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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84 chuqui version 1.7 9/23/84; site nsc.UUCP
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From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Zonker T. Chuqui)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: AD&D magic item competition: Potion of Nauseous Form
Message-ID: <1553@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Oct-84 02:24:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: nsc.1553
Posted: Tue Oct  9 02:24:41 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Oct-84 02:48:31 EDT
References: <532@nmtvax.UUCP> <18@sdamos.UUCP>
Organization: The Warlocks Cave, Castrovalva
Lines: 32

> I find it hard to believe that so many items can be generated
> with no other goal in mind save injuring player characters.
> Only a DM who has a persecution complex and fears that his players
> get away with too much would find these items useful.
> 
> Basically, a DM who uses such items frequently is using his superior...

I think the key word here is frequently. I can see many situations where an
item like those that have been posted recently come in VERY handy. paladins
with an ego problem is one that comes to mind immediately. I don't think
that the person who developed these had it in mind to spread them around
indiscriminately, I think the point is that every so often it is useful to
put in a real ugly ringer to force your players to think about what they
are doing. It's too easy for players to hack and burn their way through
dungeons relying on reincarnations, wishes, and whathaveyou to back out of
most ugly situations... In the dungeon I'm somewhat working on now, I'm
trying to develop situations that will force people to think their way
through and remember that the characters they play can DIE if they aren't
careful... Too many dungeons aren't terribly willing to kill off characters
(probably because many DM's remember the pain of losing a 7th level magic
user that has been built over a period of months). The problem is, though,
that they tend to overreact and characters that SHOULD have died because of
the situation they got themselves into (or how they reacted to it) don't,
and that creates a new set of problems...

chuq

-- 
From the Department of Bistromatics:            Chuq Von Rospach
{amd,decwrl,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4}!nsc!chuqui    nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA

How about 'reason for living?'