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Aliquid
2016-12-18, 08:20 PM
How often do you use 'single use items' in a game. (tabletop, CRPG... etc)

So, things like potions, where it is used up and gone. Or maybe even something with a small number of charges.

I find that (other than heal potions) I often save these things for a "just in case" situation... and then keep forgetting that they actually exist when they would come in handy. So in the end... I don't even use them at all.

solidork
2016-12-18, 10:52 PM
Hmm, the last limited use item we got was a Wand of Lightning Bolt with around 6 charges. What happened to the last couple of charges is kind of a funny story actually: I was playing an Arcane Trickster Rogue (5e) who was constantly dropping things onto the ground in combat because I am too impatient to spend time switching. This was for two main reasons; first, if I drew my offhand dagger to attack with it and then wanted cast Shield (the non-Enchantment/Illusion spell I chose) later on I needed to have a hand free so I would drop the dagger; second, if I wanted to switch to my shortbow so I could attack at range I would often drop my rapier. We had numerous combats where nothing particularly bad happened because of this, but it backfired in a big way. We were journeying deep into the Chondallwood try and rescue a friendly adventuring party who had been kidnapped by Bullywogs and came upon a pitched battle between the frog-men and a hagspawn army (hags were the main enemy of the campaign). I looked through my familiar's eyes to get a good view of the battleground and then decided to open up with a charge of the wand to both take out a number of enemies that were between us and our friends as well as set fire to some tall reeds that were in the way. Next round I wanted to switch to my shortbow and spend a long time thinking about the risks of just dropping the wand and then coming back for it later, mostly worried that I might not be able to find it. What I didn't anticipate is that we had been followed the entire time by an invisible Hag Eye, and the hags were close enough to take the wand and then use the three remaining charges against us when we eventually confronted them.

Jay R
2016-12-18, 11:39 PM
A single-use item is like food - useless if you just save it forever.

I aim to use them as soon as a reasonable opportunity comes up.

Saving them for a "just in case" situation is very close to throwing them away, since you rarely get a situation where you know that this is the best time.

Yes, it can feel silly to have used it right before a better time shows up. But using it in some meaningful way is clearly much better than saving it forever and not using it at all. Too many people turn single-use items into zero-use items.

Go ahead and use them. There will be more single-use items to take their place.

Knaight
2016-12-19, 02:12 AM
In CRPGs (or other video games with single use items) I tend to hoard them way more than I should, and inevitably run into the situation where the item becomes completely obsolete or gets tossed due to a full inventory. In tabletop RPGs that doesn't tend to happen, probably because of a combination of three things - the absence of saves and similar makes using them a bit more key, I almost exclusively GM and am used to running NPCs to the extent that habits were formed that I can keep with PCs, and the items have a tendency to be things like explosives, and sometimes you just need to shoot something with a missile.

Jay R
2016-12-19, 07:05 PM
It's also worth pointing out that if you have a bunch of stored potions and scrolls, you are somewhat less likely to get the best ones from the next treasure the group finds.

HidesHisEyes
2016-12-20, 11:01 AM
A single-use item is like food - useless if you just save it forever.

I aim to use them as soon as a reasonable opportunity comes up.

Saving them for a "just in case" situation is very close to throwing them away, since you rarely get a situation where you know that this is the best time.

Yes, it can feel silly to have used it right before a better time shows up. But using it in some meaningful way is clearly much better than saving it forever and not using it at all. Too many people turn single-use items into zero-use items.

Go ahead and use them. There will be more single-use items to take their place.

This is the conclusion I came to after my two-hundredth big long boring inventory tidy-up in a Black Isle game.

Zejety
2016-12-20, 11:54 AM
Numenera is a system that puts a lot of emphasize on one-use-items.
It puts a pretty tight limit on how many you can carry at a time, while simultanously handing them out as loot rather generously. That's a decent way of avoiding the stock-pile problem, but it does make those items less of a novelty.

Freed
2016-12-20, 06:43 PM
I use Health pots if there are no heal spells that can be cast and someones in the single digits. Otherwise I rarely get single-use items.

