Old-School Reduction: Inventory

This is part of a series describing my efforts to apply reductionism to OSE. My aim is to boil down some of the basic rules to something that can be transplanted into the freeform systems I prefer. I'm also trying to keep in mind the practicalities of running a game where table space is limited.

Warning: The following article contains detailed descriptions of item encumbrance, which some readers may find disturbing.
Discretion is advised.

Thus far, I've focussed on extracting a micro-system for adjudicating violent situations from OSE: deriving the relevant stats following character creation, handling attacks, hits, and saving throws, and extrapolating a somewhat simplified combat procedure. However, of arguably greater importance than the adventurers' fighting potential are the things they carry with them on their adventures.

Character cards

The essential details of a given character should fit on a single 3×5" card. A classic ruled index card has 11 lines. Reserving the top three for the adventurer's name, description, and stats leaves eight for their gear. Here's an example of what I have in mind.

Hilmar the Abhorrent /\////

stubborn wiry belligerent sword-master

F3-928871 HD3+0 AT3 TH19 SV16 ML5 AC4 MV2

+ helmet

[ chain

< shield < scorched ruby ring

> sword

- lantern: oil ●●○○

- skin: water ○○

- sling ○○○○

] backpack ◆◇◇◇

The symbols indicate "where" each item is carried, as follows.

Symbol	Slot
+	head
[	torso/neck
<	"off" hand
>	"main" hand
-	belt (3 slots)
]	back/shoulders

Knowing this, it's easy to tell at a glance that Hilmar is wearing chainmail and a helmet, and has a shield and a sword at the ready in his hands. He has a lantern with a couple hours of oil remaining, a full water skin, and a sling, all readily accessible on his belt. He has a curious ring on one hand and a backpack on his shoulders—we'll examine the latter in greater detail momentarily.

To move items around, erase and rewrite the symbol rather than the entire line. For example, if Hilmar sheathes his sword and lights his lantern, holding it aloft, replace the ">" with "-" and vice versa, and partially mark one of the bubbles to indicate that the lantern is burning oil.

Important items of jewellery, such as Hilmar's ring, appear on the right side of the card—you could also use this area to list special abilities. Bubbles next to certain items track ammunition, fuel, storage capacity, and so on.

I've bumped AC and MV to the end of the stat line so that they're easier to erase and rewrite, since they'll change more often than the other values. Tally marks for hit points sustained go in the top right corner of the card (6hp shown above).

Ammunition

According to the adventuring gear section of OSE, a full lantern burns for four hours, iron rations feed a man for seven days, and torches come in bundles of six. Such quantities are easily tracked with bubbles. However, a quiver holds 20 arrows and crossbow bolts come in cases of 30—far too many for this approach to work well.

Some people enjoy tracking individual arrows, bolts, et cetera, but that feels too much like hard work to me. Instead, I'll modify the attack roll slightly to help minimise book-keeping in such cases.

1. Roll 1d20.
• 20 always hits.
• 1 always misses and if the weapon requires ammunition, fill a usage bubble.
• Otherwise, follow the remaining steps.
2. Add the defender's AC to the roll.
3. Add modifiers to the roll as determined by the ref.
4. If the result is greater than or equal to the attacker's TH, the attack hits; otherwise it misses.
• If the weapon requires ammunition, the controlling player/ref may optionally fill a usage bubble and re-roll (just once) in the case of a miss.

With the above rule in place, one ammunition bubble nominally represents five shots or thereabouts. In other words, a quiver of arrows is four bubbles and a case of bolts six. That feels about right to me.

Container cards

The contents of backpacks, sacks, and the like are tracked on separate cards or pieces of paper. If a container is dropped or changes hands, it's a simple matter of updating one line on the character card and passing the container card to the ref or another player. Here's an example.

Hilmar's backpack

flask: oil ○ gold sequins 5

iron rations ●○○○○○ hacksilver 25

iron spikes ○○○○○ 2 bronze clasp 20

rope ○○○○ electrum torc 10

sundries ○○○○ gems 3

mallet

tinderbox

◆ treasure 63/100

 

 

Ordinary supplies and items of gear occupy one or more slots. A backpack has 10 slots, a small sack 5, and a large sack 15. These are really just the number of lines on an index card, half an index card, and one quarter of a typical sheet of ruled A4 paper, but they're also proportional to the "up to XXX coins" figures listed in adventuring gear. Feel free to make exceptions if it seems right to do so.

