[Old school] I can't deal with inventory

[Neonchameleon]

This gets to the thorny question of what "OSR play" is. I imagine lots of people would agree with you, and lots of people would very much disagree.

What? A group of people who can't agree what their acronym stands for disagree on what the play is? Surely not!

And long live that disagreement and willingness to try new things.

 

[kronovan]

Ever since I saw...
"Garlic, bud 5 c.p."
in the AD&D1e PHB, I could be nothing but fascinated with the art of inventory management. I mean whoah, a bud of garlic (aka a clove) worth as much as half the cost of a cap for your head - that's some valuable herb! With the realization of its worth, I knew once my player character reached that straw-that-breaks-the-camel's-back moment, I was going to have some tough decisions between tossing my garlic bud or a lusterous gem. And then...I started to think about my other gear...

I've always enjoyed inventory management, jsut as long as my base gear doesn't prevent me from also carrying my garlic bud and a few shiney coins.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Ever since I saw...
"Garlic, bud 5 c.p."
in the AD&D1e PHB, I could be nothing but fascinated with the art of inventory management. I mean whoah, a bud of garlic (aka a clove) worth as much as half the cost of a cap for your head - that's some valuable herb! With the realization of its worth, I knew once my player character reached that straw-that-breaks-the-camel's-back moment, I was going to have some tough decisions between tossing my garlic bud or a lusterous gem. And then...I started to think about my other gear...

I've always enjoyed inventory management, jsut as long as my base gear doesn't prevent me from also carrying my garlic bud and a few shiney coins.

In a world with actual vampires, garlic is probably a highly sought-after commodity. Especially with vampire minions terrorizing garlic farmers.

In fact, where did you see it for 5 cp? I'm going to load up...

 

[Reynard]

In a world with actual vampires, garlic is probably a highly sought-after commodity. Especially with vampire minions terrorizing garlic farmers.

This is a legit awesome inciting incident for a zero to hero, vs undead campaign.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

In games about getting treasure and getting out alive, I think this is super important. What are you taking? What are you willing to leave behind?

I agree. And it could also become an issue with time - if you have to sit and seperate the copper and electrum from the gold and platinum, it COULD lead to interruptions, be it from monsters returning to their lair, patrols, even rival adventuring parties.

 

[kronovan]

In a world with actual vampires, garlic is probably a highly sought-after commodity. Especially with vampire minions terrorizing garlic farmers.

In fact, where did you see it for 5 cp? I'm going to load up...

It's in the AD&D1e Player's Handbook page 35. And there's this for the Slow Poison spell on page 46:

"The material components of this spell are the cleric's holy/unholy symbol and a bud of garlic which must be crushed and smeared on the victim's bare feet."

So, oo-oo-ooh garlic foot spread.

 

[Clint_L]

I sort of go halfways on equipment. Characters have what’s in their pack, but I basically trust them. And I can’t be arsed to count number of arrows, torches, rations unless it’s a scenario where that’s a dramatic issue. And then I just establish the nature of the crisis narratively: “after days of travel through this parched land your water is almost out. Finding more within the next day is a priority.”

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

Arguably there's no LFQW in old school D&D in the first place, given the fragility of M-Us and the ease of interrupting their spells. And the way saving throws progress, and how Magic Resistance works. M-Us get absurdly powerful spells at high level, but they don't have all the other factors in their favor which I listed.

Most of the LFQW phenomenon is from 3.x and arguably 5E. Where you get to pick your spells when you advance (arguably you did in AD&D too, but that's more ambiguous).

LFQW very much did exist in 1e AD&D. I know because I was there. It was mitigated by making low-level wizards extra wimpy so that fighters and wizards were roughly 'balanced' at mid-level rather than at 1st level, and so that the disparity at high level wasn't quite so bad.

3.x did make things worse with the "double power every two levels" conceit turning it into "Linear Fighters Exponential Wizards."

 

[Retros_x]

However, these systems treat equipment as one of the most basic building blocks of an RPG session, which, for me, is a really big disconnect.

Because these systems are about survival and decision making in dangerous environments. Equipment is a big part of that. For me the sweet spot is a system that is easy to handle and still supports the exciting parts of these decisions without going too much into details and turning into an encumbrance calculating excel-without-excel hell. So slot-based, no ammunition tracking, stuff like that. I also like only track relevant stuff. And I am always curious about new approaches and ideas to this, like resource dies for example.

 

[Swanosaurus]

Because these systems are about survival and decision making in dangerous environments. Equipment is a big part of that. For me the sweet spot is a system that is easy to handle and still supports the exciting parts of these decisions without going too much into details and turning into an encumbrance calculating excel-without-excel hell. So slot-based, no ammunition tracking, stuff like that. I also like only track relevant stuff. And I am always curious about new approaches and ideas to this, like resource dies for example.

I think I have a hard time to with the kind of decision-making where equipment is essential - I think it would usually be technical decision-making - how to scale a wall, how to disarm a trap, stuff like that. I really don't have any technical imagination at all (if I need to fix a board to the wall, I can do it, but I will ask my wife to tell me if the way I'm going about it makes any sense first ...). So I usually concentrate on social decision-making (who to trust, who to ally with and whom to fight) and figuring out what's going on in a broader sense (what are the factions here? What do they want? Wo killed XY and why did they do it?). Overcoming the mechanical obstacles is often more of a necessary chore to me ...
And rules-lite OSR systems actually support most of that broad-strokes stuff really well, that's why I'm always confused about the micromanagement of equipment, though I get what the idea is now.