The real sad thing is seeing folks using +10 bonuses.. I believe Pathfinder generally does +5 as a base max unless there is something outrageous.. Example would be Boots of Elvenkind. Back in the day your butt just didn't get heard wearing these! 3.5 D&D it was an auto pass for Move Silently just about. In Pathfinder those Boots offer you a +5 bonus. That's all.. just saying that is an example to module at. Even Cloak of Elvenkind is another example.
No vehicles that look like ghost riders bike? shesh~
I've seen one give a +10 to one skill and a +5 to a couple of other skills. It was priced cheaper than a cloak of elvenkind.
Andrew I 100% agree..
Building a perfect answer to all puzzles = no challenge and therefore no interest.
D&D is about exploration, adventure, and over coming the obstacles presented by your DM.
Take Indiana Jones as a perfect example. How many times did he rub his chin thinking of a way to figure out a problem or solve an issue on the fly? Did he use magical items to supplement all his problems? nope..
So as a creator.. we have to assess just how environment changing this item will truly end up being. Are we altering the game fabric here? Or is this just something to add flavor and interest to a character?
There is a reason that the item is not present in Pathfinder at the moment. Example and I love this one.. Wonder woman's Lasso of truth. If this cheap magical item was deployed into the world of Pathfinder everyone would buy one. It would shift the games balance terrible. Name a banker that wouldn't use it? Name a teacher that wouldn't? A Party member that wouldn't? lol
It's a golden ticket to the C. Factory. So you as a developer don't make it. =o)
Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7
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Andrew I 100% agree..
Building a perfect answer to all puzzles = no challenge and therefore no interest.
D&D is about exploration, adventure, and over coming the obstacles presented by your DM.
Take Indiana Jones as a perfect example. How many times did he rub his chin thinking of a way to figure out a problem or solve an issue on the fly? Did he use magical items to supplement all his problems? nope..
So as a creator.. we have to assess just how environment changing this item will truly end up being. Are we altering the game fabric here? Or is this just something to add flavor and interest to a character?
There is a reason that the item is not present in Pathfinder at the moment. Example and I love this one.. Wonder woman's Lasso of truth. If this cheap magical item was deployed into the world of Pathfinder everyone would buy one. It would shift the games balance terrible. Name a banker that wouldn't use it? Name a teacher that wouldn't? A Party member that wouldn't? lol
It's a golden ticket to the C. Factory. So you as a developer don't make it. =o)
No, but even Indy knew when it was time to bring a gun to a knife fight.
Marathon Voter Season 7
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I can break down most of the meh to "OH MY GOSH. NOT AT MY TABLE!" items as lack of sales skills. Because really, when push comes to shove, what you're trying to do here is sell an idea. If people would just remember the first two rules of sales (or being in the military. They match up nicely.) a lot of items would go from meh to "I wouldn't mind giving my players that."
1. CYA. Cover your rear. Don't give to players something you don't want to have to GM with. Don't make up items that you wouldn't want a monster using against you. AND Don't leave the person reading about your item thinking of huge loopholes like the congo line of kobolds you could use to circumvent the globe in a single round. (From 3.5s Greater Great Cleave).
2. STFU. Shut the heck up. When you're done with your item. End it. Balancing things with banes happens sometimes, but chances are if you need a bane added to a magic item, you over-did anyway. Pick what you want to be able to do with the item and then add what it needs to do to complete that task AND THEN Shut the Heck Up.
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I have seen at least three items so far which appear to be an entire mini-adventure to operate the item all crammed into 300 words.
How about tool kits full of stuff that is game changers, super overkill!
Is it me, or is there a lot of grossness this year? Various bodily parts that have been removed and then had ingenious uses found for them?
I'm fairly certain that has been a general trend for all years. it was certainly there last year too.
There are a lot of bookkeeping items using the spend x from Y per day. These items are so a pain to track as a player and a GM.
I still think there has been a marked improvement on formatting though this year, one day of voting and so far I haven't wanted to stab my eyes out with orange crayons.
But what the heck is up with the Runes and Sigils this year???
Yup. I noticed this almost immediately.
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Many seed items, yes?
Yeah, there is definitely a barnyard aroma to this years competition.
There are a lot of bookkeeping items using the spend x from Y per day. These items are so a pain to track as a player and a GM.
