D&D General Huge Equipment Lists: Good, Bad, or Ugly?

[payn]

A weird question in that D&D with magic the answer is usually, "equipment lists? Where were going we dont need equipment lists..." Though, many other games I play, such as Traveller, the equipment lists become important becasue there is no magic shortcut. Also, exploration is more in demand of game time than D&D tends to be. However, I think about my favorite D&D which happens to be PF1. In many senses equipment and magic are intertwined in that edition so much that equipment lists make a lot of sense.

So, I guess, as usual, the answer is depends.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Casters have the same access to equipment lists as martials.

oh that's what i forgot to mention, there would be simple and complex(martial) classifications of equipment/gear, the latter would require a dedicated proficiency to use properly, a proficiency that would not be easy for spellcasters to get.

 

[Lanefan]

I think where you get into trouble with this is when lists contain things that should obviously be useful (ie tents) but then have no actual rules for that usage (in 5e DnD, there's no such thing as good sleep or bad sleep.)

It's not just that there's no rule for it, there's no encouragement for DMs to just use plain common sense, as in:

DM: "It's raining, chilly, and a breeze is starting to blow. If you don't have a tent or other means of shelter you won't be getting enough rest tonight to recover any spells or hit points."

Of course, this is also the edition that lets you sleep in armour, so I suppose I shouldn't get my hopes up too high.

 

[kigmatzomat]

This is an interesting question. I haven't seen this yet, but does 5.5 still have the list of equipment with a mirror and a 10' pole? Matt Colville had a great video about how the equipment list from 5E was a relic of earlier times, and I definitely agree. I assume everything is still there?

Hey! We used those last session!

The warlock used the mirror to look around corners in a demonic temple.
And the paladin's collapsible pole blocked a door in a hallway without using spikes.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I prefer having mundane equipment needed for basic functionality in a field to come in kits with all the things you need to do that thing at the level the game expects you to. ...
Now, it can on occasion be cool to have specific equipment that goes above and beyond the standard stuff. The adamantine drill mentioned above would be a cool example.

The "tool kits" were a great thing. While I loved Aurora's Catalog, it was bonkers.

Exceptional items are fine as long as there's a clear utility. In 5e Adamantine is a magical material that loses its specialness in an antimagic field so these are magic items. (Not my rule, I find it weird)

I love the idea of the adamantine drill...but how is it different from using a battle axe to open a door? Is it quieter? Faster?

 

[Pedantic]

The "tool kits" were a great thing. While I loved Aurora's Catalog, it was bonkers.

Exceptional items are fine as long as there's a clear utility. In 5e Adamantine is a magical material that loses its specialness in an antimagic field so these are magic items. (Not my rule, I find it weird)

I love the idea of the adamantine drill...but how is it different from using a battle axe to open a door? Is it quieter? Faster?

Getting an adamantine dagger to break through walls was absolutely a 3e thing. Adamantine explicitly ignored hardness, which meant you could deal direct HP damage to any material, so you could chip your way through anything given enough time.

 

[Blue]

I don't think there's a universal answer, I think it depends on the goal of the equipment list.

Many SF games have exhaustive equipment lists, full of all sort of high-tech goodies. So behind the curtain is that credits (or whatever they call their money) is a stealth part of character advancement math and you can get a lot of cool stuff.

D&D 4e is the same way, if you combine the mundane equipment and magic item lists.

D&D 5e on the other hand does not default that way - magic items have no price, so gold is for mundane equipment, and outside armor improvements the first few levels is not a part of the math of character advancement - it doesn't change numbers on your character sheet.

Spy games are usually full of various gadgets and stuff, but they are also usually based somewhere near realism so you need to have a wiretap to use it, etc. But sometimes they have an interesting relationship with money, for instance the (80s?) James Bond 007 game had all sorts of things from the Q branch, but you couldn't buy them, just get assigned them. So they were temporary superpower boons the GM would hand out for the current assignment.

On the other hand you have games like Blades in the Dark, where as part of it's "we've already planned" conceit you only say if you are bringing a light, normal or heavy load, and equipment is with you in a undefined state until you use it. Basically, it's the flashback equivalent of stocking for a heist. But the equipment available in the first place is mostly dependent on your playbook, there are no generic equipment lists.

 

[Horwath]

3/3.5e went overboard with huge amount of +1/+2 bonuses from various stuff, but it did give players another dimension for character creation and later mission preparation.

books like Ultimate equipment 1&2 or Arms and equipment guide gave huge amount of options to make your character a gadget man.

To have answers to a lot of situations that does not default to "magic" like in 5E.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Big equipment lists are good, but having one means also having to at least vaguely wave at enforcing encumbrance rules in order to prevent characters from carrying entire department stores in their backpacks.

Those two things do tend to go hand in hand, but I am there for it. My current enormous houserule document started as a massive consolidated equipment list from every relevant source I could find.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think where you get into trouble with this is when lists contain things that should obviously be useful (ie tents) but then have no actual rules for that usage (in 5e DnD, there's no such thing as good sleep or bad sleep.)

So people are either just rp-ing "of course I want to sleep in a tent and not just a blanket" (which didn't need a price and weight to handle, since they just wouldn't do that if either aspect was an issue) or they're playing the game and realizing that a tent is a waste of money and encumbrance.

This is why I prefer games where such rules do exist.