This, for me, not so much. We are willing to maintain a detailed count to 20 as a PC beats down a gnoll or an oaken door with , but keeping a tally of a PC archer’s arrows is too much? I disagree. As a specific example, DW’s use of its multi-step “ammo” tag is the subject of a variety of discussion and tutorial threads on Reddit and elsewhere, which to me suggests it’s not as universally useful as a streamlining game abstraction as some might suggest.
Many here will say tracking individual arrows, bolts, sling stones, or bullets is too tedious, but I think the choice to eschew the count really flattens the game play of combat encounters and takes away built-in opportunities for excitement and player engagement.
The PC archer with the Speed Quiver, merrily Legolas-ing along on a string of high modified DEX rolls, is a force with which to be reckoned—and that’s fun almost to the point of being boring because of it—but start counting arrows, and suddenly that ability has new dimension. If she’s down to two arrows, does she peg the two orc mooks at CLOSE range in front of her, or shoot over one of them with her last arrow at the BBEG who’s at FAR range and getting away, forestalling his escape but leaving one orc with the opportunity for melee on the next turn. After she exhausts her arrows, does she sacrifice her next turn to scrounge D6 of her own missiles recycled from the fallen foes at her feet, or press on and hope there’s a downed orc bowman ahead with a full quiver? Saturday serials never had so much cliffhanging melodrama…
Simple resource management does not have to put drag on the game. For a lot of us—especially the grognards—it is the game.
And don’t even get me started on what I think about not counting ammunition for automatic firearms…
(Re-engaging Lurk Mode…)