My semi-newbie players’ characters are still carrying a number of magic items with them that they haven’t even identified as such yet.
What would be a good way to nudge my players towards starting to integrate those items in their roleplaying? I was thinking of e.g. using the answer to a “what here is valuable to me?” DR question. But it feels a bit like cheating because even if the item is indeed valuable w.r.t. the situation being studied for the DR move, it is very unlikely to really make much fictional sense: “You are intensely studying the mechanism of the lock on the door. Suddenly you feel the urge to insert in the keyhole that shard of glass you stole from the ogre three sessions ago.”
I have in fact also tried the mundane solution of reminding the players a couple of times “by the way guys, you’re carrying a lot of stuff around you haven’t even properly looked at yet!”, but that seems to not have landed, and if I really start hammering on it, I feel it will become railroading.
So, any good tips for introducing my group’s characters to their own magic items? Or should I just let them be and move on with new stuff?
You could introduce an NPC who offers, for a nominal fee, to read the auras of any magical items they possess, granting clues to their nature.
But ultimately, if they ignore it? Then they ignore it.
Magic items are like any other facet of the world: if the players aren’t interested, you can’t make them be interested, and it’s not good practice to try. Since you’ve talked to them out of game about it, it honestly sounds like your players just don’t care much about shiny gear.
On the other hand, it is entirely possible that they simply aren’t aware that magic items are a potentially-intriguing feature, especially if they’re semi-new to dungeon crawling in general and not just Dungeon World. In which case, a gentle nudge or two might not be so bad.
Consider giving an opportunity that fits a class’s abilities, as a starting point. Next time a Wizard wants to conduct a Ritual, inform them that they need to disenchant one of the items they’re carrying around; this might prompt a “wait, that thing is magic?” moment. When a Bard asks a question related to their bardic lore, weave one of the items into the story that answers the question; same thing when someone Spouts Lore. Magic items are meant to be fairly potent and important compared to the vendor fodder in DnD, so it’s not too farfetched that someone has heard of every piece of magic that they’re carrying.
But if they don’t bite, they don’t bite, and that’s okay.
Or you could introduce an NPC who wants to buy an item. If they sell it (for far less than the actual value) the PC’s decision is we don’t care about the item. If they don’t they might be interested in it again. Or someone tries to steal it and the PCs can either follow the thief (show interest, take a closer look) or don’t bother. If the item is sold or stolen it can re-emerge later on in the hands of an enemy.
Have them walk into a room that causes all magic to flare visibly.
Among other things this could cause a problem since it makes things hard to see, but it also makes them curious as to why that shard of glass is glowing as brightly as the magic sword.
Same problem over here.
Classic trope: too many magic items in one place causes an unexpected reaction. Have the items start misfiring unexpectedly.
It sounds like you maybe haven’t telegraphed enough that some of the things they found could be magical and useful.
It’s why the Gagaxian thing of “you never know if it’s magical until you cast detect magic, and then you still have to identify it before you can wield it properly” is problematic.
Sure it’s meant to emulate you not knowing that the One Ring is the One Ring as soon as you find it. But that’s really boring if the whole point of the story is destroying the One Ring and you can’t get started on that until you burn a couple spell slots.