Gwazi Magnum
2016-12-21, 02:59 AM
I often find myself selling one-time use items and then use the gold for more permanent equipment. It's worked rather well in most video games I've played because eventually you have more pernament buffs than the games counting on you having. Meanwhile I haven't been able to test it much in tabletop RPGs cause most of the party freaks out when I suggest this... And then end up either never using them, or using them for the sake of it even when there was no need for it (not in a "Good but not best" manner like Jay mentioned, but effectively wasting it).

hifidelity2
2016-12-21, 05:28 AM
I use Health pots if there are no heal spells that can be cast and someones in the single digits. Otherwise I rarely get single-use items.

+1 and then look at my sheet after an particularly difficult encounter and realise I had something that would have helped :smallfrown:

Stealth Marmot
2016-12-21, 08:13 AM
+1 and then look at my sheet after an particularly difficult encounter and realise I had something that would have helped :smallfrown:

Reminds me of when Roy is falling and he checks his pack and he's looking at the potions. "Delay Poison? Shillelagh oil? Why do I have these?" And then you remember that early on he was severely poisoned by the trap and the delay poison could have helped, and he was also using a non-magical club for a while and using the shillelagh oil would have made his greatclub pretty beast. So, yeah, he should have remembered to use his single use items.

Earthwalker
2016-12-21, 08:54 AM
A single-use item is like food - useless if you just save it forever.

I aim to use them as soon as a reasonable opportunity comes up.

Saving them for a "just in case" situation is very close to throwing them away, since you rarely get a situation where you know that this is the best time.

Yes, it can feel silly to have used it right before a better time shows up. But using it in some meaningful way is clearly much better than saving it forever and not using it at all. Too many people turn single-use items into zero-use items.

Go ahead and use them. There will be more single-use items to take their place.


This really seems like something I should read and remind myself of before every game I play in. I can't help think its right that you should use single items often, saving them for later just never seems to pay off.

Its good advice but I think of how many CRPGs I have finished with bags and bags full of heal potions and what what you "That might be usful later"

SirBellias
2016-12-21, 11:47 AM
I've found that whenever I give a single use item to my players, they forget about it. I try to use mine within the same or next session, just to keep the ball rolling. I've given them an item that instantly grows a massive mushroom tree thing, and remind them of it every once in a while. I'm hoping they use it in the next story arc, because it wasn't touched this time around.

Aliquid
2016-12-21, 05:44 PM
Its good advice but I think of how many CRPGs I have finished with bags and bags full of heal potions and what what you "That might be usful later"That's the thing isn't it... we know that is the best advice, but knowing something and putting something into action are two different things.


I often find myself selling one-time use items and then use the gold for more permanent equipment.I might just try that.


Numenera is a system that puts a lot of emphasize on one-use-items.
It puts a pretty tight limit on how many you can carry at a time, while simultanously handing them out as loot rather generously. That's a decent way of avoiding the stock-pile problem, but it does make those items less of a novelty. Would this apply to Torment: Tides of Numenera? I do plan on playing that once they officially finish making the game.

Jay R
2016-12-21, 09:21 PM
Its good advice but I think of how many CRPGs I have finished with bags and bags full of heal potions and what what you "That might be usful later"

A healing potion is simply a bottle of hit points. The best place to store hit points is in your body.

Telok
2016-12-24, 10:44 PM
Grenades!

I've never heard of reusable explosives and everyone (in the game) loves explosions. Grenades always get used eventually, even if you're only going fishing.

Although with the danger of stepping on a boat in D&D, perhaps that should be "especially when you're going fishing!"

Thrawn4
2016-12-25, 08:52 AM
I liked the way the original Thief games encouraged you to actually use your items by having them all be gone anyway at the end of a level. On the one hand it was slightly annoying, but on the other it made me use lots of items I would have stored for the final when I wouldn't have needed them anyway (something that happened to me in Terranigma).
There was no explanation for the item loss, but I guess Gareth was just a wasteful son of a b****.