One of the things removed from the Master Edition of Index Card RPG from the 2nd Edition are the equipment tags. Part of me thought they were cool, and another part of me thought they were a lot of record keeping for little benefit. You get a piece of gear and all of a sudden you are responsible for writing down 3-4 tags along with it?
In a way it added a lot of tracking and tedium.
I mean, I could see this is all your gear was printed on cards, then that extra detail and information had a home and it was easily used and referenced. As a game played off of character sheets? I am feeling it got to be a chore so the system was scrapped. The judgment of the referee is a better tool. Want to fire a rifle in a confined space? That is a simple ruling, make it a hard roll. Does a piece of equipment make a task easier?
Just like in the OSR, leave it up to the referee to grant that and the player to possibly suggest.
If a player felt strongly about his dagger being an ideal tool to cut himself free from a mess of sticky webs and something that would make the job easier, the player could suggest that this tool is ideal, and the task should be easy. There is no rule for this. It is common sense and the referee listening, understanding the player's point of view, considering the situation, and saying yes or no. The task may be a step more difficult due to being caught in a stick mass of webs, but that dagger may lower the difficulty from hard (using a sword) to normal.
The OSR = How Life Works
The OSR is how real life works. You have strong feelings and argue a case. Someone else listens and says yes, no, or maybe. They make their case. You make yours. You come to an agreement that makes sense.
And you keep arguments out of the game because it hurts everyone else. Both sides may have strong feelings, but in the end it is a game and one bad ruling in one place doesn't ruin the game because we love the game more than we love a single ruling on a situation. It all works out because I bet there are many more decisions in the game that give the players the benefit of the doubt due to their heroism and epic coolness.
In comparison, games with more rules feel like they force the players and referee apart on the issues they should be discussing and coming up with common sense rulings on. I feel you risk losing touch with reality with these heavily-ruled games because the internal physics of the game become more important than just talking it out and coming up with a decision that works for the story and situation.
Equipment Tags in B/X?
I had an example recently about a character breaking down a door in a White Box B/X game (where weapons all do a d6 damage), and then ruling a battle axe would be a better tool for the job than a dagger. In the above example, a dagger is a better tool for cutting yourself free from webs than a sword, or even the battle axe.
I am still in a way using the equipment tag system in my head to make these rulings, but I don't need the tags to do it. I have a situation, the player presents a solution using a tool, and I make a ruling on how well that would work given the situation, actions taken, and tools.
Someone in a game with more rules may sit there and argue since the weapons do the same damage and there is no "rule" saying one is better than the other for a given task, then both should have the same chance of breaking down a door. This is where a lot of games start falling apart and becoming more about "the rules as reality" instead of "common sense is reality."
Invisible Tags
B/X weapons and gear do have "equipment tags" built into them, they just are not written down. I would still use this same logic with the Master Edition of Index Card RPG, but one could argue this is just the rule, "Having a tool that makes a task easy gives you the bonus." This also applies in the reverse though with tools unsuited to the job, which I haven't found written down (yet, my book is still MIA in the mail somewhere), but it should be obvious.
Equipment tags in a sense are there for us to use and apply in our rulings. Got a bucket of water? Automatic success at dousing a small fire. I can rule no roll needed and we move on. In a dramatic movie sense it works. Put a roll on there and have it fail three times before the fourth douses the fire and you risk using dice rolls to enforce tedium, needless repetition, and punishing the player. What are you doing? Did a rulebook say you needed to roll for that? Is this even important?
Want to knock a patrolling goblin guard unconscious? A sap or blackjack makes the task easy, a club or staff is normal, and most other things are hard or even impossible (a whip or flail).
So while the written-down concept of an equipment tag may be tedium, the mental concept of applying these "invisible tags" based on common sense and how the item functions can actually be a useful tool in an OSR referee's toolbox.
The best tool for the job makes it an easier task.
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