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Dissapointed with Attunement
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<blockquote data-quote="Grydan" data-source="post: 6034601" data-attributes="member: 79401"><p>Any particular reason why?</p><p></p><p>I understand that they're not a concept that works in every campaign, but then they weren't put forward as something you <em>must</em> use. Instead, they were put forward as one way of ensuring that the items you added to your campaign were ones that would be used rather than sold off or reduced into their component parts at the party's earliest convenience.</p><p></p><p>Knowing what sort of magic items are of interest to your players and their characters is, in my opinion and experience, a useful tool. One use is as a ready-made list of adventure hooks. If you know that the paladin really wants a Holy Avenger, then slipping into the tavern gossip rumours of one in the hoard of a mighty dragon in the nearest mountain immediately gives both the player and the character reason to want to go there. On the other hand, she might be a little more unconventional and really want a Lightning Longspear. Knowing that reduces the chances of putting in ineffective hooks.</p><p></p><p>Note that even in the suggestion they didn't put forward the idea that you were in any way obligated to provide any of the items that people wanted; I do feel however, that purposefully avoiding including items you know your players find interesting would be an odd choice.</p><p></p><p>Nothing makes magic items feel less magical to me than repeatedly finding ones that of are of no use or interest to the party. It turns them from desirable treasure into meaningless commodity.</p><p></p><p>It also defies my genre expectations. Most magic items that characters gain turn out, in most of my fantasy reading experience, to be either exactly what the characters need, or something that fulfills a specific desire that they have. When Bilbo needs to hide is exactly when he finds a ring that turns him invisible, not the source of light in darkness that Frodo is later given shortly before he's to travel through a dark tunnel. Now, it may turn out later that there's some downside to these items, something that D&D magic items often lack, but that's a whole other ball of wax. Rarely do authors bother to include magic items that are of no particular use in the story they appear in, or that no characters in the party have a way to use. Given that unless I've got the party locked onto a specific course I cannot tell exactly what items they will need at some point far in the future I cannot always use the author's trick of providing the appropriate key to the puzzle, then I can instead use the reverse trick of figuring out what sort of tools that the party wants to have and then providing puzzles to which those tools are keys.</p><p></p><p>I like magic items to have meaning. Wishlists are one way of ensuring that they at least have meaning to one player in my campaign. It's not the only tool in my toolbox, of course. If I know, and the players do not, that there are a bevy of trolls around the next corner, a flaming longsword that nobody in particular requested suddenly becomes a great deal more important. But if nobody in the party has a proficiency in longswords, maybe I'd be better off making it a different weapon.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Grydan, post: 6034601, member: 79401"] Any particular reason why? I understand that they're not a concept that works in every campaign, but then they weren't put forward as something you [I]must[/I] use. Instead, they were put forward as one way of ensuring that the items you added to your campaign were ones that would be used rather than sold off or reduced into their component parts at the party's earliest convenience. Knowing what sort of magic items are of interest to your players and their characters is, in my opinion and experience, a useful tool. One use is as a ready-made list of adventure hooks. If you know that the paladin really wants a Holy Avenger, then slipping into the tavern gossip rumours of one in the hoard of a mighty dragon in the nearest mountain immediately gives both the player and the character reason to want to go there. On the other hand, she might be a little more unconventional and really want a Lightning Longspear. Knowing that reduces the chances of putting in ineffective hooks. Note that even in the suggestion they didn't put forward the idea that you were in any way obligated to provide any of the items that people wanted; I do feel however, that purposefully avoiding including items you know your players find interesting would be an odd choice. Nothing makes magic items feel less magical to me than repeatedly finding ones that of are of no use or interest to the party. It turns them from desirable treasure into meaningless commodity. It also defies my genre expectations. Most magic items that characters gain turn out, in most of my fantasy reading experience, to be either exactly what the characters need, or something that fulfills a specific desire that they have. When Bilbo needs to hide is exactly when he finds a ring that turns him invisible, not the source of light in darkness that Frodo is later given shortly before he's to travel through a dark tunnel. Now, it may turn out later that there's some downside to these items, something that D&D magic items often lack, but that's a whole other ball of wax. Rarely do authors bother to include magic items that are of no particular use in the story they appear in, or that no characters in the party have a way to use. Given that unless I've got the party locked onto a specific course I cannot tell exactly what items they will need at some point far in the future I cannot always use the author's trick of providing the appropriate key to the puzzle, then I can instead use the reverse trick of figuring out what sort of tools that the party wants to have and then providing puzzles to which those tools are keys. I like magic items to have meaning. Wishlists are one way of ensuring that they at least have meaning to one player in my campaign. It's not the only tool in my toolbox, of course. If I know, and the players do not, that there are a bevy of trolls around the next corner, a flaming longsword that nobody in particular requested suddenly becomes a great deal more important. But if nobody in the party has a proficiency in longswords, maybe I'd be better off making it a different weapon. [/QUOTE]
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