Random or assigned magic?

[devilbat]

Generally I'll assign items. If the player has a request, then I'll often give him what he's asking for, as long as it fits the level and style of the game being played.

 

[sjmiller]

It's been years (15+?) since I had players make characters above 1st in D&D. So I am drawing on some old memories here. The last time I think I had them roll randomly on the treasure tables from 1st ed AD&D and we modified the results to fit their character.

The treasures that the party find tend to be random, with me rerolling any results I do not like. I think the closest I have ever gotten to "assigning" players an item is when I tailored a set of items they fould so that each character could easily tell which item was meant to be theirs.

 

[Nellisir]

They can buy whatever they want at character creation. I generally assign thereafter, with some inspirational help from the treasure tables.

 

[gizmo33]

OK. Here's one.
When you're assigning magic items to your players, do you roll randomly on the table or assign them whatever you want? Or are you one of those trusting types who actually let their players pick them?

The vast bulk of magic items are assigned through a process in my campaign called "adventuring". The twisted thing, is that sometimes while you're being "assigned magic items", your character actually gets killed. If another character in your party dies while getting assigned magic items, you can often assign yourself their magic items.

 

[Victim]

I pick magic items based on what their current owners need. PCs usually end up with a great many extra cloaks of resistance.

 

[Masquerade]

Assigned based on logic rather than necessity. Rarely random.

 

[RamYaz]

Assigned based on logic rather than necessity. Rarely random.

Yes.

 

[Imperialus]

I tend not to roll randomly either. Naturally the equpment of enemies is assigned and as that is where the bulk of the PC's gear comes from (I tend to not have great piles of treasure sitting around) it is just an extention of natural extention that I cherrypick the items they get when they do find magic items lying around.

This lets me decide what I feel the characters would get the most use out of and since buying desired magic items in my campaign tends to be a very expencive and lenghy process it lets me fill the players requests and needs without them wandering down to "Ye Olde Magik Shoppe" I generally ask players to give me a short list of 3 or 4 magic items they feel would be useful and work from that.

 

[was]

I tend to assign them items that fit their character concept.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Here's a fun compromise way I enjoyed trying:

Figure out how much treasure each PC needs to start his new character.
Divide this treasure into nice chunks - 1000 gp, 2000 gp (a lot of these), 3000 gp, 300 gp, etc.
For each size chunk, use a different color of index card. Write a magic item of roughly that value on each card.
- - To make this step easier on the PCs, I would usually write something like "+1 weapon of your choice".
- - But to make it more interesting for me, it was also often something like "+1 simple weapon" or "+1 light armor".
Make up a few more cards than you need. It helps.
Have a few cards contain gold, so that a few PCs can buy specific things they need or want.
Then, have the players draw a number of cards equalling their starting gold. Allow them to trade amongst themselves. Encourage them to "bid" for popular items - if everyone really wants that +2 weapon, why should they only pay book cost for it?

I found that this method played into the gamer's love of props - anything you can pass around the table is cooler than what's written on a sheet of paper.