Labyrinths and Outlands

[Emberashh]

I'm not quite seeing the "simple" and "super quick,"

The consequences of communicating the game from memory through wall of text.

Not at all ideal for this but what Im sticking with as long as big changes (like what happened this week) are still possible. Don't want to put in all that effort just to get stuck in a sunk cost volcano if I realize I need to reverberate another big change through the system. Its much easier to upend things when Im just updating an excel sheet.

In addition, some abilities occur based on the results of the 2d20.

Nope. What abilities you choose to use are up to you. 2d20 only determines three things: the base movement for the round, and your Act and React depending on how you assign the dice.

Theres multiple ways to use A/R, some not reliant on the rolls.

Which could be a Skill Action, but in that case, abilities don't count.

You get a Class and Skill Action for your Act every time. This is like always having a bonus action, though with more flexibility in how its used.

And abilities only don't count in the specific instance that you use your SA to make a Class Action, ie, attack or even defend using your weapon, armor, or magic skills. In those cases, your Class features don't apply.

If you have some feature that, lets say, doubled the value of any Armor dice you roll, and you used your Skill Action to circumvent your low React roll and try to defend yourself anyway, you wouldn't get the doubling from your feature, but you could still add your 2d20 roll to the Skill roll as a bonus.

But if your roll is a 1 and a 2, you get a movement boost.

No, thats from using your Skill Action with Conditioning (Athletics in 5e) to get a movement boost. In the example I gave, the player rolled cruddy on 2d20, and lets say they don't feel they have any good options, so they take their Skill Action and roll Conditioning for extra movement, and they can then add their 2d20 to that roll as a bonus to the check, giving them a good chance at getting plenty of movement to get out of harms way. Skills in LNO are going to have a degree of success system embedded in them for checks like this one, so any modifiers are valuable even if low.

But for any other low rolls, you can choose to save it and turn it into a bonus. Unless you get hit by something

You can choose to save it even if you rolled a nat 20 on both dice and turn that into a next-turn bonus, assuming yes you don't take a hit in the meantime. (Though you lose both crits doing this, so there better be good reason you need +40 to some roll)

The idea is that if someone is going to do nothing at all for a round of combat, its their explicit choice rather than a consequence of bad rolling.

 

[Emberashh]

Was all that for a character's one attack per round?

Good to remember a lot of that is conditional; you wouldn't be actively engaging with every single thing all at once unless every single thing happened to be relevant all at once, which wouldn't be all that often.

This was one of the big issues I was having and why it was vital to remember why players only get one attack: its simpler and reduces how much you have to deal with in a single turn.

Some classes will go beyond that (like the Warrior) and be fairly complex turn to turn, but thats intended for them. Most classes won't have much overhead in a turn outside of very specific circumstances, and the overhead they have is made as streamlined as possible.

Like with tracking your Durability and Boons; you're already going to be counting up what you rolled, so you're already actively engaging with what the dice say. The cognitive load to then make a tick mark or two and note you get your bonus isn't really egregious.

 

[Emberashh]

Been a minute. I've took a break from class design to start fleshing out more of the core system (which in turn cured the writers block I was having so that'll be fun when we swing back into that side).

For the Durability system, playtesting has lead to a key change: everything happens on the Max Die, and Durability is now basically a rolling currency you use to invoke your Boons, which now include the various physical Status Conditions different damage types and combinations create.

This keeps to the same idea and consolidates it down, and gives me more interconnection with other things.

Other developments include the decision to codify Races, which I call Bloodlines, which will be based primarily around abilities, but will also come with bonus dice you can roll when generating certain base stats.

And I finally figured a relatively unique way to do Luck, by tying it in with a Birthsign system. Essentially, Signs will give you your base Luck, and then they define the rules by which you can gain more.

Luck itself meanwhile is still ultimately a currency, but a finite one, and one whose usage has to be weighed against its impact on your Acuity, making it much less than it could be if you maintain what you have.

As to what Luck provides, however, it won't be letting you modify rolls. Instead, it'll be following more of a no, but and a yes, and approach. It still needs some design work to set it up mechanically so that people know what they can expect to get out of it (and I may change my mind on letting it affect rolls), but the idea is solid I think and meshes with what Im going for.

And currently Im deep-diving on Adventuring, which comprises Time, Travel and Movement, Exploration, and Survival, and building on what Ive already got and adding more.

Should be pretty good, and its very deeply possible Im going to end up doing my Ranger at the same time, so that'll be fun too.

