What SHOULD be the purpose of magic items in an RPG?

[MichaelSomething]

Hmmm, considering the arguments hatched from discussing magic item systems, I thought this thread would get more traction...
I imagine more people would chime in wanting magic items to be "special" since that seems to be the root of many complaints.

 

[Imaculata]

Interesting but relevant side story:

My players came upon a magic item shop that had two sides; one for normal magic items, and one for cursed items. When they asked why anyone would sell cursed items, the shopkeepers explained that they give proper warning and instructions for each item. While a magic item may be cursed, they may also be very powerful, and possibly useful under the right circumstances. The players were then shown various creepy cursed items, some under heavy lock down. This encounter changed their perspective on cursed items, as I would later find out. Because in subsequent sessions, the players would try to put cursed items to good use.

 

[Celebrim]

Interesting but relevant side story:

My players came upon a magic item shop that had two sides; one for normal magic items, and one for cursed items. When they asked why anyone would sell cursed items, the shopkeepers explained that they give proper warning and instructions for each item. While a magic item may be cursed, they may also be very powerful, and possibly useful under the right circumstances. The players were then shown various creepy cursed items, some under heavy lock down. This encounter changed their perspective on cursed items, as I would later find out. Because in subsequent sessions, the players would try to put cursed items to good use.

This is an important point, that even Gygax frequently overlooked I think. Not that Gygax was big on balance, but his 'trap' cursed items was identified and in the hands of a creative party were extremely potent.

 

[Celebrim]

Hmmm, considering the arguments hatched from discussing magic item systems, I thought this thread would get more traction...
I imagine more people would chime in wanting magic items to be "special" since that seems to be the root of many complaints.

I shouldn't have been succinct. If I'd known you'd wanted controversy, I would have tried to be more provocative.

 

[Celebrim]

Ok, since the OP has stated he had intentions for the thread, and since I fully empathize with starting a thread on EnWorld hoping to provoke vigorous discussion and instead basically getting crickets, I'll try to inject some controversy into the thread.

There are two things that make a magic item special. The first is that it is unique. That's actually in my opinion a fairly low bar, and it surprises me how infrequently DMs attempt to jump over that bar. It's very easy to come up with unique and flavorful magic items, and I strongly encourage any DM to do that. They don't have to be particularly complex. You just combine a couple of minor abilities into the same item, give it some sort of unique appearance and you're done. Any DM that can dress a dungeon should be able to make unique magic items.

The second thing that makes a magic item special is as difficult as the other is easy: making a magic item feel magical. In 30 years of playing around with what that means and how to achieve it, I came to the conclusion that the heart of making a magical item feel magical was the word 'numinous', which means both "having a strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating or suggesting the presence of a divinity" and (although having a spiritual quality is not unrelated) even more aptly to this discussion "mysterious and awe-inspiring". And, after some playing around I discovered I could instill the numinous magical feeling in the player by putting together two things, the uniqueness mentioned above and the presence of the unknown. In other words, magic is this sense of some unknown unique quality to the thing. That is conceptually easy. All you have to do to achieve it is create some unique item and then in some fashion hide all the information about the item from the player for a lengthy or indefinite period of time. During that period, the item will feel magical to the player.

The problem is that conceptions are easy but implementations are hard. After creating a system for this and trying it out, it's almost impossible to pull off in traditional D&D play because hiding information from the player involves putting the burden of responding to the game state created by that information wholly on the DM. So you can imagine that about the time everyone in the party has at least one and maybe a couple such "magic" items, the mental burden that this puts on the DM to keep track of what all those objects do whether actively or especially passively is just too high. Instead of relying on the player to modify his character sheet and his resolution rolls accordingly or call out the presence of the item for you, you have to remember at all times what he's got in his pockets or what hidden powers his weapon has. You probably could do that for one player in a campaign with relative magical scarcity, but even when you try to limit the magic items to a couple per character with parties of 6 or so it becomes impossible and any benefit you gained is lost in slowed play and mistakes in resolution by the DM.

So what I do know is try to limit the number of magical items that I'm actively trying to make magical to just a couple per party. But even that can be problematic in play. Although I'm fairly happy with the current situation in my campaign, I do admit that the presence of a couple of these big magic items as story elements do unfairly draw spotlight to the players that have them and you have to be careful to not let those magic items take over play too much or create too much envy or other friction in the group.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I think that the purpose of magic items in-game gets complicated by out-of-game influences. In videogames, magic items generally are things that let you do something better. The stereotypical magical sword does more damage, and/or sets fire to monsters. But then there’s the literary side. A magic item that was described as just being a little faster, a little sharper, wouldn’t be that impressive. But when you have a blade that cuts through anything and everything, even the fabric between worlds (The Subtle Knife), then it starts to feel magical.

