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<blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 3895647" data-attributes="member: 32164">I voted for Common, Glut, Trade, and Need, and almost voted for Boring as well. Allow me to explain why each, and why not the others.&quot;Common&quot; is the biggest problem, and contributes to several of the others. The commonplace nature of magic items (not just +1 swords, but +4 swords, +3 Keen Flaming swords, bags of holding and everything else) is what makes &quot;Trade&quot; a problem. &quot;Need&quot; comes into play here as well. It leads to the situation where characters, at a certain level, decide they &quot;need&quot; to upgrade to the next &quot;pip&quot; on their bonus, and they start collecting every sword they come across so they can sell them in town and convert the gold they get to buy the next level of magic item. &quot;Glut&quot; is a big problem, especially when combined with &quot;Need.&quot; This is what leads to the &quot;Christmas Tree Effect,&quot; where every piece of a character's gear is glowing with magical enchantment. In most stories, the greatest heroes have a weapon (or two), maybe some armor or protective device, and a couple other bits of gear.&quot;Trade&quot; is a tricky one. The idea of a character being able to sell a magic sword doesn't bother me, except that they're doing it so they can buy another one, and that sale exacerbates the &quot;Common&quot; problem. I'd rather the characters had a way to upgrade their gear, or if their gear just upgraded on its own, rather than having them constantly sell their old magic swords. And buying a sword from someone just seems kind of unheroic to me - I just think magic swords should come as the result of a quest of some kind, even if they're a gift from someone for a heroic deed. On the other hand, I have no problem with the character being able to &quot;buy&quot; a sword by going on a quest for the NPC making it. And the same thing holds true for them making their own stuff.&quot;Need&quot; by itself is a problem, but IMO only at the higher levels, not at the lower ones. There's nothing wrong with the character &quot;needing&quot; a magic sword, but when the system makes you constantly &quot;Need&quot; a &quot;better&quot; magic sword to be competitive, something is wrong. And when you combine &quot;Need&quot; with &quot;Glut,&quot; things just get silly, as the character is constantly having to &quot;upgrade&quot; his primary weapon, secondary weapon, protections, enhancements and so on.&quot;Boring&quot; is a problem only when combined with &quot;Glut&quot; and the extended form of &quot;Need&quot; (by X level, you need a +2 sword, and a +3 sword by X+3, and so on). Your first &quot;magic sword&quot; (+1) is fine, and at that level, it's not boring. But the need for ever-increasing numerical enhancement means that by the time you get to your 3rd or 4th magical sword, it's just lame. And don't get me started on your 3rd stat-boosting item...All that said, I don't think &quot;Boring&quot; would be much of a problem if you addressed the problems of &quot;Need&quot; and &quot;Glut.&quot; It's pretty easy to make a &quot;boring&quot; item non-boring in a way that doesn't really enhance it's power much. For instance, Sting's tendency to glow when orcs were near is a good example of a power that made the weapon VERY distinctive, but not a whole lot more powerful. It swapped an early warning system (a potential advantage) for a glowing light (a potential disadvantage).I have a couple solutions for ways to fix the system, but that's kinda beyond the scope of this poll.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JohnSnow, post: 3895647, member: 32164"] I voted for Common, Glut, Trade, and Need, and [i]almost[/i] voted for Boring as well. Allow me to explain why each, and why not the others. "Common" is the biggest problem, and contributes to several of the others. The commonplace nature of magic items (not just +1 swords, but +4 swords, +3 Keen Flaming swords, bags of holding and everything else) is what makes "Trade" a problem. "Need" comes into play here as well. It leads to the situation where characters, at a certain level, decide they "need" to upgrade to the next "pip" on their bonus, and they start collecting every sword they come across so they can sell them in town and convert the gold they get to buy the next level of magic item. "Glut" is a big problem, especially when combined with "Need." This is what leads to the "Christmas Tree Effect," where every piece of a character's gear is glowing with magical enchantment. In most stories, the greatest heroes have a weapon (or two), maybe some armor or protective device, and a couple other bits of gear. "Trade" is a tricky one. The idea of a character being able to sell a magic sword doesn't bother me, except that they're doing it so they can buy another one, and that sale exacerbates the "Common" problem. I'd rather the characters had a way to upgrade their gear, or if their gear just upgraded on its own, rather than having them constantly sell their old magic swords. And buying a sword from someone just seems kind of unheroic to me - I just think magic swords should come as the result of a quest of some kind, even if they're a gift from someone for a heroic deed. On the other hand, I have no problem with the character being able to "buy" a sword by going on a quest for the NPC making it. And the same thing holds true for them making their own stuff. "Need" by itself is a problem, but IMO only at the higher levels, not at the lower ones. There's nothing wrong with the character "needing" a magic sword, but when the system makes you constantly "Need" a "better" magic sword to be competitive, something is wrong. And when you combine "Need" with "Glut," things just get silly, as the character is constantly having to "upgrade" his primary weapon, secondary weapon, protections, enhancements and so on. "Boring" is a problem only when combined with "Glut" and the extended form of "Need" (by X level, you need a +2 sword, and a +3 sword by X+3, and so on). Your first "magic sword" (+1) is fine, and at that level, it's not boring. But the need for ever-increasing numerical enhancement means that by the time you get to your 3rd or 4th magical sword, it's just lame. And don't get me started on your 3rd stat-boosting item...All that said, I don't think "Boring" would be much of a problem if you addressed the problems of "Need" and "Glut." It's pretty easy to make a "boring" item non-boring in a way that doesn't really enhance it's power much. For instance, [i]Sting[/i]'s tendency to glow when orcs were near is a good example of a power that made the weapon VERY distinctive, but not a whole lot more powerful. It swapped an early warning system (a potential advantage) for a glowing light (a potential disadvantage). I have a couple solutions for ways to fix the system, but that's kinda beyond the scope of this poll. [/QUOTE]

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