Prepare for adventure!

“There is no such thing as luck. There is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

Level 1 pack by Marian Churchland - Patreon

Before players set out on any quest, they need to make sure they are ready for the challenge ahead. PCs must have appropriate tools and provisions for long days of travel, else they may end up at the entrance to the forbidden temple hungry, bruised, and weakened. For any game in which wilderness adventuring is important, managing a PC’s inventory must be important. The challenge of the journey is made trivial if players can ignore the drawbacks of carrying heavy riches and gold, or if they never run out of arrows and bread.

In my upcoming release The Warden's Guide to the Wilds, a wilderness adventuring supplement for Old School Essentials, I provide the following inventory system for players to use. The standard OSE encumbrance rules are perfectly sufficient, and compatible with the travel procedures found in The Warden's Guide, but the following system streamlines inventory nicely.

This system borrows from a few systems I adore, namely Knave by Ben Milton, The GLOG by Arnold Kemp, and the Stars/Worlds Without Number system by Kevin Crawford.

Items and Encumbrance

If tracking the total weight of items in your inventory is difficult, players will do their best to avoid it. Tracking inventory should be as simple as possible so that players won’t skip this necessary step. Once they do they will discover all the potential for fun, interesting decisions. This inventory system simplifies the task of tracking your encumbrance and inventory. It throws a bit of realism out the window for the sake of interesting game play and convenience.

Encumbrance

• Items: Generally, something that fits into one hand is considered an item. Smaller items can be bundled together into 1-item bundles. Larger items can take up 2, 3 or more items of space according to the DM’s discretion.
• Encumbrance Conversion - 15lbs = 150 coins = 1 item This conversion is not precise, but a rough guide. Something bulky, but light may still take up multiple inventory slots.
• Readied Items: Players can carry a number of readied items equal to half their Intelligence score. Readied items can be retrieved as a part of a characters normal action. A readied item can be retrieved in one round.
• Stowed Items Players can stow a number of items equal to their Constitution score. Stowed items take one turn to retrieve.

Examples:

• 1 Item: Light Armor, Knife, Sword, Shield, Bundle of 3 rations, quiver of arrows.
• 2 Items: Medium Armor, Staff, Bow, Crossbow.
• 3 Items: Plate Mail, Tower Shield

Notches

Items can have up to three notches next to them on your character sheet. When the players use an item carelessly, or when normal wear and tear would occur, add a notch to the item (mark it with an x). When an item acquires 3 notches, it is depleted or destroyed. An item with 3 notches is no longer useful to the player. Armor does not provide a bonus to AC, weapons are no longer usable, etc, but most items can be repaired.

Causes of Item Notches

• Corrosion
• Dampness
• Using a tool as a weapon
• Using a weapon as a tool
• Bumbling your attack roll.
• A particularly impactful attack.

Item Repair

Items which are repairable can be repaired for 10% of their cost per notch.

Item Usage

In addition to notches each item also has a ‘Usage’ descriptor that indicates how the item is depleted.

Usage Descriptors

• Wear and Tear: When you return to town from an adventure, mark a notch on all ‘Wear and Tear’ items. Wear and tear can be cleared for 10% of the items value per notch.
  • Examples : Normal swords, armor or tools.
• Expendable: Some items come in expendable stacks. When you return to town from an adventure, remove this item from your inventory, unless you pay its cost.
  • Examples : Arrows, Torches, Spices
• One Use: One use items are used up as normal.
  • Examples : Potions, Scrolls, Rations
• None: Some things are just built to last.
  • Examples : Masterwork swords and armor, magic items, certain simple tools.
• Perishable : Remove from your inventory when you arrive at a destination.

Usage Timing

Both ‘Wear & Tear’ and ‘Expendable’ items refer to ‘returning to town from an adventure’. This isn’t a precise measure of time, but something that the DM must rule on. The rule of thumb is that if players have gone on a significant adventure, and returned to a Haven, they have likely used up some supplies. Do not expend items when the players travel from one settlement to the next unless they have gone through a significant adventure to get there.