Magic Items

Dreamingfurther said:
hmm that is an interesting idea and I like. But of course I'd let all the old magic items still do what they did so that you don't get older players getting unhappy. =)
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While it is important to keep players happy, sometimes players have to look at the game as a whole and not be too self-centered. If a rules change makes it harder for them to do what they did in the past, there's probably a very good reason why it was changed, and the reason is never "to screw over the players."
 
i guess one of my issues is this....i NPCed for a year at a site and donated a ton of stuff and got 3000 gobbies. i received a list of things i can spend this on and the one thing i want is 6000 gobbies but there's no way i can donate that much again nor do i care to NPC enough to earn another 3000 so i have to figure out what to spend my stuff on and i'm stuck. i am wondering how long do these things (gobbies) last? there were magic items to buy and mostly spells i think?? i have no use for spells. any advice on the most valuable magic items or things to buy?
 
Tzydl Zhitelava said:
i guess one of my issues is this....i NPCed for a year at a site and donated a ton of stuff and got 3000 gobbies. i received a list of things i can spend this on and the one thing i want is 6000 gobbies but there's no way i can donate that much again nor do i care to NPC enough to earn another 3000 so i have to figure out what to spend my stuff on and i'm stuck. i am wondering how long do these things (gobbies) last? there were magic items to buy and mostly spells i think?? i have no use for spells. any advice on the most valuable magic items or things to buy?
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Goblin Stamps do not expire.

What you buy depends on your character and how you play them.

I would advise always trying to keep enough gobbies to get monthly blankets, as magic items can be lost/stolen/borrowed but the only way to lose build is through permanent death.

Scott
 
The magic items available for purchase also change each event. Maybe the last time you looked there wasn't much that you wanted, but things change. There have been times that I looked at the list and couldn't decide between two or three things that were great, and other times when I shrugged and put the list down without picking anything.

For me personally, 99% of the time I only pick items that augment what my character can already do - spells she already has or rits she realistically could have cast herself. That's a personal choice thing though - it's certainly not a rule. And yeah, sometimes that means that I don't pick anything at all. You can save them up until you find something you like. Goblin Stamps don't expire, but items do. ;)
 
Blankets are priceless!
 
Yea, honestly thats totally cool you got that pile of gobbies! =) I'd sit on them blanketing myself happily for years. =) I'm a huge fan of blankets... =P
 
and remember that you can get gobbies in multiple chapters and blanket things which do not conflict with events you attend...
 
I dare say it would be pointless to use it for blanketing. I donate a little bit every event and blanket to my hearts content, with my character.. Im talking, spending like 10$ a month, and having more than enough to blanket. Id go with either a crap ton of production, wich would take forever to use up the 3k goblins at 100 per event, or a few small, cool magic items, or one uber one...Id go with either a magic sword, if you are a fighter, just to get it out of the way, or a bunch of cloaks, or a prison item.

I like the Ohio method of giving scrolls for goblins instead of completed magic items, that way you wouldnt need to NPC and donate for another year just to get that 6000 goblin item..you could just get the scrolls/comps, for a fraction of the cost, and have it made by a friendly, underappriciated formal caster.
 
On the note of turning out components and ritual scrolls instead of just strait items I was wondering if magic items and/or ritual scrolls have a market value the way normal items do and if people with the eval item skill would know those prices?
 
Dreamingfurther said:
On the note of turning out components and ritual scrolls instead of just strait items I was wondering if magic items and/or ritual scrolls have a market value the way normal items do and if people with the eval item skill would know those prices?
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Each Magic item does have a market value and can be found on the Evaluate Item list, just like non magical jewelry.
 
So is that a big nationally maintained database or list? Or is there some way that formal magic is rated due to difficulty of the formal or what? Just because there can be so many mixes and different types of magic on items...
 
Dreamingfurther said:
So is that a big nationally maintained database or list? Or is there some way that formal magic is rated due to difficulty of the formal or what? Just because there can be so many mixes and different types of magic on items...
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It's all generated under the treasure policy. For items that are PC created would just require the GM and owner to look up the production value of the item and input that into the database. There is no national database, each chapter generates it's own list which PC's with the skill should have access too. I normally keep an extra copy at logistics incase we have out of towners show up to our local game. Then I have a double backup list in my NPC bag when logistics is closed that I let PC's check out in NJ.
 
Coin values of any items is LCO.

The reason is two fold.

1. Maintaining a list of every chapters items, with the current system, would be a nightmare that I would wish upon only a select few people.

2. When you 'sell back' the rep for coin, you are in fact giving an item back to the game to be reused. That item already belongs to the game you got it from, and this is encouraging you to turn it back in.


More Item reps are lost due to people keeping them, or just never turning them back in. Which is fantastically disappointing, as we spend a fair amount on reps, and to have anything that is better than the $.25 ring that you get in the candy machine never come back is really quite frustrating. It does not encourage us to go get cool reps, as it does not make any sense to spend $10-30 on a rep that will never come back, when you are putting out 10-15 reps per game.

Personally, I would be a little pissed off if I found out people were donating our reps to another game, or 'selling' them there for their production value only to have that game use my rep. I have had people try to sell us reps that are not to our game, and I have told them I can't do that, for the same reasons listed above. I have taken the item number and description, and attempted to find the correct game for them, so I can tell them who they might need to talk to in game or out of game to deal with it. I have also mailed reps back to games if someone has an expired item, and says, I don't care about the coin, just take it.

