Would you play a game with no combat items? There would still be items to bolster social interactions, stealth, and other out-of-combat activities.
Would this impede your sense of advancement, or are character feats and non-combat items enough?
I am working on a game with a magic system for combat. It is already complex enough that I prefer not to have combat items. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
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A game should have rules for what it is about and not waste word count on what it is not about. If any kind of weapons or armor are just flavor differences with no impact on what the PCs will do, then it should not be included.
Definitely agree, just wondering if it may be off-puting for some folks how are used to adventuring for that +1 sword. But I suppose wasted words and meaningless items would be worse for everyone.
Thats not a bad thing. Making an indie RPG is not the same as designing the next edition of D&D. Let a tiny percentage of your tiny potential market share have their minds blown by your game and youll achieve success far beyond what any heart breaker could ever hope for.
Thanks! That is the dream
It’s really all about context. If we’re all playing Harry Potter-esque mages, we’re not worried about swords and shields, generally. If I’m playing as Aragorn or Boromir, my expectations will be very different.
Harry Potter is a good analogy haaha. I guess the question in that case is do you expect to get to wand items? Say this is a game with at least some crunch to it. Or are you satisfied if only your character improves, but the wand itself is not mechanically specified?
So the other element is player expectations. Me— I personally might because I tend to expect those things, having played many TTRPGs. My daughter, who has no such experiential baggage, might not.
Back to HP, I’m not an expert on the lore but, generally, all the wands are interchangeable, right? Other than the three master wands or whatever they’re called. So in that case, a wand, like a mundane tool, might not need stats/mechanics.
Ultimately, it’ll be on you to set up the context and sell the players on the concept to overcome any expectations.
Yeah I’m worried that the expectation of many RPG players to find loot, especially for combat, may be problematic. I think you’re right that setting the context is key to managing these expectations.
Couldn’t tell you how wands actually work in Harry Potter…
I think a lot of things in HP are only half-baked but that’s just me.
Some of my favourite systems are light on combat rules or feature combat as some kind of fail state. If you’re leveling a shotgun at an ancient void-dweller that may or may not be immune to conventional weaponry, you’ve messed up somewhere. Maybe the better plan is to douse the floorboards in lamp oil, smash a lit lantern, and run.
Would I play a game with no combat items? Absolutely. I’d love a game that invests as much pagespace into intrigue or stealth systems as some D&D-like systems invest into combat.
I’ve played systems without any combat. So sure.
To be more specific then: in a game with medium crunch combat, would you be disappointed if there were no weapons? Your character improves, gets feats, casts new spells, but will never go on an adventure to find that rare 7-crystal wand that gives you +3 to magic shenanigans.
