I think the bonus objective was a good idea in theory but not well tuned. It suffered from the classic puzzle problem of the extraction being the hard part, rather than the cool puzzle being the hard part.
I think it was perfectly reasonable to expect that at some point a player would group by [level, boots] and count and notice there was something to dig into.
But, having found the elf anomaly, I don’t think it was reasonable to expect that a player would be able to distinguish between
do not reveal the +4 boots at all
do not use the +4 boots vs the elf ninja
give the elf ninja the +4 boots to be used in their combat
give the elf ninja the +4 boots afterwards but go ahead and use them first
It’s perfectly reasonable to expect that a player could generate a number of hypotheses and guess that the most likely was that they shouldn’t reveal the +4 boots at all, but they would have no real way of confirming that guess; the fact that they’re rewarded for guessing correctly is probably better than the alternative but is not satisfying IMO.
I think this is just an unavoidable consequence of the bonus objective being outside-the-box in some sense: any remotely-real world is much more complicated than the dataset can ever be.
If you were making this decision at a D&D table, you might want to ask the GM:
How easy is it to identify magic items? Can you tell what items your opponent uses while fighting him? Can you tell what items the contestants use while spectating a fight?
Can we disguise magic items? If we paint the totally powerful Boots of Speed lime green, will they still be recognizable?
How exactly did we get these +4 Boots? Did we (or can we convincingly claim to have) take them from people who stole them, rather than stealing them ourselves?
How honorable is House Cadagal’s reputation? If we give the Boots back, will they be grateful enough that it’s worth it rather than keeping the Boots?
I can’t realistically explain all of these up front in the scenario! And this is just the questions I can think of—in my last scenario (linked comment contains spoilers for that if you haven’t played it yet) the players came up with a zany scheme I hadn’t considered myself.
Overall, I think if you realized that the +4 Boots in your inventory came from the Elf Ninja you can count yourself as having accomplished the Bonus Objective regardless of what you decided to do with them. (You can imagine that you discussed the matter with the GM and your companions, asked all the questions above, and made a sensible decision based on the answers).
I think the bonus objective was a good idea in theory but not well tuned. It suffered from the classic puzzle problem of the extraction being the hard part, rather than the cool puzzle being the hard part.
I think it was perfectly reasonable to expect that at some point a player would group by [level, boots] and count and notice there was something to dig into.
But, having found the elf anomaly, I don’t think it was reasonable to expect that a player would be able to distinguish between
do not reveal the +4 boots at all
do not use the +4 boots vs the elf ninja
give the elf ninja the +4 boots to be used in their combat
give the elf ninja the +4 boots afterwards but go ahead and use them first
It’s perfectly reasonable to expect that a player could generate a number of hypotheses and guess that the most likely was that they shouldn’t reveal the +4 boots at all, but they would have no real way of confirming that guess; the fact that they’re rewarded for guessing correctly is probably better than the alternative but is not satisfying IMO.
I think this is just an unavoidable consequence of the bonus objective being outside-the-box in some sense: any remotely-real world is much more complicated than the dataset can ever be.
If you were making this decision at a D&D table, you might want to ask the GM:
How easy is it to identify magic items? Can you tell what items your opponent uses while fighting him? Can you tell what items the contestants use while spectating a fight?
Can we disguise magic items? If we paint the totally powerful Boots of Speed lime green, will they still be recognizable?
How exactly did we get these +4 Boots? Did we (or can we convincingly claim to have) take them from people who stole them, rather than stealing them ourselves?
How honorable is House Cadagal’s reputation? If we give the Boots back, will they be grateful enough that it’s worth it rather than keeping the Boots?
I can’t realistically explain all of these up front in the scenario! And this is just the questions I can think of—in my last scenario (linked comment contains spoilers for that if you haven’t played it yet) the players came up with a zany scheme I hadn’t considered myself.
Overall, I think if you realized that the +4 Boots in your inventory came from the Elf Ninja you can count yourself as having accomplished the Bonus Objective regardless of what you decided to do with them. (You can imagine that you discussed the matter with the GM and your companions, asked all the questions above, and made a sensible decision based on the answers).