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What does a DM owe his players?/ Are the rules written in stone?
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<blockquote data-quote="Lord Pendragon" data-source="post: 2915372" data-attributes="member: 707"><p>In my experience, this is a fallacy. You're playing a tabletop game. Magic items are not going to feel wonderous. It doesn't matter whether they're as prevalent as in the Forgotten Realms, or as scarce as in Shadowrun. You're never going to get your players to "ooh" and "aah" by simply removing the number of magic items they receive. This is <em>especially</em> true if the players are experienced.</p><p></p><p>Again, I see this feeling a lot among DMs, but I've never really seen a DM successfully accomplish this "magic items are special" feeling in actual gameplay. D&D is about special powers and abilities, and a magic item is no more special than new spells for a spellcaster, or Evasion for the rogue, or Thousand Faces for a druid. The game is all about cool powers, and magic items are merely one of the ways PCs gain those powers. Reducing the magic items merely reduces the cool abilities available to the players. (Edit to add: This is not to say that magic items cannot be flavorful, or have a background that enriches the story. But rather, that in the end story enrichment is a part of everything in the game, rather than merely magic items.)</p><p></p><p>To the topic at hand, as was said upthread, all you really owe your players is a fun game. If your players trust you, you can sometimes get away with very bold campaign decisions, because they trust that you can pull it off and make it fun for them. If you are a newer DM (or new to them, in any case,) you may not have built that trust, and you may need to run them through a successful, fun standard game before they're willing to follow you into more uncharted territory.</p><p></p><p>Also, realize that a great deal of the appeal for some players, <em>especially</em> at high levels, which if these boards are to be believed are much more rarely played, is in getting to play with the magic items they've only read about previously. The <em>Helm of Brilliance</em>. The <em>Robe of the Archmage</em>. The <em>Orbs of Dragonkind</em>. Older players (and newer players who've purchased the DMG,) have read these descriptions. They may want to get the chance to play a character who <em>has</em> a <em>Sphere of Annihilation</em> instead of just reading about it.</p><p></p><p>If this is the case, then you're going to have a major obstacle in providing that fun game, because you're starting out by removing one of the strongest appeals of a higher level game. You may still be able to pull it off. But don't be surprise if the players need a little coaxing to warm to the idea. It comes back to that issue of trust.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lord Pendragon, post: 2915372, member: 707"] In my experience, this is a fallacy. You're playing a tabletop game. Magic items are not going to feel wonderous. It doesn't matter whether they're as prevalent as in the Forgotten Realms, or as scarce as in Shadowrun. You're never going to get your players to "ooh" and "aah" by simply removing the number of magic items they receive. This is [i]especially[/i] true if the players are experienced. Again, I see this feeling a lot among DMs, but I've never really seen a DM successfully accomplish this "magic items are special" feeling in actual gameplay. D&D is about special powers and abilities, and a magic item is no more special than new spells for a spellcaster, or Evasion for the rogue, or Thousand Faces for a druid. The game is all about cool powers, and magic items are merely one of the ways PCs gain those powers. Reducing the magic items merely reduces the cool abilities available to the players. (Edit to add: This is not to say that magic items cannot be flavorful, or have a background that enriches the story. But rather, that in the end story enrichment is a part of everything in the game, rather than merely magic items.) To the topic at hand, as was said upthread, all you really owe your players is a fun game. If your players trust you, you can sometimes get away with very bold campaign decisions, because they trust that you can pull it off and make it fun for them. If you are a newer DM (or new to them, in any case,) you may not have built that trust, and you may need to run them through a successful, fun standard game before they're willing to follow you into more uncharted territory. Also, realize that a great deal of the appeal for some players, [i]especially[/i] at high levels, which if these boards are to be believed are much more rarely played, is in getting to play with the magic items they've only read about previously. The [i]Helm of Brilliance[/i]. The [i]Robe of the Archmage[/i]. The [i]Orbs of Dragonkind[/i]. Older players (and newer players who've purchased the DMG,) have read these descriptions. They may want to get the chance to play a character who [i]has[/i] a [i]Sphere of Annihilation[/i] instead of just reading about it. If this is the case, then you're going to have a major obstacle in providing that fun game, because you're starting out by removing one of the strongest appeals of a higher level game. You may still be able to pull it off. But don't be surprise if the players need a little coaxing to warm to the idea. It comes back to that issue of trust. [/QUOTE]
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What does a DM owe his players?/ Are the rules written in stone?
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