I prefer another method of identifying magic items that doesn't use trial and error or instant identification. It's called:
Give the DM a dollar.
If you want your magic items to be magic and identified give me a dollar. If not, enjoy your sword of swordness JERK! :P
Maybe, maybe not... I don't know if you or anyone has the power to predict that it definitely WON'T... (I've had similar type situations happen.)
Maybe- I've been known to invent stuff like that in my games though, so there IS precedent. I'm a fan of just making stuff up that makes thiungs...
Unfortunately for my unorganized self, trial and error tends to resolve to:
Player: I'm putting on that ring I found.
DM: Ring?
Player: The one with the blue gemstone... You know... I found it like two sessions ago- never got around to identifying it.
DM: Oh... uh... yeah... (digging through...
I think this is actually their intent.
Part of the issue it seems people have had over the past few editions is the game seeming to implicitly try to tell you how/what to do. I think they're trying to go back to wondrous items that are somewhat open to interpretation/effect on the game.
I...
I dunno man... If say Drivethru were able to offer digital access to a huge library of almost every game book I could think of at a low monthly fee? I would probably sign up.
I miss the magazines from the 2e and earlier era...
Back then they felt like articles attempting to take the game in different directions, not just more of the same stuff.
What about Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Eclipse Phase, and Marvel Heroic RPG?
It sounds more like you're not seeing a huge popularity of one system sweeping the gaming culture, which is making you for some reason feel like gaming is in a gully?
Maybe I misunderstand, but I would re-write point 1 as Play to the Spirit of the house?
Some groups like to optimize, some don't. It's not really a universal thing.
Dinosaur translates to terrible lizard though... In a world that has things like Dragons, are the smaller Dinosaurs really all that terrible?
"Well at least it wasn't a dragon!"
At least Behemoth makes some sort of sense... Since they're bigger then a "normal" lizard...
Kind of like how...
DCC RPG is my current obsession. :D
It's a pretty easy system to learn (and it's d20 based).
Lot's of character death... but character are really quick to roll up.
I started with the black box too... Well sort of. A friend of mine was going to run a game of D&D, and lent me the red box. That game never materialized though so I went out and bought the black box... The rest of my D&D history kind of mirrors yours, although I think we played basic for a...
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