Unwanted Magic Items In a Low Magic Campaign

[Lakesidefantasy]

I ran a successful low magic D&D 3.5 campaign for years. However, one problem I ran into was PCs would occasionally acquire magic items they had no desire to use yet were loathe to discard because of the perceived value of such items. The magic items would then become dead weight, eternally carried around because there was no way to get rid of them. I eventually succumbed and created a black market run by the thieves guild to trade in magic items so my PCs could unload their unwanted stuff. Unfortunately our group disbanded before I could implement it, but it would have ultimately introduced the magic item market into the campaign and may very well have been a mistake. Has anyone else run into this problem, and how did you handle it? This question was sparked by this thread.

[Kierato]

IMHO, the best way is to avoid the problem by only giving the players thing they would use. Magic weapons that are find are, against all odds, the types used by the pcs. Same goes for armor, wondrous items, etc. After all, what would happen if Bilbo had found a great sword instead of sting?

[cappadocius]

Lakesidefantasy wrote:

how did you handle it?

As a GM for over 20 years, I've found pointing, laughing, and questioning the manhood (or femininity of female players) of the group to be the best way.

[badbak]

First, I applaud your efforts to keep magic items rare and wonderful in your game while at the same time keeping your players in mind.

I've been a DM/GM for over 20 years and have tried to do the same as you. Most recently, I told them an organization of magic users (all high level/epic) restrict the prevalence of magic items in the world so as not to cause undo fear on the uneducated masses. If they wanted an item, they checked with any known magic user, church/temple/shrine, thieves/rogues (as fit their inkling). Did the person they check with always have what they wanted? No. Could someone get it for them? Sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes with ramifications. Imagine a noble's reaction when he sees a party member walking down the street with the noble's sword/ring/cloak...etc...oops

As a player, also for over 20 years, the games that sucked the most were those ran by DMs that insisted on having control over every minutia. Their idea of a good time was them telling you what you did, why, how and where...needless to say I didn't play in those games long, especially since I always thought the object of the game was to have fun (for the DM and players). To me 6 months to go from level 1 to level 2 sucks, especially if you play every week for 4-5 hrs.

Its a game, so a balance needs to be struck with players desires to shine with items they desire and maintaining the low magic feel with the GM.

Good luck

[Keith Savage]

Very little in my favorite campaign (as a player) was totally random. GMs that run games totally by "the numbers" from volumes of percentile charts are generally missing the point. A GM needs to find a nice balance to keep his players happy and coming back to his game table. That campaign was fairly low-magic in a bronze age/early "roman" setting. Imagine if the Celts were (decayed back to savagery) elves and the "romans" were upstart humans, with an evil god plotting his revenge against his fellow pantheon behind it all. There was few magic items available to we PCs, but little did we care, as the game's story was superb. There was never any problems getting rid of unwanted magic items- in a low magic world, assuming you don't want it, there will always be someone who does. Good connections with the local hierarchy of clerics/wizards/druids/guilds is one way to get items both properly identified and sold, if needed.

[Mistwalker]

I think that if you encourage your players to give them as gifts to NPCs (rewards for loyalty, bribes, purchasing a large ticket item like a galleon, etc.), it would take care of the problem.

Example: The PCs are having interactions with a noble. Over time, they notice that the noble keeps eying a certain item, and the noble is in a key position to help the PCs - gifting the item would likely get them what they wanted.

Example: The PCs need to cross an ocean/make a long trip that would be easier by ship. They don't have months of time to wait for one to be built, nor do they have the gold for it. However, there is a merchant in town with several ships, some in port, who likes to one up the nobles and the competition. If that merchant had a magical xxxxx, it would be an almost unbeatable social coup for them. Convincing them to part with a mundane ship would likely be fairly easy.

[BigNorseWolf]

Lakesidefantasy wrote:

I ran a successful low magic D&D 3.5 campaign for years. However, one problem I ran into was PCs would occasionally acquire magic items they had no desire to use yet were loathe to discard because of the perceived value of such items. The magic items would then become dead weight, eternally carried around because there was no way to get rid of them. I eventually succumbed and created a black market run by the thieves guild to trade in magic items so my PCs could unload their unwanted stuff. Unfortunately our group disbanded before I could implement it, but it would have ultimately introduced the magic item market into the campaign and may very well have been a mistake. Has anyone else run into this problem, and how did you handle it? This question was sparked by this thread.

GIven the wealth by level system, holding on to overpriced, situational, and useless items hurts your character. The option then, is to either have players get nothing but the big six (weapon/metamagic rod for fighters/casters, stat booster, cloak of resistance, ring of deflection, amulet, handy haversack/bag of holding)

OR

You can hand out a reasonable amount of what the players want, and just overlook the extra items like the stone of alarm