items in play vs keeping them in your hand
 

I understand the distinction between items in play ("carried") and items "in use" and items in my hand. My question is this... is there a situation or general strategy under which you would not play any items from your hand if you cannot use them immediately?

Say I am a Female Human Clergy. I cannot use the two items in my hand because one is Male only (Gentleman's Club) and the other is Wizard only (Pointy Hat of Power). Should I play these to get them out of my hand? Or should I keep them in my hand to protect them from getting stolen or cursed? I cannot use them... yet.

I am worried that by putting cards into play that I can't use that others will be able to steal them (using the Thief's power) or some of Munchkiny way. Then again, should I just sell them?

Adding to this is the knowledge that once an item is in play you cannot discard it to fuel a power.

Re: items in play vs keeping them in your hand
 

Your points are all valid except the last one about discarding to fuel a power. If the power does not mention a source of where the discards must come from, then you can discard from the table or your hand. For example, the Wizard's Charm Spell says you must discard your whole hand, so it has a source, but the Wizard's Flight Spell does not provide a source and you can choose to discard from either your hand or the table.

Another reason you might want to play these cards to the table is to avoid curses. Curse like Curse! Income Tax, Curse! Lose 1 Small Item and Curse! Cursed Thingy are all pretty weak when you can just choose one of those Items you can't use.

I personally keep them in my hand until I need to avoid Charity or want to trade with someone who could use them, though. I like the element of surprise that can generate.

Re: items in play vs keeping them in your hand
 

I agree with Clipper completely.

Re: items in play vs keeping them in your hand
 

I will almost always try to keep my one-shots on my hand, which my friends know. So they are always cautious in combat when my hand is full.

Ofcourse like Clipper I will put them down to avoid charity phase if I have to, but the element of surprise can be really important in some games.

Re: items in play vs keeping them in your hand
 

Where else would you put one-shots. They are by definition not items that can be used or carried... right? They stay in your hand until used... once... right?

I was talking about non-one-shot items like armor or headgear.

Re: items in play vs keeping them in your hand
 

Nope, anything that is an item, whether it a one-shot or not, can be played to the table and carried. You may then use them from the table the same as you would from your hand, the only difference being that now everybody knows you have them.

The only one-shots that MUST be played from your hand are the ones that don't have a Gold Piece value, and therefore aren't items.

Re: items in play vs keeping them in your hand
 

We've always played that you couldn't put down items you couldn't use. Is that not the case?

Re: items in play vs keeping them in your hand
 

You can definitely put down items you can't use. You just can't put down items you can't CARRY. So if you aren't a dwarf, you can still put down dwarf-only items, but you just can't use them. But if you've already got an Big item in play you can't put down another, because you are only allowed to CARRY one at a time (unless some other ability specifically says you can, like the Dwarf race ability).

Re: items in play vs keeping them in your hand
 

The rules explain how this works by saying, "Anyone can carry any item, but some items have use restrictions: for instance, the Mace of Sharpness can only be wielded by a Cleric. Its bonus only counts for someone who is, at the moment, a Cleric." This means that you can play any Item you can carry, including one-shot Items, which are still Items.

Re: items in play vs keeping them in your hand
 

Interesting. I'll let my group know, should change the gameplay a little. Thanks

Re: items in play vs keeping them in your hand
 

Yeah, the people I played with was under the same impression as you at first, when I read the rules properly and told them about what I figured on the items they were quite surprised. But it really makes the game more flexible to me, giving more choices on what to do and also makes trading more viable, same with thieves having more to steal etc.

Only downside is that it means less charity phases, which makes the person who is losing getting less free stuff to catch up to the rest, but overall it's still better imo. :p