Shattered Steel - Using durability
The hero stands atop the boulder, exhausted. His armor is chipped, and his sword has a large crack near the guard. As he watches the enemy approach, he wonders: Will his gear hold up in the next fight?
Durability is something we often love and hate. We enjoy the tension of making careful decisions as the character and their gear wear down. Yet, many systems fail to deliver this level of excitement.
Recently, more systems have introduced mechanics that incorporate wear and tear. For instance, Crown & Skull combines your gear and skills to represent your health and in the game Knave 2E, you drop gear as you are worn down. In this blog post, I present an experimental mechanic you can add to your classic D&D games.
Shattered Steel
Durability - Each tool or weapon has a limited number of uses. Most gear can be used a maximum of 3 times.
Uses - Every time gear is used during a scene, it consumes 1 use. When it reaches 0 uses, it is considered broken. Examples of scenes include:
- Using an axe in combat (Only 1 use for the entire fight)
- Using a rope to climb a tower
- Using a crowbar to open a door
Broken - When a piece of gear has 0 uses left, it is considered broken. Broken items can be repaired for half of their original cost. Broken gear can be used for one more time, but it carries additional risks and after the action, it becomes destroyed.
Destroyed - If a broken item is used again, it becomes destroyed.
An example of play:
The party tracks a group of Orc marauders to their hideout. The orcs haven't noticed them yet. Two orc scouts stand outside the ruined keep, appearing relaxed. After a quick discussion, the party decides to attack with ranged weapons, followed by a charge. Alfrik, the Dwarf, rushes in with his great axe.
A little while later, the party is victorious, the scouts lying dead around them
Referee: "Everyone, mark off 1 use for your weapons."
Alfrik's player: "That was the last use of my great axe!"
Referee: "As you pull your great axe out of the final orc, you notice a large crack along the shaft. It’s broken!"
Alternative Rule: Resource Dice - But what if you like to have some unpredictability. Then another already existing solution would be to use resource dice! A mechanic from (I believe) the Black Hack, where the durability will be represented through the current die. For example, a new weapon might get a D6 durability. After each fight roll each of the used tools and weapons. 1-2, you degrade 1 die size. An item is broken if you roll a 1-2 on a D4.
Optional Rule: Critical Misses - Maybe you would like to have tools also break in the action, then if a player rolls a critical miss, you could immediately trigger an additional use of that item. This might cause a weapon to break mid-fight.
Hopefully, this system will encourage thoughtful resource management, as players will wear down their equipment over time. Let me know how it works for your table!