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

[Clint_L]

The Dungeon Crawler Carl books take the unlimited inventory play style to its absurd conclusions.

I like a relatively thin list. A lot of things players can just say they have, and we’ll adjudicate the circumstances for what makes sense. Anything exotic would need to be accounted for, and the situation will change what they can have. Are the carting it down the road, or climbing a mountain? Swimming?

 

[Aldarc]

I generally find that most equipment lists in WotC-era D&D feel pretty "obsolete."

For all the OSR criticism of WotC era D&D as "the answer is not on your character sheet," I have seen so many players not even look at their equipment list of things they bought as a "solution" to the given problem. Most of the time, equipment is so easily ignored and never comes up in games that I have sat at in one way or another.

 

[Oofta]

The Dungeon Crawler Carl books take the unlimited inventory play style to its absurd conclusions.

I like a relatively thin list. A lot of things players can just say they have, and we’ll adjudicate the circumstances for what makes sense. Anything exotic would need to be accounted for, and the situation will change what they can have. Are the carting it down the road, or climbing a mountain? Swimming?

Much like we don't need 10 different versions of pole weapons, we don't necessarily need a lot of miscellaneous equipment. If someone wants an adamantine auger to drill a hole through dungeon doors, I'll just make up a cost based on what's charged for adamantine weapons. Same as I've been doing for several editions now on the rare occasion it comes up.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I agree with @Aldarc that most equipment is unnecessary for 5E characters, because PCs get so many character features from their class, species, backgrounds etc. that there are very few adventuring bonuses you might "need" from equipment (and most magic items while we're talking about it.)

In low and mid-level AD&D the characters had barely any functionality that worked on a consistent basis, so having equipment for some mechanical heft was a godsend. But that was then and this is now. If you can now find a pit trap by just having a Passive Perception, rather than needing to tap the ground in front of you with a 10 foot pole... that shows us why we don't have 10 foot pole on our equipment lists anymore.

 

[Riley]

a limited amount of supplies means that there are a lot less tools for a non-magical character to fall back on to solve problems. Sure, a crowbar might solve a lot of problems, but there are going to be times when you'll want long-handled thieves' tools, grappling crossbow bolts, signal arrows, dog pepper, or weaponblack and when you reach for it, you find it's not there.

On the other hand, I remember in my 2e days when it felt like there was always that one player who couldn't live without half the contents of the Complete Thieves' Handbook plus Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue stuffed into their Handy Haversack and was constantly coming up with MacGyver solutions to problems.

I feel seen.

I loved that kind of resourceful problem solving in dungeon crawling campaigns as a young adult in the 1980’s to early 90’s. Probably still would.

But most people I have played with since have preferred a lot more fluid storytelling and heroic campaigns, so I’ve adjusted to play the game everyone else wants to play.

 

[TiQuinn]

I like larger equipment lists for old times sake but no one needed that many halberds.

 

[Li Shenron]

Good. The more mundane, non-magical useful options the better.

 

[SteveC]

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?

 

[Azzy]

I like big lists and I cannot lie.

That said, I understand how they are not new or casual player-friendly. But I think something like ye olde Arms & Equipment Guide would be great.

 

[jmartkdr2]

It depends on the game genre. It’s less important for superhero games since most super-gadgetry should have special rules to enable it. It’s more important for fantasy adventuring and, to some degree, historical adventuring (like Call of Cthulhu), particularly when well away from shops and services and you have to be self-sufficient.
But, if there are extensive equipment lists, everything should have a fairly clear use and effect. Torches, flaming and electric, provide light. Tents protect people from rain and wind and can enable sleep in those conditions. Lock picks are necessary for picking locks, shovels and picks for digging efficiently. I’m not saying everything should have a carefully defined rule for exactly what it’s good for, but it should be obvious or relatively uncontroversial if it isn’t defined.

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.