Equipment and Treasure
When a vagabond wants a piece of general equipment – a rope, a torch, a compass – they mark a depletion to pull it from their pouches and bags. This includes money and medical supplies. It costs approximately 1 depletion (or 1 value) to pay for clearing 1 injury by a skilled healer, or to get enough supplies for an appropriately trained vagabond to provide the same healing.
Important note for armor: When you’re wearing armor, you can mark 1 wear on the armor instead of making 1 injury on yourself. You can absorb multiple injury at once in this way. You can only do this if the armor you are wearing would actually protect you from the injury – for example, leather armor might not actually be a huge benefit when you fall off a castle wall. The GM is the final arbiter on whether your armor is applicable.
When a vagabond wants to repair their equipment, they need a capable carter or smith, and to trade value for repairs. Each box of wear repaired costs 1 value, the equivalent of 1 depletion. If the piece of equipment is broken, though, then it’ll have to be replaced entirely, not repaired.
When the vagabonds have access to ample supplies – say, when they get to pick through the barracks armory as payment for a job – they clear their depletion tracks as they resupply.
Treasure
Many vagabonds focus on filling their pouches with hard won coin. Whether they take on jobs for wealthy Marquisate nobility or plunder ancient ruins, they’re looking for treasure.
The woodland has no single currency. As such denizens of the Woodland are used to barter and trading goods.
In the game, this economy manifest in a few ways. First, any time you refer to something’s worth, it’s recorded in Value: 1 value, 2 value, 3 value, etc. Each box of depletion provides the equivalent of 1 value. A vagabond’s depletion track includes objects and items of some Value, such that a vagabond can use depletion to pay for new items and services by marking boxes.
Each piece of significant equipment has a value determined by combining the following numbers:
- (add) boxes of wear
- (add) number of weapon skill tags
- (add) number of advantageous traits or extra ranges
- (subtract) number of disadvantageous traits
So, a well made sword with three boxes of wear, one weapon skill tag, only its single default range, and one advantageous trait would be worth 5 value.
Finally, treasure or sacks of coin or other items that only have value, not utility, also exist on the same scale. There are relatively few such items in the Woodland – the denizens live mostly pragmatic lives. but sometimes a vagabond will find such a treasure in a ruin, or they will be paid by a Marquisate baron with a sack of coin.
A bag of coin or similar stack of cash is represented as a piece of equipment with boxes of wear equal to its value. Vagabonds can spend those boxes one at a time to buy goods or services as they choose, including to replenish their depletion one box at a time when they buy goods from a store, or paying for repairs to equipment one box at a time.
A treasure that is a singular object should be represented as a piece of “equipment” with a number of boxes of wear equal to its value. A beautiful golden scepter might be worth 7 boxes of wear, for example.
Unlike a bag of coins, you’re not going to be able to check off a few boxes of that scepter to buy something. A singular object cannot be broken up – it’s an all or nothing exchange. You’ll have to give over the object whole, so make sure you get something that’s worth it.
Burden
Finally, vagabonds can’t carry infinite amounts of stuff. Each significant piece of equipment a vagabond carries uses 1 load. Some particularly large pieces of equipment might use 2 load. A vagabond can carry a total Load equal to 4 + might without being burdened. Past that, they become burdened. Beyond the GM making appropriate moves and following the fiction, burdened vagabonds have to mark 1 exhaustion whenever they travel long distance. The absolute maximum they can physically carry is twice their burdened load limit.
Buying and Selling
When a vagabond goes to buy or sell something, it’s not always a simple, rote affair, a comparison of value. The denizen on the other end of the bargain matters! If they don’t like vagabonds, or mistrust denizens of the vagabond’s species, or see no use for gold… they’ll bargain, dicker, or even refuse to deal.
The GM makes the call on how NPC Denizens react and respond to deals, but should base it on the situation at hand. If the vagabonds is trying to buy in a clearing they’ve saved, full of denizens with whom they have a high Reputation, then buying may be very simple! But in a hostile clearing, they may not be able to buy a darn thing.
Creating Equipment
Equipment in Root: The RPG is always special or valuable. A rope,
a torch, or glass bottle isn’t “equipment,” unless there’s something
special about it, represented by tags or by multiple boxes of Wear.
To build a piece of equipment, assign it tags and boxes of wear. Add
up all the costs of the equipment’s traits to determine its final Value:
• Each box of wear on the equipment costs 1 Value.
• If the equipment is a weapon, it automatically gets 1 Range:
intimate, close, or far. Depending upon GM approval and weapon
type, you can add another range to your weapon for 1 Value.
• Each weapon move tag on a weapon costs 1 Value.
• Each positive tag on the equipment costs 1 Value.
• Each negative (red) tag refunds 1 Value.
Equipment can have 0 boxes of wear; such equipment is destroyed
immediately if it suffers any wear.