 

[Emberashh]

Some thoughts on a few of the new Adventuring rules mentioned.

In other news, tonight I think I cracked the code on the whole "Getting Lost sucks ass" part, and ironically I did so by going more realistic with the travel rules for my game.

In actual wilderness navigation, theres a phenomenon called the drift error. Essentially, because even with highly precise navigation equipment or omnipresent landmarks to navigate towards, it generally isn't possible to travel and perfectly straight lines when you're on untamed terrain. You eventually drift off course and your final path, at its most precise, will be quite wiggly, and with less precision, this drift effect can be pretty pronounced, especially over long distances without course correction.

And this is something Ive actually noticed in the survival games I like to play, so its a very real effect.

So, to translate that into a TTRPG, I've started working on implementing Travel Drift as a mechanic.

The basics of how it works is that for every 12 miles (two hexes) travelled, you accumulate a Drift error of 1, which will drive you into either a leftward or rightward adjacent hex if you continue past that 12 miles.

Now, whether or not you actually travel that 12 miles or more will depend, as it will vary upon whether or not you have a specific course you wish to take, and if you have such a course, how well the skill checks go.

So how does that work? In comes the Pathfinding skill, and two particular Travel Tasks that fall under it: Pathfind and Navigate.

Pathfind is used to find efficient routes through the terrain you're travelling in, and is what provides the Party with their Pacing, which is the measure of how many miles the party manages to travel in a given Expedition turn, equal to whatever you rolled on your 2d10 skill check. However, you also gain a bonus to Pacing with a degree of success system, with your result compared to the Terrain Modifier (basically a DC thats set by region and/or Hex), up to a max of 15 additional miles if you get 10 over the Terrain mod. But if you roll even higher, every set of 5 above 10 you get reduces your drift error by 1.

You don't actually have to roll Pathfind, however, to travel. The Party could instead Meander, and just wander aimlessly, which they can do at a rate of 1 Hex per turn.

The other is Navigate, which is more or less self-explanitory. This one can't provide you any additional Pacing (though it will provide the base amount if you or someone else doesn't Pathfind; if both are used, the highest result determines your base Pacing), but it can directly impact your Drift error. The DOS here is based on being within 3 of the Terrain Modifier; come within 3, you keep your course. Roll more than 3 below the TM, you take a drift penalty of 1 for every 5. Roll above the TM, you take a drift reduction of 1 for every 5.

So, long story short, getting "lost" when you're actively pathfinding doesn't actually happen. Instead, becoming lost is simply a function of not knowing where you actually are. This can happen when you're Pathfinding, if the party travels an excessive distance without checking themselves (this is something Im still contemplating a range for), but most often will occur when leaving the other ends of places the party can't really keep their bearings in, like long dungeons, especially dense forests, etc, and is a condition to be cured by navigating your way out of it, looking for landmarks to center yourself. This Im still working on as well, but the idea will be that its a confluence of Pathfinding check (Find Bearing) and actively moving through the world. Basically, the longer you're out there lost, the more likely you will be to find your way. (As unlike hapless city folk, you'll be assumed as an adventurer to have some basic knowledge with the skill, as you will with all of them, so you can't stay lost forever...unless something sets itself against you, that is, and there will be options there. Like getting your own Wizard to shout back at the Mountain to stop bothering you just because some white-robed moron on a tower somewhere has gone power hungry)

So by setting up these particular rules (amongst the great pile of them going into Adventuring, including Exploration, Travel, Survival, and Time) this gives a lot of fodder to build class abilities on for not just the Ranger, but also the other Nature classes, as well as some choice others, like the Barbarian.

 

[Emberashh]

Some more developments on the Adventuring rules, and a small sneak at what Ive been up to with my Sorcerer.

In other news Im in deep on my games Adventuring (nee: Exploration) system, and it is getting pretty exciting, if only because Im getting a metric buttload of ideas coming off all the now codified mechanics that I definitely wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

For instance I just laid down a generalized Difficult Terrain system that has a bit more oomph to it than simply halving your movement. You not only have that, but depending on the terrain and how severe it is, you'll have an easily identifiable saving throw to make which, if you fail, not only stops you in your tracks, but will also induce a direct drain on your Energy until its restored.

For instance, say you've got some jagged, rocky terrain. That could be ruled as a +5 Composure Terrain; its difficult so your movement costs double, but then you have to make a Composure throw thats +5 above whatever your Composure is.

