Adventuring Gear

[howandwhy99]

Odd thing. The adventurers' kit is listed at 10 40. It's actually 9.5 26. Of course, I could be off on my math, but they could stuff a few more things in there I guess.

Ball Bearings are cool and not really double duty sling shot, like I first suspected. I didn't know it 'till now, but they are actually a very old construction. I thought of them as an anachronism and a gateway predecessor to a lot of modern engineering. But it's precision designed BBs, which are more difficult to come by (and more useful). Knowing they were around during the time of the Pharaohs gives me goosebumps about what I can do with them for trap design. [FYI: They might want to include marbles too (glass drops), just in case. It's both cheap, poor sling shot ammo and also easily slipped upon]

Really, any of the other options I see as options, something campaign setting specific.
1. Give a bunch of ideas.
2. Give reasons why they would or wouldn't be appropriate in some games.
3. Explain pricing in case equipment becomes more important again in some games.

There are some standard items missing. Chalk, for instance. But more importantly I'm hoping they will view all equipment as "learn by trial and error" elements of the game, like magic items are. Then some entrepreneurial PDF publisher or 3rd party (or Wizards?) who puts out a book on crafting, equipment, tools and materials can take the ratings on all of them (and any equipment forthcoming) and whatever cost/benefit schema used and improve the whole as game resources rather than exclusively fashion accessories.

 

[delericho]

Ok so the adventuring gear section tells a lot about how the game should be played. There are a lot of mundane pieces of equipment or kits, we dont care about those. We care about acid, poison, Ritual component pouches etc.

Actually, I have next to no interest in things like acid, poison and the rest - since those have a direct and immediate impact on combat, I fully expect the designers to take the time and effort to balance them properly.

Conversely, I do have an interest in the more mundane equipment, and especially as they tie into things like encumbrance, ammunition, and rations. Oh, and light sources - my (admittedly few) experiences in real-world 'dungeons' has left me with an awareness that this is a crucial issue when underground, and yet the game tends to gloss over it without a thought.

(Now, that said, I entirely appreciate that mine is probably a minority interest. For the default game in the core, the best model is probably to assume characters have default equipment, make extensive use of "Adventurer Kits" and the like, and handwave much of the rest. But it would be quite nice if they did something of a "Dungeoneer's Module" with much more emphasis on such things.)

Basically, my thinking is that mundane equipment is only of interest if it leads to interesting choices or interesting situations - if it becomes a question of carrying rations or torches, then that's potentially interesting. If the characters are down to their last few arrows, that's potentially interesting. But the encumbrance rules tend to be very (almost absurdly) generous, so that it's not a choice - characters carry rations and torches, and if their DM insists on the tracking of ammo then players will make sure to carry hundreds of arrows... and that's not interesting. (And counting coppers is almost never interesting - after that very first adventure, the PCs should have enough gold to buy pretty much any mundane items they want; the key question is instead about what they can carry.)

So, yeah, if we're going "back to the dungeon" then let's have loads of uses for chalk, and rope, and ball bearings, and whatever else... but let's also have tight limits on what characters can carry so that parties have to make those interesting choices. Otherwise, let's just fold all that stuff under "say yes", assume they've got it, and move on.

 

[Thunderfoot]

<SNIP> They also really do not (and never have) really made sense in relation to Hit Points. I would prefer them to be really nasty, but only work when you hit an opponent who is under half hit points.<SNIP>

They did in 1st edition - you drink poison, you fail your save; you die...period.
There were a couple of knockout poisons, and couple that were used for debilitation (1/2 hp) and even a couple for sickness/incapacitation, but if you were looking for damage, it was usually an all or nothing deal. But then, that was when poison, monsters, weapons, rusty nails, an errant runaway cart, a small cat or a child with a cold could be deadly.