Sure.We could just go superheroic, and have people choose basic weaponry layouts from fantastic options such as glass swords and snake staves. And that's absolutely fine for things like He-Man where no one loots anything off of anyone. But if you want to find Christmas presents in treasure piles, it's a non-starter. If you already have everything you want, then there's nothing you can unwrap that is something you want.Jacob_Orlove wrote:Why do we need a whole bunch of magic items at all? We can give players the numeric boosts they need as they level. We have the technology!
These are two incompatible design goals, and they make very different games with very different expected player actions and motivations.
Well, I don't think that's terribly plausible, because then you couldn't fight another guy who had a magic item but once or twice in your whole life.I'd rather have a game where your character could function on zero magic items. That makes every single item a distinct and noticeable improvement (assuming players acquire like 1-3 items total over the whole game).
Which is totally fine for something like aWoD, where magic items are rare and the expectation is that your character does not have one. But if everyone is supposed to sword fight you and magic swords exist, it's pretty constricting to never be able to face someone who has one.
Like it or not, D&D is more like Mongo than like historical France. And that means that the Hawk Men have magic radium blades and shit.
-Username17