Do you like doing inventory?

[BokaliMali]

I do. (In a pbp at least, when you're never rushed)
Just got in on a game where the DM told us to all start at level 1 with 500 gold and no magical gear. Instead of rocking masterwork weapons, I took the opportunity to make my PC the boy-scoutingest guy around.

I just enjoy the huge amount of useful mundane gear there is available. Even without magic, the stuff a PC can pull off is pretty impressive. Only real limit is carrying capacity, but a heavy horse only costs 200 gold.

[Jacob Saltband]

I like having a good inventory to choose from while my characters are traveling/adventuring so that I can have a varity of mundane items available to help in non-combat situations but like you said wieght is an issue for non-str based characters.

So just get a bunch of stuff and load down the fighter/barbarian.

[thejeff]

Hate it. Or more accurately hate having to do it.

It can be fun to play the Batman character who always has the right gadget for any given situation, but I don't want that to be every character.

I'd usually rather play a Conan type who travels light and relies on his own skills rather then a pile of gear. But PF really is set up to reward the other approach.

[Hama]

I hate it. A lot. And i resent people who always lead a mule around with every single thing.

[MagusJanus]

It depends.

If it's a simple inventory and all I'm keeping track of is arrows and such? It's okay.

An inventory where I need to keep dozens of different weapons to counter damage resistance, hundreds of scrolls, a couple thousand potions, wands of every type you can imagine, enough arrows to re-arm the U.S. Army with bows that are all of different types, fifty different magic items for each slot, and sixteen different sets of armor in addition to things like food and clothes? Then I tend to hate it with a passion.

Which is one of the things that irritated me about 3.5E and why I am glad Pathfinder added in some sensibility on that issue.

[PsychoticWarrior]

BokaliMali wrote:

I do. (In a pbp at least, when you're never rushed)

Just got in on a game where the DM told us to all start at level 1 with 500 gold and no magical gear. Instead of rocking masterwork weapons, I took the opportunity to make my PC the boy-scoutingest guy around.

I just enjoy the huge amount of useful mundane gear there is available. Even without magic, the stuff a PC can pull off is pretty impressive. Only real limit is carrying capacity, but a heavy horse only costs 200 gold.

I used to make characters who carried all kinds of stuff - from trail rations & torches down to bags of nails and chalk and you know what I found out? No DM ever cares about that stuff. Ever. In 30+ years of playing having a stick of chalk has never been necessary or even useful. It is actually quite similar to the oft-lamented 'golf bag syndrome' of PCs having to have multiple types of weapons made of different materials to overcome monsters. In this case though it is just non-magical stuff you can buy at 1st level and then promptly forget about (especially once spells like mend, make whole & fabricate become available). All ime mind. I am quite certain there are games out there where having a bag of nails is of vital importance!

[MagusJanus]

PsychoticWarrior wrote:

I am quite certain there are games out there where having a bag of nails is of vital importance!

I've seen players rig some very elaborate traps using nothing but a bit of chalk, some nails, alchemist's fire, a ten foot pole, some rope, a couple of tinder twigs, and a candle.

Combine a bag of nails with alchemist's fire and you have a primitive fragmentation grenade.

Needless to say, our poor DM for the campaign we discovered that had to switch to throwing nothing but constructs and incorporeal undead at us... After that, he dropped his house rule of "if it's reasonable, you can do it" for ideas involving what to do with our gear.

[Paulicus]

I like having a set of gear appropriate to the situation, though I usually stick to a relatively common set of gear (rope, hook, light, smokesticks, earplugs, splash weapons, thunderstone, antitoxin and such, a mirror, yadda yadda). I hate actually going through and buying it though. There's just so much to go through, it's my least favorite part of making a character (same goes for magic items). Spending it once it's found isn't quite so bad though. It's one thing I've really liked about L5R so far. I don't have to worry much about gear beyond a few simple things.

edit- I've used chalk a few times for keeping track of our path in a ruin. It doesn't often come up though.

[BokaliMali]

MagusJanus wrote:

PsychoticWarrior wrote:

I am quite certain there are games out there where having a bag of nails is of vital importance!

