, then I take away that card. If a player gives his PC's favorite necklace to another, the card is transplanted from one PC folder to the next.
This game, I'm using these plastic file folders with a zip lock pocket on the front. Character sheet goes in the main folder area, and these equipment index cards go in the pocket.
One time, PC got hit with a breath weapon, and I was looking to see which of his equipment would suffer. The player simply pulled out his equipment cards and arranged them in front of himself as if tacking the cards onto a stickfigure, so it was real easy to see where his equipment was hit.
I think this is a pretty good system, but I posted it here to invite other ideas.
Do you have a good system for tracking and placing equipment?
These are persnickety details that GMs think about (maybe not all GMs) and players hate that any attention is shot this way at all.
I look at it as part of the challenge of the game--supplies, food, weight, encumbrance, what you have in your hands, etc. I try not to bog the game down with it, and I sometimes use this stuff to help a player really visualize his character.
I mean, an RPG character shouldn't be akin to a computer game character--like those in Skyrim that can swim in their armor and carry 27 different types of swords in their backpack.
So, the question becomes, "How do you manage the bookkeeping without bogging down the game?"
At first, I started my current campaign using a piece of paper for each character, calling it an equipment sheet. Then, I switch to a piece of paper that broke up equipment by carried location.
I found both of these systems lacking. As equipment comes and goes, gets damaged, and the like, the players make an awful mess of these sheets. I always felt like I had to "get onto" my players to take the last loot haul list and separate the stuff to the various characters in the party.
Then, I had the "bad" idea of taking this out of the players hands and keeping it myself. This runs across my grain, though, because, as GM, I've got enough to keep track of, and the players should do their own housekeeping.
Finally, I remembered a system that I used with a Classic Traveller game years ago. The system worked like a charm--so good that I can't believe I forgot to do something similar with my current game.
What I did in the Traveller game was have one sheet of paper per piece of equipment. If players traded or lost equipment, they simply took the required sheets and passed them around. Stuff left on the ship? They gave whatever it was to me?
I found that playing equipment this way gave the players a much bigger appreciation for all the stuff each character carried. Looking at a stack of paper to be placed in their PC 3-ring binders felt like a lot of stuff. If the equipment had a special modification or was damage, you just noted it on the sheet. Some sheets had a lot of info on them, and some had next to nothing.
I don't know I didn't remember this when I started my current game.
So, now, I'm using index cards. Each card represents one piece of equipment. If a character loses his boots, then I take away that card. If a dagger is lost in a fight, then I take away that card. If a player gives his PC's favorite necklace to another, the card is transplanted from one PC folder to the next.
This game, I'm using these plastic file folders with a zip lock pocket on the front. Character sheet goes in the main folder area, and these equipment index cards go in the pocket.
One time, PC got hit with a breath weapon, and I was looking to see which of his equipment would suffer. The player simply pulled out his equipment cards and arranged them in front of himself as if tacking the cards onto a stickfigure, so it was real easy to see where his equipment was hit.
I think this is a pretty good system, but I posted it here to invite other ideas.
Do you have a good system for tracking and placing equipment?
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![[OMENRPG]Ben](/data/avatars/m/6677/6677983.jpg?1565264961){kind=avatar}
