My group has made a house rule for Tricksy that I want to share. It’s Just an additional addendum so as not to break the in-game economy and money-related rewards. The following is placed at the end of the Tricksy description:

“The item produced must be related to or directly helpful for the current encounter or scene. GM has final approval.”

Without this limitation, the min-maxer of my group began to produce Holy Icons every scene he could. He always cited the ability’s listed effect of the item’s presence not needing a logical explanation. His intent with was to sell them for regular income. Rather than role-playing around this or arguing intent versus letter of the rule, the group held a vote and the ability was nerfed as listed above. The player understood and accepted the change. We were all, however, curious why something similar wasn’t part of the written description in the first place, given the “ essential ” qualifier in the Utility Belt Star Wars talent on which Tricksy is based.

We have also voted that a health or stamina potion is helpful to every combat encounter. This allows the Tricksy player to “find” one of either during what is likely their final turn before the last foe is slain and Tricksy went unused. The same is also true for the most beneficial kind of alcohol (or similar consumable luxury) during social encounters. The party has been happy with these clarifications and precisely where Staddus the Banjoist finds his prized health potion amongst the pile of slain villains has become an in-character betting mini-game.

43 minutes ago, HaphazardNinja said:

Without this limitation, the min-maxer of my group began to produce Holy Icons every scene he could. He always cited the ability’s listed effect of the item’s presence not needing a logical explanation. His intent with was to sell them for regular income. 

My campaign has the overall rule of not being cheesy with RAW. That's prevented things like this, as well as a host of other shenanigans I've seen with other campaigns.

I think essential is removed because Tricksy isn't limited narratively to being something in a pouch, it could be found any weird place.

I haven't had a problem with it yet, but could see how it could be abused so I came up with a similar house rule in that item only lasts until the end of the encounter in which it was "found". The sword turns out to be pretty beat up and breaks, the potion gets dropped and shattered etc.

How are you preventing the player from just using story points to generate gear? He could pull the ole I got this in town *flip* shtick. To prevent that I use something mentioned on Order 66, which is that story point flips must be paid for with cash that was on hand at the time that is being retconned.

It's also possible to handle all this narratively, there's only so many holy icons a town can buy before it gets flooded and the price drops. Sure he has a holy icon that works as a spell focus, but its to a bad god and he can't sell it anywhere. He pulls a sword out of thin air, well turns out that is the sword of black bart so the town assumes that he is black bart and a bounty gets put on his head

That is actually very similar to what I was doing to start. was originally doing it narratively, however that became a chore. We are a group that really enjoys using our story points, so there was always some for him to use it in every encounter. An increasing amount of role-playing time was dedicated to him trying to find a way to sell this thing, or dealing with the repercussions of its acquisition. That's why it was brought to a group vote. It was originally entertaining, but then it started detracting from the overall story and experience.

18 hours ago, verdantsf said:

My campaign has the overall rule of not being cheesy with RAW. That's prevented things like this, as well as a host of other shenanigans I've seen with other campaigns.

That's how I rule it with my game. This isn't some massive MMO with dozens of servers where players can find an exploit and get away with it while the mods are asleep. I am the mod, and I'm sitting right across the table. If you try to exploit the system in a way that's not designed your action fails.

@BringBackForbiddenStars is correct. Too many GMs forget what the ultimate purpose of the any RPG (even d20) is meant to do. The spirit of these games, or RULES AS INTENDED, is to tell interesting stories and have amazing adventures, not exploiting the system through RULES AS WRITTEN. Too many GMs get caught up in the idea that since the rules say a player can essentially exploit something, he must be allow to use that exploit until version 2.0 of the rules hopefully fixes it. Have your discussion with the players, or maybe just that one player, and tell them to reign it in or either you wont allow them to exploit the situation or many challenge dice will be added/upgraded to exploitative action. Your the GM so sometimes you have to put your foot down instead of just saying "please".

Possible solutions to inappropriate use of Tricky. The item is

• Its cursed - Somewhere the PC nicked an item that was cursed, warded, tracked etc. It may work as an immediate solution but will cause issues for a session or two.
• Defective, adding upgrades or automatic threats/fails/despairs.
• Item itself or object that slips out of a pocket when the object is produced is immediately recognizable by adjacent NPCs, generating a (possibly delayed) poor or hostile response. "How is it you are always stealing the signet rings of nobles or have love notes from their wives?"

After having the "conversation" with the player, consider providing verbal clue that they are exploiting by saying something like "you search frantically through your pouches for a solution. Nothing seems immediately appropriate but you THINK this <thing> might do the job"

On 7/26/2018 at 9:33 AM, HaphazardNinja said:

Without  this limitation, the min-maxer of my group began to produce Holy  Icons every scene he could  . 

I know this is a dead thread now, but for the sake of future generations:

Per Tricksey (RoT 69): "This item cannot be a weapon..."

In my opinion, Holy Icons and Musical Instruments (as Magical Implements) aren't legal procurements via Tricksey because all Magical Implements are effectively a kind of weapon. They have Damage entry, even if it is +0 just like a shields', and can potentially be used to perform offensive spells.

The musical instrument might get a pass because it can only be used with Verse, which doesn't allow for damaging Attack spells, though it does allow curses, which are offensive even if not actually damaging.

That being said, there's no reason they couldn't use Tricksey to acquire Holy Icons and Musical Instruments which aren't magical implements, or are Implements, but have Limited Ammo because they'll break or burn out when used. Such an item should have little to no monetary value, and may cause problems in-character because it's most likely stolen.