User Blog:
What's In A Game? - Ammo
The blog references ammo. It’s not just about ammo: it’s about expendable resources. Cope with it.
What I’m specifically talking about is whether a game has you keeping track of mundane items like ammunition, food or the like. Sometimes, a game is written with that expectation in mind. You’re expected to keep detailed records of what’s been purchased and spent. On the other hand, some games don’t care. I’ll briefly take a glimpse at both schools of thinking, offering some basic pros and cons.
Track them: In this model, you keep track of every arrow you fire, every ration you plow through and every shell that gets exposed to water damage. On the plus side, it adds a certain level of realism. It also guarantees fair treatment around the table, as everyone is limited by what they’re on record as carrying. On the down side, it takes time that could be spent doing other things at the table.
Don’t track them: Here, we toss realism to the winds and don’t track equipment lists in a detailed fashion. On the plus side, you don’t have to reference your sheet as much, you can just do what comes naturally. On the down side, sometimes expendable resources lose a lot of their punch when they can just be used over and over. Eventually, that six-shooter has to run out.
The Way I See It: I’m not sure I’ve ever played in a game where tracking ammo and the like has really added to the experience. As far as I can tell, it just draws players away from the narrative, and gets them to stare at their sheets more.
In a movie, you’re only out of ammo when it’s dramatically appropriate. Why not have it the same way in your game? During the final showdown, the hero and villain are both out of ammo. Food only matters when it might be scarce. Hell, in most of my games, I don’t even broach the topic of money. My rule of thumb comes down to what a character should be able to afford, and shouldn’t.
If your game leans heavily on strategy and resources, so be it. But the next time you have your players track every instance of a minor item, ask yourself, “What does this add to the game?” In my personal experience, the answer is usually, “A pain in the ass.”
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(Insanely awesome, that is.)
See, I'm weird with my characters. I'm not so much an equipment "whore", but more like an equipment "hoarder." In our DnD game, I'm the one who spends gold on basic equipment rather than pumping my +1 sword to +2 and the like. It's the same way with my spells as a druid, or with our crew in Alpha Omega. On countless occasions, I've helped the party by being the one who remembered to bring rope or food, and even the most insignificant of items can be useful if you just use them creatively.
When it comes to tracking items it adds a sense of realism to the game for me. Just like in a FPS, I know that I only have X amount of ammo to accomplish my task, which usually is "Shoot that guy." Ammo is usually pretty cheap in most games, unless you are using the ultra pricey "dragonfire" rounds or something. For me, it adds to the realism of my character to know that my left pistol has 7 rounds left, but my right one has just 5.
In our AO game however, I know that some of the players fire off an infinite amount of bullets from their guns and the GM mostly lets it slide. He agrees that the game is about playing high powered creatures and keeping track of hundreds of bullets can be tedious. I think it would seem like the game is less fun when during a fight with a Nephillim the PCs guns ran out of ammo. (Except for me of course, cause I do track it.)
I think in the end it's up to your personal preference and if you felt that the game was getting bogged down by keeping track of things then you should bring it up to whoever is running the game.
1) Fallout is a post-apocalyptic game. Resources should be strictly limited. In fact, the first two games were resource nightmares. You couldn't carry enough to survive, more often than not. In fact, the big, important storyline of the game is all about limited resources.
2) In Fallout, you're not expected to go picking up arrows. If I shoot a bullet, it's gone. They give me more than enough bullets to handle most problems. In Oblivion, arrows get very expensive, particularly if you don't recover them when you miss or when you make a kill.
We had a player in our group once that insisted on huge, detailed equipment lists. They added nothing to game, except a huge shopping trip every session. Eventually, my players instated a rule that said player wasn't allowed even writing equipment down on his sheet.
I was thinking after my Oblivion experience: What would people think if the LOTR films had Frodoo going to shop for food, Gandalf taking short naps to remember his spells or Legolas hunting down his spent arrows for half the movie.
Well, duh. People would say it was a stupid waste of time. I understand that people want 'realism' in their games, but we also don't roll to see how well they take a shit.
-- c.
Further News
I encourage creativity and the like. In fact, I think that's one of the best reasons for equipment tracking.
However, in my games, I just reflect that sort of thing with a roll. You want to have thought to bring an extra cellphone to wire as a makeshift bug? Great. Wits + Crafts. Did you bring rope to handle this hole? Hm... Dungeoneering.