I've seen players rig some very elaborate traps using nothing but a bit of chalk, some nails, alchemist's fire, a ten foot pole, some rope, a couple of tinder twigs, and a candle.

Combine a bag of nails with alchemist's fire and you have a primitive fragmentation grenade.

Needless to say, our poor DM for the campaign we discovered that had to switch to throwing nothing but constructs and incorporeal undead at us... After that, he dropped his house rule of "if it's reasonable, you can do it" for ideas involving what to do with our gear.

... That is a wonderful christmas present. Thank you.

[thenobledrake]

I am all for doing inventory to make sure that the players are actually being mindful of things like who is carrying what and how, and to make sure that the players aren't hoping that I'll forget that dice become involved in their characters' survival if they aren't packing appropriate supplies (food, water, tents, firewood, etc.)

...but I absolutely hate the entire inventory situation once the things being accounted for are dozens of treasure items the party is hoping to sell or trade for better gear.

In the former case, doing inventory actually feels important from an in-character point of view and my players also quickly and efficiently work through the process of figuring out how long their travels will be, what they will need to make those travels manageable, and then tack on a little extra "just in case".

In the latter case, doing inventory feels completely ridiculous from an in-character point of view because the players are trying to make sure they get the absolute best value for each traded or sold item even though their characters have no skill in appraising things and yet refuse to pay for appraisal services, and the whole process involves a lot of hand-waving away that the average merchant doesn't actually have the thousands of gold on hand to provide you with change when you use a single piece of art to buy some supplies... and my players are staggeringly inefficient with deciding what to do with large sums of wealth, and make the average "inventory/shopping" trip that deals with more than just "how much food? Climbing kits? Should we take horses?" something which requires 2 full sessions (at 4 hours a piece) that involve zero role-playing and zero progression - just them floundering about with every player trying not to be too selfish to the point that no one is actually making any decisions.

It's all a bunch of "Who wants armor?" type questions being responded to with "I wouldn't mind armor, if there isn't something more important that we should buy." type answers while I sit behind my screen struggling to find ways to actually get someone, anyone at the table to commit to a purchase and thus start the chain reaction of purchases which will end the shopping trip... and the whole situation is made worse by the fact that, in the end, the players have inevitably followed the exact same purchase strategy that they have always followed and yet always seem to forget about when next it is time to off-load their inventory and shop (that being to buy up armor/defense for everyone, weapons for those that use them, at least one bag of holding if they can find it, and handy haversacks for characters needing to access a multitude of potions, scrolls, or wands).

Here's a TL;DR version: I dig inventory in campaigns where there is no possibility of buying any magic items other than a few minor items (potions & scrolls) and a very rare instance of a particular item here & there (a family auctioning off a magical ring so as to afford to keep their property/holdings after falling on hard times or a wondrous item popping up in a bazaar full of rare goods, for example), and all the treasures you find should be kept or spent on food, lodging, and entertainment.

Otherwise, it's a soul-sucking experience I'd rather avoid.

[MrSin]

My characters always come with a number of tricks up their sleeves, a bag full of mundane items to flavor them and get them out of situations, and lately, all of them have at least one towel and a survival guide. Gotta' be professional. Sometimes it takes them a while to realize they're an adventurer and get geared, but I love being well prepared to come up with a fun solution to a problem.

That said, I really hate keeping track of how many arrows and coins I have and I do tend to forget I bought anything relevant to a situation. Even those bombs I bought exactly for that situation.

[TriOmegaZero]

I did twelve years of active duty military.

I'm pretty sure six of those was spent doing inventories.

[TheNine]

I spent 8 years in the army with the infantry carrying everything... carrything things sucks... that being said...I did have a charector whom was playing up a mercenary company captain. He had what we lovingly called the 'war wagon'. Just a simple heavy cart with a ridiculous amount of things in it. He was back in Living greyhawk so 3rd to 3.5 ed. Loved going to cons and having people go "if only we had a " and me pulling out the wagon card and going... I have four.. and they are mastwork who needs one? but... as someone said, it does depend on the campaign, the player. I think it worked for him cause of his mercenary connections. My woodsy barbarian/ranger? nah who needs that stuff i make do with what i can carry.