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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5829406" data-attributes="member: 59082">It is a good theory and one that is basically true, I think. But let's  explore it a bit further and, through better understanding the  underlying psychology at work, hopefully come to an approach that would  better "bring the magic back" to finding magic items.I have two daughters, ages 3 and 6. For them receiving gifts is  (still/for now) a magical thing. Opening presents on Christmas morning  is just wonderful - for them and for my wife and I. But my wife and I  haven't bought each other Christmas presents the last couple years; we  get money from our parents and spend that on what we want. We've been  married and neither are sentimental enough to deny the basic truth that  we're happier buying ourselves what we want (although we do still, on occasion, buy each other gifts - I love getting her a piece of jewelry every so often, but I prefer that it is spontaneous and a surprise, which also makes it more pleasurable for her).Back to my daughters. Where things start going wrong (so to speak), imo, is when they  receive too many gifts. They're actually pretty good about this, but  we're watching for signs of "looking for the next gift before the  current one has even been fully unwrapped." The older they get, the more  likely this is to occur; and then, when they become surly pre-teens,  they'll be really picky and probably not like anything we get them, at  least for a time.All of this points to the idea that the joy of giving and receiving a gift has less to do with the thing than it does to do with the experience. My wife can (and, unfortunately, does) buy whatever shoes she wants, whatever item of clothing that strikes her fancy, but she rarely buys herself jewelry, which is more of my domain and, in some sense, represents how I feel about her, how beautiful she is to me, and that she is my "queen" worth of adorning with "jewels." In other words, the symbolism is what brings it to life (coupled, of course, with an aesthetically appealing object).For a child, the joy of receiving a gift is a combination of surprise and the fun that it will bring them, how it will inspire their imagination. When this fun/pleasure/imaginative stimulation becomes less tied to objects, it loses some of its vitality. In adolescence this is transferred from the physical world ("ooh, shiny new toy!") to the relational world ("I love my friends"). As adults it becomes more about achievement and actualization and creation ("I just finished the merger/novel/art project" or "I love seeing my children grow").I think all of this is related to the feeling that many D&D players share that magic  items have lost their magic, especially in 4E. Part of this is due to the inevitable shift that occurs from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. But another part is more workable, and is due to a  combination of the mechanics of 4E that turn what could have been  interesting items into further modifiers with relatively boring daily  powers, and the "buy what you want" approach that came into vogue with  3E. We'll come back to that in a moment.The bulk of D&D players  have grown up. I remember poring over the artifacts list in the  AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide back when I was 11-years old and getting a tingling feeling. Sword of Kas. Eye of Vecna. Rod of Seven Parts. The Teeth of Dahlver-Nar. Heward's Mystical Organ (ahem!). Jacinth of Inestimable Beauty. (what  the hell is "jacinth", anyways?). Actually, when I look over that list  (page 124), I still get a bit of tingling...and I think that's it right  there, and proves that the wonder experience of childhood is not lost, just covered up with more pressing concerns. But in more practical terms, why is that artifacts seem more magical than mundane items? I think the bulk of it is that they have interesting back stories,  they are drenched in myth and mystery, they inspire that sense of wonder because they are nested within an imaginative landscape and setting. A +2 flaming longsword is useful but rather boring in and of itself. The Sword of Kas? Much more interesting, because you want to know who Kas was, and once you do, it leads down a rabbit hole into another time and place, whereas the +2 flaming longsword is a finite concept that "ends" when you know everything that it can do.So that is the key: the story, the myth and legend, brings the artifact alive, and nests it within a living world, whereas the game-term oriented magic item is a finite concept. It is a stat modifier and has no story in and of itself.I've got a couple practical suggestions that might  help, and they are based upon what I'm working on for an upcoming  campaign. I'm seeing magic items as in three general groups: <ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Lesser" items that have a limited charge of some kind. These are items that have been created in the modern era, a time in which the crafting of "greater" items has been lost. Modern mages have tried to reverse-engineer the ancient items that have been found. What happens is that they are less powerful and less lasting; some even break apart after their charge is used up - the physical object can only hold the magic so long, which weakens it. These items can be found in Ye Olde Magick Shoppe and are the type that stack with bonuses, as well as most "common" and a few "uncommon" items in 4E.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Greater" items (or minor artifacts) are more powerful, permanent and quite rare. All of them have stories, all are very old - they were created at least a 1,000 years ago in what was the Golden Age of the world, when mage lords ruled the land. Consider these to be the equivalent of minor artifacts. Greater magic items are more interesting and less  decipherable to the players. Most have multiple powers, some of which  "unlock" at higher levels or, perhaps, when the character is under  duress. An Arcana check cannot know everything a greater magic item does  - it can only get a sense of it, and only of its "surface" power.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"True Artifacts" are a larger part of the game. As I said, the greater magic items are essentially minor artifacts and treated as such. But there are also truly unique and powerful items with long stories and, perhaps, sentience (maybe the major artifacts are items of the past age in which a mage lord fused his or her soul so as to attain a kind of immortality, and he/she seeks to take over the body of the character that uses the item...)</li> </ol>Anyone, sorry for the long diatribe. Hopefully it is helpful!</blockquote>

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