Oops....

Left out a word, my bad.

I like the idea of a favor to get something or better yet have something made (especially as regards to weapons and armor) for you. This makes the item unique to you.

Hello all,

Thank you for your post, Mary. I tend to agree with your assessment.

I also like the idea of allowing Heroes to buid their own weapon/item/whatever. Now, I'm just thinking outloud here, but maybe we could assign a point value to an item, rather than gold and allow those items to be "turned in" for something that the player truly wished to have.

Of course, as I'm writing this I already see issues, such as: Where/how do we do this; what about replays, etc.

While I would like to just say that this could only be done at PCI attended events (such as AcaniCon, Origins, Gen Con, etc) or at Game Days where Harvesters are present, this will leave out some people and we're back to the same problem of perceiveed Haves/Have Nots.

Gathering up items would also be unbalanced if people can replay an adventure and start hording items (i.e. I know that mod X guarantees one item per person, so I'll just replay it 6 times, etc).

I'm sure there are other issues, but the idea has merit. Now its just a matter of seeing if we're smart enough to come up with an equitable way of doing it.

Thank you, everyone, for your input in this discussion.

I also see no need for making changes to the item distribution rules as they stand now. I dislike the "if its 'perfect' for more than one character then give out another" option. Defining what the term means is nigh-impossible.

I've missed a number of really neat items that would absolutely help my character's survivability factor. But I am not losing sleep over it, and he has survived all adventures since then still.

There is enough gold and opportunity in the adventures that a player can get specific runes that their characters would like, which do enhance the abilities/skills of their character without completely changing the power curve one way or another.

I've been fortunate, my character is a val'Dell martial that uses a spear. There have now been 2 different times where a spear has been in an adventure as certed or special treasure, plus there was a chance in one event to get an item crafted. So my character is rather flush with a few items that have important stories/meaning to him that are also effective for his profession.

The notion of a system/process where characters can get items commissioned by using influence, favors, etc is intriguing.

So I say keep items, not just the magical ones, as story driven.

I'm surprised at a few comments where people have said that replays should not get items because they have too much foreknowledge and don't have the same risks. Is that really people's experience? I have very little trouble playing a character given current circumstances even if I've played an adventure before (yes, this definitely means I sometimes do "stupid" things based on knowledge from a previous play that the current character knows nothing about) - occasionally it does mean I've mostly stayed out of conversations about "what to do next" if I felt I couldn't "forget" what I knew.

I think there have been replays in most of the games I've played of Arcanis and I can only remember one time where it seemed like someone was using knowledge that their character shouldn't have had.

I haven't met players who take fewer 'risks' with their secondaries, but I HAVE come across players who play with secondaries (using foreknowledge of what is going to happen) who make decisions so they get the best gear, then using willing intermediaries are able to transfer the best gear to their primaries when they didn't get it the first time.

This isn't to say it happens often, or even recently, but I have heard and seen this happen.

Just to weigh in, I am also not a fan of the replay option, in general. So I like the simplified/reduced cert option for replays.

For me personally, the story is the most interesting portion of this, and if I already know what that is, the experience is much less interesting. This play style reduces the sense of the wonder and discovery for me so that I find it uninteresting.

I get the need to have people be able to fill out tables so that others can play and that's why I am not totally against this, but the involvement is just not there for me, personally, and thus I've only replayed a few things, and usually to play with peoples I've not seen for a while, etc.

Ah. I hadn't thought about that aspect of it. I've seen very little trading of special items (I'm sure it happens - I'm just unaware of it). I don't think most living campaigns allow trading (I'm 99% sure in LFR you can loan items for the current adventure but not trade permanently). If that is the concern, I'd rather just see a rule to the effect of "an item you trade away can never be traded to another of your characters" but that would be hard to track/enforce.

I'm really not sure where the right balance is. I do view characters as completely separate - it wouldn't have even occurred to me to trade items from one of my characters to another one.

Have I missed something? I thought if you replayed a mod all you got we the xp and the gold. Also that items could NOT be traded around. Heck as far as I know we can't even give other PCs money. With our limited group here in SW Ohio there hasn't really been a problem. As has been stated your PC is now more defined by abilities and background as opposed to gear. Personally I like it that way. That and when something in a mod steers a character in a different direction or "organically" chooses a path he/she was already thinking about. For example (and no spoilers) those of you who have played Vexing Priest will understand what that mod means for my Beltinian...talk about pretty much lay out my choice of Path!

P.S. to Henry. Vexing Priests so far is hands down my favorite mod of this arc, although I did also enjoy the first one in the series even though I had to eat it, I had a lot of fun running it at Origins last year.

Yes, if you replay, all you get is what's on the replay cert (xp and gold). I thought you could trade items (but I could be wrong).

I was wondering why you can't get anything besides xp and gold on a replay (since it is a different character). I don't know of any other living campaign with that restriction. It's not something I'm really concerned about (though it will mean my primary can't get most items from arc 2 simply because he's too low rank to play arc 2 currently (so my secondary is)) - it's just very different from other living campaigns so I was curious of the reasoning (if you can trade items, that could explain part of it).

Trading items is allowed, as is selling them to other Heroes. Nor do you have to sell it for what it's 'worth' (i.e. whatever arbitrary number we determined the gold value of the item was). It all depends on what someone is willing to pay you for it, and what you are willing to accept.

For instance, many of the special weapons given out in the Vault are valued at what it would cost to get that quality weapon with those specific runes on it... However each of them has a value beyond that due to its provenance, a name and the beginnings of a story, that could make it truly priceless to someone who bears one.

Of course, there are exceptions to this, and things that can't be traded; any time something like that comes up, it will have its own cert, and a notation on the bottom to that effect.