I still think there has been a marked improvement on formatting though this year, one day of voting and so far I haven't wanted to stab my eyes out with orange crayons.
You're right on that, Anthony. Fuchsia, or sky blue, but definitely not orange.
RPG Superstar 2015
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Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka mamaursula
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Is it me, or is there a lot of grossness this year? Various bodily parts that have been removed and then had ingenious uses found for them?
I think you're just selectively remembering last year, there was a lot of blood and guts then too. I cannot remember any specifically because I read them once and never again. I really don't do gross.
Lots of items that te user has to charge up first in someway.
Another trend I'm noticing: Wasted words telling me things that are obvious by reading the description of how the item functions, or over-explaining things that are common sense.
Example: "These shiny ruby slippers are worn on your feet." There's eight wasted words. I know they're worn on the feet because they're slippers. Also, even if I didn't know what slippers were, the Slot designation is "feet."
Another trend I'm noticing: Wasted words telling me things that are obvious by reading the description of how the item functions, or over-explaining things that are common sense.
Example: "These shiny ruby slippers are worn on your feet." There's eight wasted words. I know they're worn on the feet because they're slippers. Also, even if I didn't know what slippers were, the Slot designation is "feet."
"These shiny ruby slippers are worn as ear warmers. They provide a +10 bonus to listen checks"
See, now if that were the case, then yes, I'd need to know that..though why you'd make slippers to be worn on your ears, I have no idea.
"In some cultures, obscure and isolated from the outside world, ear slippers are called by the bizarre name, ear muffs."
There are a bunch of items that in my opinion are really two or three items crammed together. Just because you have similar things that each offer one power doesn't mean it's not a SAK. In some cases each of the individual things would be a cool item if the designer had put more focus on it's cool factor instead of trying to thematically link it to all the others.
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Marathon Voter Season 7
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There are a bunch of items that in my opinion are really two or three items crammed together. Just because you have similar things that each offer one power doesn't mean it's not a SAK. In some cases each of the individual things would be a cool item if the designer had put more focus on it's cool factor instead of trying to thematically link it to all the others.
I think of those as Swiss Army Knife submissions that are also Spell in a Can. If they come up against one or the other (which is happening often) they are voted down. If they come up against one that is also both (which has happened) then I go with the one that is less thematically secure.
And anyone that comes from a less politically correct age will realize that tigers use slippers as ear muffs all the time. (Little Black Sambo)
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Marathon Voter Season 7
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I pretty much agree with you Thrashing, especially on 2. =)
I do think GMs can do more to lighten the load in some cases though. For example: food can start as an issue where you have to roleplay out what you're going to do, since skill points aren't enough always. Later it might just take rolls to verify that skills were enough. In the final stages of adventuring, it should be enough for the party to just tell the GM, "we make camp for the night." Like a lot of things in GMing, it comes down to knowing when things are no longer interesting or even considered necessary to the party. And level might play less of a role than how experienced the people around the table are.
There are some items (I'm thinking of one in specific that I've seen this year) that overcomes a common problem, adds new antics for both the GM and the players, AND doesn't effect game balance at all!
A phrase I've heard and like: after the important things have been examined in a room, someone just says, "We Gygax the room." meaning, "Ok, now we just make a generic perception check to see if we find anything else important and loot the corpses." An item that scours the room for you should be unnecessary by the time the party can afford it.
1) "Man, I wish I had that at such and such a point in my game, it would have saved the group hours of play time."2)"Ohh, shiny, think of all the hijinx I could get in to with that"
I disagree. Mundane is different for each group and the mundane can be handwaved away. To paraphrase SKR: notice the lack of toilets on the Enterprise.
I once sent the group home several hours early when one player devised a way to let summoned creatures finish the adventure for them. None of the other players were glad to have saved those hours of gaming by not gaming.
Mundane is different for each group and the mundane can be handwaved away. To paraphrase SKR: notice the lack of toilets on the Enterprise.
I agree with this 100%.
I think the real challenge is to design an item that is interesting and fun without relying on uber-ness or relying on an interesting backstory (which the GM might have to throw out depending on the game/setting/circumstances anyway).
A good item should inspire, have a clear use, and not be laden with too much fluff. If this were an artifacts competition this would be a different story.
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To paraphrase SKR: notice the lack of toilets on the Enterprise.
