In PTR 2e, items are simply called Gear and are expanded to cover any type of item imaginable. This includes not just the regular items from the video games, but also covers weapons and armor. Wherever Gear is mentioned, this means that any rules for Gear and Gearing up applies in all cases.
All Gear is separated into the following Equip categories:
For Crafting (see below) and general organization, gear is further separated into the following Item categories
Gearing up is a simple way to explain equipping items. Across an adventure, knowing what items to keep directly on your person and easily accessible can mean the difference between success and failure. Every creature gets a limited number of equipment Slots, and each piece of Gear can only be equipped to its respective slot.
The number of equipment slots a creature has can be altered by Traits, Abilities, Perks and sometimes other items (like a bandolier or backpack).
Now that you’re geared up, how do you use items? Below are the following actions that allow you to use your items and generally interact with the world around you.
You may utilize an piece of Gear you have on your person or within your Physical Reach that you have access to. The Use Action changes depending on the item’s effect or location:
The Use action will make up a majority of actions for interacting and using items. This isn't limited to items alone and applies to objects in the environment as well, such as doors, buttons, levers, etc. Basically, if you have to manipulate something manually, it will require a Use action. In a combat scenario, you won't necessarily be able to use an item and attack on the same turn, and the Use action helps make this an easy distinction.
Along with this, creatures that have an item used on them, like a Potion, doesn't cost their activations like in the video games. Only the user spends the action cost.
You equip 1 Held item you have on your person or within your Physical Reach that you have access to, or store an equipped Held item in your Container or another slot if applicable. At the start of combat you can use this action as a Free Action as long as you are not Flinched.
You drop your currently equipped Held item on the space you are standing on as a Free Action. This frees up your Held Item Slot.
PTR:2e uses cashless economy rules. This means that instead of direct cash rewards, character wealth is determined by Inventory Points (IP) and the Resources Skill. These represent a character’s Ability to acquire goods and utilize services in a campaign.
Inventory Points or IP, is a meta-resource characters have to purchase items. The amount of IP a character has is determined by their Resources Skill with the following formula:
IP is used in a couple of ways. The first is used to set a character's Loadout. When creating a Loadout, Common Rarity [Consumable] items are selected up to the character’s current Grade, subtracting IP equal to the IP cost of the items. You gain a full stack worth of the acquisitioned item for the listed IP cost when obtained through a Loadout.
For reference, a character’s Grade updates at the following levels
Level 1 -> Grade E
Level 15 -> Grade D
Level 25 -> Grade C
Level 35 -> Grade B
Level 45 -> Grade A
The second thing IP is used for is to gain an item at a moment that it is needed, but the actor does not currently possess, utilizing the Use Action as a Complete Action as if they are drawing the item from a container. Any character that has any remaining IP can perform this Action in this way so long as they can justify why they would gain this item in the moment. Note: An item gained in this way during combat must be used within the same action, or else the item cannot be acquired. If the item in question would normally come in a stack, the remainder of the stack would effectively be destroyed, or in more practical terms, you may only get 1 unit of a stack item when using this feature during combat.
Any items used from a Loadout will refund its IP cost during a Resupply Activity. This allows characters to top off or refresh any of their loadout items, or allow them to make changes in case of a change in IP totals. Characters can also choose to “sell” the items in their Loadout, resturning the IP back to their pool to spend on replacement/different items if they so desire. Any remaining IP not used by items from the Loadout is also refreshed during this activity. Resupply Activities can be done whenever the Players enter a settlement or zone that has markets or shops.
Note: For GMs wishing to run scenarios with a greater emphasis on planning ahead, feel free to restrict IP to only being able to be spent to establish a load-out when in town. We recommend against removing it entirely or else you will find a lot of rolling for gear to deal with instead.
Items in the game use the following to determine availability: Grade and Rarity.
Grade refers to an item’s quality. The Item Grades are E, D, C, B, A, S, and S+, where E is the lowest quality, and S+ for the highest. Grade is not necessarily a measure of how strong an item is or how expensive it can be. Rather, it’s more abstract to denote the “cumulative value and significance” of an item beyond merely monetary value.
Mechanically, Grade is intended to work as a scale of how easily a creature can gain the item and use it. This depends on your specific campaign setting, as the obtainability of higher grades could be tied to having more Badges in a traditional Gym Challenge or a higher Exploration Rank in a Mystery Dungeon game.
Rarity is the measure of general availability of an item. Item rarities are: Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Unique. Commonly, higher Grade items are often higher Rarity in many traditional settings. But Rare or Unique items that are higher-tech or magical in a normal setting would probably be Common or Uncommon in cyberpunk or high fantasy settings.
