Friday, April 3, 2020

Quality of Equipment.

I've posted about equipment quality before. I've always liked somehting more than a straight non-magical to magical progression (aside from silver weapons). A while back I had a couple posts on grotty gear and have filled notebooks with a variety of options and still not too sure of where to go.

I have a host of materials, probably keeping all of them (but not worrying too hard about all their real property differences) and I laboring on degrees of quality from total junk to the penultimate but struggling to find a set of descriptive that holds up form worst to best (or even truly how many steps will scratch the itch I have).

My current way too long list of degrees of quality from worst to best:
  1. Duff
  2. Shonky/Shoddy
  3. Bodge
  4. Common
  5. Fit
  6. Brilliant
  7. Ace
  8. Magnificent
  9. Splendorous/Slendiferous/Splendid
  10. Wondrous
  11. Iconic
  12. Legendary
  13. Ultimate 
Three degrees of poor quality is probably too many; 8 degrees of excellent gear may also be a tad too much. I am constantly changing Wondrous and Iconic in status. An Item can be Wondrous without being Iconic and Iconic Items don't even have to be as Wondrous....so hmm roll them together?

Could abreviate it to this:
  1. Duff
  2. Common
  3. Brilliant
  4. Ace
  5. Splendorous/Slendiferous/Splendid
  6. Legendary
  7. Ultimate 
Somehow that seem a bit too brief if I'm going to  have degrees of quality.

I have considered also applying degree of ornamentation. But that has issues too.
  1. Ugly
  2. Crude
  3. Simple
  4. Elegant
  5. Decorated
  6. Fancy
  7. Amazing
  8. Oppulent
Part of me would love playing in a campaign where my character could find a Fancy Ace Orachalcum Sword. Another part of me isn't sure if the descriptives work well enough to be backed up with mechanics.

Throwing this out there for any reader's consideration and my own use as a digital notebook. I'd love to see anyone's take on  this.