Gear, Sets, and Combos

A progression layer on top of the catalog: items grant stats, sets of items grant bonuses, combos reward intentional pairings. Pulls customers through the catalog rather than the checkout — the reward for exploring merchandise is mechanical, not just aesthetic.

Concept

Three related mechanics, increasing in design cost:

• Gear: individual catalog items (tees, totes, books, consumables) are tagged with a type and stats. Owning a gear item grants its stat on the character sheet. “Armor” is the house term for wearable gear — an established brand surface already (local-artist limited-run tees sold only for points).
• Sets: a group of gear items with a bonus when enough pieces are owned. Rewards breadth across a curated collection.
• Combos: two or more specific items that unlock a bonus when owned together. Rewards intentional pairings the shop has merchandised (cookbook + apron, RPG rulebook + dice set, novel + its audiobook).

The primary loop is acquisition, not equipping. Ownership is the trigger. No slot contention at v1 — avoids forcing the “which chestpiece do I wear” decision before we know if it’s interesting.

Design decisions

Soft sets before hard sets

• Soft set = tag-based. “Any 3 items tagged local-artist → +artist-patron bonus.” Tolerant of inventory churn; works even when individual SKUs rotate.
• Hard set = specific SKU list. “Drow Armor Set = these exact 3 items → +bonus.” Requires inventory discipline we don’t have yet.

Start with soft sets. Introduce hard sets for curated seasonal drops where we control inventory end-to-end (e.g., a Halloween set, a book-release set).

Stats should feed existing systems, not introduce a new mechanic

Stats on the character sheet look cool but mean nothing unless they do something. Rather than invent a new stat model, sets/combos grant effects in the systems we already have:

• XP multipliers — a set bonus is a permanent-while-owned buff. Reuses BuffDefinitions / ActiveBuffs from guild-potions with a new trigger: ownership.
• Discount multipliers — a set grants a category discount (“Hearth set: +2% off cookbooks”). Requires matching against cart line items.
• Quest unlocks — owning a set gates a questline. Cheap; uses existing quest system.
• Cosmetic flair — title, frame, character-sheet ornament. Free to implement, real social signal.

Avoid inventing standalone “stats” (STR/DEX/etc.) with no downstream effect. Class bonuses are explicitly deferred in rpg-loyalty-system-design; gear stats should not sneak them back in through the side door.

Combos are merchandising, not emergence

Combos are authored. The shop decides “this book pairs with this mug” because it’s a real merchandising choice. Customers discover combos in-portal, but the combo list is curated. This is the opposite of soft sets, which are emergent from tags.

Keep the combo list small and rotating. A permanently-expanding list dilutes the discovery moment.

Data model (rough)

• Catalog item (Medusa/Payload): new fields — gearType (armor/consumable/trinket/none), stats (json), tags (existing, extended with gear tags).
• SetDefinition (new): name, description, member criteria (tag-based for soft, SKU list for hard), tiered bonuses keyed by piece count (2-piece, full-set).
• ComboDefinition (new): name, description, SKU list (all required), bonus.
• Member ownership: already knowable from purchase history + points-shop redemption history. No new ownership table needed at v1; compute on read.

Set/combo bonus evaluation runs on any change to member ownership (purchase webhook, points redemption). Activates or deactivates a buff/discount/unlock accordingly.

Display

• Character sheet: gear panel showing owned items with stat pips.
• Set tracker: “Local Artist Patron: 2/3” with the third slot teased but not spoiled.
• Combo discovery: hidden until completed, then revealed with a reveal moment (“combo unlocked: …”). One-time dopamine beats a checklist.

Acquisition and membership gating

Ties into the open question from today’s journal: rate lever vs. access lever for member differentiation.

• Points shop is the core acquisition path. Keep earn-rate differentiation on purchases (members earn points faster), but consider gating rare gear tiers behind membership — common/consumable gear stays open, rare/legendary armor is member-only.
• Quests and events award gear drops as occasional rewards (matches MMO loot tables). Flat access regardless of membership — participation is egalitarian per existing design.
• Direct purchase for some items (books, tees sold at retail) grants the gear automatically on Square webhook — already the plumbing for guild-potions.

What to build (staged)

1. v0 — tagging & display: extend catalog with gearType + stats. Render owned items on the character sheet. No mechanical effect yet. Validates the merchandising concept and gives local-artist tees a portal surface.
2. v1 — soft sets: SetDefinition with tag-based criteria. Set tracker UI. Bonuses grant ownership-triggered buffs via the existing buff system.
3. v2 — combos: curated combo list, reveal moment on unlock, initial roster of 5–10 authored combos tied to real shelf merchandising.
4. v3 — hard sets: seasonal curated drops with fixed SKU lists. Paired with guild-seasons cadence.
5. v4 (maybe) — equipment slots with contention. Only if v1–v3 show players care about the mechanic.

Open questions

• Does owning a gear item in purchase history count forever, or does it require redemption through the points shop? (Grandfathering vs. formalism.)
• If a set bonus is a buff, and buffs stack multiplicatively, do overlapping set bonuses need a cap? (See stacking questions in guild-potions.)
• How is soft-set eligibility computed when an item’s tags change after purchase? Snapshot tags at purchase time, or evaluate dynamically?
• Should rare gear be member-only (access lever), or just extremely expensive in points (rate lever)? Default: access lever for legendary, rate for everything else.
• Do we surface set progress to non-owners to drive aspirational purchases, or keep it hidden until the first piece is acquired?
• Combo curation cadence — who picks them, how often do they rotate?
• Does Book Club Combo Bonus collapse into this system, or remain a separate event×purchase mechanic? Probably the latter — it’s an action combo, not an ownership combo.