Goran set the canvas bag on the ground beside the other and gave a heavy sigh as he lifted an arm up to rub sweat from his hrow. The sound of coins clinking and gems settling could be heard from within the bulging mass of cloth, "That's the last of the treasure, now what?" "Now we split it," Sharn said as she rubbed her hands together in anticipation. "Hold on, no one touches anything until Malfin inspects for magic and can verify if anything is cursed. Then we take the rest and get it appraised. Sharn's estimates may be right, but I want to double check with another appraiser." Tif stepped up to put himself between the roughish girt and the treasure that had almost cost the group their lives at the hands of the ancient Lich. Malfin stepped up to the treasure and began to chant softly, walking around the treasure before stopping and than pointing at three of the five bags. "Those bags there." He then instructed Goran to dump the bags onto the ground, revealing the various valuables they contained "That sword over there and the medallion. Ten of those vials appear to be potions or something along that line. Grab those three little mouse figures and the tea pot, the armor and the shield. Oh, the glasses and the two daggers. I think that is it, no wait, the broach also. Okay that is it." "So what do you think, will you be able to figure out what these items can do Malfin? And how long will it take you?" Tif asked as he began to pick up the items the wizard had pointed to, placing them in a different bag where they would stay until they could be identified by the mage later. The wizard scratched his beard as he thought about the question and the answers he would give. The spellbooks that the group had brought was more than enough payment for his assistance and he would make sure to acquire a few of the other wares that he had found interesting, but hadn't bothered mentioning to the group. "I would say at least two weeks to do all the items unless you don't have the time. If you don't, do you have a preference on what you would like identified first?" "The blades and the armor for starts and then the potions. The rest just do as you can. We need a little time to heal up anyway and sell these items so we can replace the stuff we lost. If you need anything from us you know where to look." Tif signaled the others to follow him as he walked away from the wizard; Goran and Sharn began to follow, stopping only to pick up the remaining bags of treasure. "Do you think that sword could be another Lightning Blade Tif? I could really use a second one when we go up against the Dust Trolls." Goran whispered his question to Tif. The prospect of owning one of the powerful swords played across his mind; he would be almost unstoppable, he kept thinking. Typical? The previous story sounds like a typical game session. The party presented with a challenge and in most cases they over come it. Usually after the confrontation in most cases, the party has found a load of treasure and now it is time to divide the spoils. It is at this moment that future games are made or broke for one of the biggest complaints is that the party gets overloaded with magic in one form or another. It is understandable that the party will grow stronger the higher they get in levels, but how do you keep the players from pulling out bigger and tougher magic items as you try to challenge them. The important thing for a gamemaster to remember is to keep the game in balance; this doesn't always mean throwing tougher monsters against the party or reducing or eliminating magic. The problem with those strategies is that the treasure from new monsters tends too add to the arsenal the party already has if they win and if you reduce or eliminate mage you block one of the unique elements of fantasy; creating a game world that isn't even fantasy. So how do you keep the magic in balance or cope with it when it becomes a problem? Magic is a marvelous and often important thing in any fantasy role-playing system. What would a fantasy world be without wizards throwing fire and commanding supernatural powers over nature as mighty warriors dawn armor and wield weapons that glow with a life of their own; there are not very many players who do not like magic or magical items to some extent. The problem most serious gamemasters cringe at is the prospect of powerful magic falling into party hands or magic items starting to add up to allow the party to over come any situation without thinking their way through the confrontation. Gamemasters must first realize that there is always a problem when too much magic makes its way into the game, causing unbalance and giving everyone a massive headache, at least the gamemaster. So what do you do? There are several things that a gamemaster can do to help limit magic. The first thing that needs to be done is to look at the characters themselves. Cover every inch of the character and review any restrictions that could help limit magic. Several character classes have limitations set to limit the type or number of magic items that the character may carry. A good suggestion is to expand on these restrictions by making it a rule that the character can't even touch the items in question because of the restrictions; this would help keep the items from being carried around until a use is found for it or it is given away. An example of this is the limitations of