Itemization in Computer Role-playing Games
By cRPG itemization, we are referring to the placement, quantity and quality of items in computer role-playing games, which in turn impact power progression and wealth accumulation for the player character or adventuring party.
cRPG Itemization is a category of cRPG Design.
If cRPG itemization is too generous, it can result in the trivialization of cRPG combat encounter design and a reduction in the need of questing and exploration. Conversely, stingy itemization can result in an inability to progress in the campaign.
Throwing items and gold about like confetti is far more common than stinginess. In not wishing to frustrate players, it is understandable that developers tend towards supplying too many resources rather than risk not supplying enough. However, as a result of this over-itemizing, it is often the case that players find themselves swimming in riches and cluttering their inventories far too early in the proceedings; and this, even without having foreknowledge of itemization, aka metagaming.
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| Bozar Fallout 2 |
As with cRPG difficulty itself, balancing the scales of cRPG itemization is not a huge problem if designers are free to tailor loot to players of a certain gaming pedigree, vintage or aptitude. For example, designers can assume players to be experts on the lineage, engine and ruleset of certain cRPGs, thereby providing a refined experience for dedicated gamers who know how to build characters, employ tactics and manage their resources for extended periods, such as during cRPG dungeon crawls.
Due to the yawning gulf that exists between experts and casual players, it is barely possible to design cRPGs that accommodate both; usually, there is only a middleground that doesn't satisfy either. To spell that out, one finds themselves basking in an embarrassment of riches whereas the other finds themselves sitting on the poverty line, destitute.
The best cRPGs are those that target veterans, the worst are those that pander to casuals, and inbetweens are cowardly compromises.
And if a cRPG is popular with the masses and said to be easy to get into or quick to blindly beat, you can be sure that it isn't worth playing in the first place.
The object of cRPG itemization is to provide the player with enough items to solve problems and overcome combat encounters, without going overboard. Itemization must be tailored to the overall design of the cRPG in order to ensure a degree of balance, but overly-balanced itemization is not desirable and rigidly incremental progression of item properties is uninteresting as well if there is nothing more than +1 enchanted items in Chapter 1, +2 enchanted items in Chapter 2 etc.
As a rule, generic or rigidly incremental and copy-pasta itemization is to be avoided in cRPGs, as is procedural generation of items and item properties.
cRPG Itemization in Linear & Non-linear Campaigns
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| Daedric Dai-katana Morrowind |
I would venture to state that it is much easier to balance itemization for linear cRPG campaigns such as Icewind Dale and IWD2 than it is to balance for non-linear and open-world campaigns such as Fallout or Arcanum.
In the linear campaign, we know where the player is going to be and what they have access to. Thus, can we tailor challenges more fittingly over the course of a campaign. The player may gain a degree of wealth as they progress (and so they should), but they can't very well break the game through loot acquisition. But in the non-linear or open-world campaign, not knowing the player's order of progression makes it much more difficult to balance the scales without watering down itemization or breaking immersion by scaling items to player character or average party level attained.
Level Scaled cRPG Itemization
Scaling items to player character or party power progression is an unsatisfactory and immersion-breaking solution to the problem presented by the non-linear or open-world cRPG structure.
A much better solution is to hand-place every static item but have more powerful items placed behind hostile environments and gating encounters. The party receives warnings because the environment becomes increasingly inhospitable, and the enemies become much harder to tame. The party can back out and return once they have powered up, which is much more rewarding in the long run.
Static cRPG Itemization
As I've always said, a bandit should be a bandit regardless of player character or party power progression or size. A bandit does not suddenly gain more hit points, a higher attack rate or more allies just because the party is bigger or more powerful. In the same manner, let the sword be a sword and an axe an axe. The sword should not upgrade into a holy avenger just because the party is of epic level. Instead, it is what it is fullstop and, in the case of a holy avenger, its properties are set in stone along with its placement in a hostile environment, behind a gating encounter or given as a well-deserved reward for overcoming such great odds. cf. Carsomyr & Firkraag.
The "problem" with static cRPG itemization is that expert players can employ ingenuity in order to procure such items prematurely. However, far from the item's acquisition being a cakewalk, it should only be possible to succeed through exceptional skill or deep foreknowledge (metagaming).
Randomized cRPG Itemization
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| Grief Phase Blade |
If employed thoughtfully, randomized cRPG itemization can be acceptable and even preferable to purely static itemization. I don't mean completely randomizing items across the board, or even randomizing as per Diablo 2 (which is still soulless), but rather drawing items randomly from preset pools consisting of just several sensible or themed items that can plausibly be found in a given chest or on a given corpse.
For example, in the Severed Hand of Icewind Dale, skeletal undead drop bone-related items whereas spectral undead drop shadow-related ones.
Well-executed randomized itemization can facilitate cRPG replayability as well.
Item rolls for preset pools should be set at campaign creation (as in Jagged Alliance 2) rather than being re-rollable on an area by area basis through save-scumming (as in Icewind Dale) or -- even worse -- on a receptacle by receptacle basis (as in Neverwinter Nights OC).
Procedurally Generated Itemization
The problem with procedurally generated itemization is that its generic item properties, item names and item locations stand out blatantly as being proc-gen in nature. Thus, is proc-gen soulless and to be avoided; it is the province of Roguelikes, not cRPGs.
cRPGs are to be HAND-CRAFTED in all aspects of their design.
Not only that, but procedural generation should not be employed in the development process either.
