Drunk fighting

Rules for fighting while drunk, to resist supernatural mental influences or just because that dwarf at the inn was looking at you funny.

Once upon a time my players were facing a demon that had the power to hypnotise people into a dream state and control them while they were in the trance. One of the characters had already come very close to death that way before they realised what they were up against. They had to physically restrain her from climbing into a hospital furnace while dreaming that she was dead. Their most useful resource on demonology was a semi-reliable book of centuries-old witchcraft. They asked me how the witch hunters of olden times resisted demon illusion powers and I tossed off a line about going into battle roaring drunk.

It was meant to be a throwaway that clearly wasn't practical in modern times, but they grabbed onto the idea and ran with it, so I improvised a system for drunk fighting. The battle that followed was awesome. Here's a refined version of the system I used that day.

Resisting

At the start of each round players decide how many points to sacrifice from their attribute bonuses to a pool to resist Charm-like spells and Charisma-based attacks. Points put into the pool cannot be recovered until the character sobers up. Each point spent from the pool gains +2 to saving throws against influence. Bonuses may stack.

Points can be taken from Dex, Int, Wis and AC. Players can take their bonuses as far into the negatives as they like.

If the characters are not resisting mental influence and just brawling drunk (eg. a tavern fight, crashing a wedding or smuggled themselves into a fortress in wine barrels) then they automatically lose 1 point from a random bonus until they reach -1 to Dex, Int and Wis rolls.

Characters regain their normal stats after a night's sleep.

Damage

When characters take HP damage, if the amount of damage is odd it gets added to a tally instead of being immediately taken from HP. The character feels nothing and instead suffers that damage at the end of the fight.

If this takes the character below 0 HP, the excess comes off Str. This regenerates at the normal pace for attribute damage in your game. If Str is taken to 0 or less, the character can use any remaining points in the resistance pool for bonuses to a death saving roll. On success, the character is brought up to 1 Str and 1 HP. On failure, death.

Charisma

While drunk, characters subtract their normal Cha bonus from 5. The result is their new Cha bonus until they sober up. Characters that are normally charismatic become obnoxious and crass. Characters who are normally reserved become charming and outgoing.

Equipment loss

The next day when the characters are recovering and complaining about their hangovers, they each roll 1d6:

1 - 3: Nothing lost.

4, 5: A minor item lost.

6: A weapon, piece of armour or some other important possession lost.

These may be recoverable from the battlefield, or may be gone for ever.

Hacking Feast of Legends

A few thoughts on Wendys Burgers' Feast of Legends and what it would take to hack it for long term play.

I figure by now almost everyone will be aware that Wendys has released an RPG. Reddit has been buzzing with it. Some people seem fairly gobsmacked. But restaurants have a long history of giving out toys as a marketing gimmick, maybe they're just catching onto the idea that adults like toys too.

It's strongly themed, with monster names like pangs, grumbles and freezer burns. The BBEG is a clown, which suits me because I believe clowns are powerful and worthy of respect.

The game

Mechanically, this is familiar ground. Task resolution is d20 + mods vs target number. Criticals on 20 and 1. FoL drops Con and Wis from the traditional six stats (folding them into Str and Int) and adds Arcana as a measure of magical talent to make five. Stat bonuses are generated by rolling 4d4 and consulting a chart.  There are no spells, but all characters gain access to spell-like abilities or party buffs as they level. (The game calls them skills, but half of them are always-on passive effects.) Dex appears to be entirely about agility and aim, initiative is by rolling d20 with no mods or other bonuses and all characters get the same movement.

At chargen you pick an Order (which is effectively a choice between Bard, Fighter and Magic-user/Diplomat) and a class, which is a development path within that broad category. There are a bundle of classes. That's good, because picking your class provides most of your opportunity for differentiating characters. All members of a class gain exactly the same stat bonuses and abilities when levelling. 4d4 has a steeper bell curve than 3d6, so characters are going to start out closer in stats than under D20. A Baconator warrior is a Baconator warrior is a Baconator warrior.

There's no skill system or advancement mechanic. The rules are tightly focused on skirmish combat. You gain a level when the bundled adventure says you do. Levels come with HP increases and new spell abilities/buffs, by class. This wouldn't be a bad introductory RPG, there's nothing extra to the core game here. Advancement is capped at level 5.

