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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Skallgrim" data-source="post: 5023896" data-attributes="member: 79271">I'm really, really surprised at how many people are taking what, to me, seems to be a reasonable point by a game designer, and spinning it into 'This is why 4 sucks and is stupid'.As I see it, the game designers are creating rules material for the broadest possible use.  This is NOT the 'lowest common denominator', but simply material that is, by and large, setting neutral.  You can use Forgotten Realms feats in your game.  You can use Eberron magic items in your game. You can use the same races in any game.Similarly, they are trying (even the game designer in question admits not always successfully) to produce rules material that will not be unbalancing in your local game, providing you follow the guidelines for magic items in parcels and the general treasure guidelines.Having deliberately tried to do both of those things, they are of course restricted to not being able to include items which have an elaborate backstory tied to a particular game world, or having an elaborate history, or having an extensive settings-grounded series of powers.  It doesn't make sense to include magic items with powers that activate when worn by people of a particular dynastic bloodline, or curses that activate when a prophetic enemy appears, since those items will be of little use to people who don't use that setting.How many people playing Trollhaunt were thrilled when Sunwrath can always tell you the direction to the Barony of Therund?The game does have magic items with powerful and multifaceted effects, and those items require a level of story-line enabled play, and a lot of DM intervention, and they are artifacts.I think the game designer was simply admitting that the added level of complexity and DM discretion is worth it for artifacts, but does not justify this level of complexity for lesser magic items.I'm not sure how so many people read this as:"Look, even I admit that 4e is boring and lame, and I wrote it!"when I read it as an interesting way to point out:"The most interesting and fun magic items, like the most interesting and fun adventures, and the most interesting and fun characters, are those that your group creates, or modifies, or customizes, for your players and your game.We could just print the magic items that we all use around our local games here at WOTC, but those magic items were developed for our particular game worlds, our particular campaigns, our particular storylines, and our particular players.  They probably wouldn't be nearly as interesting to YOU, as they are to US, and that's fine.In addition, they might be crazy-broken in your game, or stupid-weak.  The awesome magical curse tattoo that I gave this guy wouldn't be much of a disadvantage if you slapped it on a high hit point barbarian who multiclassed into Warlock, but it is balanced for that character, since he DOESN'T have a raft of HP, and I knew that when I gave it to him."</blockquote>

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