The Little Stuff

[Water Bob]

What would a Que-Shu warrior on Krynn carry? A Cimmerian Barbarian? A half-elven ranger in the wood near Greyhawk? A thief jumping from shadow to shadow in the streets of Sanctuary at the blackest hour of night?

I'm not talking about the "usual" equipment like armor and weapons--or even specific clothing. I'm talking about the stuff that is usually skimmed over when describing an NPC--stuff you might find on a downed enemy if you rifled through his clothes.

This type of stuff comprise the details that make the game that much more "real" for the players. A little bit of this when a players says, "I'm looking over the dead goblin, checking for pockets, purses, or anything tied to his belt. What do I find?" can go a long way to making a game go from "OK" to "Fantastic!".



Let's consider your average, everyday Cimmerian Barbarian for an example. I would think a character like this would carry little, and if he has stuff on him, it's probably things like:

-- a coiled length of fishing line with a hook carved from bone and tied to the end.

-- flint, steel, tinder.

-- maybe a ring, armlet, bone/stone/leather necklace, or some other like jewelry.

-- a coin or three, most likely from Aquilonia.

-- maybe a dried, skinned pelt of a small animal. Probably rabbit or fox. Easy to carry and ready for barter.

-- maybe a homemade knife, carved from deer antler.

-- maybe a precious stone, not "cut", but chipped naturally from a node in the earth. These could be more like chips rather than bigger nuggets. Emerald, ruby, diamond are decent examples.

-- small pieces of metal, possibly a belt buckle or buttons taken from a downed enemy. Metal is scarce in Cimmeria. Anything that can be melted and re-forged might be valuable to the right people.

-- a horn, to signal or call prey.





That's what is coming to my mind. Have you any other ideas?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I go into all of that for my PCs ans major NPCs...but not so much for the rank & file.

The reason: over time, I find most of my players simply don't care. Sure, doing that once or twice to give them a feel for what a "Red Hand Cultist" might carry, but after one such reading, the players simply don't want to hear it.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

What all real avdenturers and explorers carry: a towel.

 

[Water Bob]

The reason: over time, I find most of my players simply don't care. Sure, doing that once or twice to give them a feel for what a "Red Hand Cultist" might carry, but after one such reading, the players simply don't want to hear it.

Absolutely. I think its only important if a PC asks. If the PC doesn't ask, then whatever was on the dead hobby might be transferred to the dead ogre that they kill in the next encounter.

And, like you said, if you've established what an opponent carries--or the type of stuff, but not necessarily the exact stuff--then you can just reply, "You find a silver ring, three copper pieces, a jewel hilted dagger, and a few odds-n-ends of usual stuff," to the player when he asks what he finds when he searches the corpse. They'll have an idea of the "few odds-n-ends", and if they need something, they can ask for it: "Is there any fishing line included in those odds-n-ends?"

Also, there's nothing wrong with making up stuff on the spot, ad-lib, not worrying about it unless a PC asks.





In my game, I'm trying to make the game world more "real" and interesting to the players by being more descriptive about things.

Instead of 3 battleaxes being recovered from among the dead, they might find two, fairly plain, no frills, simple, but servicable battleaxes. They look mass produced. One, though, has a pine handle and filligree design on the blade. "Pine handled you say? Why such a soft wood? Why not oak? And, what's this design"

Leads to red herrings and interesting thought--and just makes the game world smell and taste more real.

If my player's PC picks up a normal dagger off a corpse to replace the one he lost, I don't want it to just be a "dagger". I want to make them distinctive, as they woud be in real life. With three to choose from, one would be the medium length dagger with the horn handle. The other has the longest blade, but the point is chipped off, and it has a lacquered bone handle. The last has an ivory handle, wrapped with wire, and a gem--or a piece of glass (skill check)--on the end of it. It's got a small, brass guard and a short blade.

Mechanically, the GM knows that all three daggers are the same, stat-wise.

"Which dagger do you take?"

What the player records on his sheet is that he now has the irvory handled dagger with a short, straight blade. Not just your generic "dagger".