The hack

I think that playing it RAW would benefit someone new to the hobby, but experienced players would be frustrated by the lack of character choice. To introduce some, I'd get rid of the individual classes, but keep the class levelling packages. Let players pick an order, and then choose a level-appropriate class package out of all the available selections when they advance. I like it with a small number of core classes. This might throw class balance out the window, but I'm okay with that.

I'd introduce a skill system with maybe ten to twelve broad skills. With the kind of stat bonuses 4d4 produces, a system like Sine Nomine's Stars Without Number uses might be a good fit. 2d6 + stat bonus + skill vs target of 8, adjusted up or down to account for difficulty. I should explain this - when I heard about a fast food RPG, I thought it would be thematically perfect for playing Dunkey and Matt Halton's The Gustatory. That setting's less about fighting your problems and more about problem solving and interacting with traditional enemies in a different environment. A skill system would add another dimension to to the game. No crits for skills, just pass or fail.

I haven't run a combat yet to see how it plays out, but the characters start at 4 HD and gain 8 + 2d4 hp per level. The first monster the players encounter has 5 HD. The median weapon damage for the equipment list is d8, so if combat doesn't run long it's only because the characters' team buffing abilities make a big impact. I'd like to stretch out advancement across 5 extra levels and try adding D20 monsters with their HD stepped up to d12 to see how they fill out the in-between levels.

Drop the arbitrary levelling and bring in advancement by XP. Calculate levelling requirements and monster XP using the B/X hit dice and powers table. (Figure out a multiplier that makes numbers from one system workable in the other.) Have all the classes advance at the same rate.

And lastly, drop the buffs and debuffs based on what the players are eating. Too meta.

One page game: Wizard Squad

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

A free one-page game about tactically-trained wizards empowered by the state to investigate incidents of corrupted ancient magic reactivating. Semi-random character creation, 1d20 + mods vs target number. Grab it here.

Wizard Squad is set in a kingdom which is built on the ruins of an advanced civilisation that drove itself into apocalypse through excessive magic-use. Every now and then the seals and wards on some forgotten device breaks down (as often as not through tampering by someone who thinks there's something to be gained by reviving ancient sorcery) and then it's balrogs or worse.

Wizardly Traveller tech chart

I've never played Traveller, but I do own a core rulebook for it that I picked up on spec.  It was on the bring & buy table at a small local wargaming tournament.  I was there because the website said there might be a couple of RPG sessions running, but that side of things didn't work out.

It turned out to be a fun system just to play with on my own, following the lifepath system to generate unexpected characters, designing ships and the like. Of course, me being me, even before playing a session RAW I had to start tinkering with the rules.  I wanted to add magic and generate a galaxy where Alien, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings could all happen at the same time.

This is the  tech  magic chart add-on I came up with.  It's surprisingly hard to find a title for each rung on the magic ladder. English just doesn't have that many words suitable for quantifying the mysterious and ineffable. 

ML 0: (Primitive) 

No magic.  This world has no active gods, no awakened spirits, no natural sources of mana and no afterlife.  It is not possible to reincarnate here, or from here.  Spells cannot be cast.  Any open-ended spells or artefacts that rely on local mana resources will fail to operate. 

ML 1: (Primitive) 

Magic is mostly superstition.  A few meditation techniques are in use to improve concentration and memory.  Gods are unresponsive.  Local conditions prevent spirits from being contacted or summoned.

ML 2: (Primitive) 

Magic is limited to a few adepts or institutions.  There are a few unsophisticated techniques for contacting spirits.  Invoking spirits or elementals is done through rituals requiring large-scale sacrifice or the participation of entire populations.  The number of spells available to learn is severely limited.  Alchemy is not distinct from normal chemistry.  Enchantment is not understood.  Gods can only be contacted after long ritualistic preparation and their communications require interpretation.

ML 3: (Dabbling)  

Cantrips are available to the educated.  A few low-quality alchemical materials are available.

ML 4: (Connected)  

Low-powered spells are available to the educated.  Gods offer minor blessings in exchange for a suitable sacrifice.

ML 5: (Involved)   

Low-powered elementals and spirits can be bound.  Divination is possible, but unreliable.  Cantrips are available to the average citizen.  Spells are understood  among the educated.  Medium-powered spells are available.  Reasonable alchemical materials are available, but resource-intensive to produce.

