Are Belongings Really A Temptation To Escalate?

[NickHollingsworth]

in No limitations on Dog's stuff? http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?t=13172 Vincent says:

Belongings tend to contribute their dice high up in the escalation process. A die in a gun is pressure to escalate. A die in a knife is too. A die in a horse is, even. Since I want you to be under pressure to escalate, the more dice in Belongings, the better.

Why are Belongings assumed to be about Combat. Can't I use my Coat which is my sign of authority, my Well Thumbed Book Of Life, my Bottle Lens Spectacles That Make Me Look So Reasonable And Unthreatening and a friendly offer of some of my Really Great Hickory Smoked Jerky to augment 'just talking'?

I definately accept that its a lot easier to think of and to justify the use of weapons and stuff, but surely thats down to bad habits. I'm coming from my HeroQuest experience again, where PCs are no more likely to have items that help in combat than items that help in any other sort of conflict.

If belongings can be used this way they just risk becoming just an excuse to get a lot of dice without the balancing temptation into escalation.

[lumpley]

My experience says they are.

I don't think it's a bad habit, I think it's because people mostly don't make tools for talking.

If you want to make a character with a zillion just-talking belongings, feel free! Take a warning, though, that the pressure to escalate is good for the game. You'll have the same problem as the player whose character's traits are all just talking: you don't have quite as much fun as your friends.

-Vincent

[TonyLB]

My experience coincides with Vincent's here.  Belongings are the most "tangible" of the imaginary resources of the character.  People think about how their Big Book of Life looks, how it sounds when it comes thundering down on a table, how worn the pages are.  And then I (as the always-mischievous GM) say "Yeah, you could pull out the Book and quote 'em a passage, again.  Or... well, it is a very large and heavy book.  I suppose it could be used as a blunt weapon, if'n the fancy took you."  It never fails, but that the player gets this spreading grin as they contemplate the very vivid mental image of the worn leather leaving its mark on some annoying sinner's face.  Most of the time they haul off and slug their target with the Book.  The BOOK.

If they're willing to use the Book as a weapon, you just know they'll be using their horse, coat, knife, holy earth and embroidered silk kerchief.

[rrr]

  It never fails, but that the player gets this spreading grin as they contemplate the very vivid mental image of the worn leather leaving its mark on some annoying sinner's face.  Most of the time they haul off and slug their target with the Book.  The BOOK.

I am currently laughing my ass off at how absolutely true this is in my games also.  Infact I believe the player had actually taken a 1d8 BIG Book as she was secretly hoping to whack people with it.

Drew

[NickHollingsworth]

I get that Belongings should be a temptation to escalate. And that the sort of belongings that tend to get created by players do indeed serve this purpose.

I was asking, as a GM, if there was a danger if belongings were created specifically to augment 'just talking', since at that point they are all bonus and no temptation.

[lumpley]

No danger to the GM at all.

The group might find that character a little boring, but that's not the GM's problem.

This isn't a thing that's happening in a real game, right? It's a thing you're speculating? Really not worth the worry.

-Vincent