So lets say your CP (which is HP, fyi) is at 20 and you go through that terrain. You'd have to roll 25+ to pass the throw. The saving throw jargon basically tells you what you have to roll at a minimum on your throw.

And this is great, because it keeps with my philosophy on integration. This gives Difficult Terrain more relevancy and potential challenge in and out of combat, and gives good fodder to design abilities around.

For instance, for my take on the Sorcerer, I have a subclass named Stone Carver, and it has a capstone ability Ive aptly named Golem of Emerald Obsidian.

Basically, you draw up the earth around you and become a gigantic (and hella tanky) Earth golem. And, now, I can add to that ability the means of inducing a meaningful area denial effect. By drawing up earth, it becomes, lets say, +15 Stamina Terrain, and I could even add an additional failure effect through the ability, saying those who fail become weak to Earth and Blunt damage (the two big ones the Golem plays with, for obvious reasons).

And when I go to do the Ranger, I can easily see these mechanics looping in on both sides of it, letting them succeed more regularly at passing these checks, but also creating them and even turning natural ones against their enemies.

Oh yeah. I like it. Its an exciting time in design land for me

In other news, Ive made the decision to skip 2d10, and just stick with 1d20 for skill checks. This is mostly for unification reasons (as everything now is 1d20, even combat as its 1d20x2 rather than 2d20), but I also like that it lets me segregrate most of the resolution mechanics to 1 die size. 7Dice will still be the second one, but that has a specific purpose that 1 die can't do on its own anyway, so its kosher for me.

Another new mechanic from playtesting is what Im tentatively calling "Power Attacks". In a nutshell, instead of tracking your Mana or Stamina every single time you attack, you'd instead choose when they get used by way of the Power Attack.

Basically, each weapon or spell if you're not using a Power Attack will only deal out 1dX, no matter how many dice it calls for. And if it only calls for one die, you step down to the next lowest, and any 1d4 weapons or spells you have would simply dole out 1 point of damage.

But, by choosing to expend the Energy, you not only access the full extent of your weapon or spell, but you'd then get access to the Boon system mentioned earlier.

Done this way, low levels feel a lot better and more strategic, and as you climb in levels, and get more used to tracking your resources, you get more chances to use them, letting you shine more easily when you want to (or need to).

Also helps a lot considering Ive been collapsing the max values for the Energies a lot (as part of a general overhaul of the Skill + Attribute system in preparation for doing codified Races and the new Birthsign stuff).

Haven't had much going on on the Classes side of things (i finished the Sorcerer a while ago but its going to need to be retouched like the Martials now that the Core system is getting further codified and changed), but we're getting there.

 

[Emberashh]

In a first, heres some actual factual rules to look at, for Flight! (Ignoring that it mentions Underwater anyway lol. Very similar idea though, with some key differences)

 

[Emberashh]

Gosh where do I even start?

Been some pretty substantial upheavals to say the least, so Ill just shoot em off willy nilly.

Name Change: Name is condensing down simply to Labyrinthian. I and others kept calling it Labyrinths and so I did the thing and embraced it mostly, going for the one word Labyrinthian to still be evocative.

The Class system is being pulled back...slightly, to make more logical sense in tandem with the Skill system. We'll still be having 30 levels worth of class content, but it will be split 2/3 base class (focusing on just a Primary and Secondary Ability Chain) and 1/3 Subclass. These will still be linear but will be more tightly focused and, best of all, easier to compress down for ease of use on a Character sheet.

The (Talent and) Skill System meanwhile is embracing a sort of hybrid of Oblivion's and Skyrims skill systems, but with my unique take on how Attributes relate to skills.

In a nutshell, your Talents (Attributes) are derived from the average of 4 Skills under it, and the resulting Talent Modifier (goes up to +30) not only factors into the 4 Energies, but also serve as your Skill mod. That part was already a change from earlier, but Talents now all contribute a number of different Passives and Abilities.

As an example, lets look at Charisma:

Charisma
The measure of one's force of personality, social competence and warmth.

Your Charisma is derived from the following Skills: Provoke, Deflect, Charm, and Appeal.

Passives:
Your Charisma passively influences your capabilities to converse with others. If your Charisma exceeds the Charisma of your quarry by 5 or more, you will be able to re-roll any failed check made against them using your Charisma Skills once per conversation. If you exceed their Charisma by 15 or more, you will be able to re-roll any failed check twice.