ML 6: (Practising)   

Divination is common, but inaccurate.  Small, isolated industrial use of magic.

ML 7: (Arcane)   

Godly activity is often erratic, with poor understanding of the gods' motivations and reasoning.  Small-scale blessings and curses are available without godly involvement.  Moderately powerful elementals and spirits can be bound.  Bound low-powered elementals and spirits are common.  Enchanted items are available to the wealthy or politically-connected.

ML 8: (Far-sighted)   

Gods manifest signs and portents.  Divination is trustworthy.

ML 9: (Adept)  

Gods send visions.  Visions can be accurately interpreted.  Bound moderately-powerful elementals and spirits are common.

ML 10: (Learned) 

A well-defined pantheon of gods with clearly-marked domains.  Gods may be spoken to in their temples.  Magic is widely available, with golems in use for dangerous work and access to informed spirits through government and private institutions.  Many citizens use health charms for minor beneficial effects.  Physical immortality is available to the wealthy or politically connected.  Divination can be verified with a high degree of accuracy.  High-powered elementals and spirits can be bound.

ML 11: (Wise) 

Elementals and minor spirits are bound to power and operate common machinery or mystical engines.  Blessings and curses can be performed at interstellar distances.  High-order artefacts can be created (eg. "The Sword of the Prophecy").

ML 13: (Masterful)  

Widespread use of tutelary spirits in education.  Frequent consultation of ancestral spirits.  5 - 10% of citizens are physically immortal.  Gods may be invested to manage specific small domains.  Average citizens have the use of bound elementals.  Divination is well-understood and probably highly-regulated.  Bound high-powered elementals and spirits are common.

ML 14: (Transcendent) 

10 - 15% of citizens are physically immortal.  Reincarnation is a controlled process and may be used as a criminal punishment or to schedule the re-emergence of great heroes.

ML 15: (Celestial) 

Most or all natives are born immortal and have innate spell-like abilities. Elementals and spirits are invoked and bound for trivial purposes.  Godly activity can be regulated.  Destinies can be altered.

Base building mini-game

I've been playing a lot of Subnautica lately.  It's an open-world exploration game, set 90% underwater.  It has beautifully rendered environments and creatures that really sell it as a completely alien planet.

A big part of the fun is the base building mini-game.  You start basic and level it up as you uncover new blueprints.  My preferred method of gathering resources has become moving to a new area and building a small base with a scanner room that can pinpoint all the useful spawns for me.  When you disassemble a base you get 100% of the materials back, so the only investment is time.

(Meeple Girl has been playing a very different game.  It involves waiting until I'm under threat by a Warper or a Sea Dragon, then walking quietly up behind and tapping me on the shoulder... it ought to be a crime.)

The last couple of weeks I've been thinking about a method for adding a base-building mini-game to OSR games.  Admittedly, some of them already have it, in the form of castles and strongholds from 9th level onwards.  But that's intended to be a significant investment of time and resources for the characters, and a reward for the players who levelled their characters that far, as well as a completely new mode of play.  I'm going for something a lot simpler and self-contained, that the players can get into almost immediately.  This is what I've come up with.  I think it would work best in a system where XP is earned by spending treasure.

It's assumed that the characters will be taking over the available space across several buildings instead of renting a house or workyard.  They'll modify it to suit their needs, as much as practical given the restrictions.  The spaces they have access to are represented by the seven unique Tetris blocks:

Each square in a piece is 10' by 10'.  The first costs 100 GP, or whatever amount is suitable for your system.  Each additional segment doubles the cost.  The characters can keep building until they have everything they need or run out of money.  Each time the players ask for a segment, roll 1d10 and give them the piece indicated.  If the result is higher than 7, repeat the last block.

After the first piece is placed, roll 1d4 for each additional piece to see which cardinal direction from the original piece the next is added to.  The players can rotate the pieces as they like.

The edges at the outside of the pieces (not the individual squares) are assumed to be walls.  The spaces the players put together have no access to each other until they start knocking out walls.  The edges for each piece must be more than half wall to support its weight.  That's five edges for the O piece, six for the others.  Take out any additional walls and the roof falls in.

Example

My budget for rooms is 1,000gp.

First room = 4, the O piece.  100gp.

Second room = 1, the I piece.  The d4 shows a 1, indicating that it's placed at the top of the O piece.  200 gp.