I just assumed that was taken care of by the transporters.
*commsound* "Transporter Room, this is Ensign Next-to-die. Number two to beam out."
What I'm seeing a lot of still this year is designers leading with the easy but boring ability of "grants a +X bonus to Y" before getting into the item's unique mechanic. Grab my attention first with the cool thing your item does. If you feel the need to have it grant a bonus, then but that at the end. Get me excited about your item from the get-go.
Another apparent trend is the idea that imbibing alcohol makes one more likeable.
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Another apparent trend is the idea that imbibing alcohol makes one more likeable.
It doesn't? *hic* Uh-oh.
To paraphrase SKR: notice the lack of toilets on the Enterprise.
I just assumed that was taken care of by the transporters.
*commsound* "Transporter Room, this is Ensign Next-to-die. Number two to beam out."
That must be confusing for Number 1.
Hmmm... I have thought that C-sections in ST must be easy, but I never thought it might be a two-to-three times a day easy. Is this why Star Fleet doesn't where zippers?
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Another apparent trend is the idea that imbibing alcohol makes one more likeable.It doesn't? *hic* Uh-oh.
Ignore him, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Vodka?
Oh hey i just opened a letter within a letter, the inner one is addressed to some guy named anthony adam, with full postage and everything, the outer one had my name and address and said simply "mail inner letter after round 2 is over, warning contains +10 orange crayons of blinding" weird or what?! so i just stumbled upon this thread searching out "orange crayons" and "stab my yes out" what are the odds?
My observations so far:
- Higher than average proportion of items based on Necromancy magic.
- A lot of overpricing items (last year I found many were underpriced, this time it seems to be the opposite way round!).
- A lot of items that conflict with body slot affinities for magic items. For example gloves or wrist slot items for effects that are sight or mind based when the item could easily have been something more appropriate in the head/face/neck slots.
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Orange Crayons
Aura Powerful Divination; CL 7th
Slot eyes; Price 3 gp; Weight 1/16th lbs.
Description
Pressing these magical crayons against the eyes allow the weilder to see the Wondrous Item write ups correctly formatted, concisely expressed, with evocatively visual descriptions arising from item concepts that are creative and add to the feeling of wonder and ability to explore new solutions in the game. One write up per minute or crayon pressure. if the crayon pressure is consistent for 100 minutes the wielder is permanently blinded to high quality write ups and can only see poorly formatted "Spell in a Can" entries, even in their sleep, until April.
Construction
Requirements intimidating prowess, Craft Wondrous Item and Master Craftsman feats, False Vision and Secret Page Spells, taking a party of well shaven halflings to Kids free tuesday night at a local pizza parlour, ordering from the kids menu; Cost 1 gp
Orange Crayons
Aura Powerful Divination; CL 7th
Slot eyes; Price 3 gp; Weight 1/16th lbs.
Description
Pressing these magical crayons against the eyes allow the weilder to see the Wondrous Item write ups correctly formatted, concisely expressed, with evocatively visual descriptions arising from item concepts that are creative and add to the feeling of wonder and ability to explore new solutions in the game. One write up per minute or crayon pressure. if the crayon pressure is consistent for 100 minutes the wielder is permanently blinded to high quality write ups and can only see poorly formatted "Spell in a Can" entries, even in their sleep, until April.
Construction
Requirements intimidating prowess, Craft Wondrous Item and Master Craftsman feats, False Vision and Secret Page Spells, taking a party of well shaven halflings to Kids free tuesday night at a local pizza parlour, ordering from the kids menu; Cost 1 gp
Yes, but what happens if I eat them?
Orange Crayons
Aura Powerful Divination; CL 7th
Slot eyes; Price 3 gp; Weight 1/16th lbs.
Description
Pressing these magical crayons against the eyes allow the weilder to see the Wondrous Item write ups correctly formatted, concisely expressed, with evocatively visual descriptions arising from item concepts that are creative and add to the feeling of wonder and ability to explore new solutions in the game. One write up per minute or crayon pressure. if the crayon pressure is consistent for 100 minutes the wielder is permanently blinded to high quality write ups and can only see poorly formatted "Spell in a Can" entries, even in their sleep, until April.
