Why Magic Items

[David Bofinger]

I've often heard people complain about certain kinds of magic item, and GMs banning them. But what kinds of magic item make the game more fun, and need to be in the game? I'm going to suggest: maybe none of them.

The magic items can loosely be divided into:

1. Those that enhance their wearer's capabilities relative to a mundane item, such as a +2 sword.
2. Those that provide capabilities similar to those a character might have.
3. A few items provide a capability superior to the regular spell and might be seen as a combination of 1 and 2. e.g. Blur or Stoneskin.
4. Those that provide a capability not otherwise available, such as a flaming sword.

All these items, except perhaps for Category 4, take the focus off the capabilities of the characters and put it on the capabilities of their toys. And there aren't many items in 4.

Magic items might also be an issue if you want to e.g. allow the PCs to be enslaved digging tunnels in Aelfheim. Some players won't mind losing their entire inventory, others will find it very upsetting.

A huge problem in TFT with magic items of Category 1 is that it channels characters away from certain changes to the character. I'm ST 11, I have some experience and I'm thinking ST 12 and a larger weapon might be a good idea. But I have this magic +2 short sword, so really that isn't practical. The characters golden handcuffs stop him going that way.

Magic items are in games mostly because they are in fiction, particularly fairy tales. But the role they play in fiction is often just, "She blew in the magic leprechaun's ear like the magic mentor had told her to and the leprechaun solved all her problems." It's not great RPG. It's usually not even great fiction.

I'm still trying to think why I would want to have magic items in my game and right now I can't see it. A modest proposal: delete all magic items from the game. Or: change them unrecognisably, to do something that's actually desirable.

Thoughts?