Third room = 4, the O piece again.  The d4 shows a 2, indicating that it's placed at the right of the first O piece.  400gp.

Fourth room = 2, the J piece.  The d4 shows a 3, indicating that it's placed below the original O piece.  800gp, so no more rooms.

If I remove the walls between the two O-pieces, I get a nice big, open space.  Each O-piece can have one additional wall removed, which gives access to the smaller rooms, like this:

Within the limits above, pieces are placed and rotated at the players' discretion.  So if I preferred I could have had a base like this:

And that second layout looks more useful because of the next rule: courtyards.  You can extend the outermost walls in a straight line.  Where they intersect, they enclose a courtyard.  That long, semi-wide layout gives us a couple of decent courtyards for extra space.

For upper levels, start the pricing again from base.  Use the same layout but with each new floor remove 1d2 of the outermost rooms.  There must be at least one staircase on each floor.

What's the point of all this?  The base is mostly intended to be a fun way for characters to spend more gold, and something for the players to feel invested in.  If you're using the XP-for-spending-gold rule, you're probably also using a carousing table.  The rooms you add to your base will give some minor bonuses for mitigating bad rolls on that.  A forge can knock out the dings in armour, an apothecary can shorten the duration of a hangover, etc and you can hire retainers with the skills to use them on a temporary basis.

So next we slot in rooms.

Apothecary - 1 square.  Gives access to a herbalist.  +1 to saves vs disease, allergies, hangovers, etc.

Armoury - 1 square.  Sharpens blades, repairs weapon handles and straps.

Barracks - requires 1 square for each character that sleeps there.  Restricted to one open edge.  Reduces gold lost during a bad carouse by half because you were sensible and left your big purse at home.

Common room - at least 2 squares.  +1 to retainer morale rolls while in town.

Forge - at least 3 squares.  Must be in a courtyard.  At least 1 empty square between it and the nearest building.  Gives access to a smith, who can repair armour.

Kennel - 1 square per 4 dogs.  Must be in a courtyard.  Gives access to a master of hounds, who can provide training and treat sick dogs.

Kitchen - 2 squares.  Rations prepared here will never be tainted or inedible except by deliberate enemy action.  Requires a well.

Library - at least 1 square.  Gives a bonus to research actions and somewhere for magic-users to work.

Shrine - at least 1 square.  A place for rituals.  Gives clerics and paladins a bonus to communing with their gods.

Stable - 1 square per horse.  Each square must have one open edge facing a courtyard or the outside of the building.  Gives access to an ostler, who can replace shoes and treat sick horses.

Staircase - 1 square.  Gives access to other levels of the building.

Training room - at least 3 squares by 2.  Gives access to a trainer if required for levelling or learning new techniques, subject to GM approval.

Trophy room - 1 square per 4 trophies.  The perfect space for displaying souvenirs of past adventures and impressing young wenches or farmboys.

Wash house - 1 square.  removes fleas, tar and feathers, various other forms of soiling.  Requires a well.

Well - 1 square.  Must be in a courtyard.  At least 1 empty square from a forge.

In this case I'm going to have a training room, an apothecary, an armoury, a wash house, a kitchen, a trophy room, a forge, a well, a kennel for 8 dogs and a stable for 4 horses.  My characters can sleep off site.  Opening up all the stable squares to the courtyard means blocking the stables off from the building interior, but that's not a problem.  If you're riding a horse, you're going outside anyway.

Key:
A - stables
B - forge
C - trophy
D - apothecary
E - armoury
F - training
G - kitchen
H - wash house
I - well
J - kennels







And now the part I'm sure my players will spend the most time over: traps.  200 GP each.

Arrow trap

Collapsing ceiling

Fire trap

Gas trap

Glue trap

Magic item trap

Pit trap (if on an upper floor, requires 1 square of unused space on the floor below it)

Poisoned dart trap

Potion trap

Swinging blade trap

There's no reason to restrict player creativity here.  If they want a false wall that releases angry bees, they can have it.  Any 5' square (4 per map square) can be trapped.  The players can set or deactivate a trap as an automatic action, unless you're a particularly hard-nosed GM.  If characters let a retainer get caught in a trap, make a morale roll at a penalty.

Hey, isn't this starting to look kind of like a dungeon?

