Re: Why Magic Items
I'm rarely seen on these forums, but I can tell you "why":
Modern CRPGs and MMORPGs.
Most new blood to tabletop gaming comes from that world; many moldy oldies like me spend time there. In that context, equipment is as much a part of your character "build" as your innate abilities are, and while some such games have items degrade and need maintenance, few outright take gear away – and those that do only ever do so temporarily. That thinking has entrenched itself in our hobby and now we just have to live with it! Gamers build characters around always having access to their weapon of choice, and in systems where there are mechanisms to start with magic items, as in TFT, they build characters around those, too.
I often encounter this outlook on the GURPS side of things, and it has been steadily growing in popularity over the 25 years I've been the Line Editor (and the 35 years I've played the game). The "tells" that it comes from digital games – other than the timing (those years have seen the release of more and better digital games, and their mainstreaming) – are the terms gamers use. The people who like their item-centric "builds" tend to use the language of digital games, not the tongue of the tribe I joined when I started gaming in 1979.
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