Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Fun vs Rules

Kelly Pedersen · 02-01-2019, 05:53 PM

I'm afraid there simply isn't going to be a "one size fits all" answer here - some groups like precise resource tracking, some don't. I'd examine your group's previous responses to tracking resources: did they grumble, or just accept it? And later, when things ran short, was there a feeling of tension created? Or did people just feel it was irritating?

Personally, I don't tend to track resources all that precisely, unless I'm specifically running a campaign where resources are important: zombie survival horror or old-school dungeon crawling, for instance. And even if I was tracking pretty precisely, I probably wouldn't track every bandage in a medkit, I'd just give it, as you suggested, a number of uses after which things are expended. Tracking things in that much detail just tends to bog down the game in my experience, and it usually makes for a lot of extra work, since most kits and such in GURPS don't actually specify exactly how much of a given item are in them, so you'll have to decide that for yourself.

One approach you could take would be to give things like medkits and such a number of automatic uses and then, after those are used up, have the character make an appropriate skill roll when they go to the kit, at a penalty equal to the number of times they've done so, to see if what they're looking for is still there. For example, with the medkit, you could give a crash kit 10 "free" uses where anyone can just pull anything that would reasonably in a big first aid kit out, and then, after that, when the medic goes to dig up some bandages, she has to roll against First Aid to see if she's been frugal enough to have some stashed away, with no penalty the first time she rolls, -1 the second time, and so on. Once she fails, there are no more of that particular item in the kit, but others might still be available.

02-01-2019, 05:53 PM	#2
Kelly Pedersen Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada	Re: Fun vs Rules - When is too much fun a bad thing? I'm afraid there simply isn't going to be a "one size fits all" answer here - some groups like precise resource tracking, some don't. I'd examine your group's previous responses to tracking resources: did they grumble, or just accept it? And later, when things ran short, was there a feeling of tension created? Or did people just feel it was irritating? Personally, I don't tend to track resources all that precisely, unless I'm specifically running a campaign where resources are important: zombie survival horror or old-school dungeon crawling, for instance. And even if I was tracking pretty precisely, I probably wouldn't track every bandage in a medkit, I'd just give it, as you suggested, a number of uses after which things are expended. Tracking things in that much detail just tends to bog down the game in my experience, and it usually makes for a lot of extra work, since most kits and such in GURPS don't actually specify exactly how much of a given item are in them, so you'll have to decide that for yourself. One approach you could take would be to give things like medkits and such a number of automatic uses and then, after those are used up, have the character make an appropriate skill roll when they go to the kit, at a penalty equal to the number of times they've done so, to see if what they're looking for is still there. For example, with the medkit, you could give a crash kit 10 "free" uses where anyone can just pull anything that would reasonably in a big first aid kit out, and then, after that, when the medic goes to dig up some bandages, she has to roll against First Aid to see if she's been frugal enough to have some stashed away, with no penalty the first time she rolls, -1 the second time, and so on. Once she fails, there are no more of that particular item in the kit, but others might still be available.