On a basic level, Grade and Rarity is used to determine the stock of shops in settlements, or loot in dungeons. The listed, out-of-the-box values for these items are considered the “defaults” for the most common Pokemon settings: that of the mainline video games. Because of this, an Item’s Grade and Rarity, more than any of their other stats, are the two values we recommend GMs look into revising to fit for their own setting.
Shopping is an Extended Downtime Action that takes one Daytime Span to complete. When in a place that has shops, share with your players the number and types of shops available. During this Span, players can shop at one or all locations provided to them.
Whenever anyone in the party wishes to participate in the Shopping Activity, the party rolls a Resources Skill Check for each item they wish to obtain, using a DC modified by the Item Grade and Rarity, and the Resource Skill of the player of their choice. Players can roll for any Items within reason. Refer to the following modifiers to determine difficulty of the roll:
If the DC of a roll ends up being 100 or more, the DC is set to 100 and the player is considered to have +1 DoS on the roll. If the DC falls to below 0 the item cannot be rolled for.
On a success, the party gains the item in question, and on a failure, they fail to obtain the item. Getting a certain number of additional DoSs allows you to get more of the item in question. This number of DoS is equal to the item's Grade (E is 1, S+ is 7) of DoS on the roll. So if you pursue an Escape Orb in a Mystery Dungeon game, you need to get +3 additional DoS beyond the first to get another Escape Orb, +6 additional to get 2 more, etc.
For items with a [Stack X] Trait, this is somewhat different. The player gains 1 full Stack of that item. For every DoS (beyond the first) and DoF, you gain or lose 1 item from the purchased amount, meaning that you still get some of the Stack on 1 DoF, but will end up with nothing if the failure is too severe.
On a failure, the Party cannot roll for that item again until the next time the shop Restocks.
Note: The above does in fact mean that a party can roll multiple times for a given item type. However, GMs may choose to close off the supply of the item at any time they wish before the party fails on of the Shopping Rolls for that item.
As an example, let's say that a Level 1 player with Resources 40 wants to have more Basic Balls than their Loadout provides. They are in a settlement with a PokeMart. They take part in Shopping, consuming a Daytime Span. The Player rolls a DC 40 check (40 Resources + 0 Grade mod + 20 Rarity mod -20 Stack mod). They roll a 60, 3 DoF. This means they gain 2 Basic Balls rather than the normal Stack of 5, and the party cannot try for more Basic Balls during this Shopping activity.
While they are there, they also try for Great Balls, which is 2 Grades above their Rank. They roll a d100 against a DC 20 (40 Resources - 20 Grade mod + 20 Rarity mod -20 Stack mod) and roll a 5, 2 DoS. They end up getting 7 Great Balls out of it.
For the examples above, the first player could spend 20 Resources to ensure they can get 5 Basic Balls, a full Stack, and allow the party to roll for more Basic Balls. As well, the second player could spend 5 to ensure they get another Great Ball, or 15 to get 2 more, etc.
While the Shopping Activity is the easiest way for your players to get items they want, it is not without limitations. Shops need to Restock items periodically and rotate their inventory. Because of this, the Shopping Activity is limited to 1 use per Settlement and recharges after the settlement Restocks, usually taking 1 in-game week or when circumstances change according to the GM.
GM Note: Players can realistically roll for every single item in the game at the right shops. While there is no specific rule to prevent that, it is a good idea to limit these rolls as needed. Also feel free to tell them "no" if they even attempt that.
Thrifting functions much in the spirit of Push Your Luck and Devil's Deal. The Party can decide to pursue an additional amount of an item (+X more Stacks, +X more individual items). The GM decides a fitting penalty to the roll's DC (consider higher penalties for rarer items, higher quality items, or greater quanities being pursued), and the Party makes the Shopping Roll.
On success, the standard effects apply, except the base amount of items purchased increases by +X / +X Stacks.
On failure, the standard effects still apply and the Party loses 2*X Resources per DoF.
As part of a Shopping Roll, a Player can choose to sell one item (or a full Stack of an item) to gain a DC bonus on that roll. This bonus is is based on the Item's Rarity (which can be influenced by location here, as Rarity may always be), equal to +5 * Item Rarity (Common is 1, Unique is 4).
The Resource skill is vital to a player’s Ability to gain items and favors. The first way the Resource Skill can be manipulated is by winning battles and completing Quests (just going with this for now until we decide progression stuff). For each of the following factors, the players gain a permanent increase to their Resource Skill:
However, failing the above factors will result in a permanent decrease to the players Resource skill. The Resource skill cannot be increased above 90 or decreased below 10.
The second way to manipulate the resource skill is by using Treasure items, such as the Nugget. Treasure items are consumables that give a one time bonus to any Resource skill roll. Each treasure item lists the bonus it grants.
