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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 4059197" data-attributes="member: 704">Exactly how much wonder can you have in a situation that generally amounts to 4-6 geeks sitting around a table, possibly in a basement, rolling dice and playing make believe while moving little figurines around on a grid?While the fantasy and story elements of D&D are of great importance, attempts to look past the fact that it is a game is impossible.  There are some things where a DM judgement call are perfectly fine, such as in a goofy player stabbing himself with a sword because he knows he has more HP than the weapons max damage output.  And no matter how many ranks in Diplomacy a player has, he is not going to convince the king to abdicate and turn the throne over to him just because he asked nicely.However, sooner or later, there will be some metagame aspects added in.  You cannot turn a balony sandwich into a steak sandwich by slathering on A1 Steak sauce.  No matter how much effort you put into describing the damage the player is taking, if he still has 50 out of 60 HP, he is not likely to act all that hurt until his HP drop low enough to make death a real threat.  No matter how dangerous you describe the spears of the hobgoblin warriors, he may choose to eat the AoO while going after the primary villain.  Most importantly, the magic of the D&D game is about as likely to inspire wonder as an empty pop can.  I just do not see how anyone can expect otherwise.  At the end of the day, this is a game that describes magical weapons as a "Sword +1" at times.  Not a whole lot of wonder regarding that kind of item.  Maybe magic ought to be rare and wonderous, but it is not likely to be.  If it were, a 1st level mage could probably cow an entire town into obedience by his aw inspiring burning hands spell.Ultimately, relying on Wonder through Obscurity Of Game Elements is not a particularly good approach.  Having compelling characters, interesting story elements, and a compelling adventure hook seem much more important.  And no amount of rules knowledge is likely to to impair those things.END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

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