Paging through Kabuki Kaiser’s
Ruins of the Undercity for
a recent post I realized how much I liked this approach to buying
equipment in
Dungeons & Dragons or other
Old School
Renaissance (OSR) games. Rather than simply purchasing items off
a few lists in a rulebook, readers can wander tables for aptly named
shops filled with wares both conventional and extraordinary. I prefer
the characters shopping in a setting than players buying stuff off a
rulebook’s limited list. Yet from its earliest days
D&D
focused more on the dungeon delve than down time at the nearby base
of operations; certainly this aspect of character creation and
maintenance could form the basis of some adventurer base interactions
that enhance both characters and setting.
Equipping characters remains an essential step in character
creation. For OSR games and
B/X D&D this step sometimes
seems like one more bit of record-keeping on the character sheet,
though choices like armor and weapons affect armor class and weapon
damage. More recent entries into the fantasy roleplaying game stage
have handled this differently, offering starting characters a choice
of pre-determined kits based on race, class, or background. But after
the initial adventure players can spend their characters’ gold as
they please, often by perusing equipment lists like some medieval
mail-order catalog, choosing the items they want, paying for them,
and jotting them down on a character sheet.
Take a look at how some early rulebooks present equipment choices.
Basic D&D (my preferred Moldvay edition) mentions
generating a character’s starting money followed by the instruction
to consult the equipment and weapons list as part of the “How To
Create a Player Character” sequence (page B5). Everything’s
listed on page B12, including weapons, armor, and 20 specific items
necessary for dungeon adventuring. Each corresponds with related
rules paragraphs later in the rulebook like “Light” (lantern,
torches), “Doors” (iron spikes, hammer), “Encumbrance”
(backpack, small and large sacks), and “Traps” (the infamous
10-foot wooden pole). The
Expert D&D rules add four more
items to this list, as well as expanding the weapon and armor
offerings and lists for wilderness transport costs. The
AD&D
Players Handbook adds some lists for clothing, herbs, and other
categories of goods characters can purchase, though most of these,
too, relate directly to adventuring pursuits. The clothing list –
possibly the one with the most potential for characters to splurge in
establishing their visual identities – focuses mostly on varying
kinds of boots, hats, and cloaks. These rules make no mention where
characters might find these items in a civilized town, village, or
keep, though “provisioner” seems to cover all these
dungeon-delve-related items.
As a young player I sensed these limitations early on, possibly
stirred by my interest in wilderness and urban adventures as well as
subterranean dungeon delves. In my earliest days playing
D&D
I eagerly sought any expanded equipment lists (with prices) for
characters to spend their ill-gotten loot. When I bought the Moldvay
edition
Expert D&D boxed set at the beginning of summer in
1982 the clerk at
Branchville Hobby tossed a spare gaming magazine
into the bag; that issue of
Adventure Gaming included an
article by Glenn Rahman, “How Much Is That Bearskin In The Window?”
(Rahman was co-designer of the
Divine Right fantasy
wargame, among other gaming titles over the years.) The article
offered a host of merchandise and services from the Roman era with
prices in both denarii and dollars, with a handy table converting 25
denarii into one Roman aureus (gold coin). The offerings fired my
imagination on several levels (I was already interested in ancient
history), but particular in the realm of village or city adventures.
Here I had a ready list of items (with prices easily converted to
gold pieces) found in the local marketplace or services characters
might hire in the nearby city.
Coincidentally that same issue of
Adventure Gaming (October
1981) included a lengthy overview and review of Chaosium’s
Thieves’
World boxed set, which obviously pandered to my urge to explore
medieval urban environments through
D&D. The boxed set
offered some inspiration for my equipment resources in the tables it
used to randomly determine different businesses in various city
neighborhoods. Those describing Sanctuary’s bazaar fixtures
provided perhaps the best mix of services and goods relevant to
adventurers seeking something more than a basic list of
dungeon-delving gear: cartographer, camel dealer, scribe,
fortuneteller, barber, and numerous others. These, too, fueled
inspiration for my urban adventures, most of which took place in
Sanctuary as a ready made medieval city.
Ruins of the Undercity provides another approach to
shopping for equipment. It combines a random dungeon generator with
the city-state of Cryptopolis as a base of operations. Characters
spend 1d4+1 days searching for necessary items among the merchants
and a similar amount of time finding and recruiting henchmen; each
day carries with it the chance for a special encounter or event.
Merchants have names evocative of the exotic desert setting, such as
Mungoy’s Leathers, Brishnan Emporium, Hats of Sycophia, and the
House of the Pole (with those infamous, trap-finding poles). Each
shop consists of a table listing the merchandise it offers, the
price, and a random die roll to determine the stock of the specific
item carried. For instance, Dawd’s Market offers lanterns, but has
only 1d4-2 in stock...meaning it might have none at the moment. The
goods include those available on the standard rulebook equipment
lists and others to add depth to characters: healing services,
fashion accoutrements (outfits, hats, jewelry), writing supplies, a
few magical items, spell scroll services.
Ruins of the Underity
presents a fulfilling sense of “going shopping” for
dungeon-delving gear without simply picking things off a list.
I recently found one more source of inspiration for my equipment
shopping challenge. Dyson Logos – prolific creator of some of the
most amazing maps in the entire OSR – released a set of maps of
“The Palace Market,” a bazaar set up in an unfinished palace.
Some of the maps remain blank (for the actual palace remains and a
blank bazaar map), but he also included an annotated map for “The
Goblin Market” with evocative trader names and wonderfully
whimsical merchandise: Rat Trainer, Relics of Dubious Saints, Illicit
Spells, Cows Hands, Minotaur’s Apothecary, Chalk & Runes, and
my favorite, the ominous-sounding Things Best Left Forgotten. A
shopping trip through the Goblin Market offers plenty of scenario
hooks or even serve as an adventure in itself.
Each of these examples provides opportunities to infuse this
mundane, downtime record-keeping task with setting elements that
enhance the game world, whether it’s simply including evocative
merchant names and exotic items or slipping a few scenario hooks and
helpful contacts into the shopping experience. Some players might
prefer the straightforward approach of shopping off a list and
getting on with their adventures; but this aspect of the game offers
some rich potential for character, setting, and plot development for
inspired players.
I’m sure I’m missing some novel approaches to equipping
characters, both initially and during campaigns. New fantasy
roleplaying games and the continuing flood of innovative OSR
approaches to classic forms can re-invent and expand this aspect of
the game. What interesting approaches have you seen or developed to
make this aspect of “character maintenance” come to life?
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