Suddenly Wolves

Tweaking some bits of the Named Toolkit as we go along. At some point later this year when there are enough changes will put out a new version of the Toolkit, which is unlikely to change the Named Summary. Nothing big so far, but the main things I am thinking of are:

- Change the name to ‘Wightbred’s Toolbox” to make it clearer that these are just the tools I use, and others should feel free to divert from this for their play and write up their own toolkits;

- Explicitly point to Blaze of Glory being used at almost any time, in contrast to the rest of the Devil’s Bargains; and

- Some better internal art from people who’s work I love.

I also wanted to add some content to this update, so here’s something fun. Many of the things in the Toolkit are there because people asked me how I do things and I wrote them up and dropped them in for future reference. Was in a discussion last year about how I did encumbrance, so I threw this summary together that will be added to the next version of the toolkit:

‘SUDDENLY WOLVES’ ENCUMBRANCE

We don’t generally track define what characters are carrying unless it is important to the world. We just address it in the situation where the item might be useful.

We all know what an office worker or a carpenter is likely to be carrying, and we trust the players to make judgement calls on whether they have something in the moment. If you want more tension, the player might choose to roll for the likelihood.

Sometimes you are playing a survival or dungeoneering game where what you are carrying matters, so you want to write these down. You could use a simple inventory management system, limiting bulky items like Into the Odd, or fitting items into box shapes on a template. like Mausritter.

The alternative is to address encumbrance in the fiction and make a judgement as needed. If a character tries to jump to a ledge or fit through a hole, consider whether the things they are carrying make this harder. If wolves suddenly appear, the group can determine who is the slowest and will be caught first based on what everyone is carrying. Or the GM might ask at the start of play who the slowest is to warn the players of the dangers they might encounter.

In summary: trust the players to make decisions on what their character would and could carry, and give regard to encumbrance and fatigue in real world situations, including the impact of injuries on ability to carry things.