As for the value of the magic on an item, there is no 'correct' ingame value. It is whatever you can get for it. There is a standard people use, and that is based on production value, but a traveling team that will use an item more, lets say at 12 events might be willing to pay more than the team that will only be able to use it for 6.

Also the coin value on an item is also an unknown factor, unless you have the appropriate skill to consult the OOG evaluate item list, and not every piece of jewelry is magical.
 
I have often thought of the "D20" version of magic items would be better for the game then our current system. However the problem being that you can't anticipate how things like that affect the game. As much as we are trying to run a fantasy game, we do try to ground things as much as we can as logical.

For example we can't really develop boots of flying (although I suppose it would be a good hook)... or stuff like bags of holding. OMG that was done once in one campaign and I can't tell you how many horrible things happened haha. The problem is not coming up with great ideas (although there are copyright issues of course to consider) its coming up with workable game mechanics to support them. For example do you really want to create an entire series of rules for one item you put out? Sometimes that can be fun for a weekend, but when you think outside the box on magic item creation ... you often find that the intention of an item is lost ... because of how players will attempt to use the item in question. It's why we put such things in the artifact category, so they have to be monitored and controlled within one campaign's environment... and by the staff that is responsible for its introduction.

Always open to new ideas of course, just be prepared when you submit them to the ARC to think of all the horrible ways your ideas can go awry ... it saves us the time of sending one of those unhappy letters back to you.

John
 
you bring up a point I've been wondering about...

is there a way to tell what chapter a rep is from? I have a few that have popped, but the tags got tossed before we noted which chapter put them out, and I'd love to bring them back - a couple of them are pretty nice.
 
An experienced Campaign will usually put some sort of a rep prefix on their reps along with a number. For example all NJ items usually have an "NJ" before our number. It helps us get our reps back.

John
 
It depends. Off the top of my head.

Anything that says cal# is caldaria (ie, alliance CT)

Anything that says nyj# is moria (ie. Alliance New Jersey)

Other than that you are guessing.

I can tell you that alot of Caldaria items had R#, and G# for goblin stamped items.

Every item coming out of Alliance CT will have cal# as of 2007, before that who knows.

I will be more than willing to take numbers and descriptions from Alliance players, and attempt to find said items home, and give you and your lovely item directions to get there. (if its still an active item, the directions might include a walk down a dark alley, but never mind that part, and don't bring any friends).
 
perhaps we should start a "items that need a home" thread or something... :)
 
Has it been suggested (I never got a chance to read the post on this idea on the old boards) that we just limit the amount of items carried by a single player? My example to look to would be from the 2nd ed. dungeons and dragons paladins.(Nero/Alliance has obviously a lot of influence from here)

example:

Number of magic items carried rule-Any one player may have up to and not exceeding the following magic items on their person at any one time: 1 ring for each hand, a piece of magical clothing, armor or a shield, a weapon and 1 misc. item that is not a duplicate of another type( for example a crown or necklace) Any items beyond this can only be carried if not identified. ( this would allow a fully stocked character to carry treasure from mods, plot items that haven't been id'd)

That would mean that players with a lot of magic items could not have a bag on their hip full of stuff to activate,or 15 necklaces on and would have to plan what they would take into a battle. They could own more just not carry more than that on them at any single time. For anyone that would say it is unfair to limit the number of magic items, I say this: what I have suggested allows a player to carry 6 magic items. That is a lot of items. I have personally seen characters with far more on and frankly it makes casters even more nerfed. The fighter should not have a "pocket mage". I have been on several mods as well as town encounters where my 20+ cel caster is less effective than the "quickdraw mage" as I like to call them.

The change to the incants for items should be changed, but I also feel that a limitation of number carried needs to be looked at as well.

just my 2 cents.

~Ray
 
Time for my thoughts. (Too bad, suckers.)

A good point was brought up that nobody complains about potions and scrolls being better than the spellcasters casting those spells. Reason being, that getting the rep out and having to read it/administer it is time consuming and inconvenient. Having to simply say "Activate Blah!" while the item can still be in your pouch or even down your pants is rediculously convenient and fast.

What if all "activate" items (I know there's a proper term for it) required the item to be touched by hand during the incant? If you could wear it as a pin or affixed to your clothing, you'd just have to spare a hand for a moment. If it was something you kept in a pouch, then you've got to dig for it a bit. (Or at least shove a hand in the pouch since you're probably everything in there.)

It's still more convenient than a potion/scroll. Not to mention an x/day item is reusable and not a one-shot consumable. But it makes it more than the zero-concentration effort it is now, where you can be swinging, blocking, doing a cartwheel, etc. and still produce the most powerful battle magics in existance.


Also, I think that you'll never have "fightin' skills" feel as replaced as spells do now, unless you have x/day Skill Store items. If all the "activates" were times ever deals, you would not have people talking about "pocket scholars" because you couldn't replace a 4-column with 9 different 4/day activate items. I'm not advocating either of these as good ideas, just to illustrate the frustration that people feel when every aspect of being able to cast a spell is as good or better performed by an item.
 
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