I was listening to an episode of Dice Exploder where Sam and Quinns talked about Mausritter’s inventory system, and when they started talking about card/deck based inventory, my brain spun out of control and came up with this: instead of setting hard limits on inventory, let players choose how much they carry in a deck of cards. They’ll have to balance the pressure of trying to topdeck some necessary item consistently, vs carrying their loot, supplies etc. No arbitrary inventory/pack size limits, just internal pressure the players have to manage themselves.

Basics of the subsystem

Obviously this needs hella playtesting, but here is the first draft as it sprung to mind:

• characters have no inventory/pack size limits
  • possibly even doing away with satchel/backpack
• every thing a character carries is a card in their deck
• when you want to use an item, draw for it. Your default hand size is n (let’s say n is 7–5 plus 2 hands–to start with). If you draw the item into your hand, you’re ready
• if you don’t draw what you need, you can either:
  • keep drawing until you get it, and discard down to your handlimit, face up in front of you
  • accept it’s not to hand, and roll/fight without it
• when it’s time to throw the bones, you place your deck face down in front of you. This is your wager with the GM. If you discarded any cards face up, these are also part of your wager
• If you don’t succeed, or you owe your opponents a compromise, the GM might choose to collect this from your wager:
  • they can choose any face up card
  • they can draw 2 face down cards, and you choose which to surrender

Any items carried in your strong or off hand start in your hand of cards. Good place to keep your lantern, weapon, etc.

Spells don’t count against your hand size, but you still have the “spell is equipped so you can’t also use a dagger” limitation. The spell just is always available, without having to draw.

Notes

• Every item is now pack/carried 1–no more size differences. It’s a tradeoff for simplicity
• Spells being immediately available is powerful, but they can also be lost pretty easily

Goal of the subsystem

• Simplify inventory, but keep it interesting
• Bring in the deckbuilder game of “I want to consistently draw X but I also want to have Y”

Other ideas

This is partly drawn from Cairn and Mausritter’s inventory systems. It might be fun to experiment with their idea that conditions occupy inventory slots, but that is a much bigger change to how TB works. Just futzing with the inventory keeps the blast radius of changes relatively small.

Playtest questions (if I ever get around to it)

• does this work at all? A Torchbearer character’s inventory is usually much smaller than a Slay the Spire deck
  • does this push adventure design to offer more loot?
  • does that throw off the economy of povvo adventuring?
• what is a good hand size?
• how do we handle things like “rations have 3 uses”? Mak off uses on the card?
• should spells count against hand limit? or should you have to draw for it? It feels off, but could be a balance issue