D&D General Do you track ammunition?

[payn]

No. If it was important for some reason I’d go to a supply dice system.

 

[Voadam]

I find that usage die mechanics would often be more cumbersome than actually tracking individual arrows if you are adding a roll after each bow shot and then possibly needing to adjust your supply rating. Again with my high level fighter shooting five arrows a round five extra die rolls and possible supply adjustments would be more of a speed bump than knock off five arrows at the end of your attack.

 

[payn]

I find that usage die mechanics would often be more cumbersome than actually tracking individual arrows if you are adding a roll after each bow shot and then possibly needing to adjust your supply rating. Again with my high level fighter shooting five arrows a round five extra die rolls and possible supply adjustments would be more of a speed bump than knock off five arrows at the end of your attack.

Oh god no that’s exactly the wrong way to do supply dice. It would be at the end of an entire encounter.

 

[grimmgoose]

Depends entirely on system and setting.

In 5E? No. My fantasy superheroes don’t need to count ammo, especially since it’s likely just the ranger doing the counting.

In Call of Cthulhu? Yes. The fear of running out of ammo while facing down a deep one directly hooks into the energy of the game.

 

[Voadam]

Oh god no that’s exactly the wrong way to do supply dice. It would be at the end of an entire encounter.

You are right, that is the normal supply dice thing but there is an exception for ammo. I missed the last bit from Black Hack 2e usage die explanation after the column break and just registered the normal usage part.

LIMITED RESOURCES
AND THE USAGE DIE
When an item described has Ud and
then a number after its name, it is
considered to be a consumable, limited
item. The ‘Ud’ stands for Usage Die, the
number indicating what size die it is. For
example, oil (Ud6) has a Usage Die of 1d6.
When that item is used its Usage Die
should be rolled. If the result is 1-2 then
the Usage Die is downgraded to the next
smallest die in the following chain:
Ud20 > Ud12 > Ud10 > Ud8 > Ud6 > Ud4
When you roll a 1-2 on a d4 - the lowest
die in the chain - the item is expended,
and the Character has no more of it left.

After the column break it says:

USAGE DIE &
AMMUNITION
When tracking the Usage Die for
ammunition such as arrows and bullets,
roll the Ud after the combat is resolved.

Which changes the frequency significantly if adapting to D&D and its often multiple shots per round. A base d8 usage die set of arrows will last a minimum of 3 full encounters and an average of 9 or so? And no chance of running out in the middle of a fight.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

So for people who track ammunition in 5e, how often it actually happens that the characters run out of ammo? And if they do, how often it was just because the player forgot to announce that their character bought arrows last time they visited a settlement even though that's probably something the character would remember to do?

 

[James Gasik]

I'm reminded of all the times in World of Warcraft where raids stalled out because some idiot Hunter forgot to stock up on ammo. It turns out that some people are bad at tracking stuff like this, and in a team game, that just makes everyone else suffer.

(For those of you who don't know about the game, it was eventually changed that you no longer needed to buy arrows, likely to avoid this very issue.)

 

[tetrasodium]

So for people who track ammunition in 5e, how often it actually happens that the characters run out of ammo? And if they do, how often it was just because the player forgot to announce that their character bought arrows last time they visited a settlement even though that's probably something the character would remember to do?

Occasionally & usually at lower levels or edge case scenarios (Ie prison break)when those arrows are a big boon... -BUT- more importantly is the way that tracking them creates interesting choices due to mechanics turned victim of simplification like body slot conflicts and such.. that doesn't make tracking them a bad thing, it raises the question of value in that simplification choice.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Occasionally & usually at lower levels or edge case scenarios (Ie prison break)when those arrows are a big boon... -BUT- more importantly is the way that tracking them creates interesting choices due to mechanics turned victim of simplification like body slot conflicts and such.. that doesn't make tracking them a bad thing, it raises the question of value in that simplification choice.

I'm not sure I follow you? Do you mean tracking them would be worth it if it lead to interesting choices, but due the way rules currently are it doesn't? Because I'd agree with that.

 

[Hussar]

Vtt play means this is automatically tracked. I found it much more important to the players than me. Although, interestingly enough, if you have extended adventures with no “town” in the middle, it’s surprising how fast archer characters run out of arrows.