I don't follow that logic. Most people are talking about something that would allow one item approximately once per tier and/or arc.

In D&D, you get a new item at least once per level (eg 3-4 adventures) - if you include potions, I think my main LFR character has had something like 25-30 items by level 15 (probably about 20 non-potion).

If going by Paul's proposed system in Arcanis, I would have been able to probably "buy" 2 tier 1 items in that time (45ish modules at 1 point per for 20 per item/tier) plus items given out by the adventures (still far less than D&D).

Alas, this may yet be too much for Henry's vision of the game. I can see that, and even only counting Runes most people are still kiting themselves out with magic even now. I had hoped keeping it down to 1x Tier I item/Tier as an average would be low enough, but that might be viewed as too high yet.

Have to crunch numbers to see how this could work while keeping it useful, but not TOO common. . .

Oh, and as a thought: How much would a Harvester be interested in someone decked out in Magical Items? Would they attempt to Harvest the person, simply 'mug' them, or leave them alone? This could also be a way to. . . limit a person's desire to wear all the latest fashions

No worries. It was a fun exercise. Part of the reason I've wanted to make sure the scope and the principles are laid out first is that it helps avoid scope creep and keeps any solution focused on what the real problem is. Narrowly focused with the right controls I think it could still work. It's defining those boundaries or allowing them to be pushed too much that is often where the problem is. I see that doing systems work and I do governance here. It's amazing at times how much is applicable both in terms of type of work that can be applied and the interests of the various stakeholders.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

I enjoy crunching numbers but without guidelines about how many items a character should be able to acquire this way it's nigh impossible to do. The #s for 1+1/2 Hero tier in items will generate vastly different break points on things than twice tier or no limit.

It took roughly 30 mods to get from 1.1 to 2.1. If the goal is even 1 item / tier, then if you assume 1 SP / mod then 30 is the correct #. If you allow for more than 1 then divide it accordingly. If you only want 3 over 5 tiers then it's probably closer to 40 or 45.

Crunching the #s is easy. Being clear on the principles is often more challenging.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

I agree with Henry/ Mary on the idea of New points just being used to create the same old magic items.

However "This is ARCANIS!!!!" (rawr sound) and I think we as a group might be making a fundamental flaw, we are tying "magical" directly to " mechanical bonus " what would a system look like if we decoupled those things, and why would it still be useful to do....

(as an aside, there is a argument about the possibility of needing bonii at higher levels, but this isn't the place for it from my POV)

So lets take a Page from Hats book ( and HOLY cow man, i cant thank you enough for this) lets define the problem we are trying to solve: We want to make cool interesting magic items, AND we don't want to turn it into a 3.5 style magic item shop.

"The world is not made up of atoms; it's made up of stories." - Muriel Rukeyser

The core of what makes an item cool is the story behind it, the croatalus gauntlet (FIM 1) the Awesome anti ssethric hammer from the 3.5 FiM ( somone remind me the name?) all have great stories.

Here is an example of a story to a piece of armor. Just plain jane


Now it would be awesome for magic tricks to be part of this armor. Some examples:
walk on water for 4 ticks (or run really)
never rusts
easier to don
you can sleep in it
it weighs less
ability once per day to produce a strong blue light for 12 ticks
it customizes itself for the wearer
... and so on

things like that may or may not change the story of the item, that all depends on the player, but it would certainly make the item cooler without bumping the "power level" of the item.

on the other hand it might be that Ive earned enough "New Points" to totally get something new to my character, ie i can get rid of this old steel whip and use this new steel whip that I've paid for in some fashion (money and points) and then I'm creating all new story with my character and the item

Hello Paul,



To be clear - I'm not saying "no" just yet. As I said, I'll discuss with the Staff, but I was merely stating that I was having second/third/fourth thoughts n the wisdom of such a dramatic change.

Fair enough. it would be cool to build items of meaning in one form or fashion that go beyond what can be purchased today. I still think one of my favorite magic items from the original story arc was the old Defender of the Empire's armor called Night's Watch made out of magically hardened obsidian. Even if it provided no mechanical benefits past whatever was normal for the quality, that would be sweet.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

One other thing I was thinking of was whether it might be possible to upgrade the quality of armor or at least some armors over time. Many armors as described have a wide variety of pieces associated with them that are independent but made to work as a whole. I could see parts replaced over time. It could even be an interesting story of the character scrimping and saving to get the money together to get more pieces from Master So and So for a truly magnificent set in the future. That could be a very personal story indeed.

"See this bright and shiny new pauldron? THAT replaced one that took the blow of the Demon Prince himself, it did!"

The most expensive weapon with the exception of a Kio sword and flintlocks is the Steel Whip at 75 Sc base. While expensive, an exceptional version of that could be purchased by existing characters if they saved. I also can't think mechanically of a way to really upgrade a weapon very effectively without in most cases upgrading the whole thing.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Can I pick a weapon or can I pick a weapon? I don't know if folks are running around with 37.5 gp or not. I know even if I'd not spent anything through my Tier 2.5 character, I would only have around 30gp total.

John

Towards the end of the last campaign, Elebac upgraded many weapons with a new hilt/pommel etc to Legendary from whatever the previous status was, so upgrading existing weapons is not entirely unreasonable (as long as they're at least 'good' quality to start).