[Hajo]

I'm wondering how to organize item drops from monsters.

I have seen games like Ragnarok Online, where each monster drops from a fixed set of less than a dozen items an no others.

And Diablo 2 which has a system of treasure classes (sets of items) and each monster has a set of treasure classes to drop from, which leads to higher level monsters being able to drop several hundred different items.

Ragnarok is very predictable due to it's scheme. Need some item? Go an kill monster of type X and you have a Y percent chance on each kill to get that item. In Diablo 2 this does not work, people say that hunting a certain item is hopeless, but you can always trade it from someone else. While D2 is less predicatble, it also seems to be more intresting, since on almost each kill you have a tiny chance for something very good to drop, you just don't know when or what it will be.

Now I've started to make a more RPGish module for Sonnhiem to try some things and I'm facing the question how to organize item drops from monsters. D2 scheme in all depth seems vastly overcomplicated, what I skecthed above was just the very very simplified version. Ragnarok's system deems me too simple and predictable, but is also very easy to implement.

How did/do you organize item drops in your RPGs?

[Verious]

I don't know what the best item drop system would be; however, I personally find it annoying when a mouse is killed and drops a long sword. This rapidly breaks any level of immersion that was previously achieved.

I think one way to avoid this would be to assign a carrying capacity to monsters and weight to items. This would prevent small creatures from dropping heavy items. This concept could be extended to include item size.

For example a mouse might be able to carry a small 1 pound gem, but not a large 30 pound long sword.

[Hajo]

I agree very much on that.

While I was first posting about lists of items that monsters can drop, you mentioned the idea of filtering drops with items unsuitable for that sort of monster.

The question is now, is it easier to define a set of allowed drops, or define sets of forbidden drops? Or try a mix?

Like having all "armor type" items allowed, but those over a certain weight? That could make much sense and allow to define large lists of possible drops with few contraints. But also relies on a categorization of items beforehand.

[RampantCoyote]

Just keep it believable. Whatever that means in your game world.

Ideally, a rat would carry NOTHING.... but if you go back to its nest, you might find some shiny items it dragged back there on previous occasions.

A fully armed warrior would probably have his combat gear (which he used against the player), but only a little bit of spending cash.

You could go entirely "old school" with treasure tables, and on creation you pick 2 items from column A (Humanoid Walking-Around Money), two items from column B (Wizard's Items), and a 25% chance of an item from column C (minor magical items), plus a weapon. Might be too much work, but as long as you are asking, I figure I'd offer my ideal...
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[Hajo]

[Hajo]

[cowgod]

That sounds like it might be the best plan.

You could still have a few creatures that drop specific items. For instance, a boar could always drop boar hide.

I think the treasure tables are best for most creatures.