Yes!  And for your players, this might be an opportunity for introspection that leads to a revelation about their behaviour and real change on a personal level.  Mine are more likely to say "Hey, why not a trap that douses intruders with shrinking potion then drops them into a trebuchet?"

Oracles and fortune tellers

A house-rule I'm considering for that game I'm eternally planning to run is letting characters consult a fortune teller before leaving on an adventure.  The fortunes would be mostly beneficial to characters, letting them cash in a fortune to gain a one-time mechanical advantage.

But of course it wouldn't be any fun if all the results were advantages, would it?  Characters have to accept the risk that they've consulted a fraud, or the signs were unclear or the oracle didn't think the character's gift was impressive enough to really dig into what the spirits are saying today.

This settlement's oracle is (1d6):

1. A temple sybil, attended by priest-scribes in a high-roofed white room, surrounded by votive fires.
2. A blind madwoman who put out her own eyes to escape the visions, chained to keep her from hurting herself, managed by nurse-guards.
3. A scarred old soldier with a head wound that healed badly, sleeping rough under a bridge and mumbling to himself.
4. A former cleric to a scattered and suppressed cult of a god opposed to one of the characters' gods, living in a slum and selling predictions to earn a living.
5. A foreigner from a despised race, operating a booth in the marketplace and relying on her powers and wits to protect her from the locals' resentment.
6. A senile wizard, diminished in power but still prone to flashes of brilliance and uncannily accurate predictions.

The oracle tells fortunes by (1d6):

1. Drinking ergot mixed with wine and interpreting the visions.
2. Listening to the petitioner describe their dreams and explaining the meaning.
3. Observing the reflections of light on metal.
4. Reading the cards.
5. Staring into a dark glass and watching for portents.
6. Consulting the dead through necromantic ritual.

As payment the oracle asks for (1d6):

1. Gold equal to the price of a sword.
2. A personal item.  Just a trinket, really.  Nothing you'll miss.  Don't worry.
3. A prayer or minor sacrifice on the oracle's behalf.
4. Food, clothing, wine.  The basic necessities.
5. A handshake, a kiss... some kind of personal contact.  No, there's no hidden significance.  Why do you ask?
6. Visit a person the oracle describes and deliver a cryptic message.

In return the petitioner gets (1d10):

1. Character may re-roll one failed save of their choice.
2. False vision.  Character must re-roll one successful save of the GM's choice.
3. At a time of the player's choice the character can pull out the perfect piece of equipment for the situation.  Lose one encumbrance slot until then.
4. Character may retroactively disarm one trap.  Any harm done by it is simply a vision of what would have happened.
5. Incomplete vision. A single danger the character successfully avoids has a second, hidden, danger behind it.
6. The first time the encounter die indicates a wandering monster, the GM informs the player in time to avoid the encounter or gain surprise.
7. The character is made aware of one of the adventure's treasures and the general location it can be found.
8. Tunnel vision.  The character is made aware of one of the adventure's treasures that has a threat linked to it.  There's no mention of the threat.
9. During an encounter of the player's choice, the character is aware of the encountered creature's name.
10. During a hostile encounter of the player's choice, the character knows what tactics the encountered creature will use.

Some of these results would be appropriate to conceal until it's time for them to happen.  Rather than fooling the players, I'd give them something like "all will become clear when the time is right."  These advantages would last until the end of the current adventure.  If not cashed in, well, the fates are ever-changing and man is but a lesser piece on the game table of the gods.

My girlfriend is an evil witch who turned me into a goblin and made me love her for it

Further thoughts on magic house rules for Knave.

The idea is to make magic more accessible by giving characters the opportunity to learn spells, instead of casting by reading from a spellbook.  The further idea is to have learned spells burn a tangible resource, because if it's the cheapest tactic in the game characters would be silly not to use it for everything.  Spell components don't have to be rare or expensive, but it seems to me it would be in the spirit of the Knave rules if gathering them is a mini-adventure all by itself.

When a character learns a spell, the player rolls on the table below to see what mundane resource it requires.  Each of these items should be available in pretty much any settlement where the characters are likely to find themselves.  Several of the same item would fit in a single inventory slot. Gathering them may require some fast talk, petty crime or an act of public nuisance, but none of them would be out of reach to tomb-raiding adventure-seeking ne'er-do-wells.

