That said, I've been thinking about and looking through Numenera stuff in preparation for the Toybox Campaign, which has got me thinking about cyphers, which has got me thinking about consumable items in general.
If you're not familiar with the cypher system, it utilizes items called cyphers. These are single use "magic" (or whatever the appropriate setting flavor is) items with a wide range of effects from adding to a user's stats for a time to making a user able to phase through walls to being used as a weapon that does damage to an enemy to leveling a city. Basically anything you can think of. Being called the Cypher System, it's obvious that they're supposed to be an important part of play. The rulebook talks about how they're supposed to be used pretty freely and how the players are supposed to find new cyphers pretty often.
Of course, in my play, most of my players have not tended to use cyphers freely. They treat them the same way they treat all other consumables: always saving them because there might be a "better" use for them later. When players then find a new cache of new cyphers, they trade out for the best of the lot while staying below their cypher limit. It ends up not replenishing so much as just changing out certain cyphers, and the players have lost the opportunity to use whatever number of cyphers they trade out then.
And this doesn't just apply to cyphers or to the cypher system. Players are hesitant to use potions that boost their stats or abilities or magical arrows or any other consumable in any system I give them out in.
To be fair, I'm the same way. I don't like using one-use items, because then I won't be able to use them if I need/want them later. Which ends up with them not getting used at all, which is wasteful.
So, I don't know how to encourage both myself and my players to utilize one-use items with a greater frequency.
One thought that occurs to me, but that wouldn't necessarily be appropriate all the time, would be to have a time limit.
Last night, my wife and I were watching the second Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, and there is a scene where Lucy is looking at the healing salve that she'd had in the last movie. Hundreds of years have passed in Narnia while Lucy was spending a year in the real world, so that salve is at best hundreds of years old. I was thinking about medicines that we have, and I was realizing "There's no way that's still good. It has to be way past it's expiration date." My wife, wisely, made some comment about magic and asked me how old I thought most of the potions I find in ancient dungeons in RPGs are. It raised a good question.
Using a time limit, the item will expire after X days or hours or whatever relevant period in the game world, and after that it's gone. This would inspire players to find a use for the item before the time period is up, knowing that they won't get to otherwise.
Of course, it might also add a level of stress to something that is supposed to be a benefit to the game and to their characters.
I've played both D&D and Numenera, and I've had to get used to the prevalence of consumables (cyphers) in Numenera verses D&D. I've realized that you can generally use one per battle and be replenished shortly after. The difference exists, too, because there aren't long lasting magic items, like armor or cloaks. Though, I guess there are artifacts, but those are different yet.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a shelf-life for the consumables, is there a concern that they won't work when the players find them? It's not like they start degenerating when they are found. And, you know, if these things are supposed to be remnants of bygone era, it doesn't make sense for them to expire.
I'm not sure there's a way to encourage players to use consumables in a regular way, other then showing their prevalence and pointing out how they missed out on using them in battle and such. Is your system going to use a lot of consumables?
I haven't fully decided on the prevalence of consumables in my system. I know that for my Toybox campaign, I intend to have commonplace consumables, like in Numenera. However, I'm not sure yet if I will end up translating that into the final system. There will be consumables, of course, but I'm not sure how common or what that will look like yet.
DeleteThis is something I've been frustrated by too. Especially in our last campaign, I often thought I had an awesome item. I was excited to use it, but I just never thought it was the right time. I always feared that I'd need it more in the future. I could see someone like myself benefiting from knowing that it would "expire" soon. I definitely see the potential for perishable items to add a cool element of creative problem-solving, should players find a way to be more motivated to actually use them. ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah. I've noticed also that players in one-shot games are more willing to use one off items, since they know they won't have another session to play in.
DeleteI wonder also, if someone were to play who had not been familiar with the tropes associated with RPGs (tabletop or video game), if they might be more inclined to use items without the fore-taught biases? Or, if someone might be able to taught to view consumables differently?