Three Quick Equipment Tips
"You were carrying what this whole time?"
From Mark of the Pixie
Equipment
I don’t sweat the little stuff. Characters have signature items (gear they have paid XP for), wealth (a bonus they can use to get little stuff as needed, see below) and possibly a few personal items (which may give a +1 or +2 bonus to one thing). Otherwise, I don’t bother recording or tracking it and just use common sense.
This works fine, but I have few dungeon haul games, and treasure is rarely the point of a game. Some of my games the PCs have not picked up new gear in several years of regular play. It’s a very different approach to most D&D style games.
Supplies
I don’t bother to track supplies. I may say, “If you are going to cross the desert you will need more supplies,” or “After six days at sea, the supplies in your life-raft are running low,” but I don’t bother to specify quantities of food or water. It’s a motivator, but exact details are not important.
In tight situations, the successes on a PC’s survival roll or hunting roll gives how many people they can feed that day.
Shopping
I handle this backwards.
Characters can buy the ability Wealth, which gives them a bonus +2 to put into any items once a game. It must be reasonable, available from shops and able to have been with them all along (“Where were you keeping the 16′ ladder?”).
A character can spend Wealth over the course of each session, either all at once or in bits as they need it.
For example, I could spend +2 wealth to get a sword that is +1 attack, +1 defense (total=+2) that lasts the rest of the session, or I could get +1 dagger and later buy climbing gear +1. At the end of the session anything bought with Wealth goes away.
It is highly abstracted, but it means I do not need to track coins, regular equipment or other minor stuff. Just Signature items (stuff bought with XP) and current Wealth bonus. If the PCs find a big treasure haul, I give them a big one-off bonus to Wealth (which carries over games until they have spent it all).
