Would you play a game with no combat items? There would still be items to bolster social interactions, stealth, and other out-of-combat activities.
Would this impede your sense of advancement, or are character feats and non-combat items enough?
I am working on a game with a magic system for combat. It is already complex enough that I prefer not to have combat items. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Ah. Are you aware of Mage: the Ascension and Mage: the Awakening? Both World of Darkness books; mechanically crunchy with a strong focus on magic as a solution to all situations. Looking at established systems that have already done something similar can help with ideas.
For a slightly different spin, I just picked up the Black Sword Hack yesterday. In terms of combat items, there are actual listed combat items but it’s all fluff really; every weapon is d6 damage. Maybe that would be another thing that interests you: weapons are abstracted to the point of players being able to buy/find “a weapon” which gives you a basic action.
I am aware of them, but haven’t read them. In the past World of Darkness has thrown me off with its lack of conciseness, but maybe I should give those a shot. I remember hearing something about a very philosophical and open-ended take on magic in one of those that did seem intriguing.
Can’t say I like the idea of specifying combat items, but having them all mechanically identical. Seems simpler to just not specify them at all then.