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Searching Your Inventory: Finding that Silver Bullet
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7511757" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>There are (at least) two aspects to this: the structure of gameplay; and the fiction.</p><p></p><p>From the structural point of view, an "inventory" is a suite of player-side resources that is accrued over time, with a significant amount of GM influence over what's in it. This gives it a different sort of play dynamic from other sorts of player-side resources. Discovering that you've chosen the right spell, or seeing a new potent combo of (say) a feat and a class feature, is enjoying your own cleverness in building. Finding a useful item in an equipment list, or finding a use for something unexpected, has a more adversarial and puzzle-solving dimension to it, as it's making something useful out of stuff that you didn't get to choose.</p><p></p><p>The fiction aspect probably has two sub-aspects: playing the fiction cleverly; and creating memorable fiction thereby. The last time I remember this sort of thing happening is a while ago now: mid-Heroic PCs in a 4e game were in a flooding room with the only exit about to close, and one of them pulled out a random magic mace that had been found and stored away for a rainy day and used it to wedge the door open. (The same mace was later lost in a river crossing accident.)</p><p></p><p>The one I remember the best is from nearly 30 years ago: in a Rolemaster game a PC had had his arm severed and was bleeding to death. The players (and their PCs) knew where a healer could be found who could treat the injury, but he was some distance away. The injured PC was a two-handed sword wielder, and the players were joking that he'd have to change to longsword. "Don't I have a spare magic longsword somewhere, from that fight with so-and-so?" one of them said, and looked down his sheet. "Oh yeah, there is it - you'll be able to use that," "What's its bonus?" "Well, let's see - it's a +5 sword [RM is a percentile system] and it's got a Teleport rune on it."</p><p></p><p>At which point a more immediate solution to the situation presented itself!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7511757, member: 42582"] There are (at least) two aspects to this: the structure of gameplay; and the fiction. From the structural point of view, an "inventory" is a suite of player-side resources that is accrued over time, with a significant amount of GM influence over what's in it. This gives it a different sort of play dynamic from other sorts of player-side resources. Discovering that you've chosen the right spell, or seeing a new potent combo of (say) a feat and a class feature, is enjoying your own cleverness in building. Finding a useful item in an equipment list, or finding a use for something unexpected, has a more adversarial and puzzle-solving dimension to it, as it's making something useful out of stuff that you didn't get to choose. The fiction aspect probably has two sub-aspects: playing the fiction cleverly; and creating memorable fiction thereby. The last time I remember this sort of thing happening is a while ago now: mid-Heroic PCs in a 4e game were in a flooding room with the only exit about to close, and one of them pulled out a random magic mace that had been found and stored away for a rainy day and used it to wedge the door open. (The same mace was later lost in a river crossing accident.) The one I remember the best is from nearly 30 years ago: in a Rolemaster game a PC had had his arm severed and was bleeding to death. The players (and their PCs) knew where a healer could be found who could treat the injury, but he was some distance away. The injured PC was a two-handed sword wielder, and the players were joking that he'd have to change to longsword. "Don't I have a spare magic longsword somewhere, from that fight with so-and-so?" one of them said, and looked down his sheet. "Oh yeah, there is it - you'll be able to use that," "What's its bonus?" "Well, let's see - it's a +5 sword [RM is a percentile system] and it's got a Teleport rune on it." At which point a more immediate solution to the situation presented itself! [/QUOTE]
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