Modifications to an item should only be made if permission has been given from the GM who original wrote the item. If that GM is inaccessible, then refer to the rules coordinator or an approvals GM.
Magic items that modify other magic items should be given out sparingly. In general, any modifications to an item should be made to the original item's writeup for the sake of simplicity. Alternatively, the original item should be deleted, and the GM modifying the item should write up a new item.
Oversized weapons (weapons exceeding 1d12 damage) should only have access to oversized skill.
Enchantments on weapons should follow general Enchantment rules and slots systems.
Effects generally should not stack. This is because the gm giving them out can't control what others do, meaning your item can be broken if it's allowed to stack.
Combat NPCs should follow the action economy mechanics of Summonable Creatures even if the NPC is sentient enough to act on its own.
Avoid giving free rates to players. For example, free creature abilities should be minimized, and rates granted should be considered.
Rateburning items cannot be created by players, and should be taken seriously when items go out. This isn't to say that they shouldn't go out, but they should be “activate per month” for less powerful/temporary effects, and “activate per year” for more powerful/permanent effects. Alternatively they can require an appropriate xp cost, and be more frequent.
Items should not have absolutes that the gm in the moment cannot overrule. This puts the gm in a difficult situation, where they either overrule the item, angering the player, or have their plans spoiled.
All damage above 2d6 needs to have either a resistance check or a roll to hit.
Spells with duration less than 5 minutes are intended to be used in a limited combat, and should not be made into effect items.
Gods are npcs; any effect that makes you competitive with a god (i.e. ignoring flux) or gives you base or flux should force you to be an NPC. This should never be forced on a player.
There are inherent limitations to classes for a reason. An item shouldn't be given out that allows a priest to still be powered while breaking creed, nor should an item go out that allows psions to act while casting.
Skills specific to using items are allowable, but a new skill for general use is the realm of the rules coordinator and should be proposed to them for approval.
Creature abilities outside of standard limits of availability MUST be written up.
GMs are expected to give out magic items on no more than roughly half of their games. Use common sense for this one; thing like healing potions are fine to be given out more frequently, GMs could give out items to only half of party and then have them “roll off” for it, etc.
GMs are expected to tie the power of their magic items to the difficulty of the game they run. However, GMs should not run difficult games just for the sake of giving out better pay.
GMs are only be allowed to give out custom items every three games. This will not have to follow an explicit pattern; it is just expected that no more than 33% of all characters going on a game are to get custom items. GMs would be expected to avoid showing bias here.
All magic items have a recommended word count of 100, and a word cap of 200. This will prevent the queue from being flooded with excessively complicated/long writeups. An “RP” section may be added to each item so GMs could go further into describing aspects of the item, but this section can have nothing that communicates any mechanical benefit. On rare occasions for momentous games (finales/legendary agems/etc.), a longer more complicated item can be written, but this must be denoted in the item and an adventure writeup attached.
All items that have already been given out must be tracked through some way, shape, or form if they are to be given out again. They could be included in the adventure writeup, resubmitted through the database, or the GM could contact the rules coordinator directly. This is to prevent GMs from giving out a frankly irresponsible quantity of items on one game by using old items to bypass the approvals system.
Any items with unclear formatting, mechanics, etc. will be hard vetoed.
Most items are now expected to be based off of spells, creature abilities, and skills within the manual. Alternatively, the item should be easy to interpret into AQ's mechanics. (Example: The amulet of Pokerface is a manual item, a 1/day Fly would be a standard spell effect, and an iron longsword that deals an extra d6 fire damage would be easy to interpret into an in-game mechanic.)
Magic items should not generally be able to create more magic items. Special care should be taken when writing up magic items that take the form of a living creature, such as a plant or creature, as they can easily get around this rule.
Effects that deal more than 12d6 damage should not be given out. Effects should never be able to “nuke” an area or kill everything within an area, regardless of how likely it seems that it will backfire on the player.
Effects that can repeatedly stun, incapacitate, etc. enemies should be given out extremely sparingly, if at all. In the rare case where these effects are given out, they should also be fairly limited or restricted in some capacity, such as having a relatively easy resistance check.
Items should only use contested checks for relatively minor effects. Characters can boost their attributes to extreme heights, and it is somewhat unreasonable to expect a target to resist a contested check against a character who has obtained an attribute score exceeding 20.
Effects that can instantly kill enemies should be given out extremely sparingly, if at all. These effects should also be limited in the amount of times they can be used or the strength of the effect.
If an item can provide beneficial effects to multiple targets, then the scale of the effect should be reduced appropriately.
Items that require significant investment of exp or gold from the player can generally be more powerful than items that provide instantaneous increase in character’s power.