Defunct Houserules - Magic Item as Rewards

This is the first in a series of articles I am working on. The point is to trace the history of the Houserules we have used in the past and share what worked and what didn't. Along the way I'll speculate on why they didn't.

First on the list is magic items. The Internet is rife with suggestions on implementing magic item distribution. The DMG itself has plenty of alternate suggestions.

4e Standard Distribution

This is the system straight out of the core books. It awards four items to a five person party with gold value for a fifth each level. My party opted to split the gold equally between them leaving one player under powered for the level. In effect every five levels each player would receive four magic items and the gold for another. On the surface this system seems balanced and fair but their is a flaw. The DM spends a lot of time trying to provide items that the PC's want or can use and balancing that against the "fairness" of expected item level value. Secondly it provides roughly 30 items to each member of the party. My players weren't keen on shopping or utilizing rituals to change the items into something else. The sheer number items leads to longer turns and more ooh I forgot my weapon property when x = y. Enter the wish list system.

Wish List

Again this system is presented in the core books. It demands the players generate a wish list of items for the next five levels. In theory the DM picks from this list to build a treasure package for a given level. Getting the first list isn't easy but ranks higher up on my list of pulling teeth then getting a detailed background does. The real difficulty came when I needed to get an updated list. Again searching thru thousands items to find 30 for their PC was a chore my group wasn't interested in. Enter the rune system.

Rune System

Mr. Optimizer brought this system to the group, I can't give credit to whom ever the idea originated with and maybe the creator will be happy about that. I was trepidatious about using the system in part because of the source and in part because my player's were already disinclined to shop. The system uses blocks of residiium called runes. Connor McCloud's sword is fashioned from metal in Highlander from such a block. Each block represents a magic item level. A player takes the rune to a smith, weaver etc and thru ritual the base item is infused with magical powers. The player looks up an item and the rune + base item is the published magic item. If you later get a better rune simply yank the old one out of your sword and have some boots made. Then add the new one to your sword. This system gives players quite a bit of flexibility. Too much in fact, as it quickly resulted in surplus gold. We added a cost to this re-enchantment process. This system still does nothing to reduce the number of magic items carried nor the analysis paralysis having so many can cause in Epic Tiers. Not to mention some magic items are just plain better and there are of course combinations that impact game balance. Enter magic rarity.

Magic Rarity

This system was released with the Rules Compendium. It assigns a value to magic items rare, uncommon and common. I am glad this didn't come with a ccg which was my initial fear. My hope was that the simply better items would be classified as rare. Nope. The effort to categorize items struggles on over at WotC. Meanwhile, my own hopes were dashed. The unspoken promise that this would return some of the specialness of magic items to the system was broken. My other issue with this system is the additional complexity it added. Now not only did I have level, fairness and game balance to contend with but I had to worry about rarity. System bloating needs antacid.

Inherrent Bonus

As I was ending my second campaign and considering letting D&D go the way of the dodo I stumbled across something called the Inherrent Bonus system. Supposedly this system is in the DMG but to this day I haven't been able to find it. The closest is the sidebar in the DMG2 on page 138 entitled a reward based game. The theory is that instead of math based items you give players the bonuses to attack, damage and defenses that they would get from magic item enhancements as freebies. I like to think of this like the assassin that can pick up any weapon and make it "magic". I can hear it now, "but Axe what about those extra powers and properties?" To be honest I don't miss them. My players get story based items that grow in power as they level.

I discussed this with my players outlining my plan and the system. They agreed tentatively to the play test. I then worked into the end of the previous campaign that the spell plague they caused resulted in the destruction of all residiium. This fulfilled one players destiny and tied nicely into explaining the lack of magic items and the change I made to ritual magic.

For example my wife's paladin started in plate mail, she has a broadsword, and a holy symbol. She gets +1 to damage, attacks with both the broadsword and holy symbol. She also gets a +1 to AC, Fort, Reflex, and Will from armor and a non-existent neck slot item. This makes her a little more powerful then your standard first level character, sure, but it hasn't tipped the scales into ruining my fun as the DM.