Crafting as cRPG Itemization
Crafting mechanics can be embedded into cRPGs as extensive crafting systems, or they can be minimally employed and optional. As a rule, unless the crafting system is well thought out (ToEE, Dungeon Rats or Storm of Zehir), I would say that crafting is best employed optionally rather than being necessary to success short of foreknowledge of what pre-made alternatives are found in the gameworld.
Take for example Baldur's Gate: we slay an ankheg, loot its shell and have the local blacksmith forge us ankheg armor. This is perfectly fine. The forging of the Flail of Ages is another perfectly fine example of minimal crafting employment.
Crafted items that can be progressively upgraded over the course of lengthy campaigns, and after great labors, are the true treasures of cRPG itemization -- especially if the player is given some options in how exactly to configure their enchantments. I can't think of any cRPG campaign that has done this better than Swordflight NWN.
A common problem with crafting is the usual need to scavenge for random bits and bobs, aka crafting components. It is better to tie the acquisition of crafting components to meaningful quests that add lore and context to the components, or to plot progression during which the components are seamlessly acquired, in order to avoid boring scavenger "gameplay".
ToEE wisely dodged scavenging for crafting components; Storm of Zehir, not so much.
And of course, just like already-forged arms and armor, crafting components should be found in obvious environments that are natural to them. For example, the mithral ore is found sitting on an anvil, in a smithy, guarded by a blacksmith.
cf.:
Drop All Loot in cRPGs
While it is realistic that enemies drop anything they were carrying when slain (except if it was damaged, which is plausible), Drop All Loot can trivialize itemization by limiting scarcity. It can also cause unreasonable inventory clutter and quickly bloat party wealth. If the cRPG is designed around such a looting system from the ground up, that is fine. But most are not and thus shouldn't be modded with DAL.
Item Strips
Never, ever take equipment from the player. Not even temporarily, not even in transition from original to sequel. That is just lazy-ass design and punishing the player for developer or Dungeon Master itemization incompetence.
Players acquire their equipment through great labor. As such, you may NOT take items from them for any reason that isn't backed up by official lore (such as, for example, the Rust Monster.)
Vendor Inventory in cRPGs
By vendor inventory, I mean what merchants stock and have for sale. In most cases, vendor inventory is disciplined at the beginning of cRPGs but quickly gets way out of hand in that merchants just have too much good stuff for sale, thereby removing scarcity.
Examples of over-itemized vendors: Spell Store Baldur's Gate 2 and Arcana Archives Baldur's Gate 2.
Moreover, sometimes merchants offer an unlimited number of items, and there are usually far too many merchants because cRPG devs seem to favor questing in towns (where merchants naturally gather) rather than delving dungeons for prolonged periods (where no merchants are).
This is compounded by the fact that many cRPG worlds include too many towns and not enough dungeons. We should try not to reduce cRPGs to shopping simulators, and avoid town-spam.
In cRPGs, it is better to find something as loot than to merely find it for sale.
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| Daedric Long Bow Morrowind |
If a cRPG must have a huge array and quantity of items for sale by merchants (which is a fundamental error in its design), it needs to limit wealth acquisition somehow. Also, rich merchants or their backup should be extremely powerful in combat.
In general, stores should be hard to get back to and dungeons shouldn't be easy to back out of. In this way, itemization can be tailored to players pressing on in a singular environment. A good example is Durlag's Tower for the original Baldur's Gate.
Note that Dungeon Rats solves the problems posed by merchants by boldly having none.
Factional Itemization
Factional itemization refers to items that are faction-specific; that is, we need to be a member of a certain faction in order to gain access to its vendored items. Since factions are usually mutually exclusive, being a member of one faction means we can't access the stores of another (cRPG Reactivity).
Factional itemization can be a good way to limit item acquisition and make cRPG Builds more meaningful, though its potential has rarely been realized. Planescape: Torment and Storm of Zehir employ limited factional itemization whereas Arcanum employs its Magick-tech dichotomy to similar effect. In Arcanum, technologist merchants won't deal with us if our aptitude in magick is too high, and vice versa.
X-COM Apocalypse employs factional itemization as well.
Item Properties
I think it is cool when items have drawbacks. For example, here we have a weapon that bestows powerful offensive bonuses for Weapon Master NWN, but also inflicts a penalty to their defense.
Another example is the Giant Halberd of Icewind Dale 1: it inflicts 2d8 raw piercing damage but penalizes THAC0 by one point, AC by two points, and requires 18 Strength to wield.
Implausible Item Placement
Mythical items of Realmslore should not be purchaseable in Chapter 1 shops. Indeed, such items as the Robe of Vecna should not be purchaseable at all (since they are priceless), but should only be obtainable through heroic dungeon delving or pitched battles against epic-level arcane practitioners backed up by armies. Likewise, itemizing a bunch of fire arrows just before encountering trolls is bad design, as is itemizing barrels of antidote potions just before encountering venomous monsters.
cRPG Itemization that Cheapens Builds
Designers should be careful not to cheapen cRPG builds through itemization. Let us give a specific example. Imagine a Dwarven Defender that has been built to stack DD damage reduction with Epic Damage Reduction. Thus, over an entire career, that Dwarf has worked for damage reduction. But then, in the course of adventuring, that Dwarf finds adamantite golem armor that, when equipped, confers the same level of DR for any warrior. Sort of cheapens the DD build, doesn't it? The glass cannon martial gets the best of both worlds whereas the DD not only stagnates, but is insulted.
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