With input from Yochai Gal and a few other members in the community, I’d like to present a mockup of some alternate takes on Load, Rations, and Coin.
Generally, the consensus about these subjects in Dungeon World (and Worlds of Adventure) is that they aren’t always relevant or necessary, or that they bog the game down in too much busywork for little reward. In the interests of hearing more about your thoughts and what does and doesn’t work, we’d like to hear what you think!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_-qs1cyq5nCBnpd_IiAimxgvvkaPwIIa
I really like this. The new GM Principle is very cleverly written and makes sense in the narrative. I like Simple Rations it eliminates a small element of bookkeeping. I like the new Encumbrance move as well but it can probably be edited to: “You can only shoulder the weight of three Bulky items at a time; when you try to carry more than three Bulky items, you are Slow and Clumsy. The following items are Bulky. ■ Items with the Bulky tag (e.g. Plate armour). ■ More than 10 uses of Adventuring Gear. ■ 10 Wealth (or for every 1000 coins). ■ Objects that are not meant to be stored and carried –
boulders, people, ladders, etc.”
I like it, and curious as to how my players will take to it. It further abstracts the abstracted, which does make for more time adventuring and less time ‘accounting’. My only worry that may come up at my table is less and less granularity (not bad, but sometimes granularity can be nice for some people).
I’m not grokking the distinction between wealth and coin. Especially since you have to spend wealth to purchase something (according to Supply).
I was expecting something more along the lines of you have a wealth level and anything readily available that costs less than that wealth level can be procured (with no bookkeeping). If it costs more than your current wealth level you can still buy it but it reduces your wealth by the difference between the cost and your wealth level. A paying job or treasure would increase your wealth level by one or more.
I read it as a much grainier type of bean-counting than coins. 1 Wealth = 50 or so coins. (that’s a rough guess, please pardon me if I’m off.)
I think it’s an idea with some potential, though D&D is historically a bean-counting and resource management game. The main limiting factor of how long you could stay out in the wild was always your supplies. It will be interesting to see how this works.
Same as +Nick Nunes said. I fail to see what Wealth differs from coins except being lower number.
Encumbrance could benefit from better writing. Mod suggested by Brandon Mila is a step forward. I had to read the passage 3 times because I failed to understand the link of the elements in the list with the paragraph above.
I didn’t track rations in RPGs since like 1990 so all good for me lol
As for counting beads argument, to me there really is only 3 states to all resources in tabletop : you have plenty of, your running short, you don’t have any.
I’m okay with a little ressource management but I don’t think that the granularity is that important. You either have enough ration that it doesn’t come up in the story or you are out or running low and you have to do something about it. Nothing a good ol Defy Danger can’t handle imho.
Maybe you could have rations the same as ammo?
You have a max of 3 rations but you don’t count them.
The GM can “use up their resources” on a 9- and ask to reduce 1 ration. They’d be tracked by the quarter master, not each character.
That way you know when you have 1 ration left you need to do something or take the risk to press on.
I love the ideas in here. I like the wealth conversion and bulky tags.
I don’t think books should cost 2 if adventure gear costs 1. Adventure gear could allow a player to completely skip a roll and keep the gear forever. A book only gives a +1 which may make no difference at all.
Lastly what is your thoughts with the new conversion and the loot generation tables? Ie, hoarder, boss loot, how many wealth would you suggest a troupe of goblins drop, etc?
Looking at these comments, we all sound pretty negative. Sorry about that.
Keep up the awesome work! I totally appreciate all of the different angles that you are approaching with WOA. Thanks for putting in the leg work for us.
I wouldn’t call this negative! This is all just some healthy criticism.
Nick Nunes (and everyone else!) While this was the initial idea that I was going with, figuring our how to apply it in a practical manner proved difficult. I think an overhaul like that without totally change the way gear works and the way it would be bought – in the interest of getting some immediate feedback, I went with this still concrete, but more vague, approach.
