I'm working on my own version of the old "Sane Magic Items" forum post that seems to pop up in so many of the games I play in.

I'd like to start a thread with the community and bounce some ideas off people - I'm interested in your opinions and I don't want to make all my decisions in a vacuum - hopefully some folks will help me further my thinking on some of these topics. 

This will have to be a series of posts - I think it's a complex topic.

This is my first line of thought - we have the "rules as written" interpretation, we have the "rules as intended" interpretation, we also have "the rule of cool" - the old sane magic items posts could inspire a new, fourth rule - the "rule of sanity."

I think the rule of sanity should rest upon two core concepts - 1) the pillars of gameplay; 2) the living fictional world.

WotC has published some stuff on the pillars of gameplay for 5e. In my own campaigns and game design, I expand on the core pillars of gameplay (Social, Combat, Exploration) to include:

• Risk/Reward, 
• Resource Management, 
• Group Struggle & Triumph (Team Bonding),
• Overcoming Challenges (Team Building),
• Acts of Heroism, Daring, and Intellect, (i.e. getting to do something cool),
• Shenanigans, 
• Enjoying the Game, 
• and Group Storytelling/Narration (i.e. a compelling, interesting, and engaging narrative that everyone at the table creatively participates in crafting). 

I believe Resource Management & Risk Reward need a deeper look. I make the following assumptions as a game designer, adventure writer, and dungeon master:

• The players are the main characters of the story. The narrative revolves around their actions, emotions, objectives, and obstacles. 
• Therefore my goal as a game designer and DM isn’t to defeat the players, that would be the equivalent of killing the main character of the novel. My goal is to force them to expend resources to overcome challenges and accomplish their objectives. The key measure of a well-designed encounter or challenge is my ability to force the players to use character resources. 
• When you frame your game design around resource management it opens up lots of possibilities for encounter and challenge design - especially when combined with risk/reward. I believe it makes for compelling and tactical gameplay.
• I believe that mindset is key as a dungeon master - you’re not the players’ opponent, your main job in the group narrative is to create scenes that force them to choose between using resources or taking risks to conserve them. (There are additional variations).

The second concept I believe is vital to a rule of sanity:

• The characters are surrounded by a living, breathing fictional world - the people that live in it have goals of their own. When they see something happen - they will react to it. They have opinions and emotions. The kingdoms have laws and authorities. Etc.
• Thus - if a character is a creepy cultist NPCs might not like them. If a character is a murder hobo a posse of knights will show up and try to arrest them. If a character creates undead, summons demons, polymorphs a shopkeeper, blows a tavern up with a fireball, robs a merchant, etc. - the people who live in the fictional world will react, and with an appropriate amount of force. Players may learn there are legitimate reasons why liches don’t live in cities.

The rule of sanity would avoid game design and DM adjudications that ruin any of the above pillars and assumptions, or that enable one player to consistently outshine the other players in those areas, or get a shortcut around the consequences of their character choices and actions. 

For something like a Sane Magic Items Redux, I'd want to avoid or adjudicate magic items that violate the rule of sanity. The rule of sanity can also help price magic items.
For example - examine a magic item like The Alchemical Compendium -

• The rule of sanity would mean adjudicating this magic item.
• As RAW, it breaks several pillars of gameplay.
• For example, it can create a plot shortcut that ruins several pillars of gameplay - risk/reward, resource management, and group struggle. It can also ruin the group narrative by making overcoming challenges trivial and thereby make the game less enjoyable.
• There is nothing RAW here that prevents a player from creating “the key to the archmage’s treasure vault” etc. This item relies on RAI or ROS for balance.
• An example Rule of Sanity would maybe disallow unique or named items - so no keys would be possible, a key is unique to its lock. Or maybe a forgery or duplicate would require a skill check, access to the original, etc., and be detectable with insight/perception/investigation.
• RAW this item is particularly dangerous if you provide your players with a lot of high GP gemstones. A 1,000g sapphire can effectively be almost anything up to a 5ft cube.
• Even with the ROS - this item is a game-changer. For example, a player could create a 5ft cube of solid limestone - an instant 1,000 lb roadblock (or doorstop). Or a 5ft stone sphere to turn your carefully planned hallway encounter into strawberry jelly. There are so many possibilities - your players will think of something.

Or, a second application of the rule of sanity for something such as a Scroll of Protection;

• The rule of sanity would mean that there are authorities who would prohibit, restrict or make magic items illegal.
• If we assume that there is a rule of law in the living fantasy world the players adventure in, it's probable that in most kingdoms, summoning demons or other evil extraplanar entities is illegal.
• Therefore, many of these scrolls would be prohibited and maybe criminal - they’re used by casters that summon creatures that are illegal to summon.

Or for example, something like a Periapt of Health - Xanathar's would price this around maybe 300 to 500g? - but if we apply the rule of sanity:

• The rule of sanity would mean that NPCs are also motivated to buy, steal, and/or stockpile magic items to serve their own agendas.
• An item like a Periapt of Health would be prohibitively expensive - more likely (especially to some NPCs) even priceless!
• How much gold would the noble paterfamilias be willing to pay for an amulet to save his sickly daughter? 

I know all of this probably just seems like common sense - but I've been playing D&D games on Roll20 for seven years now and I've not played in a single game run by a DM that followed any of this. Let me know what your experiences have been like.

What do you think about adding a "rule of sanity" to the DM & game designer's framework?

Do you think I missed any pillars of gameplay?

Are there additional conceptual premises that a rule of sanity framework should rest upon?

Let me know in the comments.

Should this be in the Homebrew section?

I'm not sure - maybe? I thought this thread belonged in this topic because it's about a framework for interpreting rules & mechanics. It's my first post though maybe I was off base. Would a moderator end up moving it?

Wait a minute... you're saying that magic item prices should be increased?

Quote from Helmut_McQuack >>

Wait a minute... you're saying that magic item prices should be increased?

 Sane increases some and decreases some based on rarity and usefulness, some of it is insane levels of cost, others really cheap, its why many moved away from it a few years after its release