Josh_Kablack wrote:Hrm, thinking a little more about the NFL-Draft Salary Cap Item system, the part that's interesting when I'm awake and sober is not the drafting and trading - but the fact that it's a salary based system at all
The D&D economy looks very very different if you have to pay each of your items wages to keep using them (weapon maintenance costs, ritual components, handwavium for game balance). With that sort of upkeep cost it becomes important for PCs to balance magic item and GP gain, large mundane treasures can be useful incentives and it makes sense why powerful kings and liches buried their excess magic swag instead of using all of it.
Still catching up, but since it seems relevant, I thought I'd mention what we do.
Every character has some number of 'spell points'. Spell points are useful for casting spells if that's something you do. If you don't cast spells (or even if you do), you can also use your spell points to 'power' magic items.
Since every magic item uses some of your spell points, you largely eliminate the 'Christmas Tree' effect - players only use the items that they can pay for; they only pay for the items that they can use. They can hoard excess items or trade them away - doesn't really matter.
Some items can be more powerful if you use more spell points. This allows some items to 'level'. So you could find a 'really good item' at 1st level without breaking the game because you'll unlock the 'really good abilities' at a higher level.
Okay - back to catching up.