The christmas tree effect

So a commonly cited "problem" in fantasy gaming is that player characters eventually end up decked in a huge wardrobe of magic items. This was called the "Christmas tree effect" because the characters lit up like Christmas trees when you used detect magic on them.

You could argue that the Christmas tree effect is just an extension of how magic items always worked in fantasy. Frodo had an inherited mithril shirt, a (cursed, sentient) ring of invisibility, an inherited sword that glowed in the presence of orcs/goblins, a chameleon cloak made by elves, a vial of starlight gifted by the elf queen, and some really nourishing bread made by elves.

This makes sense as a gaming convention. The criticism arises from the fact that this usage of magic items makes them feel banal, bland, and boring when they should feel rare and fantastical. Which I guess might be a problem if you are aiming for a fantastical atmosphere. However, the game is written with the assumption that characters will have panoplies due to how the leveling works.

Writing a book with advice that magic items should be rare without changing the underlying assumptions of the system is dishonest. Getting rid of that would require overhauling the rules so that player characters would get the benefits of that panoply without actually having a physical panoply, allowing items to level up, etc.

Links

• http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?495816-Christmas-tree-effect
• https://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?298929-Can-someone-explain-to-me-what-Christmas-Tree-effect-means
• https://mythcreants.com/blog/5th-edition-dungeons-and-dragons-hasnt-learned-from-its-mistakes/
• http://legacy.aonprd.com/unchained/magic/index.html