The Fantasy Trip

[Rick_Smith]

Hi all,
A few comments on magic items. I'm happy with them, but have a few things that need a bit of polishing. I've mentioned a few of these before but I'm putting them in one place.

-- Some items are described as self powering and others require 1 fST per turn to power. Make it so virtually all items require 1 fST per turn. If a self powering item is wanted, then it is easy to multiply the cost by 10.

-- There is an error in the notes of the magic table. Notes D thru H are intended to allow the wizard to charge more to take into account his loss of pay for rolling auto-misses (which waste a week's work), and rolling an 18 (which destroys the enchantment being created). But note D should say, “Add 10% to the value of the current enchantment”. (This should replace the current “Add 10% to the value of the underlying item.) (See Appendix A below, for WHY it is wrong.)

-- Many items are really powerful. Weaker, less expensive versions would be welcome. e.g. an item that gives you +2 MA rather than Speed Movement which doubles your MA. A Haze ring that gives enemy –2 DX to attack you, rather than a Blur ring (–4 DX). A Slow Missiles rather than Reverse Missiles.

-- Remove attribute adders. Dull items which make attribute bloat significantly worse.

-- I think that Reverse Missiles, Speed Movement, and the +1 and +2 Charms are too cheap. The Charms in particular are far too inexpensive. I increased the price ten fold, and my players STILL buy them (when they get rich enough).

-- The cost for Wishes ($40,000) is far too low, given the current rules on gaining wishes.

-- The wizard's profit for making these items are all over the place. The number of weeks and cost of ingredients need to be fixed to allow the correct wizard's profit. There are lots of errors in this table.

-- Note that the B note in the magic item table was updated in the errata, to make thrown spell like items multiply their cost by the size of the creature to use the item. (So a Stone Flesh for a giant would cost 3 times as much since the giant is a 3 hex creature.) Update this in the main game.

I would love to see more spells and more magic items and potions in AW. Turning it into a 64 page supplement would be great!

-- Speaking of potions, we have healing potions (arguably too powerful), but why not add a potion that returns 3 fatigue? Useful and not too powerful.

*****

Appendix A: (From a post in the TFT forums at Brainiac.)

The cost of a silver ring or gold ring is insignificant compared to the cost of the enchantment. But let us think of the cost of enchanting two crystal balls. One was a solid diamond the other is glass.

To make this example concrete let us say that the glass ball has a cost of $500, and the diamond ball has a cost of $3,000,000.

A crystal ball is a G type enchantment, which adds 50% to the underlying value of the item to the cost of the enchantment. This enchantment costs $50,000.

So using the rules in AW, the cost of the enchantment on the glass ball is: $50,000 + 50%($500) = $50,250. Note that the cost of the enchantment has increased a bit, based on the value of the underlying item. That price does not include the cost of the glass ball, so the final cost is: $50,750.

But casting the spell on the diamond ball is: $50,000 + 50%($3,000,000) = $1,550,000. Including the cost of the diamond ball the total is: $4,550,000.

This seems totally wrong to me. The two costs of the enchantment (which I bolded above) should be the same.

I am pretty certain that what Steve Jackson intended is not what was written in the rules. I think that when this rule was written an 18 would destroy ALL enchantments in an item. When that rule changed (too harsh), this rule didn't get updated.

*****

Warm regards, Rick.