In the above example, Hilmar has a variety of useful items stowed in his backpack. He has a spare flask of oil for his lantern, 6 days of iron rations (having already consumed one), 50 feet (15m) of rope, some spikes, a mallet, a tinderbox, and a supply of miscellaneous items (e.g., chalk, bandages, twine).

In case you're wondering why—aside from the flask—there's one less bubble than you might expect, it's because the entry as a whole is erased once completely spent: having all bubbles filled indicates a single use remaining. An empty flask, on the other hand, remains on the card until discarded.

Of course, that's not all that Hilmar has stowed in his backpack.

Treasure

Keeping an exact account of weight for every item in each adventurer's inventory, whilst doubtless a stimulating and deeply rewarding intellectual exercise, isn't usually viewed as "fun" by many players. However, consider this: if you had a bag full of gold and silver, sparkling gems, and scintillating jewellery, would you take the time to stop and admire them?

Would you run them through your fingers, savouring the coolness of the metal and the polished smoothness of the gemstones? Would you cradle them in your hands, just to feel th heft f them? Would you carefully count each and every piece, again and again and again…?

You probably would, wouldn't you? I'm betting most players would, too, given the chance.

To me, that's the essence of basic encumbrance: you only count what matters. And when character advancement depends on the amount of treasure brought back from adventures (i.e., XP-for-GP), the precise quantities of gems, jewellery, and precious metals in one's possession matter a very great deal.

The unit of measurement for treasure is pieces (pc)—as in gold pieces, silver pieces, and so on. (I eschew "coins" for this purpose.) 1pc is notionally 0.1 lbs (45 g) but this shouldn't be taken literally. Important documents (e.g., scrolls), gems, and the smallest quantities of money, in whatever form, are 1pc each. Items of jewellery and small quantities of liquids (e.g., potions) are typically 10pc each. Other valuables may be tens or even hundreds of pieces. These appear on the right side of the card, as shown earlier. [EDIT: Containers of liquids and other items that may be valuable but are not instrincally "treasure" occupy regular inventory slots.]

Containers have a limited number of slots for treasure, each individual slot holding up to 100pc. A backpack holds up to 4 slots of treasure (400pc total), a small sack 2 slots (200pc), and a large sack 6 slots (600pc). I've marked the one treasure slot in Hilmar's backpack with a diamond (◆)—this corresponds to the filled diamond-shaped bubble next to the container itself on the character card.

[Aside: I can imagine a house rule where rations count as "treasure" in this sense for added realism. Any thru-hiker will tell you that food is heavy.]

Encumbrance

Okay, we need to talk about encumbrance.

Don't look at me like that! It's important, and it doesn't have to be difficult. Honestly, you just need to answer two simple questions.

1. Are you wearing heavy armour (i.e., plate or chain), light armour (i.e., leather), or no armour? Your base encounter movement rate is 2, 3, or 4, accordingly.
2. Are you carrying a significant amount of treasure? If so, your movement rate is reduced by 1.

Yes, that last one is a little subjective, but we can work on it. Let's say that a backpack full (or mostly full) of treasure—four diamond-shaped bubbles filled—is a significant amount in the sense that it will definitely slow you down. We can summarise the effects as follows.

Armour	0-3◆	4-16◆
None	MV4	MV3
Light	MV3	MV2
Heavy	MV2	MV1

See, that wasn't so hard, was it? All you have to do is watch for when you fill the fourth (and sixteenth) diamond-shaped bubble.

[Aside: Another house rule might be to reduce MV by 1 for every 4 treasure slots filled.]

Of course, I now realise that the foregoing isn't really a reduction… more an elaboration. Well, perhaps someone will find the above useful in a semi-pragmatic sort of way. Or perhaps I'm just babbling nonsense into the void. Either way, at least it's out of my head now. I've a few thoughts on starting equipment and character advancement, but those can wait until another day.