OldSmith |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Well Someone let the game designers know that all the games we have been playing for decades are full of useless fluff. Like magical enhancements to have weapons return or quivers re fill, not to mention all those useless bags of holding. And no reason to put towns or markets in the game. Just throw some gold over your shoulder and poof everything you want is right there
Tin Foil Yamakah |
So for all the people here that say do not count arrows.
Do you extend this courtesy to every player at your tables. A player building a fighter around the spear or throwing axe. Or a thief throwing daggers do they all get unlimited ammo at your tables
If I ever see a player wanting to play that style sure why not
LoneKnave |
Well Someone let the game designers know that all the games we have been playing for decades are full of useless fluff. Like magical enhancements to have weapons return or quivers re fill, not to mention all those useless bags of holding. And no reason to put towns or markets in the game. Just throw some gold over your shoulder and poof everything you want is right there
Your behind seems to be hurting. Maybe you forgot to keep track of when you need to go to the toilet? Roll for diarrhea, because you seem to be full of it. Do you have enough paper rolls left? Don't forget to deduct how much you used (in inches) on your character sheet.
Shar Tahl |
My wife plays a character with a repeating crossbow. She has been tracking it with hash marks and rolls her 50% chance breakage on each one after each session. Since the party will be away from town for a significant length of time, resource management is pretty important. Tracking arrows/bolts isn't that tedious when using hashes
cnetarian |
Well Someone let the game designers know that all the games we have been playing for decades are full of useless fluff. Like magical enhancements to have weapons return or quivers re fill, not to mention all those useless bags of holding. And no reason to put towns or markets in the game. Just throw some gold over your shoulder and poof everything you want is right there
Well returning is a pretty useless piece of fluff. I recall this one not-too-bright spherewalker who thought it was a good idea to throw 5 starknives in a round, which was fine until right before the next round when they all returned at once and she only had two hands to ward off 5 starknives.
Skylancer4 |
@OP: I just bought a quad pad of paper, use it to track arrows or other consumables with X's per unit used. Use it to take notes during the game. Use it to make maps as needed. All sorts of useful things during a game to be done with it.
*sits back with popcorn while people debate why to do what the OP asked instead of how best to do it*
Gilfalas |
We have always tracked all arrows used by our archers. The people I play with grew up with table top games and not video games so endless ammunition was never something we thought fit into archer characters unless it was some magic item or power on a bow.
Just this past saturday our GM put our level 4 - 3 player party into a fight and the fact that we ran out of arrows in the combat radically altered the outcome (2 of us nearly died).
Had we all had 30 arrows each the fight would have been a cake walk.
cnetarian |
@OP: I just bought a quad pad of paper, use it to track arrows or other consumables with X's per unit used. Use it to take notes during the game. Use it to make maps as needed. All sorts of useful things during a game to be done with it.
*sits back with popcorn while people debate why to do what the OP asked instead of how best to do it*
it's not hard to track arrows. I use sashes and circles, circle for a miss and slash for a hit. 4 sets of 5 marks = 1 quiver, end of the session count up the circles and halve it for the number of misses which didn't break OR just ignore the circles if I can restock regularly. No need for special paper, it goes on the scratch paper used for combat calculations in the upper right corner - a "P" followed by a line of marks, among the similar lines for special types of arrows except they are preceded by "B" or "CI" or "+2" or whatever instead of "P" (P stands for piercing). Personally I don't see why it is such a hassle, players should be tracking special arrows anyway so it shouldn't take much more work to track normal arrows.
As for what the OP asked, the question was:
"But to people who have DMed archer players in the past, did you make them track all their mundane ammunition as well? Or did you just assume they had enough mundane arrows with the each day?"
Skylancer4 |
You only quoted the last part with the ?'s. The implied question didn't have one, which was in the middle of the post
I'm about to play an archer character for the first time in my group's next campaign. Although I'm a little unsure of the best way to keep track of my character's stock of arrows. When it comes to special arrows like Bane or Dragon-Slaying, then it makes sense to track them individually. But to people who have DMed archer players in the past, did you make them track all their mundane ammunition as well? Or did you just assume they had enough mundane arrows with the each day?
@OP: Plan and be prepard to track everything. At worst you get lucky and don't need to.
Just a Guess |
So for all the people here that say do not count arrows.
Do you extend this courtesy to every player at your tables. A player building a fighter around the spear or throwing axe. Or a thief throwing daggers do they all get unlimited ammo at your tables
No. But I allow my mage players unlimited rotten eggs. And I allow my spear throwers to re-use their spears except for special circumstances. Same with daggers.
Archers might be among the best martial PCs. But being the best of 2nd grade is still not 1st grade. Casters are stronger. So if casters get free "ammo" I just can't make myself punish a martial pc for being no caster.
I'm still contemplating whether I treat quivers like component pouches (unlimited) or the other way 'round so component pouches are empty after 20 spells that have a component. In the latter case I'd introduce magic items for both that are unlimited.
LoneKnave |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
We have always tracked all arrows used by our archers. The people I play with grew up with table top games and not video games so endless ammunition was never something we thought fit into archer characters unless it was some magic item or power on a bow.
Tracking ammo is a pretty videogame thing to do. Basically all the FPS games do it, Diablo does it (or did with the first 2 games, I don't know about 3), most CRPG-s do it. Even HoMM does it, and that's on army level.
All this time you thought you were playing tabletop games, but really, you have been just simulating Diablo.
golem101 |
Do you make everyone keep track of their rations each day?
Eerrhm... yes? Being in the wilderness and foraging, or stranded in a subterranean labyrinth without enough food is quite a staple of the fantasy narrative.
Moreover, handing effectively infinite ammo even at low levels takes away meaning from specific magic items (and highly valuable, in campaigns without the magic shop mechanic).
Just a Guess |
Yeah, pretty definitively video games track ammunition, or at least most do. Video game rarely give you unlimited ammunition.
Several do for standard ammo for the basic weapon like Space marine and serious sam HD and I think half life, too. Others let you have so many different weapons that you effectively have unlimited ammo, others have ammo for your active weapon reload over time, at least as a special. Borderlands was one of the latter. Shotguns with that feature had effectively unlimited ammo because the fire rate was only marginally higher than the replenish rate and you sometimes had to stop shooting to switch targets.
And even in classic shooters I rarely ran out of ammo.Shar Tahl |
Gilfalas wrote:We have always tracked all arrows used by our archers. The people I play with grew up with table top games and not video games so endless ammunition was never something we thought fit into archer characters unless it was some magic item or power on a bow.Tracking ammo is a pretty videogame thing to do. Basically all the FPS games do it, Diablo does it (or did with the first 2 games, I don't know about 3), most CRPG-s do it. Even HoMM does it, and that's on army level.
All this time you thought you were playing tabletop games, but really, you have been just simulating Diablo.
You do realize Diablo came out long after pen and paper rpgs, and likely long before you were born. My gms tracked resources in the 80s
LoneKnave |
Claxon wrote:Yeah, pretty definitively video games track ammunition, or at least most do. Video game rarely give you unlimited ammunition.Several do for standard ammo for the basic weapon like Space marine and serious sam HD and I think half life, too. Others let you have so many different weapons that you effectively have unlimited ammo, others have ammo for your active weapon reload over time, at least as a special. Borderlands was one of the latter. Shotguns with that feature had effectively unlimited ammo because the fire rate was only marginally higher than the replenish rate and you sometimes had to stop shooting to switch targets.
And even in classic shooters I rarely ran out of ammo.
It's almost like tracking ammo is usually pointless, since you basically never run out, and even computer games only do it because it's easy for a computer to track one more number.
You do realize Diablo came out long after pen and paper rpgs, and likely long before you were born. My gms tracked resources in the 80s.
I wish Diablo came out before I was born. I wouldn't mind being more than a decade younger...
You do realize I was being sarcastic, right? Tracking or not tracking ammo has nothing to do with what type the game is, tabletop or videogame. There are games doing both on both sides of the fence.
But obviously, since you have been doing it since the 80s it must be the superior method. You couldn't have been doing something silly and pointless for 30 years...
BigDTBone |
Just a Guess wrote:Claxon wrote:Yeah, pretty definitively video games track ammunition, or at least most do. Video game rarely give you unlimited ammunition.Several do for standard ammo for the basic weapon like Space marine and serious sam HD and I think half life, too. Others let you have so many different weapons that you effectively have unlimited ammo, others have ammo for your active weapon reload over time, at least as a special. Borderlands was one of the latter. Shotguns with that feature had effectively unlimited ammo because the fire rate was only marginally higher than the replenish rate and you sometimes had to stop shooting to switch targets.
And even in classic shooters I rarely ran out of ammo.It's almost like tracking ammo is usually pointless, since you basically never run out, and even computer games only do it because it's easy for a computer to track one more number.
Shar Tahl wrote:You do realize Diablo came out long after pen and paper rpgs, and likely long before you were born. My gms tracked resources in the 80s.I wish Diablo came out before I was born. I wouldn't mind being more than a decade younger...
You do realize I was being sarcastic, right? Tracking or not tracking ammo has nothing to do with what type the game is, tabletop or videogame. There are games doing both on both sides of the fence.
But obviously, since you have been doing it since the 80s it must be the superior method. You couldn't have been doing something silly and pointless for 30 years...
No joke, because it's very unlikely he's been a passive-aggressive asshat on the Internet for more than about 20 years.
Chris Lambertz Community & Digital Content Director |