Tied together with Shopping, Pawning is also included as a Downtime Action that happens parallel to Shopping. When in a place that has fences or anyone willing to take your goods, share with your players the number and types of available. During this Span, each Player can choose to sell 1 Item or 1 Stack of Items to a fence.
However, fences are sly, able to tell if an affluent customer is trying to sell them their junk. Trying to sell Gear that is a lower Grade than the Player makes it harder to earn Resources from Pawning.
If a Player does decide to sell one of their Items through Pawning, they gain Resources equal to 1 + (4*Rarity + 3*Grade) / 3 - deltaGrade, rounded down, where deltaGrade is userGrade-itemGrade+1, minimum 0.
This means that:
The Crafting System is still Work-in-Progress!
We are in the process of revamping the Crafting Rules completely; these are the old rules.
Crafting is another way for players to obtain items. When crafting items, the players will need the following:
The first thing a crafter needs to get familiar with is the materials to craft items. Materials are separated into two categories: Generic Materials and Specific Materials.
Generic Materials are as the name implies: these are highly abundant crafting resources that are commonly used across items in a single category. Can be identified on the item list under Materials as they all have a [Stack X] value and have the trait [Material]. When used in crafting, a higher number of these items is needed the higher the Grade the item is.
(We’ll need to determine how we want to handle the Generic Materials. It may be best to have Generic Materials for every Item type. We’ll probably tie that to a Trait, and have the value in the Category column also be read as a separate Trait.)
Specific Materials are a bit of the opposite. Unlike Generic Materials, these do not have a [Stack X] value and can only be acquired if they are readily available around where the players are. Specific Materials are also on roll tables, such as the Apricorn table as an example.
For players to find crafting materials, they can perform a Gather Material Activity.
The players roll an appropriate skill, or their Resource skill, to locate crafting materials in the area they are in, or an area that is close by. When rolling, they declare the item they are looking for materials to craft and apply the following modifiers based on the item's scarcity in the relative area:
On a success, the players gain 1 Stack of the Generic Material and 1 of the Specific Material. You get +1 Specific Material per each additional DoS, and +1 Stack of Generic Material per additional 2 DoS.
If the DC of a roll ends up being 100 or more, the DC is set to 100 and the player is considered to have +1 DoS on the roll. If the DC falls to below 0 the item cannot be rolled for.
The second piece for crafting is a Recipe. Recipes are items that are not typically found in shops. These usually need to be acquired from someone that knows the recipe, or found through other means such as from a Crafting Manual. During a Shopping Activity, a player can inquire if there is a teacher or another location that may have recipes to learn on hand. If there is, they roll the Crafting Skill listed on the recipe using the same modifiers for recipe Grade and Rarity as if they were Shopping, and may use Resources and Luck as with Shopping. As a rule, Recipes are always 2 Grades and 1 Rarity higher than the item they are associated with.
On a success, the player gains and learns the recipe, adding it to their own Crafting Manual. For recipes found as loot, a player can spend 1 Downtime Activity to add the recipe to their manual by succeeding on an Hard Skill Check with the listed Crafting Skill.
Still in development, subject to change.
Now that a player knows the correct recipe and has the correct number of materials, they can attempt to craft the item. Crafting is a time consuming process that needs total focus to complete.
When a player wishes to conduct the Craft Activity, determine first if they are in an area that allows them time to craft (at least 1 Daytime Span). If the player has enough time, next determine if they have access to the correct tools for crafting the item. Shops and PokeCenters might have crafting stations for your players to use. Otherwise, they will need the correct Tool item in their inventory, such as the PokeBall Maintenance kit.
When a player begins a Crafting Project, the GM creates a Project Clock with a number of Spans equal to the Item's Craft Time value.
Choose an item you desire to craft and roll the listed crafting Skill using the following modifiers:
On a success, you fill in 1 Span of the item’s Project Clock, plus 1 additional Span for every 3 DoS. On a failure, you empty 1 Span of the Project Clock, and with 3+ DoF, the Clock increases in size by 1 Span, up to the a maximum of double the Item's Craft Time value.
When the Project Clock is filled, you spend the listed materials, crafting 1 of that item (or one Stack's worth, for [Stack X] items).
For [Stack X] items, you craft 1 additional item for each DoS on the crafting roll that completed the Crafting Project. For non-consumable items, you craft one of that item, plus another per additional Grade's worth (E is 1, S+ is 7) of DoS on the roll (if you were crafting a Focus Band, a Grade C Accessory, and you get 5 DoS on the final roll, you end up crafting 2 Focus Bands, since you get an additional one at 4 DoS, 7 DoS, etc.).