Ontology: Items

Overview

Qualities of items that might be useful in game play (if the system supports it) are modeled as item properites. Value, encumbrance, capacity, “slot” for clothing, and so forth.

Other qualities, usually used to randomly place and equip items, are handled through tags.

Properties

name
The name of the item in a syntax that indicates both singular and plural (including indefinite plural) usage. Examples: Pop’s Root Beer Hard cand{y|ies}; {|pairs of }Mary Jane shoes; stick{s} of beef jerky). If no plural is provided, we assume the plural ends in s. Names include brands, styles, and color, since these attributes don’t matter in game terms and are just flavor text.
title
Non-serial items with titles (e.g. books).
image
URL to an image for the item.
enc
The encumbrance of the item (generally working on the limit of 70 + (Strong*10) as the maxium encumbrance a person can carry). The value is derived from both the size and weight tags, if it is not explicitly declared.
value
The item’s value (in some abstraction of currency).
consumes
A tag for what this item consumes (e.g. ammo:22)
frequency
The frequency of the item’s occurrence where it normally occurs. Everything is rare to find somewhere (common, uncommon, rare).
condition
The condition of the item, usually for memorabilia. Condition adjusts an item’s value, but in the future, it may also be used to determine if something is broken and/or fixable (poor, fair, good, excellent, mint).
series
One of a series of items, usually applied to publications or any other item that might be collectible in a game. For example:
{
    "name": "comic book",
    "series": {
        "title": "Giggle Comics",
        "issue": 99,
        "total": 133,
        "pubDate": "Sunday 24 Nov 1957"
    }
}
            
title
The title of the serial.
issue
The number of the item in a series.
total
The total number of items in this series.
pubDate
Date of publication.
bundled
Bundles are not containers, they are items that contain specific amounts of other items. For example, a box of ammo, a book of matches, or magazine for a firearm.
{
    "name": "box{es} of .45 ammo",
    "bundled": {
        "item": "ammo:45",
        "count": 20,
        "actual": 18
    }
}
            
item
Name of the item this item includes
count
The number of said items this bundle normally contains or includes.
actual
The actual number of said items this item contains or includes.

Qualities

These can apply to anything regardless of category.

Categories

Locations

The trick here will be to define a constrained set of categories. Specific locations can further define a set of items specific to that location.