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<blockquote data-quote="Orius" data-source="post: 5022848" data-attributes="member: 8863">Unfortunately, not everyone has the Encyclopedia Magica, particularly newer players, so yeah sometimes it feels as if the game is missing the magic (so to speak) that it had in the old days.&nbsp; This started with 3e's reorganization of magic items.&nbsp; As a DM, I generally liked it as it made some things easier for me, but there was a lot of stuff under the old rules that just didn't work in the framework.&nbsp; I suppose 4e's more solid rules on having a +1 every 5 levels and whatever else it does make the old items harder to do.&nbsp; And there is a lot of really weird, cool and wacky stuff in the old EM.&nbsp; Some examples:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">A semi-intelligent, malevolent vending machine that dispenses soft drinks that can do anything from giving a PC a bad case of acne to outright killing him.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">A huge apparatus that can plane shift from world to world, creating asphalt roads in it wake.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">An expansion on the deck of many things that uses every card in a full tarot deck.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">A chess set, incomplete, and carved from dragon's teeth where every piece has its own unique powers.&nbsp; Pawns have relatively weak effects, while the qeen and king are very powerful.</li>
</ul>And that's just in the first volume.&nbsp; There's four books of this stuff, not just the standard magic items from the pre-3e game, but all kinds of strange wonderful, and definitely unbalanced material.WotC could publish stuff like this if they wanted, but it probably doesn't fit into the design philosophies they're following.&nbsp; A pity.&nbsp; Magic items are more fun when they're not just following standard bonuses but instead have a lot of mystery to them, IMO.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Orius, post: 5022848, member: 8863"] Unfortunately, not everyone has the Encyclopedia Magica, particularly newer players, so yeah sometimes it feels as if the game is missing the magic (so to speak) that it had in the old days. This started with 3e's reorganization of magic items. As a DM, I generally liked it as it made some things easier for me, but there was a lot of stuff under the old rules that just didn't work in the framework. I suppose 4e's more solid rules on having a +1 every 5 levels and whatever else it does make the old items harder to do. And there is a lot of really weird, cool and wacky stuff in the old EM. Some examples: [list] [*]A semi-intelligent, malevolent vending machine that dispenses soft drinks that can do anything from giving a PC a bad case of acne to outright killing him. [*]A huge apparatus that can plane shift from world to world, creating asphalt roads in it wake. [*]An expansion on the [i]deck of many[/i] things that uses every card in a full tarot deck. [*]A chess set, incomplete, and carved from dragon's teeth where every piece has its own unique powers. Pawns have relatively weak effects, while the qeen and king are very powerful. [/list] And that's just in the first volume. There's four books of this stuff, not just the standard magic items from the pre-3e game, but all kinds of strange wonderful, and definitely unbalanced material. WotC could publish stuff like this if they wanted, but it probably doesn't fit into the design philosophies they're following. A pity. Magic items are more fun when they're not just following standard bonuses but instead have a lot of mystery to them, IMO. [/QUOTE]

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