ABS12: Money, Friends, & Gear

All the changes from this page will be added to the complete master game page at A Basic System 12 (ABS12).

I don't want to introduce micromanaging gear.

This means that I am not planning on creating an economy for gear and items. Rather I will focus on what helps the character to accomplish the story.

Vague & Fuzzy Gear
The game is based on what is good or appropriate for the story. Descriptions should somewhat indicate what kind of wealth, status, friends, organizations, relationships, contacts, housing, vehicles/mounts, equipment, and tools that the character possesses.

By not focusing on gear and people, I'm hoping that players can focus more on the stories.

How to use vague gear to increase tension in the story
Bad situation rolls can mean something goes terribly wrong with the gear. Maybe the gear is faulty, inadequate, insufficient, or is accidentally dropped into a precarious location. Good situations rolls can sometimes mean that the equipment performs better than normal, more precise, and is more than adequate.

Special Items
Having said that many much of the standard gear and tools are contained in the description, I believe that special items are important in many stories.

For special items, record the details together with the other character special verb actions. In a sense, while they posses such item, that gear becomes a very important part of the character. Loosing such item can be traumatic for the character. A piece of equipment or item that acts like powers might be listed with the powers including a noun to indicate that that power is limited to that specific item.

How does one know the Properties of the Player's Character Description 'gear'?
What about normal vague gear and relationships that is included in the description of the character. And how do you determine when supplies are low or gone, broken, or insufficient? That is where the situation roll comes in. If you have arrows and are firing them, one interpretation of rolling up a 'No', 'No, however', or 'No, also' are that maybe the arrows are getting low or that several are broken. If rolling one of these 'No's rolls up about using a rope, maybe it's short or beginning to break. If you are looking for information and a 'No' is rolled, maybe the contact relationship is shaky or something is wrong.

The story and situation dictates what the roles might mean. A player can even use the fact generator to find clues into what a bad situation means.

Researched Games

Fate
Characters have stuff appropriate for their Aspect.
Fate uses a similar method.
Extras that influence the story are aspects.
Extras that create new context for actions are skills.
Extras that make skills more awesome are stunts.
Extras that can be harmed have stress and consequences.

Risus
Cliche's include powers, abilities, tools, and equipment for standard for that cliche.
Tools of the Trade can be lost or damaged. Roll with half dice if that happens.

Risus Companion treats special equipment as extra dice generally, once per scene, or once per session.

FU
All characters have appropriate gear for their concept, setting, and story. It includes clothing, weapons, armor, tools, mounts, and vehicles. Gear is made up of an adjective and a noun like 'long rope' Gear modifies 'beat the odds' type rolls. The character begins with two of them. They can be lost, broken, or stolen. Props are items that don't improve the chance of success.

A Basic System 12 (ABS12)