#mental loads

[zedecksiew]

You carry your experiences with you

Some musings about inventory systems, inspired by (though not exactly in line with) this post by K on cohost:

"The Lessons We Take With Us ... are treated very much like an inventory of useful items."

I like things that do a lot with little. So the notion that your inventory of gear is also your list of skills (and maybe also also your health system) appeals to me?

Also Colin reminds me that games like Cairn and Mausritter already have bad conditions (like exhaustion and spellcasting fatigue) fill inventory slots.

And that Iko's The Lost Bay has "Burdens", which represent both items and skills?

So I'm thinking: let's put skills, character abilities, and character advancement in the inventory, too. Your inventory is your whole character sheet.

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OK OK SO:

Here's your character. The only character stat that matters for our purposes is Capacity, a measure of how much bandwidth you have: physically, mentally, emotionally.

Lets say you start with 7 Capacity slots:

Every piece of meaningful Gear (a bow and arrows, rations, etc) takes up a Capacity slot. This includes stuff meaningful in other ways---ie: valuable Treasure (a golden idol, etc).

Specific Training takes up a Capacity slot. But also adds two Capacity slots. Effectively, having Spear Training means you get to carry a spear without having it take up Capacity. If you have Spear Training, you are both good at wielding a spear and stowing it away so it doesn't encumber you in an adventure.

A Mastery takes up a Capacity slot. But also adds three Capacity slots. If you are a Master Thief you are so good at various thiefly trades that your tools are a part of you (so to speak), and you are always open for new opportunities.

An Ally (think henchmen, animal companions) takes up a Capacity slot. But also adds three Capacity slots. They are like Masteries, I guess? It's good to have skilled, loyal friends!

A significant Experience takes up a Capacity slot, and adds a Capacity slot. They are like Training---but where Training gives bonuses in a specific field (you are good at spear-fighting), Experience gives bonuses in general areas related to it (Fought A Dragon In A Riddle Contest gives you bonuses when encountering dragons and riddles contests, etc).

Stuff that hamper a character, like Injuries (broken limb, bleeding wound) or bad Conditions (scared, tired, hungry) take up one Capacity slot each. If you have a broken hand you'll think about it, favour it, try to keep it from getting wet, etc.

Some notes:

Carrying stuff you have no training in takes up Capacity, essentially. This is not just physical encumbrance, but mental also: "Man this bow is getting in the way." "Ok which pocket did I put my water bottle in again?"

If you have less than half your starting Capacity slots free, you are encumbered in mind and body. This should represent disadvantage in all areas, becoming more severe the more you go over the limit. All your stuff occupies you!

You could pick up Training or Mastery in things like Mindfulness or Packing---expertise specifically for increasing Capacity. (Since these fields don't have items associated with them, you basically get an extra slot.)

Things that are Storage (houses, wagons, etc) take up a Capacity slot, and give lots of extra Capacity---but you don't necessarily have them around you reliably. (You can't bring your house into the dungeon.)

Experiences should be malleable. If you riddled with a dragon, then entered a riddle contest with a demon, both experiences should get "upgraded"? Riddle Mastery? (That Training can get upgraded into Mastery is a given.)

Trainings and Masteries should be as bespoke as Experiences. Training: Master Qi's Spear Art and Training: Spear-wall Formation Fighting In The Vedocci Legion imply different things, and should lend you different ways of wielding your spear.

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Yeah, so that's my quick and dirty "Experience Is Inventory" system. Thoughts?

Personally I'm torn. On the one hand: I'm pleased / stimulated by how simple and abstracted and (potentially) easy this is? Your character sheet is a mind map, basically. As you play, the sheet grows, becoming a record of your character's history and who they are, what friends they have, what stuff they value.

On the other hand: is this too abstracted, that it detracts from the concreteness of an imagined space? I know that when I play games my fun starts ebbing when I feel like I'm playing rules and jargon, not the fiction.

(Also I'm sure some maverick innovative indie game has done this kind of skills-are-gear thing before. What games handle things in similar ways?)

[zedecksiew]

OUR MOTHER, HER SEVEN ARMS

Azza Amma loves the first glow on the horizon. She reaches out, and with a sweep of her arm gathers up its light. Now it is warm within her fist.

Azza Amma loves the cool in the first clay pit. She bends and presses a hand into its soft matter. She squeezes and kneads many shapes.

Azza Amma loves the first roar of her fire. She admires its rising flame; with a flying elbow and fingers splaying she mimics its ceaseless motion.

Azza Amma loves the fruit of the first mango tree. She reaches up, and plucks and plucks and plucks. She fills her basket up. An entire harvest.

Azza Amma loves the first call of the nightjar. She turns, cups her palm to her ear. She waits for him to call again, and catches his second poem.

Azza Amma loves the taste of the first spring. She places a pot in its stream, and collects its waters. Her pot is heavy; she sits it upon her hip.

Azza Amma loves her youngest child, Ammat. She teaches them her alphabet, suckles them at her teat, surrenders her thumb for them to grasp.

Our mother’s name is Azza Amma. She has seven arms.

Her bosom is vast, but the world is wider. To embrace the world she must hold it in every hand. To want the world it must consume all her desire. She has none left; she is bereft.

Azza Amma abandons her youngest child, Ammat. Hungry, thirsting after their mother’s teat, they cry the first words, speak the first language.

Azza Amma lets her pot of springwater fall. It shatters and spills. She weeps into its pieces. It forms the first sea, and her tears become fishes.

Azza Amma turns away from the nightjar. As she uncups her palm his poetry flies free. His steady metre is the beat for all the world’s music.

Azza Amma upends her basket of mangoes. They roll away and are stolen by monkeys. Their saplings sprout all over, and seed the first forests.

Azza Amma stamps out her fire. But many have watched her move, framed by its flame. Many mimic her movements, and make the first dances.

Azza Amma cracks her tablets of clay. She cuts her hand on their shards. Their dust is beaded with her blood, and become all the world’s rubies.

Azza Amma releases her captured light. She winds up her shoulder and flings it into heaven. It flies, and sticks high in the sky. The very first star.

Our mother’s name is Azza Amma. She has seven arms.

Her bosom is vast, her hands are free. To make the world she let it go. To want a soul her heart must be empty. Now she has space enough; she knows love truly.

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This is me starting to build on the idea of a TTRPG ruleset designed around inventory / capacity.

I am a very reluctant writer of rules. I'm tricking myself by starting in fiction.

The idea is that this ruleset is diegetic; its abstractions represent the cosmology and worldview of Azza Amma's priests. Your soul has seven parts, like the seven hands of the mother goddess.

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( Image source: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/38273 )