D&D General Retrieving Arrows after a Combat

[X13Phantom]

I give a 50% chance for each missile shot roll 1d6, on a 1-3 it's gone 4-6 they recover it

 

[delericho]

These days I'm using a usage die for ammunition, which is working okay but is probably more hassle than it's worth.

If I were tracking individual arrows, I think instead of allowing 50% to be recovered, I would instead just double the size of a quiver and then not allow them to be recovered. That's not quite the same, for various reasons, but close enough I think.

 

[Quartz]

How do you handle this?

Surely this depends upon the style of campaign? If you're going grim and gritty then you account for every one. If you're going for Hollywood Heroics then you don't bother unless it's dramatically appropriate.

And heaven forfend that one of the bodies with an arrow in it not be dead but just waiting for you to recover your arrow...

 

[Stormonu]

Ironically, I've lost more arrows to hitting something than to missing.

I also expect experienced archers also highlight their arrows. For example, I have florescents that make it easier to find out where they landed.

I must admit, unlike someone above who has experience with wooden shafts, I don't have that experience with wood, so I have no idea how often they break or not. From their experiences it sounds like wood is more fragile of a component for arrows than I thought previously.

Up until recently, I used to do a lot of practice archery (and in my younger days, hunting “orcs” [strategically placed tin cans or pests] with my brother in the nearby woods). Trees, bluffsides and the like do horrible things to arrows (from warping the head, cracking the shaft, stripping off the fletching or shattering the notch) and don’t even get me started about having to sacrifice two arrows to find the one you shot and lost the last time your were out shooting.

Yeah, you’re not allowed to find an arrow until you’ve at least lost one or two the last time around.

And even with fluorescents (which short of magic or supernatural substances, would be anachronistic), they can still be hard to find when buried up to the notch in something/someone/ground.

Spoiler

 

[Lanefan]

If anyone bothers to look (most times they just assume used ammo is lost) I'll have them roll a d20, with the roll representing the vague ratio of what they fired vs what they can retrieve (barring having shot off a cliff or into the ocean etc. where retrieval is essentially impossible); thus a 15 means they get back about 3/4 of what was fired, a 5 means they get back about 1/4, a 1 or 2 usually means no luck at all, and a 19 or 20 usually means complete recovery.

The length of time spent to accomplish this varies greatly by what surroundings they're in - searching for ammo in an enclosed room, for example, will go way quicker than searching through open-air tall grass or underbrush.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

Ironically, I've lost more arrows to hitting something than to missing.

I also expect experienced archers also highlight their arrows. For example, I have florescents that make it easier to find out where they landed.

I must admit, unlike someone above who has experience with wooden shafts, I don't have that experience with wood, so I have no idea how often they break or not. From their experiences it sounds like wood is more fragile of a component for arrows than I thought previously.

I don't think my method is an accurate reflection of reality. Arrows are fairly sturdy. But it's simple and generally believable, which is enough.

I've even considered reversing the rule, allowing you to recover all arrows that miss, but you lose all that hit. While I find it less believable, it means that every arrow you buy represents damage dealt, which might be a satisfying way of handling it.