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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenada" data-source="post: 8956949" data-attributes="member: 70468">RPGs should include what they need to create the kinds of experiences they intend to have. Blades in the Dark uses stress and load management to increase the pressure over the course of an adventure, and deciding how to engage with those things involves making interesting choices. Managing inventory in “modern” games is rarely compelling because it’s tedious (adding up all those pounds, coins, or even bulk) and has very limited effect on the game. It’s there because it’s traditional — preceding editions have those things, so subsequent ones must have them too; but the effect usually is you go a bit slower (and the rules are often rigged so that only happens in extreme cases). It also doesn’t help that the assumptions made regarding the “adventuring day” are poor at best.Pathfinder 2e does a bit better job of this than 5e, though its implementation still kind of stinks. I really like what Kevin Crawford does in his games (Stars Without Number, Worlds Without Number, etc) with System Strain. You can (and are assumed to) be at full HP going into a fight, but you still have to be careful with your System Strain. I also like how Torchbearer visually manages inventory. There’s no math. If you have an item in your pack, you right it on the line under your pack. If you move it to the pouch on your belt, you erase it and write it in the pouch on your belt. If you had little tokens for items or cards, you could handle that visually (e.g., allocating and managing your dice in Roll for the Galaxy or the cards comprising your inventory in Middara). These games have been a big influence on the attrition model I use in my homebrew system (items, inventory, stress, HP, and MP).Obviously, for some games, that kind of resource loop doesn’t make sense, and they shouldn’t have one even if its presence is traditional. Consider the style of curated, story-driven campaign that’s popular. The resource loops they have should be focused and aligned with how people are actually engaging in those campaigns. Instead of having rules for inventory or spell resources people ignore (because they’re feeble or don’t matter in practice due to encounter nova-ing, etc), orient them towards the actual unit of play. Perhaps have they could have session-based or adventure-level resources that need to be managed, or they could provide ways to recharge resources that involve making trade-offs during the adventure (sort of like what PF2 tries to do with focus spells and out-of-combat healing, but the time cost would have to be an actual cost in practice).</blockquote>

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