Question about Adventuring Gear: when players use it, would you then let them ‘keep’ what they picked out, assuming it makes sense in fiction? Like, say they used adventuring gear to get a grappling hook, could they then pick the grappling hook up, mark it down in their inventory, and just have it in future?
Question about Adventuring Gear: when players use it, would you then let them ‘keep’ what they picked out, assuming…
Question about Adventuring Gear: when players use it, would you then let them ‘keep’ what they picked out, assuming…
I always let PCs keep whatever comes from their adventuring gear, as long as they don’t use it up or leave it behind.
I thought that was in the rules, honestly.
Absolutely. That grappling hook was always in their inventory. It was just abstracted as adventuring gear.
Yes, the creators have even said that is the point of it.
The reason adventuring gear (and by extension bag of books) has charges is so you can buy equipment without having to go through the mundanity of having to specifically buy 20 feet of rope, and torches, and grappling hooks, and flasks, and snares, and a compass, and map, and so on; and so on.
I may not win popularity contests with this, but I do not pet them keep it. For me, it’s a one and done. I tell players before the game so that they know and they seem alright with it.
For me, it’s just an ease of access. It’s like 20 gold for a few get out of jail free cards. Sometimes the item makes it so that the players don’t have to roll at all, so it’s generous that way, but players inventories get pretty jammed up already, so it is easier, I think, to just mark off a use and get on with the story.
Andrew Huffaker so if they pull out a rope, and then they untie the rope after doing their task, what happens?
Unless it’s consumed in the process, I allow them to keep it until the conclusion of the adventure. At which point it “goes back in the bag” as a charge.
Oh, William Keech, that’s interesting. See, I don’t let them convert items back into “charges,” personally. I just let them keep the items, and they need to pick up more Gear if they want that flexibility again.
Alfred Rudzki I just see it as a bag of 5 “yet to be named” items that they packed before setting off on an adventure. If I were to allow them to keep the item between adventures, I might as well have them list all carried items like other RPG’s do. Otherwise, the 5 “items” become 6, then 7 then 8 etc. In short, I see keeping a list of mundane items as unnecessary to progress the fiction.
Aaron Griffin If they really wanted to keep I would let them. I wouldn’t fight it too hard, but it’s typically one and done for my players. Unless they plan on using it in the next scene or relatively soon, I wouldn’t let them untie it and put it back in their bag just to keep it.
My thoughts on this are more so about carrying the game forward without a bunch of inventory management clogging us down.
Yes, they keep it. In fact, the humble grapple gun has now become the character’s signature item. It’s been broken and repaired more times than I can count.
The alternative is it just disappearing or becoming unusable, which could happen as a result of a move, but not by default.
When they use Adventuring Gear, that item is presumed to have been in their inventory this whole time; the Players simply weren’t required to itemize that inventory.
Once the item is identified and placed into the fictional narrative, it is now in the game world.
If any of the PCs take that item along with them, they are free to add it to their inventory.
Basically – they can keep it, as fits the fiction. But they can abandon it, or let another PC or NPC take it, too.
It’s worth noting that the items likely have some weight added to Load – whoever carries it needs to account for that, too.
Load isn’t simply a measurement of weight carried; it can also be how awkward that weight is to carry. When you pull the grappling hook out of the Adventuring Gear, and then re-stow it, it now counts separately, as additional Load; perhaps you didn’t repack it as efficiently, since you were on the move?
I like William Keech’s suggestion that they can condense these items back into their Adventuring Gear as charges between adventures; i’ve never done it that way, but conceptually it makes sense.
Perhaps it even merits a move similar to Make Camp; something to stow things away, back into the ambiguous Adventuring Gear, when you have time to re-pack your gear.
The only downside i can see is that players could “exploit” adventuring gear by having a nearly inexhaustible supply. I don’t see that as much of a problem though; i frequently include a few charges of adventuring gear when someone loots a room that would have “stuff” in it.
And, honestly, if i’m gonna get hung up over “exploiting” Adventuring Gear, i should be playing a much more detail-oriented game in the first place.
Andrew Fish To be clear, I interpret uses of an Adventuring Bag as simply “pulling the item from your bag”. Once the item is identified by the player it stays listed in the characters inventory unless they use it up, lose it or discard it. They don’t get to re-add it to the list of “yet to be identified” items as a charge and use it later in the same adventure to draw a different item.
For example… Bronx the Fighter pulls an empty map case from his backpack and uses it to hold a piece of paper he found in the Wizards mountain fortress. He decides to study the parchment later and places it back into his backpack. His inventory now shows 1 leather map case containing a document and, Adventuring Gear (4 charges). At the end of the adventure they head back to town to rest and restock. He knows that the party plans to head into the swamp the next day so he repacks his backpack in anticipation of what he thinks he may need in a swamp.
As you can see, I only allow players put the item “back in the bag” as a charge or use at the conclusion of an adventure. This keeps the players from having a “never ending cornucopia of mundane items”.
In short, the players pack another 5 items in their bags before each adventure, when possible.
I read the question on Reddit. Adam said You should let keep it if it makes sense.