The Supply Die 🎲

Making consumables more fun

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For me, tracking different consumables on different time scales (e.g. torches vs rations) has become an annoyance. I’ve settled on a system that consolidates them - it’s not going to suit everyone, but for me it’s an improvement.

It can be bolted onto pretty much anything, I’m using it for my Into the Odd campaign.

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Supply Die

‘Supply’ is all general consumables: torches, firewood, food, water, arrows, climbing gear. Whatever is relevant in your game.

It’s represented by a die, which starts at a d20. The die decreases as supplies are used: d20 → d12 → d10 → d8 → d6 → d4 → nothing. It’s used for the whole party.

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Depletion

Supplies can deplete when the party takes actions that use supplies. They roll the supply die. If the result is:

• The maximum value of the die, e.g. 12 on a d12, the party is successful at conserving supplies and increases their supply die (e.g. d10 → d12). Note: the die cannot get bigger than a d20.

• The upper half of the die, e.g. 11-19 on a d20, the supply die remains the same.

• The lower half of the die, e.g. 2-10 on a d20, the supply die drops (e.g. d12 → d10).

• 1, the supply die drops and the party has a supply incident (more in a moment).

If the supply die drops from a d4 to nothing, any time the party would use supplies, they incur another supply incident.

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Depletion Triggers

Depletion is done on a case by case basis, but some triggers I use are:

• A day travelling overland. By the way, if you are running overland travel as a hexcrawl you should check out our ‘hexbook’ notebooks designed for hexcrawl prep.

• Spending a ‘watch’ (a quarter of a day) in a dungeon (you create more pressure in a dungeon simply by rolling more, not tracking additional stuff).

• A day travelling through an area without fresh water.

• Using ammunition.

• Using climbing gear.

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Supply Incidents

A supply incident is about running out of something. It relates to the resources being used for the task that triggered it. If it happens whilst travelling overland with access to fresh water and firewood, food runs out. In a dungeon, torches run out: “as you light your torches for this watch, you realise that you don’t have enough for the next.”

If there are multiple candidates e.g. torches and water, roll a die to decide.

These randomised incidents reflect how supply loss isn’t just ‘how many have you used’ ~rations spoil folks~. The mechanical impact of the incident is different for different game systems e.g. no food → could mean you can’t rest to regain HP or you might gain a condition. Adjust based on what you are running.

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In our last Premium issue, I talked about cluster based dungeon design, wrote about oxygen running out, and gave readers a d6 table of creeping creatures.

Resupplying

Resupply is full or partial. A full resupply is often completed at a settlement: spend a bag of gold to reset the supply die and clear any supply incidents.

It might be a good idea for the PCs to establish a camp (maybe outside a dungeon) which holds a full resupply. A cart of supplies pulled by a steed could hold one full resupply too, if the party needs to go on a long journey.

A partial resupply can be attempted by gathering some supplies in a dungeon, foraging in the wilderness, or some other clever thinking. For partial resupply, players roll the supply die. If the result is:

• The maximum value, the party has a critical success. They increase the supply die twice (e.g. d10 → d20) and clear two supply incidents.

• The upper half of the die, the supply die increases by one (e.g. d10 → d12) and clears one supply incident.

• The lower half of the die, the supply die remains the same.

• 1, the supply die drops (e.g. d12 → d10) as the party spends more resources attempting to resupply than it manages to gather.

The kind of action taken for the partial resupply (e.g. foraging) dictates what kind of supply incident gets cleared (e.g. ‘out of food’ is cleared by foraging).

~fin~

If you’re lacking supply dice to roll, I’ve used these dice for years with this dice tray. Oh, and I write all my nonsense down in Muji notebooks (absolutely, 100% THE BEST notebooks) with a Lamy pen.

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Recommendation

I’ve got a solo game recommendation this week, A Lonely Road by LostWaysClub. It’s a neat 2 page game about travelling. The cover art is really cute too.

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