Her story item is her broadsword. It was given to her by her uncle and that makes it special in character. Playing on that fact, it is the item I am focusing on improving during heroic tier. At first level she killed a Short-tailed Gar. A Gar is a pretty tough creature from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. The creature's blood was infused into the blade. Now when she draws the blade it glows with the same sickly green glow as the Gar's eyes. This is the weapon's property and ties into the choice to kill the Gar. As she progresses in level and makes in character choices I add powers to the sword about every three levels. At 10th I may start in on her armor. At 20th her Holy Symbol.

Another player, the rogue, chose to save a prisoner from being whipped on a pillory. They crawled thru a privy hole to reach the river and then swam to shore braving the rapids and waterfall. I marked this character's choice by adding a property similar to slick armor to his now waterlogged and stained leather armor. The stains give a simple bonus to stealth.

We have only played nine sessions but the personal touch seems to be more rewarding then the constant flood of magic items. The slower accumulation of money and difficulty purchasing magic items has been refreshing as well. We spend less time on treasure and more on gaming. Our experimentation with Magic Items has brought frustration and boredom around to something personal and fun. Nuff said.

Keeping the spark

Writing the blog has been hard this week. After canceling my game Saturday and the upsetting events Monday I was having trouble finding the motivation. The net is a buzz with talks of what's wrong with 4E and the hopes for 5E. To be honest I find all the speculation kind of disappointing. Four editions of the game I love and everyone seems to be ready to point out the flaws and cracks in the armor. I see very little of people saying what has worked well and what should stay the same. To that end here is my opinion what should stay the same. (Editor's note: This was written before this weeks L&L column but delayed by my editing schedule and issues with iOS 5)

1. Team work - team work is the bedrock of d&d for me. Even during inter party tension or conflicting character view points; team work is what glues the experience together. If the players aren't working together the game quickly dissolves into a free for all.

2. Monsters - Iconic monsters are a cornerstone of d&d. What makes D&D monsters iconic? The monsters of D&D are powerful and different and strange. Their powers are fantastic, beyond reason. They offer challenges that once faced allow players to accumulate knowledge. That player knowledge makes facing a troll the next time different, less challenging. There is a reward to playing and defeating these challenges. After all whom would ever climb into a green face in a dungeon again after playing thru tomb of horrors. (Note Sarah Darkmagic writes a little about this in her blog this week)

Monsters should be iconic and by that I mean they should have powers or traits that fit them well. Kobold shiftiness is a good example. I am not condoning a system utilizing powers but if they are present they need to be different and overcome by clever play and not just mechanics. See even I can't write an article without making changes to the next edition.

3. Magic and wonder - D&D is an escapist hobby. We escape into story. We escape into environments. We escape into shoes that are not our own. Those experiences are bigger than ourselves and tap into some racial memory of times when the world was dark and the next village was a strange different world. We want the experience of the unknown. We want the rules of science to be violated. We want the fairy tale. Without this experience the world is two dimensional and without flare. D&D is in part the search for the childlike wonder of youth and part the broadening of horizons thru steps taken in another's skin.

4. Over coming odds with creativity - D&D is challenging and sometimes frustrating but the result of overcoming this challenge is a heady reward greater than the treasure to be found or the character we created. It defies the words chosen in a role-play encounter nor can a lucky roll replace its sustenance. We play D&D to exercise our mind and imagination and no matter if it be 5th or 25th edition this is a part of d&d that can not be replaced by technology or mechanics. At it's core D&D is theater of the mind and must remain so.

5. Social- D&D is a social game. The shared love of the past time. It Sparks blogs and twitter feeds. It drives the creation of virtual environments for the gathering of friends. Gaming groups span decades, they can be as close as families and share common bonds. Bonds based not only on common interests but also on the things that are shared between dice rolls. Like old poker buddies the game is more than the bets lost and won, dnd is a gathering of people from different walks of life sharing time and words.

If we keep true to these core things the mechanics will matter only as much as we have let them in the past. The edition wars have been around for as long as multiple editions have existed. They will be around as long dice are rolled and people gather to wile away the hours.