In RPGs, I think the magic item exists somewhere between those two extremes. They are the spoils of battle, rewards for great role-playing, for impossible feats of skill. They either make your character more, or open new paths for them to walk.

For my part, I try to never put out a magic weapon that doesn’t have a name. At the very least, it has to look different – even a plain +1 longsword gets more exciting when it’s called Gnollbreaker, or is described as being made of water.

I’m always trying to get at the feeling that a magic item should have a sense of wonder, a feeling of coolness. Even when they fit nicelyinto a “slot,” it shouldn’t just feel like it’s part of a build.

One of the things I like about the common magic items, is that they don’t really do anything other than feel wondrous.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Not that Gygax was big on balance

Wait, I thought he did care about balance? Its just the methods he'd use to balance things appear very weird to us...

 

[Celebrim]

Wait, I thought he did care about balance? Its just the methods he'd use to balance things appear very weird to us...

I think he considered balance to be something that was the province of the DM and not the province of the rules.

 

[Imaculata]

In RPGs, I think the magic item exists somewhere between those two extremes. They are the spoils of battle, rewards for great role-playing, for impossible feats of skill. They either make your character more, or open new paths for them to walk.

For my part, I try to never put out a magic weapon that doesn’t have a name. At the very least, it has to look different – even a plain +1 longsword gets more exciting when it’s called Gnollbreaker, or is described as being made of water.

I’m always trying to get at the feeling that a magic item should have a sense of wonder, a feeling of coolness. Even when they fit nicelyinto a “slot,” it shouldn’t just feel like it’s part of a build.

One of the things I like about the common magic items, is that they don’t really do anything other than feel wondrous.

You touch upon an interesting side to this discussion, which is the way magic items can help with the world building. Magic items can be more than just a loot reward or a helpful tool, they can have a name and even a backstory. And sometimes this can help with a little bit of lore exposition. A good example is the game Dark Souls, which uses item descriptions to do most of the story telling.

Not so long ago my players stumbled upon a ruined pirate fortress, and searched for treasure. I figured that a magic item would be a good reward for their troubles, so I rolled randomly for a magic item on the magic item table. It was a blessed +3 spear that did cold damage. Now in the story this didn't make a whole lot of sense; they were on a tropical island, and its original inhabitants were quite evil.
But through this item I was able to convey the story to my players of how the original inhabitants of the island were deceived by evil angelic beings, believing they were messengers of the gods. The players discovered through a prophetic dream that the spear had been stolen from the elves, whose palace had been turned to ice, and then brought before the people of the island as a holy gift. Since the item radiated good, the local priests believed the angelic beings must be good as well... and those that didn't believe them... well lets just say there was a rather violent civil war on the island, and many of the nonbelievers were executed.

And all this because of a random magic item.

The random magic item made me think where it came from. And it was the catalyst for further developing how my big bad spreads its influence over the world. I should explain that my big bad is an evil aquatic godlike being that has taken control over the realm of the dead. Or at least, the part of the realm of the dead where those killed at sea go. In the process of taking control of it, he has covered this realm in ice. But because this big bad cannot directly interact with the mortal world (the established pantheon of gods would obliterate him instantly) he sends servants to spread his vile influence.
The limits that I've placed on his powers provide a good excuse why he can't fight the heroes directly (which wouldn't be a fair nor interesting fight). But because I already thought of this whole backstory, it made sense that the spear got its cold-damage powers from this nether realm. Two of my players also took this as a personal insult to the heritage of their characters, and it made them hate the big bad even more. It even prompted discussion of perhaps reclaiming the elven palace that the big bad's minions had plundered, to possibly weaken the big bad indirectly. A pretty good plan, that lends itself perfectly for future adventures (dungeon crawls and the like).

To me telling a story in D&D is a matter of planting a lot of seeds. And magic items are but one way to plant a seed for the story. They can be part of a greater story, or provide a plot hook. In this case, the magic spear planted story seeds for:

-stolen elvish treasures.
-the corruption of the island, and a hint to what happened to the islanders.
-the limits of the big bad's influence.
-foreshadowing of angelic beings, which are scary monsters that the players have yet to encounter.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Simply put, magical items are exactly what they were included in the original game for- TREASURE!!! The most rare, glorious, and sought after treasure that there is. Items with unknown and mysterious powers are the types of treasure that lure adventurers into the most dangerous of situations even after they have attained enough mundane wealth to retire to a lifestyle most kings can only dream of. After reaching a certain level of wealth, the temptation of more gold & jewels becomes less compelling. The lure of possibly finding an item of such power that ruling the world seems to become an attainable goal compels adventurers to take the greatest of risks.