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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9114019" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Diving into my old books, I've found that scant descriptions for items has apparently been the norm throughout D&D's history.  Even my 3.5 PHB will have things like "tent: two people can occupy this tent" or "winter blanket: this blanket keeps you warm".I understand that people would like to have more details; Pathfinder 1e, for example, does things like this, where you have entries telling you that your folding chair can support 250 pounds, or that a winter blanket is only big enough for one person.  How long does it take to pitch a tent, and the full benefits of the compass:"An ordinary compass that points to the magnetic north pole grants you a +2 circumstance bonus on Survival checks made to avoid becoming lost. You can also use it to grant the same bonus on Knowledge (dungeoneering) checks made to navigate underground."But at the end of the day, each DM has a decision to make for their games.  Do they want rules to govern hardships and travel challenges or do they want to handwave them?Or do they fall somewhere in the middle, and are happy not rolling dice at all as long as the player characters have appropriate gear listed on their sheets?It occurs to me that if you want to handwave, you don't need these items of equipment in the PHB at all.If you're the kind of DM that wants a piece of equipment to be vital, it's on you to add it to the game.  If you want a piece of equipment to have rules, it's again, on you to add those.Some might balk at that, but this is the "rulings not rules" edition.  I keep being told all the time that not having detailed rules for everything is a feature, not a bug.  So we get a stripped down equipment list and a bunch of tools (and skills, for that matter) with no mechanical function or clear indication for why they might/should be used, because WotC assumes only a percentage of DM's will care about these things, and those that do, can simply house rule in what they want.It's been my main issue with 5e this whole time; a decent chunk of the game is "hey, DM, make it up!".  Now I'm able to do that.  I've created my own settings and even once had a friend make me a pdf of a setting guide that looked like a real rulebook.But when I give a game company ~40 bucks for a book, I don't really want to be told "hey, make it up".  I could already do that, with the only cost being my time and effort!  I thought I was paying professional game designers to do that for me...</blockquote>

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