Inspiration: Your deep connection to your inner charisma allows you to inspire your companions. For every 5 points of Charisma you earn, you gain one usage of Inspiration. You can provide inspiration to a party member, allowing them to add half of your Charisma modifier as a bonus to their next skill check that involves communication. This will max out at 6 uses at 30 Charisma, and upon reaching 30 Charisma, you will be able to grant your entire modifier to your companion's roll rather than half.

Force of Personality: Your charisma provides you the means to defend yourself against those who wish to delude you through magic or wicked words. When making a Saving Throw to resist magical illusions or the Charismatic ploys of others (such as Intimidation), you may add half of your Charisma Modifier to your Saving Throw. When you achieve 30 Charisma, you will be able to apply your entire modifier.

Done this way, Talents justify their use very, very much.

But the Skills themselves however are the really big change, though I suspected this was going to come sooner or later.

Essentially, each individual skill is going to have Perk Paths (more creative name pending) that you can choose to spend your Skill points on in lieu of an additional level in the Skill. As for what these Perk Paths will cover, Im intending to, if I can, have paths that will basically cover every "Pillar" in the game (Combat, Adventuring, Social, Crafting, Domains (!!!), Warfare), and will be treated essentially as chooseable Ability chains similar to those in Classes.

This change is going to be great not only because I think itll help appeal to a broader range of people (ie, people who like to build characters), but also add some more longevity to the game.

Not only will the need to spend for Perks help slow the overall leveling rate, but I believe it should also help keep the game going even beyond max level.

And as for why Im not just skipping Classes altogether? Because thats stupid. But also because it gives Players a means to lean into specific tropes more readily without having to construe a build first.

And also also because I just have way too many great class ideas to just, not do them justice as proper classes. Ive already covered most of the Martial ones and where they go, but have a look at the full list if you haven't seen it:

Barbarian; Beastheart, Honorbound, Wardbreaker, Pit Dog

Warrior; Knight, Arquera, Siege Master, Commander

Rogue; Duelist; Sea Dog; Assassin; Ravager

Sorcerer; Fire Caller, Stone Carver, Memetic, Luminary

Wizard; Runescar, Enthraller, Edificer, Augur

Warlock; Curse of the Mask, Curse of the Grimoire, Curse of the Staff, Curse of the Emissary

Necromancer; Path of Bones, Path of Flesh, Path of Spirits, Path of Blood

Conjurer; Harbinger of the Abyss, the Conduit, the Forgotten, of Dreams

Battlemage; School of the Dragon Clad, the Rune Fletcher, the Swear Blade, the War Glance.

Disciple; Disciple of the Palam, Ihsan, Natara, and Apostate

Mystic; Attunement of Space, Time, Mind, and Body

Bard; Tradition of the Skald, the Woadscribe, the Stringsworn, the Gamemaster.

Ranger; Shield of the Green Ward, the Renegade, the Vanguard, the Guile.

Druid; Wrath of the Blizzard, the Thunderbolt, the Dawn, Twilight

Beastmaster; Dragon Rider, Wolf Runner, Bear Keeper, Kraken Guard

Hedge Mage; One of the Rootbark, the Clawfang, the Saltwave, the Sandgravel

Paladin; Conviction of Grief, Cowardice, Mercy, and Law

Cleric; Conviction of Silence, Wrath, Courage, Justice,

And I also have the Pilgrim and Seraphite waiting in the wings but I haven't given much thought to them yet beyond the broad direction behind them as the Divine Mystic and Summoner respectively.

Meanwhile, I was initially apprehensive about leaning into Domain play, but like Warfare its something Ive managed to keep bumping up against.

But, it was also because I got and read Arora: Age of Desolation, which is a fascinating book for 5e, namely because I think this is the first time Ive read an RPG book and found myself just...agreeing so much with everything, up to and including my near verbatim thoughts on Integration in game design, which accounts for why so many wonderful modes of play seem so cut off from the modern gamer like Survival.

So, taking Aroras take on Domains (which actually aren't Domains in the traditional sense) as inspiration, alongside some rather critical directions from ACKS and OSE, Im going to be including this as a new pillar of play, accessible and integrated into the gameplay loop from level Zero.

Like the other Pillars of course, you won't have to engage with it if it doesn't fit the kind of game you want to go for, but I think if I accomplish what I want to do with it, I can't see people not wanting to go for it in general.

As for what it will look like, Ill provide a rough thesis:

With a game focused on getting out and Adventuring as the principle gameplay loop (whether its for Questing, to Gather and Craft, to Level up, to Loot, whatever), Parties will find themselves needing an essential "Hub" for their adventures, a place of respite that they can consistently return to even if already established Settlements are too far away to be reasonable.

