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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="Korgoth" data-source="post: 3683362" data-attributes="member: 49613">I think this nails it.  "Sense of wonder" actually requires you to... wait for it... wonder.  When everything is a known quantity, there is no wondering and it all becomes dry.You can have that sense when things are mysterious.  "What will happen next?"  As a personal example, I can give you my reaction to Firefly and Serenity.  Firefly (which at first I did not even see from the beginning episode) gave me a sense of wonder: I wanted to learn more about the universe in which it took place, about the characters, etc.  I couldn't get enough of it.  Then when I saw Serenity, the big reveal left me saying "meh" and the possibilities had been reduced to a rather uninteresting actuality.  I felt that we were left with few relevant questions, and so I lost all interest in it.Regardless of whether you had the same feeling, the point is that wonder comes from a feeling of virtually limitless possibility.  A lack of a sense of wonder comes from an experience of an arid actuality.This is one reason why I prefer old school D&D (Classic and 1e): it is so open and 'inelegant' that it fosters creativity - it's not a well-oiled machine wherein everything works predictably and according to the same transparent rationale.  3E and its hand-wringing about movement grids and stacking modifiers seems like it was designed by and for engineers or accountants.  Old school D&D is a weird Rube Goldberg device that could produce practically any result.Example: In 3E the Wand of Wonder becomes the Rod of Wonder.  Why?  Because Rods and Wands were standardized in 3E: wands are for spellcasters and rods are for everybody.  But I ask you: what part of "Wand of Wonder" suggests standardization?  It's magic, people, not Trigonometry!  If the way it works is totally obvious, intelligible and standardized... it's no longer magical.</blockquote>

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