All magical rings look alike?

[Halaster Blackcloak]

In the DMG, it says all magical rings look identical. Same for tomes, librams, etc. I never liked this. It makes them boring. I also hate making the PCs spend oodles of time trying to figure out what magical items do, so I usually give them enough clues or outright available info so they can know what they find. Does anyone else do that, or do you make them use legend lore, consult sages, etc?

[garhkal]

I make them jump through the hoops of identify etc, to figure out what rings are.. Tomes though i am very strict on.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

I used to do that, and I prefer that, but it seemed to always slow the game down and most of my players weren't that fond of the trouble of finding out. Tomes and such, I do make them all look different, and sometimes the title can give a clue, or the look of the tome, but they really have to work to figure out what it is. I love putting in all sorts of special (and dangerous!) tomes, librams, etc. They can become an entire adventure in themselves!

[Tawnos76]

I always had them look different.
Can you imagine just how difficult it might be if a Mage decided I am going to make all my rings look exactly the same and then have him getting up in an emergency and try to grab the right one.
I imagine this to be like opening up you wiring cabinet and all the wires are the same color.

I would always think that each magic user would like to add their own flair and have each ring from the jeweler made different or ornate depending on the ego of the mage creating the magic ring.

Same for Tomes - why would each Magic user want the same bland looking book. Who walks into a library and sees 100 copies of the exact same book yet they are all different. Having everything the same makes no sense and seems like a quick way out for the writers of the rule books.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Tawnos76 wrote:

I always had them look different.
Can you imagine just how difficult it might be if a Mage decided I am going to make all my rings look exactly the same and then have him getting up in an emergency and try to grab the right one.
I imagine this to be like opening up you wiring cabinet and all the wires are the same color.

Exactly! How would that wizard know which ring he was putting on? So much room for confusion. And the idea of all rings looking the same just seems so...boring. I love the idea of the ring of the ram having a shape like Dodge Ram symbol. A friend recently lent me the 5E DMG and I have to admit, while I also despise 5E rules, the 5E DMG was in fact laid out much better than the 2E DMG, and seemed to have everything the DM needs. It didn't feel like it had the magical, nostalgic, inspiring minutia of the 1E DMG, but it was laid out and organized better and really covered everything, including the planes, etc. And I did like how they had art for so many magical items. The rings were (mostly) really awesome!

Same for Tomes - why would each Magic user want the same bland looking book. Who walks into a library and sees 100 copies of the exact same book yet they are all different. Having everything the same makes no sense and seems like a quick way out for the writers of the rule books.

Very good point! I love books, tomes, librams, etc in the game. They're so inspirational and genre-related and just fun to use. I tend to give them cryptic names or have them written in strange, forgotten languages or magically twisted cyphers. I do make the players work to find out what it is, or how to use it. And of course, the risks are always fun!

[garhkal]

Part of the reason i think they made all BOOKS look the same, was to make it harder for them to be used.. especially the stat boosters..