Ergo, players will be able to establish Settlements in the wilderness; little more than glorified Camps initially, these can be grown through the attraction of settlers, the input of resources, and the careful and occasional intervention to defend against the troubles of making a home in the Outlands, from your crop failures to your Barbarian raids and even on up to Dragon and Giant attacks.

As these settlements begin to develop into true villages, and with careful cultivation od surrounding areas, even cities, the Players will be able to establish personalized Strongholds and Organizations corresponding to their class to govern them. A Warrior might build a Castle and his own personal retinue, but a Wizard might establish their own Tower and Dungeon. A Cleric a Church and Graveyard, or a Necromancer a Lair and Cult. And so on.

Each of these will not only build into the Domain play itself, but will also serve as extensions of the classes gameplay up to that point, transforming the Party into the Alliance.

The Alliance, basically, is just the Adventuring party writ grand in terms of scale, and will comprise not just of our Heroes themselves, but the armies and organizations they control. This is where the game can really shine at the level I want it to...the mythical Wars of LOTR lore will probably pail in comparison, to give an idea of my vision here.

But, as mentioned, Integration is key as is the choice to engage. At these levels you will still be able to get up to the same degree of hijinks and awesomeness even if you're disinterested in being something grander than just a really powerful Adventurer, but you'll also be able to seamlessly transfer between them. Going from fighting a War of Wrath to a personal duel with the BBEG will, if I do it right, be only natural.

In other news though, Ive also come to a decision on codifying Races, or as I will call them "Bloodlines" as part of the game, also due to inspiration from a book, this time Dungeon World. The idea of Race driving class specific abilities is awesome, and so, Im stealing the idea and elaborating on it considerably. Meanwhile, the Bloodlines themselves will be sort of symmetrical to Talents in that they'll have a Passive, but also a number of abilities that will correlate to specific Classes, the availability of which will come down to Culture considerations.

Essentially, each Bloodline will have a few cultures associated with it, and with them comes the different Class abilities.

And as far as stat considerations go, Bloodlines will provide a selection of additional dice to roll for determining your Base Energies, and some I think might provide a small die to roll for a Base Talent, which would let you push yourself beyond the basic limit of +30.

And thats it for the moment. Though just to illustrate the scale of this, heres the finalized list of Talents and their Associated Skills:

Talents:
Strength
Dexterity
Endurance
Intelligence
Wisdom
Willpower
Charisma
Intuition
Luck

Strength:
Construction Covers the the making of fortifications, buildings, complex mechanisms, etc
Mining Covers digging, breaking rocks, tunneling, gathering of ores
Wrestling Covers grappling, the lifting of heavy things, displays of hand to hand combat, knocking foes out, etc
Heavy Arms Covers the use of Heavy Arms and Armor

Dexterity:
Athletics Covers balance, maneuverability, acrobatic displays, etc
Sneak Covers stealth ability
Sleight of Hand Covers lockpicking, trap disarming, palming, fine motor skills
Light Arms Covers the use of Light Arms and Armor

Endurance:
Animal Handling Covers the care of and riding of animals, etc
Survival Covers Camp-making and other survival related needs
Smithing Covers creation of weapons, armor, and other forged objects
Conditioning Covers movement, running, swimming, climbing, etc

Intelligence:
Runeweave Covers knowledge, creation, and use of runic and/or other arcane symbols.
Investigation Covers the direct examination of objects and entities.
Lore Covers general knowledge and the recollection of facts
Linguistics Covers languages, codes, ciphers, crypt-texts, etc.

Wisdom
Arcana Covers improvised spellcasting, the knowledge of magic and how to apply it.
Herbalism Covers the use of herbs or crafted potions for the purposes of healing, poisoning, or providing other benefits.
Sigilism Covers the weaving of magically attuned staves, wands, clothing, etc.
Foraging Covers the identifying and gathering of food, ingredients

Willpower:
Tactics Covers strategic thinking and battlefield awareness, and the ability to analyze combat situations.
Leadership Covers the ability to lead armies, spurn followers, and command the weak willed
Pathfinding Covers the ability to navigate by maps, stars, landmarks, etc
Enchantment Covers the creation and use of enchanted objects

Charisma:
Provoke Covers using threats of harm or force to influence a person or creature
Appeal Covers using reasoned arguments to influence a person or creature
Deflect Covers using lies, distortions, half-truths to influence a person or creature
Charm Covers using flattery to influence a person or creature

Intuition:
Tracking Covers the ability to track creatures through examining signs they leave behind
Insight Covers the active or passive search for meaning in a person's mannerisms and words.
Perception Covers the recognition of patterns and disguised entities or objects
Meditation Covers the practice of mindful concentration to balance the mind and body

 

[Emberashh]

An addendum to the new Advancement system will be the addition of multiclassing and multi-subclassing.

