Within a fantasy world, the existence of items that players are able to interact with is paramount to their experience. Whether an item represents a sword enabling a player to make an attack, a communication device used to plot with allies across long distances, or solid gold coins found deep within a dragon's lair, items represent both mundane and magnificent merchandise adventuring parties may find useful in the face of adversity within the worlds they explore.
For these reasons, using items are mechanically woven into the framework of Alchemy. Items can be bestowed to players by gamemasters to track different features, consumables, and abilities players can access while playing many types of tabletop RPGs.
Article Information
Category | Universe |
Targeted Profiles | Creators & Gamemasters |
In This Article
What are Items?
Creating Items
What are Items?
Items help gamemasters with creating tools they can give players to influence the game. They may be represented with a short description of significance or provide mechanical advantages in the game's system. Additionally, items can be associated with actions that a player can access once they equip the item.
Below are several examples of how gamemasters can use items.
Creating a magical set of gloves. An action can be created with the item to roll dice to resolve a character's pickpocket attempt when wearing them.
Tracking a rose that does not wilt. The rose's significance can be noted in the item's description to come up at a later time in the story.
Remind players that they have several pitons available to them when scaling a mountain. Inevitably, they will try and use them during every opportunity other than scaling a mountain.
Items can be referenced in a game when assigned to the player or NPC. They can then reference that item in the 'Equipment' panel when playing a game. When the item is equipped by a player or NPC, the item's associated actions can be viewed in the 'Actions' tab.
Creating Items
Items can be created by gamemasters either in a game or in a universe. When created in a universe, items can be accessed in any game that has that universe (specifically that universe's module) enabled. Creating items in a game can be useful when an item needs to be created on the fly due to unexpected twists in the game's story.
Creating an Item
Gamemasters and creators can create items in one of two ways:
Within a game, a gamemaster can play as a character, navigate to their Equipment Panel, Click the 'Add Item' button in the panel, and then the 'Create Item' button at the top.
When editing a universe, navigate to the Items tab and click the 'Create Item' button.
When creating an item, a modal will appear with several tabs. The first tab is the Item tab.
Field | Description |
NAME | Input a name for this new item. This name will be viewed in the Equipment Panel and in the Item tab of a universe. |
IMAGE | Clicking the pencil icon above the name of the item enables uploading a image to display when viewing this item. |
ITEM TYPE | This selection field denotes the type of item that is being created. These item types are different depending on the system the item is created in and make sense in the context of that system's rules. |
QUANTITY | Sets the number of copies of an item a player is carrying. Great for holding several pieces of the same adventuring gear or a potion with multiple doses. |
COST | Input an associated cost for the item using the system's currency. |
WEIGHT | Input how heavy a particular item is. |
MAGIC ITEM | Toggle whether an item is magical in nature. |
CONSUMABLE ITEM | Toggle whether an item has a specific amount of charges before it disappears. |
Additional Item Information
Additional information on this tab as well as different selection for the Item Type may appear on this modal. These additional fields that appear depend on the selected item type and make sense in the context of the game system being played.
Once all of this information has been filled in the Item tab, the Description tab can be selected to format a description for the item. This description accepts markdown formatting so descriptions can be more advanced to include subheaders, roll tables, and relevant images.
Finally, the Actions tab will allow creators to add custom actions to a particular item. These custom actions are available to any player or NPC that has this item and has that item equipped.
Equipping an item
Items with actions have the ability to be equipped by players or NPCs in a game. When these items are granted to a character, a small pip will appear next to the item when viewing it in the Equipment tab.
That pip can be clicked to equip the item.
When an item is equipped, that item's actions can be used by the player or NPC in their respective Actions tabs.
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