1. A strand of the magic-user's hair, knotted around a pebble from the last river they crossed.
2. A mystical sigil, drawn in soot from a widow's hearth.
3. A nail-paring from a left-handed man.
4. A tine broken from a rich man's fork.
5. The echo of a child's laughter, captured in a clay jar.
6. A black chicken feather.
7. A stone taken from a crossroads.
8. A pickled onion.
9. A feather from the fletching of a used arrow.
10. Moss from a grave marker.
11. A shard from a pot broken by a baker's wife.
12. A coloured stone used in a child's game.
13. A wheat stalk from the last hour of the day's reaping.
14. A bone from a fish served to a judge.
15. The tail of a rat killed by a calico cat.
16. A thread cut from a coat on a church's steps.
17. A boiled sheep bone.
18. Tallow from a candle burned by a fishmonger.
19. A lie spoken by an aunt.
20. A needle used to sew a bridal veil.

Wait, what was that about my girlfriend?

"You're totally a goblin."

"But... you bought me most of the dice I own.  And hand-sewed my dice bags.  And found me the book sale where I got half my games."

"I know."

"You're an evil witch."

"I know."

Magic variant for Knave

The star of the show.

It's starting to seem like the end is in sight for my group's current campaign.  We've just achieved one of the big goals and know exactly where the other one is and who we have to go through to get it.  It may all be settled at brunch with our enemies, provided we can make bail in time for it.  Our success has been thanks in no small part to a highly effective NPC.  That's him on the right.  The most capable member of the party doesn't even have opposable thumbs.  However, it's starting to look like he sold us out to the cops so I'm not ready to give him MVP status just yet.  I have questions, Johann.  Serious questions.  Your communication is limited to sarcastic eye-rolling but you're not eye-rolling your way out of this, rabbit.

This has all been in a house-ruled version of the Nemesis system, on the  planet of Harmony where the discovery of alien artifacts has triggered a gold rush and no-one is paying nearly enough attention to the local wildlife.  The next campaign is likely to be Shadowrun with James II as GM if we can find enough D6s.

After that, I've raised the idea of a short campaign to test out a fantasy module I'm writing: Elysium Bath House.  5e is the obvious choice of system, but we've talked about it before and there are elements of D&D that people find less appealing - classes, levels and dungeon-crawling.  I created Elysium with this group in mind, so it's not a traditional dungeon.  I think Ben Milton's Knave satisfies the other two points.  In place of classes, it uses an encumbrance system.  Want to be a fighter?  Fill your slots with weapons and armour.  Magic user?  Fill them with spellbooks.  Mix and match as you please.  It's level-based, but rather than adding feats, gaining a level just means adding a hit die and spending some points on improving stats.  Spells are level-less but increase in effectiveness and duration as a character levels.  That satisfies the group's objections.

The magic system doesn't quiiiiite match up with the game I want to run, though.  Spells can be found in spellbooks - one spellbook per slot, one spell per book.  Spellbooks cannot be created or copied.  Spells are cast by reading them from the book and work once per day.  I can see why Ben wrote it this way: he likes to encourage player creativity and thinks it can be best served by preventing spells from being overused or overshared.  Want more magic?  Get out there and quest for some.

I can see why, but it still seems a little contrived that spells by their nature can't be read more than once per 24 hours.  I'm looking to run a game where magic is more available.  I think my preferred solution is to say that spellbooks function exactly like the RAW, but it's also possible to learn spells and cast them at will.  Learning a spell is a normal Knave INT saving throw, with an added bonus equal to the learner's level and a penalty equal to the number of spells already known.  Failure means rolling on a magical mishap table like this one by the Hecatohedral Monk.  Check out some of those magical disasters - "Caster can no longer perceive sunlight."  "Caster is henceforth prone to being summoned by summon monster spells cast from other Material Planes."  Some of the entries are ready-packaged adventures waiting to happen.

Casting a learned spell consumes a slot of magical components.  Components themselves aren't hard to come by.  They can be as simple as a blade of grass twisted into a mystical sigil or a hair from the caster's own head tied in an associative knot around a stone from the last river he forded.  The point is to be something that has to be prepared, and then carried and protected in a slot of its own.

I have no doubt that characters with learned spells will venture forth every day with every spare inventory slot stuffed full of magic components, but that seems fine to me.  When you only have a hammer you might be inclined to look at every problem as a nail, but that's a space for creativity to occur in as well.