ZEITGEIST Requisitioning gear in a potential 5e conversion for ZEITGEIST?

Magical gear is not as critical in 5e as it was in PF and 4e, and there's far less of an 'economy' to it. I'm trying to think of how to handle it in a potential 5e conversion.

The Simple Option
Each PC can requisition one item of each of the following tiers that is equal to or lower than their Risur Prestige. Consumable items can be replaced once per month. Otherwise, items can be returned in order to get another item of the same tier, though delivering the item usually takes a day.

Prestige 1 - Mundane consumable items, such as alchemist fire or holy water.
Prestige 2 - Items off Magic Item Table A in the DMG
Prestige 3 - Items off Magic Item Table B in the DMG
Prestige 4 - Items off Magic Item Table F in the DMG
Prestige 5 - Items off Magic Item Table C in the DMG
Prestige 6 - Items off Magic Item Table G in the DMG
(And after adventure 9, the party can pick off table D or H, which would be items they command the nation to craft for them.)

Additionally, the party can call in a favor to get one item of a tier one higher than their Prestige. A member of the party must make a Charisma (Persuasion) check (DC 8 + 2 per level of Prestige the item requires + 2 per previous extra item granted in the past month) to get access to the item. As with normal Prestige, the party can normally only request one favor per day.

The party is expected to turn in items they recover in their missions in a timely fashion (i.e., between adventures), but gifts can be kept.



The drawback of this simple system is, well, it's simple. I'm not sure if I'm giving the PCs *enough* items; take the adventure they're on, and that's the most items they'd be able to have at a time. That seems low by D&D 4e standards, but it might be fine for 5e.

And there's not a good way to equate the new magic items we've created for the adventures with items on those tables. I guess we could say "This item counts as a result from Magic Item Table F if the party wants to requisition it."



The "Ryan Does a Lot of Extra Work" Option
We'd add a new NPC to serve a function like Q in the Bond movies, who comes in at the start (and/or middle) of each adventure with a suit of items the party can choose from. We'd customize the items so they're all useful in the course of the adventure in one way or another. This is a cute gimmick, but I'd still need a way to let PCs hold onto items they recover, because players like having their magic items.



What do you think? Any other suggestions?

In my 4e experience, requisition system stopped working around the end of adventure 3 due to extreme Diplomacy score of more than one player. That 50 men police force in adventure 5? They could have summoned it by themselves with almost 100% success. I'm not sure how optimized can Charisma check be in 5e, it's just a thing to take note of.

Perhaps you can use "virtual" treasure hordes for requisitions? Imagine that before each adventure RHC "finds" some treasure from tables on pages 137-138, players (or you, behind the scene) roll some dice, and that decides how many magic items will be available for RHC agents this time (perhaps split in several stipends). Every time they find something in the field, they must bring it back to RHC, as usual, or it will be deducted from the next stipend.

I like the simple option for prestige purposes. I've been running a 5e zeitgeist game I converted recently, but I got rid of the Prestige system altogether as well as the background themes. I turned the backgrounds into Factions (DMG pg 21), use Renown instead of prestige points, and converted the prestige classes' abilities for each background into boons that the Faction grants at various levels of Renown. They can call in favors from said Faction, practically using the same method for calling in favors as written. Probably put more work into this than most DMs are willing to try. As far as item requisition goes, our group just has an understanding that the RHC only 'sells' magic items to constables when they actually 'need it'; they will not sell a 1st level party rare or even uncommon items, but mundane items are fine whenever. It basically mirrors the Magic Item Rarity Table on pg 135 of the DMG as to when they can requisition certain magic items, though I do like the idea of using the magic item tables better now that you've mentioned this. What I have been struggling with though is Stipend. I've just been guessing as to how much stipend they get at each new level. I converted from the Pathfinder version and just giving them half the recommended amount each level since 5e PC wealth is far under 4e and Pathfinder. So far it's been fine, but the PCs are only 3rd level at the moment.

First your ideas are good

Now personally whenever the group I game with have ties to an certain a government, a lawful Organization or unlawful Underworld ties and need to requisition equipment or gear the DM at the time has made us either make a relevant check to obtain said item for a fee or with the stipulation that it needs returning at completion of the mission... or the lovely times of illegally obtaining said equipment or item

Normally, the DM would award from a pre-selected list of equipment, items, and treasure that would be made up from the Treasure tables of the Core book before the mission and post-mission clean-up i.e. looting the dead.

Then once we returned we could sell the obtained equipment, items, or treasure to local merchants for currency and the occasional running tab with the armor, alchemist or weaponsmith that would be depleted as we needed things from the store... afterall no NPC merchant will have 10,000 GP laying about their store