priests to certain weapons, make it a rule that they can't touch the restricted weapon period because of their deity's dislike of the item. Put more significance on encumbrance and weigh limits for the characters so that they must begin to pick and choose their items. If the party acquires extra-dimensional storage spaces then set restrictions on what can be stored or ask how they are storing something; an unsheathed sword tossed in could send things across the ethereal plane. When dealing with magic items themselves, there are three basic choices that a gamemaster may go with. The first choice is to take each magic item as it comes up and try to figure how to work around it in the game, but still allow it to be used by the characters in the face of a challenge, and give them an opportunity to role-play instead of roll-play. Second choice a gamemaster may go with is to reduce the access to magic items and thus handicap the players in a sense by reducing the magic they can use, but this method of controlling magic items keeps the game in balance. Limiting access is making the control of magic items restricted to certain people or places outside of those owned by the players, an example of this is that holy items are kept under the control of the church or spellbooks are owned only by the school of wizards and it is a crime to own nothing approved by the school. The last choice is unrealistic and seldom used by gamemasters, an option of desperation by those who chose it, that option is making magic unavailable to players. Any frue player reading this article just cringed with that last option. So how does a gamemaster handle magic items so they do not become a problem? There has to be another choice a gamemaster can chose? There is and here is the best way to have magic riddled world. A choice where everyone carries a magic item and every monster killed doesn't put the party one step closer to godhood; a choice that keeps the game in balance. The whole principle behind character use of magic items is that they help get the job done, by using supernatural forces. A wizard make his or someone else's life a little easier when using magic. Magic items replace the missing element that the party needs is a given situation. Think about it, when a mage pulls out a wand of fireballs, all it is in reality is a magic item replacing something the wizard needs, basically replacing the absence of a spell the wizard needs to overcome a problem. So when characters need extra help to meet a given situation' and say, 'well if you aren't going to throw magic out of the game, then you have to reduce it.' They decide that there is only one Holy Sword of Quick Death +30 in the world and that's that. A good gamemaster doesn't have to reduce the amount of magic, instead, he reduces the number of people that may use it. I don't mean he declares that only 40 some people in the world have access to 10th level magic or can use a given magic item. The best example to use is specialty priests and the spells that their deity has provided them. If specific spells may be limited to a given deity or pantheons, why not all magic in general. Reduce Access The following are various methods that you could use to reduce access so that the number of people that can use a given magic item is smaller and thereby reducing the odds that the party could use it to their advantage. I am not promising that creative players won't find a way to put an item to use even after using these methods. A really cunning gamemaster may even apply more than one of these methods to an item and really cause problems when the party wants the magic item that a certain NPC or villain is using. After all, you can have several people in a room, but none of them are exactly alike. So why can't magic items be the same, each different and possibly not usable by everyone. Let's Be Specific or I Don't Like You This is the easiest method of reducing the number of users for a given magic item. There are at least two basic areas of specification that a gamemaster can place an item in the specific item category. An item falls under the specific category when it is useable by members of a specific alignment, class, race, or religion. Not every suit of elven chainmail can be used by every elf that finds it. The same goes with holy swords and other items of that nature. The second and most interesting area of specification is what I call Bonding. Bonding occurs when the item is created for a specific individual. This type of magic was originally created as a way to prevent personal loss to the enchanter by sacrificing someone else's life-force during the creation process. It was discovered that the item worked better in the hands of someone who willingly gave part of their lifeforce to its creation. The technique was eventually refined and developed to the point where bonded items will only work for the person it is specifically made for, using this method a king could arm an army with an arsenal of powerful weapons that could be useless in an enemy's hand. One allowance is that descendants of the owner could possibly use the given item of the person. You Got the Touch or Make a Check Please This category deals with skill. Items created under this method are designed to help a specific ability, give a character new abilities, or modify existing abilities in a given situation. An example of helping would be