Construction
Requirements intimidating prowess, Craft Wondrous Item and Master Craftsman feats, False Vision and Secret Page Spells, taking a party of well shaven halflings to Kids free tuesday night at a local pizza parlour, ordering from the kids menu; Cost 1 gp
I grinned the entire time I read that. Then I saw the Cost, and spat my drink on my keyboard.
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Orange Crayons
Aura Powerful Divination; CL 7th
Slot eyes; Price 3 gp; Weight 1/16th lbs.
Description
Pressing these magical crayons against the eyes allow the weilder to see the Wondrous Item write ups correctly formatted, concisely expressed, with evocatively visual descriptions arising from item concepts that are creative and add to the feeling of wonder and ability to explore new solutions in the game. One write up per minute or crayon pressure. if the crayon pressure is consistent for 100 minutes the wielder is permanently blinded to high quality write ups and can only see poorly formatted "Spell in a Can" entries, even in their sleep, until April.
Construction
Requirements intimidating prowess, Craft Wondrous Item and Master Craftsman feats, False Vision and Secret Page Spells, taking a party of well shaven halflings to Kids free tuesday night at a local pizza parlour, ordering from the kids menu; Cost 1 gp
*slow clap*
Dedicated Voter Season 7
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Too much to completely read here, but skimming I have to agree with the "Lots of items that search for traps" trend. Too many things that either take 20 searchign a room for you, search / disarm traps for you, tell you where trouble is, etc.
In the right group, maybe you only have 3 players, sure having an item fill in for a rogue might not be the worst thing out there if it's balanced even slightly properly. There's no reason that item can't exist in that scenario.
It's just not superstar material.
I am noticing that quite a lot of the clothing items are described as tattered, ragged, or otherwise ill-maintained... why?
eyewear-
I am noticing that quite a lot of the clothing items are described as tattered, ragged, or otherwise ill-maintained... why?
Apparently being a murderhobo is all the rage these days, and you can't have clothes that are clean, let alone intact, while murderhoboing your way through the adventure's plot.
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Ultimate Murderhobo
There will be blood
I am going to write this book.
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RPG Superstar 2015
,
Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka mamaursula
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Orange Crayons
Aura Powerful Divination; CL 7th
Slot eyes; Price 3 gp; Weight 1/16th lbs.
Description
Pressing these magical crayons against the eyes allow the weilder to see the Wondrous Item write ups correctly formatted, concisely expressed, with evocatively visual descriptions arising from item concepts that are creative and add to the feeling of wonder and ability to explore new solutions in the game. One write up per minute or crayon pressure. if the crayon pressure is consistent for 100 minutes the wielder is permanently blinded to high quality write ups and can only see poorly formatted "Spell in a Can" entries, even in their sleep, until April.
Construction
Requirements intimidating prowess, Craft Wondrous Item and Master Craftsman feats, False Vision and Secret Page Spells, taking a party of well shaven halflings to Kids free tuesday night at a local pizza parlour, ordering from the kids menu; Cost 1 gp
You failed to capitalize after a period. REJECT!
:-)
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RPG Superstar 2015
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Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka mamaursula
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I have noticed several excellent consumable items this year and a couple of pretty nice card/deck related items. Some are combat oriented but not all. I have been please with the over all feel of each entry though, they are by far improved over even just last year.
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Marathon Voter Season 7
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I have noticed several excellent consumable items this year and a couple of pretty nice card/deck related items. Some are combat oriented but not all. I have been please with the over all feel of each entry though, they are by far improved over even just last year.
You forgot the "d" in "pleased." Your post is irrelevant. =P
Grammatical totalitarianism. It's everywhere. Oops. I'm not writing in complete. sentences.
To paraphrase SKR: notice the lack of toilets on the Enterprise.
I just assumed that was taken care of by the transporters.
*commsound* "Transporter Room, this is Ensign Next-to-die. Number two to beam out."
And I already thought Chief O'Brien's job was soul-crushing.
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RPG Superstar 2015
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Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka mamaursula
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I have noticed several excellent consumable items this year and a couple of pretty nice card/deck related items. Some are combat oriented but not all. I have been please with the over all feel of each entry though, they are by far improved over even just last year.You forgot the "d" in "pleased." Your post is irrelevant. =P
Grammatical totalitarianism. It's everywhere. Oops. I'm not writing in complete. sentences.
I am almost ready to enter next year then! :-)