Unboxing the DM's Kit

[Seeten]

Yes, it is.

I flipped thru it at my FLGS.
Take your worst fears about what WotC might do with a Rarity system and......its worse.

The PHB standard Holy Avenger is the example of a "Rare" item.
Bag of Holding is "Uncommon."

Magic item distribution defaults to RANDOM. 1-19 Odd is common, Even Uncommon, 20=Rare.

"Do NOT use Wish Lists for Rare items. They are the sole purview of the DM"

Frankly, its the worst item system I've seen since 1e. A complete and utter failure.

*Wail of Sirens* Oh no! Its the WoTC Rare Police at my door! They have found out I am using wish lists for rares for the 3rd time! I'm not going to get off with a warning this time!!

 

[Korgoth]

Yes, it is.

I flipped thru it at my FLGS.
Take your worst fears about what WotC might do with a Rarity system and......its worse.

The PHB standard Holy Avenger is the example of a "Rare" item.
Bag of Holding is "Uncommon."

Magic item distribution defaults to RANDOM. 1-19 Odd is common, Even Uncommon, 20=Rare.

"Do NOT use Wish Lists for Rare items. They are the sole purview of the DM"

Frankly, its the worst item system I've seen since 1e. A complete and utter failure.

Wow... sounds... just the way I would do it. Rock.

 

[nnms]

Magic item distribution defaults to RANDOM. 1-19 Odd is common, Even Uncommon, 20=Rare.

"Do NOT use Wish Lists for Rare items. They are the sole purview of the DM"

Frankly, its the worst item system I've seen since 1e. A complete and utter failure.

Actually it sounds kind of awesome. Simple, but still random. Should make an even mix of common and uncommon items with a rare every few levels.

A complete and utter success.

 

[mach1.9pants]

I'm going to blaspheme for a second here. If you won't buy it at $40, would you buy it at $27 from Amazon. I would of course suggest buying it at your local shop, but if the price is too high there, isn't it at least worth supporting WOTC so they can keep making this stuff?

Buying from Amazon etc is the norm more than blasphemy; as many (most?) gamers don't have a GS that is L or F or both!

 

[Korgoth]

Sadly, game stores get rarer when people shop online.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Sadly, game stores get rarer when people shop online.

Only true if you could have reasonably shopped at a game store.

I've got a couple local options, but I've lived places where the nearest game store is a 5 hour drive.

 

[Plaguedguy]

Only true if you could have reasonably shopped at a game store.

I've got a couple local options, but I've lived places where the nearest game store is a 5 hour drive.

I am spoiled for geekery locally. I've got several game stores and hobby shops (with gaming or activity space) within a 10-15min drive. Two are premiere+ stores. There are also half a dozen comic shops with gaming space in addition to the aforementioned stores. So I generally focus on buying locally whenever I can.

I can't fault people for buying on amazon though. Even after shipping it can be quite a bit less expensive. And if your budget allows you only a few geek purchases per year, then amazon suddenly seems much more reasonable.

 

[dangerous jack]

I buy some stuff at my local game store (minis, tiles, softcovers), especially when I play some D&D in-store. But for the more expensive purchases (hardcovers, box sets), shopping online saves me almost 40% including shipping, which works out to 65% more purchasing power. Unfortunately for the local game store, that's too much for me to pass up.

 

[jimmifett]

Are those maps the ones from the first adventure, the ones Gale Force 9 is now selling for $19.99 a crack? Looks like the king's road to me but can't really make it out at that distance.

Anyone see it or is it another road for an ambush point and another tavern?

I've got at least 2 kings road maps from different products. Does not look anything like it to me. IIRC (my maps are at home), Kings Road did not have a cart, didn't look like dungeon tiles from the first wilderness set, and kings road had a little set of graves near the middle-north side of the road and some big rocks for kobolds to jump out from behind.

 

[Marshall]

Makes perfect sense to me.

It would...If the Holy Avenger was some kind of 'special' item.
I'd love to see a Holy Avenger that was worthy of the title instead of being a "Radiant Weapon that can be used as a Holy Symbol"

Interesting, this disproves that items without an encounter/daily power would be common. So it looks like we won't have "common" iron armbands of power and similar.

Its also the biggest indicator that this system is nothing more than WotC being too Lazy to fix the item level assignments and instead just creating a garbage category to throw them all in.

Does it? I remember random or treasure parcels being the system you choose between. I would never use random item distribution, but it is there for DMs who want it and it is FREQUENTLY requested. Just because it presents an option you don't like it doesn't mean that it is awful or shouldn't be there. I think the slayer/knight are worthless classes, yet other people are excited about them and enjoy them. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean wizards shouldn't do it.

Uh uh. Having to redesign the entire MI system to handle it, when its always been the easiest barrier to balance to fix, is a bad idea. A couple extra charts tacked on to the end of the chapter would have satisfied the small minority clamoring for it.

As an aside, its useless to have a random system anyway. It becomes outdated too fast. As soon as the next book comes out you have to re-write the whole charts. Its not that I dont like it, it CAN'T work.

This is really unsurprising. Also it proves that random item generation isn't the default btw, because wish lists don't work in a random item world. So the system clearly assumes that DMs will use it or the treasure parcel system as normal.

Its completely random whether or not you even LOOK at the list, let alone get to pick from it.

[MENTION=27186]Seeten[/MENTION] : Not everyone plays with a DM who knows when to throw out the 'rules'. And if the BEST thing you can do with a rule is to ignore it, Why the heck is that rule there to start with?