The idea behind making it a little more abstract is to aid with handwaving values. If every 1 Wealth is about 50 coins (gobe or take a few 10s), that’s a lot less to fuss about. It plays differently, despite not really being all that different in terms of raw mechanics.
The exact numbers for each item are still pretty up in the air. Especially for loot generation – the only advice I think I can really give is to, as always, use your best judgement. A bandit camp might have 1d6+2, an orc warlord could easily sit upon a mountainous 4d6×10, and a dragon probably has 10d6×100 in their hoard.
I think the new system works well, though I liked the above mentioned idea of wealth just representing a state of how wealthy you are. Extrapolated, maybe a system might be:
You are ranked 1-5 in terms of wealth. 1 is poor — you’re a beggar, you might have money, but every day, every meal, is a struggle. 2 is middling: you can’t afford a lot, and you can’t afford the best, and you often have to go without one thing or another, but you get by. 3 is merchant class: you’re no longer living day to day or score to score, and you can afford to invest — mounts, carriages, shops, stocks, heists, homes, or the like. 4 is wealthy — you can buy land and estates, you can hire servants to worry about the little things, and you’re kind of a big deal and you want for nothing in terms of goods. 5 is royal-class. Maybe you’re sitting on a hoard of wealth, maybe you own the banking guild, maybe you run the whole show. You’re so rich it’s not even about money anymore, it’s about ideas.
Then you track Coin, like you’d track Experience. Every X amount (could be static, could be a simple algorithm for going higher) you go up to the next tier of wealth. And then just drop conditions for when Coin is gained or lost, with stipulations for what you can buy — what you can attempt to buy is tied to the fiction of your wealth.
So if you’re rank 1 and you successfully pick somebody’s pocket or convince somebody to give you some money, you gain 1 Coin. If you buy a meal or a bed, you lose 1 Coin. If you’re at rank 2 and you get paid for a job or loot a dungeon, you gain 1 coin. When you go back to town, you don’t need to lose that same coin just to go to dinner or sleep for the night — you’re alright for a few days, a week, whatever feels fictionally apropos.
Basically you want to elevate your tier, which opens up new doors and drops off the little things. Make a few extra conditions for gaining a rank — like having a stable job or other source of income, like setting up a protection racket, and then those are things in the fiction that can be affected. And when it’s fictionally appropriate you can also lose a rank.
That’s very loose, but hopefully the idea is clear.
Brian Reynolds While that seems like it could work mechanically, it also sounds like a pretty big hassle! I don’t know if it’s really a practical way to implement things, but I’d be interested to see a draft of your idea.
I like the 1-5 idea, although I wouldn’t worry have the coin portion of the idea.
You have your wealth score. You can buy an item from your wealth level list (à la Stonetop gear list).
You can buy 3 from the list of the wealth below your wealth.
You can buy 1 from the list 1 step above, but if you do, you drop 1 Wealth.
You could add a special move that uses roll+wealth, it could be cool. Maybe for Supply move.
And that’s it. Generally, your Wealth score goes up or down depending on narrative. You find a big treasure, you go up 1.
Maybe make it 10 levels of wealth, so that you can hand out big treasure without having a pc jump a too big gap each time. Also, you can tie in an optional rule where you gain 1 wealth each time you gain a level.
I’ve reread and thought back on the Wealth system and in the end, I like it the way it is written. 🙂
Oh, I’ve noticed there are nothing about ammo, is it intentional? In DW 3 ammo for arrow/bolts is 1 coin so I’m guessing it translate to 0 wealth. I think ti should still have an entry to notify it gives 3 ammo. I’m wondering though, how would you prevent characters from just getting 10 bundles of 3 arrow for free (there’s no Weight also to refrain doing that).
What about the upgraded elven arrow with 4 ammo?
Arrows 3 ammo, 1 wealth
(Masterwork) 4 ammo, 2 wealth
… nevermind 😛