pming
Legend
Hiya!
Yes and Yes.
We play Hackmaster 4e when we want to play "1e+". In it, armor/shields have Hit Points. As you take damage, HP's come off of armor/shield. When all the HP's for that "AC" are depleated, it is reduced in AC and you get HP's for that. So, basically, higher AC armors (like Plate Mail, Banded, Field Plate, etc) can go through a lot of damage before they become "not worth their weight". We haven't played HM in well over a year now, so my memory is fuzzy on the particulars. At any rate, with that sort of HP's listed for armors, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to just give HP's to many other items. This, however, would probably become a book-keeping nightmare!
...which leads me to my system...
In my system (which, btw, I don't use for D&D), it is called "CPAGMEL" ("See-Pag-Mel"). That is an acronym for Crap/Poor/Average/Good/Masterwork/Exquisite/Legendary.
Unless otherwise stated, everything a player buys is "Average" quality level ("QL"). No adjustments. "Poor" quality is generally a "10 to 25% worse than average, and costs about half as much as Average QL". When you get down to "Crap" quality, you are at most "50% of average, and costs ranges from 25% down to free". "Good" gives you "about 25% better, at +50% the cost of Average QL". The other, better, QL's increase this 'average' and 'cost', with Legendary being, IIRC, "about 300% to 500% better, and costing at least 100 times as much, with no upper limit".
Now, when something may affect equipment, it is based on how "destructive" that something is to some particular item. If it is deemed to be pretty destructive, and no precautions were taken by the PC, then the GM just announces "All textiles, like clothing, bedrolls, backpacks...anything made of leather or cloth...is reduced by 1 QL". So, if the PC's are slogging around in a saltwater swamp for a few days, and nobody has taken care of their stuff (either deliberately, or because they don't have the required expertise and/or equipment/tools), that's all there is to it. All that stuff is reduced by 1 QL. So Average drops to Poor, Poor down to Crap, and Crap pretty much just falls apart. That said, the GM can opt to limit reduction to certain QL's or lower. So, for example, if the PC's did take some care, saying "Before we go to bed we make sure to dry our stuff by a fire and apply some leather-oils from our armor tool's box; I have Leatherworking and she has Tailor". Then the GM can say "Ok, any QL of Good or better isn't reduced, and an Average QL item can be saved on a Skill Check" (or whatever QL he deems makes sense).
Repairing items back to their original QL is possible. The chance and capability is limited by those with enough experience/skill (my system is a Skill based one). So a Leatherworker with a Skill Level of 8 may be able to repair items up to QL of Good, but Masterwork would be beyond his skills, and repairing all the way up to Good would be difficult; only repairing to Average would be easier, and repairing up to Poor would be really easy.
Anyway, yeah, CPAGMEL works great for "quick and narrative-style play". Most of the time, items don't really degrade. But it's one thing that players need to keep in mind if they start venturing into harsh conditions (e.g., just heading off over a desert without knowing how to care for weapons, armor, and other equipment that would be degraded by the dry, hot sun/air and the never ending sand/dust...is almost certain to mean reduction in QL for appropriate equipment). Also, with this "fast and loose" story-based system it lets us bring a bit of "mundane reality" to our fantasy game. Helps bring everyone down to earth, so to speak. When the epic wizard finally gets into town, he looks like he's been traveling for weeks...his boot's have holes in them, his cloak is tattered, his robes are frayed, his backpack only has one strap holding it on his shoulder, etc. It opens up lots of RP possibilities because that epic wizard still has to 'interact' with the common folk of the world (re: "Kind sir, could you point us to a reputable trader? Seems our journey has taken quite the toll on our clothing and equipment"....which is much better than "Uh, GM, I cast 'Mending' on everything before we go to bed").
YMMV.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
Yes and Yes.
We play Hackmaster 4e when we want to play "1e+". In it, armor/shields have Hit Points. As you take damage, HP's come off of armor/shield. When all the HP's for that "AC" are depleated, it is reduced in AC and you get HP's for that. So, basically, higher AC armors (like Plate Mail, Banded, Field Plate, etc) can go through a lot of damage before they become "not worth their weight". We haven't played HM in well over a year now, so my memory is fuzzy on the particulars. At any rate, with that sort of HP's listed for armors, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to just give HP's to many other items. This, however, would probably become a book-keeping nightmare!
...which leads me to my system...
In my system (which, btw, I don't use for D&D), it is called "CPAGMEL" ("See-Pag-Mel"). That is an acronym for Crap/Poor/Average/Good/Masterwork/Exquisite/Legendary.
Unless otherwise stated, everything a player buys is "Average" quality level ("QL"). No adjustments. "Poor" quality is generally a "10 to 25% worse than average, and costs about half as much as Average QL". When you get down to "Crap" quality, you are at most "50% of average, and costs ranges from 25% down to free". "Good" gives you "about 25% better, at +50% the cost of Average QL". The other, better, QL's increase this 'average' and 'cost', with Legendary being, IIRC, "about 300% to 500% better, and costing at least 100 times as much, with no upper limit".
Now, when something may affect equipment, it is based on how "destructive" that something is to some particular item. If it is deemed to be pretty destructive, and no precautions were taken by the PC, then the GM just announces "All textiles, like clothing, bedrolls, backpacks...anything made of leather or cloth...is reduced by 1 QL". So, if the PC's are slogging around in a saltwater swamp for a few days, and nobody has taken care of their stuff (either deliberately, or because they don't have the required expertise and/or equipment/tools), that's all there is to it. All that stuff is reduced by 1 QL. So Average drops to Poor, Poor down to Crap, and Crap pretty much just falls apart. That said, the GM can opt to limit reduction to certain QL's or lower. So, for example, if the PC's did take some care, saying "Before we go to bed we make sure to dry our stuff by a fire and apply some leather-oils from our armor tool's box; I have Leatherworking and she has Tailor". Then the GM can say "Ok, any QL of Good or better isn't reduced, and an Average QL item can be saved on a Skill Check" (or whatever QL he deems makes sense).
Repairing items back to their original QL is possible. The chance and capability is limited by those with enough experience/skill (my system is a Skill based one). So a Leatherworker with a Skill Level of 8 may be able to repair items up to QL of Good, but Masterwork would be beyond his skills, and repairing all the way up to Good would be difficult; only repairing to Average would be easier, and repairing up to Poor would be really easy.
Anyway, yeah, CPAGMEL works great for "quick and narrative-style play". Most of the time, items don't really degrade. But it's one thing that players need to keep in mind if they start venturing into harsh conditions (e.g., just heading off over a desert without knowing how to care for weapons, armor, and other equipment that would be degraded by the dry, hot sun/air and the never ending sand/dust...is almost certain to mean reduction in QL for appropriate equipment). Also, with this "fast and loose" story-based system it lets us bring a bit of "mundane reality" to our fantasy game. Helps bring everyone down to earth, so to speak. When the epic wizard finally gets into town, he looks like he's been traveling for weeks...his boot's have holes in them, his cloak is tattered, his robes are frayed, his backpack only has one strap holding it on his shoulder, etc. It opens up lots of RP possibilities because that epic wizard still has to 'interact' with the common folk of the world (re: "Kind sir, could you point us to a reputable trader? Seems our journey has taken quite the toll on our clothing and equipment"....which is much better than "Uh, GM, I cast 'Mending' on everything before we go to bed").
YMMV.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
