Whetstone and Chalk

Quote from Moxys >>

I understand not adding every mundane item, but removing perfectly proper adventuring items is silly.  It just ends up cluttering the Homebrew with these items which we have to remake in order for our characters or games to feel right to us.

 Well, it's a good thing you can't homebrew mundane items.

Just add a custom item on the sheet or, like I suggested above, include it under Other Possessions if the DM is so unreasonably strict that it can't be considered basic adventuring gear.

As someone who has been playing since 1977, I have never heard of "basic adventuring gear".  Is this some kind of lazy way of not preparing but magically saying you have items?

Nothing has to be homebrewed. If you require your players to do so, they can simply click the "Manage Inventory" button on their character page, click to expand the "Add Custom Item" line, name the custom item "Chalk" and click the "Add Item" button. It's chalk. There's nothing special about it. It writes on many hard surfaces and gets your hands dirty. It doesn't need any rules. Also, you could just not require your players put in that kind of busy work. Like I said before, "spoon" and "bowl" aren't listed in the PHB or DMG, but I'm not going to force my players to add custom items called "Spoon" and "Bowl" to their character sheets or else force them to roleplay eating soup straight from the cauldron with their hands. It's fine to make assumptions that characters have basic things in their inventory.

I'd caution against disparaging people as lazy or insinuating they're trying to shirk proper preparation work. It's honestly a silly take considering this is a game and it's supposed to be fun. But it's also more than a bit disrespectful. Not everybody wants to play Excel spreadsheet simulator when they play D&D. I'd venture to guess a lot of us love playing D&D because we already spend too much time bogged down in Excel. Don't yuck folks' yum just because they don't dive deep into the minutiae of tracking chalk usage.

Of course I would allow it as an "other possession".  The issue is that new players might not think about it.  Also it's a pain in the ass to use the Other Possession interface.  I'd rather my player be able to pick it from the equipment list as they have been able to do for nearly 10 years.  It's like removing your side mirrors from your car because you can turn your head and look.  It's just making things difficult for no reason.

The point is that if they don't want to they don't have to, but why remove my ability to add something from the list vs. us the custom item crappy side panel?  

Are you actively tracking the usage of chalk? Or is a DM ordering you to do so? Also, what do you/your DM need 5.5e trackable chalk for?

This feels like excessive realism...in a game where hyper-intelligent brain monster hives scheme, undead sentient blood can possess a space elf reborn as a Frankenstein's Monster-esque creation, & spears are markedly inferior to swords.

Soooo.... you think people are lazy because they assume that their character is competent enough to have basic maintenance and survival items, but then whine when you have to make said items you miss with a system that lets you add things because you want to just pull it from a list? 
If you want to be more simulationist then you are going to have to put in the leg work for it. You don't get to call other people lazy when you complain you can't take the easy road to your own goals. 

Quote from Moxys >>

As someone who has been playing since 1977, I have never heard of "basic adventuring gear".  Is this some kind of lazy way of not preparing but magically saying you have items?

 No, it's a means of a character being reasonably equipped for adventuring, given they're an adventurer who would have diegetic knowledge of what they need, without the player needing to know what specifically they'd need. A player saying "My character, being an adventurer, would have all the reasonable gear with which to adventure, even though I don't know specifically what that is" is not lazy, it's how games work

Quote from Davyd >>

 No, it's a means of a character being reasonably equipped for adventuring, given they're an adventurer who would have diegetic knowledge of what they need, without the player needing to know what specifically they'd need. A player saying "My character, being an adventurer, would have all the reasonable gear with which to adventure, even though I don't know specifically what that is" is not lazy, it's how games work

The problem is that there are a lot of edge cases of "would my/your character have X?", because no-one carries around everything they could ever need; they carry around stuff they think they'll need. It's safe to assume that anyone who carries around a weapon that needs a whetstone has one, so yeah, no reason to specifically list a whetstone. However, chalk, while possibly useful in a game, simply isn't that common (it might show up in some sorts of tool kits, such as mason's tools).

Quote from Pantagruel666 >>

Quote from Davyd >>

 No, it's a means of a character being reasonably equipped for adventuring, given they're an adventurer who would have diegetic knowledge of what they need, without the player needing to know what specifically they'd need. A player saying "My character, being an adventurer, would have all the reasonable gear with which to adventure, even though I don't know specifically what that is" is not lazy, it's how games work

The problem is that there are a lot of edge cases of "would my/your character have X?", because no-one carries around everything they could ever need; they carry around stuff they think they'll need. It's safe to assume that anyone who carries around a weapon that needs a whetstone has one, so yeah, no reason to specifically list a whetstone. However, chalk, while possibly useful in a game, simply isn't that common (it might show up in some sorts of tool kits, such as mason's tools).

 That's irrelevant to what I said, and needlessly contrarian. 

Quote from Davyd >>

 That's irrelevant to what I said, and needlessly contrarian. 

My point is: sure, it's normal to say that your character is 'reasonably' equipped. The problem is that people disagree on what 'reasonable' actually is.

This isn't to say that there aren't alternatives to giant equipment lists on your character sheet -- for example, I've seen a DM have someone roll to see if they happen to have something useful, and appropriate skills or tool proficiencies would definitely affect that roll or just make it automatic -- but there is reason to have a table of 'moderately common things your character might think to carry around'.

No I don't track the usage of chalk.  If my players have it on their list it is assumed to be restocked as needed in town.  BUT ... in order to use it out in the wild, it has to be on their list.  Same with twine, rope, rations, etc.  I don't micromanage it, but I do require it to be thought about ahead of time.  That being said, if they don't have chalk but have a campfire or a burned torch they could use the charcoal remains as a marker, it's just not a subtle.  certainly they can improvise.  

OP...are you asking for the duplicate entry because you don't own the 2014 books digitally and you're trying to save money by getting these mundane items for free?

Not a diss or an insult, it's just for transparency regarding your points.