Sebastian Bella Sara Charter Superscriber |
Does anyone know if there's a d20 inventory management program that looks/works like the inventory management system in games like Diablo, where the various containers are represented by boxes and each piece of equipment takes up so many boxes? I can fudge it using graph paper, but was hoping there might be something out there already that has a bunch of small pictures of adventuring gear that could be printed and moved around.
Sebastian Bella Sara Charter Superscriber |
Glad to see I'm not alone in wanting something like this. I'm somewhat surprised it hasn't come to pass given that the paper doll/box based inventory systems have been around in computer games for at least two decades now.
Maybe it's just that inventory is such a pain in the ass to track, it gets hand-waived away instead of creating tools to better manage it.
I guess I'll have to fake it on my own. Let me know if you take a stab CJ, it'd be great to compare notes (or, steal from you entirely).
Crimson Jester |
Glad to see I'm not alone in wanting something like this. I'm somewhat surprised it hasn't come to pass given that the paper doll/box based inventory systems have been around in computer games for at least two decades now.
Maybe it's just that inventory is such a pain in the ass to track, it gets hand-waived away instead of creating tools to better manage it.
I guess I'll have to fake it on my own. Let me know if you take a stab CJ, it'd be great to compare notes (or, steal from you entirely).
Well my laziness may get in the way but I am thinking of using a system much like what was posted on the blog to keep track of my inventory. Or better yet making my own on the back of 3 x 5 cards and printing them out. Then what I can do is use 3 x 5 card indexes to have them in different "pouches." It should not be too expensive. Be a nice way of handing out loot too. Hand out an index and go this is what you find. Have the trap on the first card. You darn sure better look for traps first.
donnald johnson |
the cards are a good gift for players.
the hard part would be to agree on how large the containers are. i rember ad&d had a list of carrying capacities in pounds (or cn, but i think it was in pounds, you had to convert cn to pounds and vice versa). and then to agree on the volume of each item you would put into the sack, or backpack, or whatever. there is a lego fantasy game that the character sheet has a box (with a lid) that you put loot into, if it doesnt fit, you cant carry it. there is also many "vending machines" to purchase things like health, magic points, etc. (i dont know how to make links, so, http://gunth.com/brickquest/ ) its not exactly like d20 style games, but hey, they are legos.
i havent seen that sort of inventory management system, of course, i play very few video games.
Sebastian Bella Sara Charter Superscriber |
Sebastian Bella Sara Charter Superscriber |
the cards are a good gift for players.
the hard part would be to agree on how large the containers are. i rember ad&d had a list of carrying capacities in pounds (or cn, but i think it was in pounds, you had to convert cn to pounds and vice versa). and then to agree on the volume of each item you would put into the sack, or backpack, or whatever. there is a lego fantasy game that the character sheet has a box (with a lid) that you put loot into, if it doesnt fit, you cant carry it. there is also many "vending machines" to purchase things like health, magic points, etc. (i dont know how to make links, so, http://gunth.com/brickquest/ ) its not exactly like d20 style games, but hey, they are legos.
i havent seen that sort of inventory management system, of course, i play very few video games.
It definitely seems like you'd need to go with a more abstract system ala 2e. Diablo and X-Com are the games that come to mind with systems like this, but I'm sure there are plenty of others.
Part of me worries that this would be a lot of work for very little benefit as an independent system. But, another part of me is annoyed with characters who carry 4-7 weapons around with them because the weight of such weapons is lower than their carrying capacity. I think the best way to implement this would be as part of a robust character tracking program on a phone/data device.
Edit: The more I think about it, the more I think the real chokepoint is having everything measured in pounds. Using pounds is easy in the same way that using feet to track movement is easy - you can determine distance/weight using real world numbers and without reference to some conversion process (e.g., converting feet into squares). Maybe the way forward is with a simple inventory point system - so, all one handed weapons would be, say 5 points, a potion would be 1 point, etc. Then, containers would be measured the same way - a backpack might hold 15 inventory points, but no item could be larger than 5 inventory points.
Lilith |
As much as I would love to do so. Copy righted. and while I do have many cards....well they are just much too nice to waste. Plus I have handed them out before and just never got them back.
That's why I said "would be nice." Plus, the ability to add your own images would mean that if you took the time to scan them yourself, you could use them. You just couldn't distribute them.
donnald johnson |
i was thinking about assigning every item a volume in an abstract measurment: squares. a rope takes 4 squares, 25 coins takes one square, potion takes one square.
backpack (using sebations number, which makes sense) 30 squares, in a 2 x 5 x 3 (dxwxh), no item can be longer then the d, h, w. so, if you had an alchemists kit, and it was 30 squares of 2x5x3, that would be the only thing you could carry. 750 coins is all you could carry (the coins may not fill the space, but it would sure be heavy).
a small pouch: 1 square.
etc.
it does seem like it would be a whole lot of record keeping, but if you played the realist style of game, and really, who doesnt, then it would be worth the trouble of going through the equipment lists, and working out the volume.
psionichamster |
having one where you could mix and match clothes for a character image would be more my desire.
we recently played a Mutants and Masterminds game, and by the end of the adventure the drawing manikin (12" tall) figure was decked out in hat, gun, flashlight, commlink, and mutant arm sticking out of his chest.
Having a prog that could do that with say, Male & Female Human, Elf, Halfling, Dwarf, etc..figures and a significant collection of outfits would rock. Even OoTS style sticks, so long as the art was nice and varied enough, and everything gelled nicely. I dunno if that's possible, available, or insane, but I'd buy it, possibly pay for updates for later data sets.
Wrong Paper Dolls, I guess.
-t
Geistlinger |
having one where you could mix and match clothes for a character image would be more my desire.
we recently played a Mutants and Masterminds game, and by the end of the adventure the drawing manikin (12" tall) figure was decked out in hat, gun, flashlight, commlink, and mutant arm sticking out of his chest.
Having a prog that could do that with say, Male & Female Human, Elf, Halfling, Dwarf, etc..figures and a significant collection of outfits would rock. Even OoTS style sticks, so long as the art was nice and varied enough, and everything gelled nicely. I dunno if that's possible, available, or insane, but I'd buy it, possibly pay for updates for later data sets.
Wrong Paper Dolls, I guess.
-t
Something like this?
psionichamster |
psionichamster wrote:Something like this?having one where you could mix and match clothes for a character image would be more my desire.
we recently played a Mutants and Masterminds game, and by the end of the adventure the drawing manikin (12" tall) figure was decked out in hat, gun, flashlight, commlink, and mutant arm sticking out of his chest.
Having a prog that could do that with say, Male & Female Human, Elf, Halfling, Dwarf, etc..figures and a significant collection of outfits would rock. Even OoTS style sticks, so long as the art was nice and varied enough, and everything gelled nicely. I dunno if that's possible, available, or insane, but I'd buy it, possibly pay for updates for later data sets.
Wrong Paper Dolls, I guess.
-t
hmmm...um, yes.
-t
Crimson Jester |