The GM is the final arbiter of what tags make sense on any given
item, following the fiction. You can’t have a small dagger tagged with
Large, a hammer tagged with Sharp, or a bow tagged with Reach.
Similarly, a small dagger with 5 boxes of wear, or a suit of plate armor
with 1 box of wear, are both so unlikely as to be avoided.
By default most equipment of any significant size—around large
dagger/short-sword sized—takes up 1 Load. Smaller equipment takes
up no Load; larger equipment should be marked with a tag indicating
it takes up more Load (like Weighty).
Pre-Made Equipment
Chainmail | Value: 3 | Load: 2
Tightly woven: When you take a few seconds to repair this armor
after a fight, clear 1-wear you marked during the fight.
Weighty: This item counts as 1 additional Load.
Dagger | Value: 5 | Load: 0
Range: intimate, close | Weapon skill tags: Parry, Vicious Strike
Quick: Mark exhaustion to engage in melee with Finesse instead of Might.
Leather Armor | Value: 3 | Load: 1
Flexible: When you grapple with someone, mark exhaustion to
ignore the first choice they make.
Mousefolk Short Sword | Value: 5 | Load: 1
Range: close | Weapon skill tags: Parry, Disarm
Mousefolk Steel: Mark wear to engage in melee using Cunning
instead of Might.
Plate Armor | Value: 3 | Load: 2
Arrow-proof: Ignore the first hit dealing injury from arrows that you
suffer in a scene.
Cumbersome: Mark one exhaustion while you wear your armor—
clear one exhaustion when you take it off.
Weighty: This item counts as 1 additional Load.
Shortbow | Value: 6 | Load: 1
Range: close | Weapon skill tags: Quick Shot
Short Limbs: Mark wear to fire a quick shot at far range.
Tags
Arrow-proof: Ignore the first hit dealing injury from arrows that you
suffer in a scene.
• Blunted: This weapon inflicts exhaustion, not injury.
• Ceremonial: Choose an attached faction. While this item is
displayed, treat yourself as having +1 Reputation with that faction,
and -1 Reputation with other factions.
• Comfortable: This item counts as 1 fewer Load.
• Cumbersome: Mark one exhaustion when you don your armor—
clear one exhaustion when you take it off.
• Eaglecraft: Mark wear when engaging in melee to both make and
suffer another exchange of harm.
• Fast: Mark wear when engaging in melee to suffer 1 fewer harm,
even on a miss.
• Friendly: When you meet someone important, mark exhaustion to
roll with your Reputation +1.
• Flexible: When you grapple with someone, mark exhaustion to
ignore the first choice they make.
• Foxfolk steel: Ignore the first box of wear you mark on this item
each session.
• Hair trigger: Mark wear to target a vulnerable foe at close range
instead of far.
• Healer’s kit: Mark wear to clear exhaustion. Mark 2-wear to clear injury.
• Heavy bludgeon: Mark exhaustion to to ignore your enemy’s
armor when you inflict harm.
• Heavy Draw Weight: When you target a vulnerable foe with this
bow, mark exhaustion to inflict 1 additional injury.
• Iron bolts: This weapon inflicts 1 additional wear when its harm is
absorbed by armor.
• Large: Mark exhaustion when inflicting harm with this weapon to
inflict 1 additional harm.
• Luxury: After creation, this item is worth +3 Value.
• Mousefolk Steel: Mark wear to engage in melee using Cunning
instead of Might.
• Oiled string: Mark wear to use the weapon skill quick shot even if
you don’t have it.
• Quick: Mark exhaustion to engage in melee with Finesse instead of Might.
• Rabbitfolk Steel: Mark wear to engage in melee with Finesse
instead of Might.
• Reach: When you engage in melee, mark wear on this weapon to
inflict harm instead of trading harm; you cannot use this tag if
your enemy’s weapon also has reach.
• Sharp: Mark wear when inflicting harm with this weapon to inflict
1 additional harm.
• Short Limbs: Mark wear to fire a quick shot at far range.
• Slow: When you engage in melee with this weapon, choose one
fewer option. Mark wear to ignore this effect.
• Thick: When you mark wear on this shield to block a hit, you only ever
mark 1-wear, even if you are blocking more harm from a single hit.
• Throwable: Mark exhaustion to target a vulnerable foe with this
weapon at far range.
• Tightly woven: When you take a few seconds to repair this armor
after a fight, clear 1-wear you marked during the fight.
• Tricky: When you use this item to trick an NPC by distracting
them at a distance, on a 7-9 mark wear to eliminate one option
from the trick an NPC move before the NPC picks.
• Unassuming: Until you harm an enemy, they will never deem you
more of a threat than other vagabonds with arms and armor.
• Versatile: When you move to or from a range this weapon can
reach, mark wear to make a quick strike and inflict 1-injury on any
opponent in this weapon’s range.
• Weighty: This item counts as 1 additional Load.