a pair of scissors that improve a character's tailor skill, give the skill at a moderate level if the character doesn't have the skill, or the scissors only improve the skill when the character works with fine silks. A weapon in this situation may increase the marksmanship skill, give the skill if not already known, or only work when performing complicated tricks with the weapon in question. Unfortunately for adventures, most items that fall under this area only work for a short time as that they help until the skill is learned or the character feels confident to pass the weapon on to someone else who needs it. Items created under this area may also require specific skills to be known of have level restrictions. The Thunder Cap of Knowledge may require a scribe to know local history of may only work for scribes that have reached high level because the creator of the item believed that something powerful as his invention would be best serve someone that knew the importance of it. Matter of Time or By the Clock This is the category that most players hate. Out of this area of magic a player finds the devious gamemaster presenting armor and weapons that slowly lose their magic with the more damage their character takes. Some gamemasters even go so far as to have the armor or weapon turn to dust when finished, nothing left but the memories the player had of their character using the item and its rewards they gained. Time can further be exploited by a creative gamemaster; an example is: what player wouldn't cringe when given a Lance of Death that must be used by. the full moon or its powers are lost and he is cursed for failing his deity. A good gamemaster could even rule that magic doesn't last forever and a set given percentage that every time the item is used a secret check is done to see if the magic has finally expired. What's It Really Cost or No Free Lunch Players wince when their character receives an item from this category, especially when magic items created from this type of magic can be very fickle. These items work at a price to the user. This price could be hit points, the promise to complete a given task, or the item won't give any magical benefit until certain conditions are met by the owner. Types of conditions could be that the character can't take a bath, can't wear armor, or some other restriction that isn't convenient to the character. These are items that may also work to keep the character inline. A holy sword is a direct link to the deity and a paladin that carries it must constantly remember this fact or be surprised when his sword refuses to work because it has to report to the big one and orders are not to perform. There Can Only Be One Finally, to make matters worse, some idiot of a wizard decided that his item should be able to think for itself That's just great, but thinking beings have emotions and personal tastes, not to mention that they have likes and dislikes. So what does the character and more importantly the player do when the item comes with a very big attitude. The magic item may not like the character at all, refuse to work until another member apologizes for something said, or the item is jealous of attention to other items and request that the character give up all magic items but itself. Magic items with intelligence can be hard to play and even harder to deal with; they must be appeased or they will make life hard for the adventurer and those around him. What will the party do when the talking sword cries out because it feels it is being neglected after a week without being sharpened; if this happens while the party is trying to sneak up on something, the character could be in a world of hurt and not necessarily by the monster at hand. Remember that magic is a wonderful thing and a vital pan of a fantasy setting. By combining these categories together and spreading them out, a gamemaster could effectively reduce the fire power of a party to the point where the players must rely upon tactics and their characters' skills. It is important that gamemasters remember to work with magic and keep it in balance at all times, not to look at it as a complication. "Well what did you find out?" Tif asked. The wizard Malfin's frown was not what Tif wanted to see. "You guys came back with a lot of junk if you ask me. I don't know how you managed to do it, but you found everything your party doesn't need." "What do you mean? What is wrong?" Goran looked at the items they had found on their last adventure, his eyes falling on the sword "I hope that sword is a Lightning Blade." "Oh it is a Lightning Blade, but you can't use it. Seams is was created to work for a Kel of Sion during the Chaos Breakfast Feast. As for the armor, it is a suit of chainmail created for the priests of Sienfield, put it on and you won't be laughing. The medallion is actually the Coin of Life which must be given to a beggar on the third moon of the year or the owner will die a strange fate, but if met, will gain three years of prosperity in everything they do." "No way, what about the glasses? " Sharn asked. "They are the Glasses of Minute Seeing. They were designed to help seamstresses in doing fine embroidery on silk." Back to White Knight #11 Table of Contents Back to White Knight List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Pegasus-Unicorn Productions This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com