D&D 5E Tired of doing WotC's job

[pemerton]

Different strokes for different folks.

I'd go further: different strokes for the same folks - I can enjoy more than one RPG!

I find "equipment porn" to be off-putting in TTRPGs, but there are some people who love it in games like 3e D&D/Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, RuneQuest, etc.

See my post just upthread: I can enjoy different systems, though I think that some systems are flawed because they didn't really have the tech - eg both Classic Traveller and Prince Valiant would probably be better with BW-style abstract wealth mechanics, and Prince Valiant would probably be better without equipment lists beyond arms, armour, horse and (if applicable) finery.

To elaborate: in Traveller, the question of whether we have a length of cable, or a communicator, or whatever, is important to play, just like gear in BW. But in Prince Valiant, it simply shouldn't be part of play whether or not the PCs have a length of rope or a knife to skin the rabbit they caught. Greg Stafford was a genius, and personally I think Prince Valiant is his best game (heresy, I know - he himself said Pendragon, but I think Prince Valiant is superior), but its approach to money and equipment is flawed.

I may be assuming too much, and maybe @dnd4vr can correct me here, but I doubt that the OP's issues with 5e amount to whether or not a cloak exists in the equipment list. What sometimes gets missed in a discussion like this by people all to ready to argue the details or retort back ("feature, not a bug") is that these things can be symptomatic of larger issues or points of incongruence with the play experience.

Sure. But I'm struggling a little bit to see what the larger issue is for which the absence of cloak pricing is symptomatic, epsecially for someone who has easy access to older editions' gear and price lists.

The lycanthropy thing I can appreciate more, although it seems the MM covers more of that than the OP implies.

 

[Haffrung]

Compared to the amount of information in prior editions, 5E is severely lacking.

Some prior editions, maybe. I'd advise you to steer clear of B/X or 2E D&D if you like comprehensive rules mechanics.

 

[Oofta]

I'm reminded of a story I once heard, which I can't source and which might very well be apocryphal, that TSR once conducted a survey back when they were supporting Basic D&D and AD&D as separate game lines. They were shocked to find that a majority of DMs considered Basic D&D to be the more difficult game to run. It turned out that was because they found it more challenging to come up with rulings for Basic D&D, since it has less rules than AD&D.

Well, there is certainly a sweet spot for how many rules are enough. A game can be defined on a single page or less. You can go to the opposite end of the spectrum and require a bookshelf full of rules to run a game properly.

D&D 5E seems to have hit that sweet spot for a whole heck of a lot of people but there is no pleasing everyone.

 

[Guest 6801328]

But as we were riding the tram north, the question came up - how are we going to wrap it? and lo and behold, my 10 year old daughter had scissors and sticky tape (and heaven knows what else) in her jacket pockets.

Pure gamism. I hope you explained to her the difference between roll(of tape)playing and roleplaying.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

In a Doctor Who RPG there was a "Deep Pockets" skill. If you needed something, you made the roll (difficulty depending on the obscurity of the item). If you made the roll you are able to produce the item (or a furry jelly baby on a failed roll).

 

[Nikosandros]

I'd go further: different strokes for the same folks - I can enjoy more than one RPG!

Indeed. For example, tonight I'm running AD&D and all the characters have detailed equipment on their sheets. If it isn't written down, you don't have it. Yesterday night, I did run 5e. Magic items and special objects are tracked, but otherwise it is much more relaxed.

 

[Guest 6801328]

In a Doctor Who RPG there was a "Deep Pockets" skill. If you needed something, you made the roll (difficulty depending on the obscurity of the item). If you made the roll you are able to produce the item (or a furry jelly baby on a failed roll).

I've had similar skills in various homebrews.

I could even see a kind of sub-system, where you decide how much money you spend on gear, and that gives you a kind of "skill" in Having Stuff for the duration of the adventure. The DM then sets a DC depending on how esoteric the desired item is.

EDIT: I'll add that I recognize that some people really like mini-game of shopping for specific items. I get that. I used to enjoy that, too. Clearly one approach does not satisfy all people.

 

[Lem23]

I lke the Trail of Cthulhu version (also found in several other Pelgrane rpgs) called Preparedness - something you have in your backpack or pockets that's usually only small but useful for a particular task. No long lists of gear, just the important stuff (weapons etc), just spend / roll your Preparedness and get on with the interesting parts rather than spending precious gaming time doing your grocery shopping..

 

[Lanefan]

I'd agree that buying ear trumpets and 10' poles isn't the most interesting way that that sort of skill can manifest (I'd say planning spell load outs is probably the pinnacle of that sort of "skilled play", at least in its prep aspects) but hopefully it's not the most interesting thing that happens in @Lanefan's game!

I'd hope so too!

That said, things sometimes do get interesting when a particular piece of mundane equipment would come in very handy right now and nobody has one...

(a relatively common example is winter gear e.g. parkas when a warm-weather party suddenly finds itself in a cold environment via teleport or plane shift or whatever)

Rations and water are another mundane item the lack of which can sometimes become problematic in a hurry, especially if the party has no-one able to cast Create (Food and) Water.

 

[Magister Ludorum]

In my game we use the standard that 1 cp = $1. If someone wants something not on the equipment list, we just pull a price based on the real world. It works for us.