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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pukunui" data-source="post: 4059336" data-attributes="member: 54629">Indeed. Your way is just as good as mine. I would love to run a low-magic game, but I feel it is virtually impossible to do one justice with the 3.5 rules. At least, with my level of understanding of the 3.5 rules (3.5 strikes me as the ideal edition for people who love math. I don't.).Not at all. I use a mixture of the two methods. The vast majority of the magic items found by the players have to be identified, either through trial-and-error or the identify spell. It's only the always-on static "booster" items (+x weapons/armor, +x ability score/saving throw/etc items) that get the "auto-identify" treatment. And even then, I never just say, "You've found a +1 sword".To give an example from a few sessions ago, the PCs fought a red dragon who was wearing an amulet of health +2 and a ring of minor cold resistance. One of the PCs already has the former, and he was the one searching the body of the dragon, so I told him the amulet he found looked a lot like the one his character already had. I then let him draw the conclusion that it was the same thing, so he gave it to another player's character, and when that PC put it on, I told him he felt healthier or tougher or something. As for the ring, when the first PC (whose player is much more of a risk-taker than any of the others) put it on, I said it made him feel warm ... so the players began debating whether that meant it provided resistance to fire or cold. That was fun. I'll keep track of the ring's effects for now, but having to keep track of the amulet's effects (since it gives the PC now wearing it extra hp) would be a pain in the butt.I used to (and sometimes still do) keep track of static pluses on weapons and armor and then after a few encounters I'd tell the player whose character was wearing it that they found the sword or whatever was more effective ... and then I'd say, "In game world terms, your PC has found that his magic weapon is more effective than normal ... in mechanical terms, that means it functions as a +2 weapon". You'll note that while the player now knows his weapon has a +2 magical enhancement on it, I haven't just out and out said, "It's a +2 longsword" or whatever. It might have other abilities he doesn't know about, and even if it doesn't, by not specifically saying what it is, then he might think it has hidden abilities ... which is all part of the fun.This is exactly what I do. I hate micro-managing silly stuff like food and bathroom breaks. They don't do that in movies unless it's relevant to the story. My players aren't really "simulationists". They're "escapists". They just want to have fun. They don't even like it when I sit there describing the weather and the terrain while they're traveling. I'm a bit more inclined to keep track of things like ammo and weight, but I'm willing to let the boundaries go a bit blurry ... with food, I tell them it should only ever be an issue if they're out in the middle of the desert where there's absolutely no way they could feasibly get food if they haven't brought any with them. At all other times, we just assume they not only can get enough food (whether it's through hunting, foraging, or eating at an inn or wherever) but also that they have an extra bit of money that they use to pay for it when necessary so they don't have to worry about subtracting little copper and silver pieces from their gold stash ...</blockquote>

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