Gear Packages

[arnej]

Having been in several hi- and ultra-tech games, where I, as well as some of the other players, seemed to spend HUGE amounts of time pawing through the various books shopping, it occurred to me that in some ways all the focus on the gear was detracting from the game experience. What to do, what to do?

So, here's an idea I came up with. Never playtested, could be heresy.

Gear Packages

Divide "gear" into broad categories (Engineer gear, Spy gear, Medical, Survival, Computer, etc.)

Provide monetary costs to buy levels of activation for said gear package. (6-, 9-, 12-, or 15-)

Example:

Engineer Gear: The stuff you need to fix things, or even construct new things.
Full-fledged Repair Shop: 15-, $40,000
Repair Closet: 12-, $20,000
Fully-stocked repair cart: 9-, $8,000
Tool Box: 6-, $2,000

So when you make your character, you buy with starting wealth the gear package you want.

• Irishy the Engineer buys Engineer(15-) gear for $40,000, 80% of his starting wealth. He's almost always able to have what he needs to fix the engines.
• Mountain Man Fred spends $10,000 his starting wealth on Survival(12-) gear. He's able to have appropriate gear in most situations to camp out, climb mountains, or do other outdoorsy stuff.
• Secret Agent Ham aspires to double-O rating. He buys Spy gear(6-) for $1000. Sometimes he has the right lockpick or bug on him.

Start play. When you want to do something that requires gear, roll vs activation (possibly with a situational modifier) and if you make it, you have what you need!

Random additional thought: different levels could provide -1 (for 6-) to +1 or +2 (for 15-) to appropriate skills if the activation roll is made.

Thoughts?

arnej

[Anaraxes]

There's a GURPS Loadout series that's intended to have pre-defined kits of kit to avoid having to put it all together yourself. It only has a couple of booklets as far as I know, so it might not actually be a lot of help.

Some people will enjoy detailing their stuff.

I'm a little uncomfortable with the notion that success in the mission comes down to a random roll as to whether or not you had the right item. Secret Agent Ham goes on a mission to plant a bug in enemy HQ, and then when he gets there he randomly discovers that he didn't bring it? So he just goes home, and tries again (randomly) some other day?

You'd want to make these rolls during planning steps to avoid this fate . "You've got a couple of bugs lying around, but you really want the PL-36 for this job. Go buy one." But that might wind up with people scouring the books for the perfect item for the job again.

Then there are the games where resource management is important. Special forces behind enemy lines, Robison Crusoe, wilderness travellers, generally need to know exactly what resources they have and husband them carefully, as that's a large part of the point of those scenarios. If you just randomly run out of ammo, there's no way to really plan (without carrying a detailed inventory along with the package, which defeats the purpose).

For scenarios where those parts will be reasonably available, and the failed roll is just a small detour or event rather than a showstopper, it might work. So I guess it depends on the game and the situation as to whether the gear is just there as background color, or is a more important element.

Reminds me of the "personal basics" from early editions of GURPS, defined something like "things no adventure in their right mind would leave home without", and meant to cover firestarting, towels, what have you, without having to list every roll of duct tape and Ziploc bag in the party.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

There's a GURPS Loadout series that's intended to have pre-defined kits of kit to avoid having to put it all together yourself. It only has a couple of booklets as far as I know, so it might not actually be a lot of help.

I wouldn't count on it. The loadouts book for DF is...well, DF. It's adventuring gear for very low-tech individuals, which is not what he's looking for. The one for monster hunters (which actually predates the MH series) might be useful for modern-day adventurers, but there's nothing really good for ultra-tech games yet.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

I'm a little uncomfortable with the notion that success in the mission comes down to a random roll as to whether or not you had the right item.

That strikes me as no more a problem than success in a mission coming down to characters having had the foresight or remarkable good luck to have specifically selected the right item when shopping before the mission. That said, something like your idea of making multiple rolls strikes me as useful, or simply redefining the consequences of failed rolls. For example: Bob the mechanic buys a Repair Closet (12-) and wants to fix a broken-down Model T for a getaway. Unfortunately for him, he rolls a 14. Perhaps this doesn't mean that he can't fix it, but rather that he's effectively using improvised equipment (p. B345), giving him a severe penalty. In the case of the spy, maybe the failure indicates that he's got a bug, but it only works if you attach it to a phone instead of picking up all ambient sound, or it picks up ambient sound but won't transmit to a safe location (requiring the spies to infiltrate the location a second time to pick it up), or has some other notable problem.

I'll note that the other thing missing from the OP is weight for a set of gear, which I shall start calling Gear!. A tool box will be easier to lug around than a cart, which is easier to tote than a closet, and so on. One's Gear! can be modified not only for standard quality modifiers (again, p. B345), but possibly also for compactness, so some sort of multitool set would provide the same benefit as an unmodified tool kit, but cost twice as much and weigh half. Or something.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Then there are the games where resource management is important.

There are, which is why one wouldn't use such a system for such a game. Being able to buy a pile of Gear! rather than individual items strikes me as an interesting direction for games where the players don't want to have to deal with resource management.