Disposables, or Disposable Items are simply tools, characters, locations or descriptors that are literally disposable. The disposable item is described or written up on a scrap piece of paper, and the paper is simply discarded into a rubbish bin when the tool is used up or broken, the character is incapacitated or killed, the location is left behind or trashed, or the descriptor is removed. The scrap paper is used purely to emphasize the disposable nature of the thing to the other players.
For example, a disposable magic potion of healing is simply written as:
Magic Potion of Healing
on a scrap piece of paper. When the potion is used to restore health to a character, the scrap paper is simply discarded.
Another example is a insignificant combat encounter between the band of heroes and a scouting party of twelve evil goblins. Simply get a dozen scraps of paper, write:
Evil Goblin
on each and then place the goblins as desired around the cards representing the heroes. When a hero incapacitates or kills a goblin, just discard the paper with the goblin's description on it.
If the disposable item has important descriptors, then just refer to the card with the descriptors on it. For example, the wizard Anazoth creates a one-shot magic scroll with a Firey Sphere spell on it. Anazoth's player just writes:
"Anazoth's Firey Sphere" Spell Scroll
on a small piece of scrap paper, and underlines “Anazoth's Firey Sphere Spell”, and puts the paper beside the wizard's cards. When a player need to find out what the Firey Sphere spell does, just look up Anazoth's Spellbook cards to find the appropriate descriptors for Anazoth's Firey Sphere spell.
Several examples of disposable descriptors are:
For a disposable location, just use a large piece of scrap paper, that allows placement of cards, and simply draw the major points of interest. For example, a nightclub on Fourth and Main is described as:
Nightclub on Fourth and Main
Rockband tables
Bar Dancers Entrance
tables tables tables
If a disposable item becomes worthy of reuse, then simply write the appropriate descriptors on a card and reuse as desired. For example, Arthur just won the nightclub from above in a card game with the owner, so Arthur's player writes up the descriptors from the scrap paper onto a card, names the nightclub and the card as “Arthur's Place”, and adds that name to Arthur's significant belongings card.
These guidelines are complementary to this: