Gear Durability

I like the idea of gear breaking down - it makes choosing the right equipment important, adds another layer of resource management, and allows for some minor boons and improvements to gear. But tracking gear hit points sucks. Having items be in perfect condition or broken is boring.

I tried a durability system with descending die types, but that just didn't hit the spot - gear was too durable to the point where it wasn't even interesting to track - it became pointless book keeping.

So ... the Durability Die Rules for Sorrow in Haven v2:

The Durability die is used to check if an item breaks. When the GM calls for a Durability Roll and the result is a 1 or 2, the item is Damaged. A broken item may still be usable in this state (at the GM's discretion), but if a second Durability Roll produces a result of 1 or 2, the item is Broken and can no longer be used.

Repairing Gear
Repairing Damaged gear costs 20% of the base cost. Repairing Broken gear costs 50% of the base cost and 50% of the time will permanently reduce the durability die by 1 type. If the die type would be reduced from a d4, the item is permanently Broken.

Durability Scale
d4: super fragile
d6: normal items
d8: sturdy biz

The die an specific item also determine when a roll is made. If an item is encountering normal wear and tear or use then no roll is needed. Like a prybar being used to pry open a chest - no roll required. But if a 10' pole is used to brace across a hole and a bunch of people hang from it, you bet there is a durability roll.

Advantage and Disadvantage can be applied to durability rolls as well, but if it has Advantage why even roll?