In a World Where Magic is Unlawful

[Snowmantheory]

In my future campaign, I plan for magic to be unlawful. I want to give my players magic items (because D&D is nothing without them), but it would be unlawful to craft such things. Does anyone know good supplementary rules for non-magical enhancement items?

[weckar]

The world you're after... basically, play Baldur's Gate II.

[Grod_The_Giant]

In my future campaign, I plan for magic to be unlawful. I want to give my players magic items (because D&D is nothing without them), but it would be unlawful to craft such things. Does anyone know good supplementary rules for non-magical enhancement items?
Take normal magic swords and whatnot, kick the price up 10%, and say "this is made by super-advanced snazzy technology?"

[Tvtyrant]

Do alchemical items count? Also beware the Grod fallacy.

[Lightlawbliss]

ever heard of a black market? sounds to me like this game is begging for a big one.

[Flickerdart]

There are "rules" on mechanical items somewhere third party, I think the Kalamar books. Basically, you say it isn't magic and go about your daily life.

[Karnith]

There are "rules" on mechanical items somewhere third party, I think the Kalamar books. Basically, you say it isn't magic and go about your daily life.
Devices (which are essentially magic items, but not) are detailed in Ravenloft: Legacy of Blood.

[Tvtyrant]

Devices (which are essentially magic items, but not) are detailed in Ravenloft: Legacy of Blood.

Magic of Faerun also has devices, and the Gnomish Artificer to make them.

[Vedhin]

Dragonlance: War of the Lance (3rd party) has rules for "extra masterwork" items.

[Ravens_cry]

This is a fairly common trope, almost cliché in fact, and here's a problem with it in 3.X, powerful people don't like having their power impinged.
Magic users are powerful people. They would not be happy if other people started making their lives difficult, and unhappy magic users have a thousand and one ways to make themselves happy again.
Oh yes, very happy.

[Zanos]

This is a fairly common trope, almost cliché in fact, and here's a problem with it in 3.X, powerful people don't like having their power impinged.
Magic users are powerful people. They would not be happy if other people started making their lives difficult, and unhappy magic users have a thousand and one ways to make themselves happy again.
Oh yes, very happy.
Magic could have been made illegal by existing powerful magic users who don't want any rivals. In fact, that's almost as cliche as magic being illegal itself.

[Afgncaap5]

You could also go the "magic is nuclear power" route where the people who *have* magic are reluctant to use it outside of controlled situations (or at least reluctant to be the first one to overtly use it in a hostile manner). The magicians become the regulators of the no-magic policy in that case, though that does little to speak to the actual question involved.

Do you have any thoughts for the kinds of magic items you'd like them to have? There are a few all-purpose rules (gnomish artificer, the "spell replicated through alchemy" suggestion in the trap creation tables in the DMG (though it's possible those don't work so well outside the controlled set of traps), etc.), but there's a few things that might work for specific items. Case in point, Oriental Adventures has the Kakita Katana, a type of weaponry made so well through family secrets that it has a nonmagical +2 enhancement bonus.

[Slipperychicken]

Magic could have been made illegal by existing powerful magic users who don't want any rivals. In fact, that's almost as cliche as magic being illegal itself.

So it's like if Paranoia took place in the Tippyverse? Replace "mutant" with "magician" (or have both), and make all the crazy unreliable items magical (or "alchemical") instead of tech. All PCs are mages, and being a mage is Treason. Of course, all the higher-ups are mages too, but they've just been lucky/smart/crazy enough to hide this fact from the all-seeing Friend Construct.

EDIT: Also, the PCs will frequently be asked to field-test "technology", which are almost always cursed magic items or badly-made tech which backfires hilariously. The PCs might know the technology is magic, but using magic is treason, and so is disobeying orders and contradicting the Friend Construct.