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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="Rothnoran" data-source="post: 1938300" data-attributes="member: 27404">I started playing D&D in 1979 when the system (and I would guess RPG's in general) were far more limited in scope then they are today. Now, with the bombardment of Books, PDF's and all manner of supplement there are literally thousands (well hundreds for sure) of "classes" and "prestige classes", feats, spells, items of equipment etc. The vast majority of which is stiff that someone came up with thinking it was a cool idea but is really kind of stupid. For example, in AEG's "Wilds" book they have the "Master of the Desert Nomads" prestige class. This concept essentially says if your character meets the requirements they become a MASTER of the desert nomads? What a silly idea. I could see a character, after years of play and interaction withe the desert nomads perhaps becoming a chieftain among them or some such. Do you see my point though?    I have seen many posts by people complaining about what the rules can and can not do or about individuals who want to use some rules and not others or by GM's who are frazzled by all the material out there and trying to integrate it into their game. My though is this: A given campaign is not going to nor should it ever be able to, encompass the whole sweep of what is available in the RPG universe. Instead, I believe that taking a minimalist approach provides a better game experience. Start with one culture. That society is going to have very limited numbers of classes and prestige classes and only those that fit within the cultural norm. To this end, if your campaign has humans, elves, dwarves etc etc. there should be some classes/prestige classes that are only available to humans, and some only open to dwarves and so on. Also, the number of spells should be limited. Also, prestige classes should be logical out-growths of the core classes for that culture.    When it comes to magic, it is unlikely that ANY culture will have developed every spell that is available out there. The spells that are available should be ones that fit the mind set of the cultures practitioners. In a culture that is good, and life affirming, Necormantic spells should not even appear on the common list of spells.    In my campaign I have limited play to one medium sized state that believes in only 2 gods (a good god and an evil god). The church is strong and what magic is available is controlled by the church. Classes are specific to the culture. There are three spell casting classes: Adepts (arcane scholars of the church who have 1st to 6th level spells), Ob-Rue (Cleric/Monks with 1st - 9th level spells) and Sin-Rue (Paladins with 1st to 4th level spells). There is not a whole lot of overlap between the spell lists and the number of spells are campaign specific (there is only a total of 70 or so spells making up the complete Adept spell list). I have also limited the number of feats available to the players and only allowed those specific to the campaign.    I took the time and effort to make a campaign book with all the info the players need and after a few months of play, all the players finally started leaving all their other books at home. I no longer get requests about "can I get this feat" or "can I go into such and such a prestige class" indeed, there is very little Multi-classing in the game because the idea of freely switching between professions is not very realistic to begin with (when you consider that the average arcane spell caster spends most of his childhood studying to become a spell user, how likely is it that a warrior is going to just "pick up" a level or two in wizard?).    I guess I am just interested in hearing other people opinion on the glut of possibilities (both useful and extremely stupid) out there and how you deal with them?Thanks for your time.</blockquote>

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