Overall, how Advancement will work:

1. Players earn Skill Points by using their skills; atm, the rate is roughly 1/4, or about 25 points every 100 rolls made. Rolling 1s, 5s, 10s, 15s, or 20s gets you at least 1 SP, with 1s and 20s granting 2.

2. Skill Points can be spent instantly on Perks or on a Skill Increase.

3. Every 10 Skill Increases earned grants a Class Level, which can be spent on one of the three ability chains, or can be retained to Multiclass. A Class Level can be spent on a players Initial Class by Resting (Sleeping) for at least 6 hours.

4. To Multiclass (and multisubclass) costs double for the second, triple for the third, and so on, and this increase in cost will correlate to the order you take these in. If you take a second subclass, that will cost double, but then taking a Multiclass will cost triple. Taking another multiclass will cost quadruple. And so on.

5. To take Multiclass levels, a player must also engage in the Skill Shift mechanic. This is normally used to shift skill points around as the player desires, costing downtime for training, practice, etc. This costs approximately a day per skill point shifted, and as such, taking a Multiclass will induce a downtime cost in days equal to the number of skill points required to earn the Class Levels you're using to Multiclass.

Ie, everytime you want to add another level to your Second Class or Subclass, you'll be spending 20 days to do it. If you for some reason are on your 6th Class or Subclass, you'll be spending 60 days to do it. Multiclasses will also still be gated by Skill Reqs.

With an overall cap of 1,536 Skill Points, the most a player could have if they've managed to max out every single skill is around 2 and a half full classes, which is about right. If a character has persisted long enough to do that, they will generally be at a level where the things they face will be about as powerful.

But ultimately, no matter how many classes you take or skills you max out, you won't be able to gain more Energy than the game allows for, meaning while youll be extremely versatile, you won't have the resources to bring that versatility to bear often enough to be unwieldy. Not to mention the general unweildy nature of going that far down the rabbit hole, not just mechanically but even narratively. It might be fun to try and optimize your way towards horrendous levels of power, but that will weigh considerably on how easy your character will be to run and to roleplay as.

And its on that basis that I don't see an issue with allowing the level of insanity I just described. Theres enough freedom to allow for some creative character building (especially given the large class and subclass list), but between the cost to make it happen and its impact on fun if you try to go too far, it should regulate itself fairly well.

 

[Emberashh]

The game now officially has Fart mechanics.

I am not joking.

 

[Emberashh]

In some very recent news, I have discovered that Ive reinvented yet another idea.

My idea for Inventory management was one of Slots + Doodle based management. Essentially, you have slots that correspond to different body sections (arms, chest, head, etc) and to these you can, like in many cRPGs, fill yourself out with a variety of mix and match equipment.

And some of these, would be pouches, bags, and the like, with an inventory grid of some size, and in order to manage whats in that bag, youd simply doodle in your items (either with true doodles or even just the names), which would have an XxY size. Basically inventory tetris, but without any need to constantly fiddle with it; you'd know off-hand how many empty slots you have for whatever you might want to pick up, and so the system would rule that within a certain threshold you could just pick up and store the item regardless of whether it fits in the context of your bag. And depending on the bag, you'd have options to extend that threshold; bags with the right straps can hold down a lot of things sticking out of your bag. And indeed, some bags would have slots of their own on top of the inventory grid.

But that is more or less where I stopped with it as it seemed satisfactory for now.

But tonight, I stumbled onto a blogpost that basically describes my idea, at least the core of it anyhow, and even provided a neat way to further simplify the system by letting players define the slots on their body.

Morgan Brackish Meadows' Anti-Hammerspace Item Tracker

In Jack Vance's pulp fantasy Cugel's Saga , keeping track of your items is a big deal. Cugel the clever loses his items almost as soon as...

rottenpulp.blogspot.com

I think mine will still be a bit more involved than that version, but I do really enjoy finding things like this. It feels like vindication that Im not some lone wacko thinking up bonkers mechanics.