Aside from the obvious rule implications that EVERY character and monster will have a character sheet, reviewable any time by marshals. I am also proposing a treasure sheet for all non monetary treasures. Awarded by plot and signed by the player.
This sheet will be turned in by the plot member at the end of the module and signed by the player receiving the item. These pre approved and planned magical items will then be written on the player?s character sheet, signed by the awarding plot member, and the phys-rep given to the player. The signed treasure sheet will then be given to the head of plot or the web development team member to update the web site with the new item.
The only problem I see at the moment is stolen items. Items stolen from a player by a player will need a marshal?s signature on the player?s character sheet that lost said item and a treasure sheet made up by a plot member for the thief.
So if you are sitting in your cabin and a marshal asks to see your character sheet and marks through a magical sword you used to own, congratulations you were robbed at some point. Chances are good you as a player know who took the item. After all most thieves aren?t too terribly subtle, you still need to find out in play.
I was tired when I thought of this, and I am tired as I post it so if it makes no sense to you seasoned players please tell me why. Thanks in advance for any feedback you give. Let?s make this game truly special. A little paperwork will not kill the flow if you as a player feel like plot is doing right by you.
Power to the players!
Speaking of making things impossible to scan, there is also security paper which prints "VOID" across the copy if someone tries to do so. Was looking at it yesterday for other reasons, was about $21.00 for 250 sheets I think. I know that sounds expensive, but it's something to think about.
Thanks for the tip. I'd say it's definitely something to think about for when the game is on more stable financial legs. And, realistically, the number of safeguards we put in place should be proportionate to the size of the player base; early on, even the simple safeguards we have will probably be enough to deter item forgery.
"You are technically correct. The best kind of correct!"
- Bureaucrat 1.0, Futurama
well something as simple as putting a water-mark on your tags can help against forgery. not to mention requiring a player to see a marshal for tags can help keep items in check.
"I'm not locked up in with all of you, all of you are locked up in here with me!" Rorschach - Watchmen
I know I'll probably sound like a broken record, but I'd much prefer to avoid check-out. I realize this limits a lot of things; for example, characters cannot benefit from items during downtime. Thus, you can't learn something from a book, you can't use a magical mining pick to increase your yield from mining, etc. The benefit is that there is next to nothing that has to happen for logistics. No item pouches, no lost valuables, no hours spent sifting through things, etc.
As far as I'm concerned, then, items are the player's responsibility. A prop or item marshal can sign off on creating or changing the item, but if it gets lost during or between events, it's on them. The only hurdle to this is making item tags impossible to duplicate; I think our nifty Living Action, Inc. paper impression stamp will do a nice job of that, and I'm sure pens exist that would make signatures difficult to scan.
I'm open to debate, but it's worth mentioning that item tracking would be an entirely separate system that there's just not enough time to program. Thus, even if we want some sort of item check-out process, it probably won't be feasible before the first event.
"You are technically correct. The best kind of correct!"
- Bureaucrat 1.0, Futurama