Magic Items
How many players have actually had their
characters make a magical item, raise their hand. How many of you have made this
item to be sold in the future? Did you make it for some specific person? Did
you make it to be sold on the open market?
I didn't think so.
No self respecting wizard would make
magical items for sale on the open market. They'd be crack-heads to do so, giving
some of their power to total strangers, sacrificing the one edge that they have
over potential enemies.
Therefore I STRONGLY recommend that
magical items not be available at "magic shops" or lying around in a
dungeon (unless near the corpse of their owner). That's like a Masonic group
selling their secrets to the public: Bloody stupid. This leads to a pretty
important question:
So how would PCs get magical items?
Let's think about some of the cooler
stories that involved magical items. How about Camelot? A sword of kings forged
at the dawn of time... now THAT's cool. Or think about the Arabian knights.
Alladin's lamp was essentially a trapped djinn and his carpet was made by that
same djinn. Sure, Thor has his hammer and Perseus his shield which reflects a
gaze, and these are kinda neat. Let's not forget Elric's sword, Stormbringer,
which was trapped in some netherworld, unreachable by even the inhabitants
(Elric's sword is especially cool, as it has a curse and a "character
foil" sword, Mournblade, which makes the wielders battle for eternity).
Even in the Lord of the Rings, there were less than a dozen magical items in
any single gathering of heroes/villains, and they were earned or stolen; not
made, not bought, but taken.
As you might have guessed, I'm getting
to a point: STOP GIVING OUT MAGIC ITEMS!! Mages are most likely going to
destroy their items or hide them when they stop using them. Anything not made
by a wizard is likely to be made by supernatural beings or cosmic forces, the
origins of the great artifacts shrouded in the mysteries of time and myth.
In case you don't yet understand my
problem, I'll tell you: I'm sick of GMs with such little imagination that they
have to escalate the power of encounters, not being able to come up with better
plots using old arch-nemeses and "weak" monsters who might actually
have some sense of organization (which is all too often ignored) or
intelligence. Instead they throw bigger, badder monsters (with little reason as
why or how these monsters became hostile toward the PCs or even present at the
time) at the PCs and have to give out bigger, badder rewards and magic items so
that the PCs can stand up to these things, character development and plot
development be hanged, along with ingenuity and problem solving skills!!!!!
Okay, I'm done venting.
The Counter
Balance:
Epic Artifacts
for Epic Adventure
I scoff at rules for making magical items:
Scoff, scoff, scoff. If there's any one basic principle for making any
artifact, it should be this....
WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?????
In other words, why was it made? When
was it made? Who made it? How was it made? Once those questions are answered,
the rest is easy, as long as gameplay is balanced (I like to make magic
artifacts that grow in power as the party grows). I'll give you an example.
Ash-Shabbal-Muthlim, the Soul Eater (rune
hammer)
As you might have guessed by the name,
this is a brutal, savage weapon of chaos, madness and primal power. Inside is
the essence of a long forgotten Arabic fertility goddess (for those of you who
know of H.P.Lovecraft's writings, this is a fragment of Shubb-Nuggurath's
spirit). The head was a monstrous looking shrivelled head of a goat. The
business end was an open maw of needle-like teeth, the back was blunted,
chipped horns. The handle looked like writhing bark and the "pommel"
was a cloven hoof.
The Powers:
The wielder experienced a constant feeling of power (Summon Inner Strength,
constant) and could sense danger (Sixth Sense). The hammer removed any need for
sleep or rest. When the hammer chose, its senses were shared with the owner,
giving a means of spying, awareness and the ability to sense souls. The hammer
could also fly to the wielder if it so chose, even if it had to tear through something
to get there. The wielder got clairvoyant dreams and could read minds when
using the hammer's senses. Sometimes, when struck, the victim's soul was
devoured by the hammer, it's eyes glowing an eerie green. Summary – Psionics
{Sixth Sense, Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Presence Sense, Summon Inner Strength
(constantly in effect)}, Flies to owner upon command (strikes on its way back
if needed), Owner can see through hammer’s eyes at will.
The Problems:
The owner slowly grew more and more evil with each passing day. The hammer's
head would salivate when it was hungry for more souls, adding to it's already
revolting appearance. Whenever the hammer was in the peripheral vision of
someone, the head would writhe and mouth arcane words. No one knows what these
words are, because as soon as someone consciously looks at the hammer, it
reverts back to normal, as if it were a trick of the eyes. Once the hammer
drains enough souls (say 1 million PPE worth) it summons faeries, Deevils and
other beast men to take the wielder to a cave buried in Arabia where (s)he will
be thrown into a pool. From that pool will emerge an evil reflection of the
character (along with the original PC at the original alignment, without the
hammer) who will slay a thousand souls and carry the hammer back to Shubb
Niggurath. Also, if the hammer doesn't get the souls it needs, there is a
chance that it will, during the next full moon, transform the owner into a
giant monster resembling a tree trunk with tentacles for tree limbs, walking on
three cloven hooves and stuffing anyone nearby into its salivating toothy maw
(this is the true shape of Ash Shabbal Muthlim). Summary – Drains PPE of those
it kills; saves up enough to mass-summon devils and fey creatures to capture
owner; Teleports to place of power where evil copy of PC is created (who takes
hammer). Horror Factor of owner starts at 8 and goes up by one per level. Save
vs. psionic attack 1/month or transform into (equivalent) multi-merged boschala
for the night and consume all in path, plus all the powers of the hammer.
The Origin:
Shubb Niggurath, the great old one of the Earth's dimension, who symbolized
fertility, darkness, disease and the isolation of the woods, is mother to what
are called the Thousand Dark Young of Shubb Niggurath, which are her essences
and agents in the world of substance. Powerful, monstrous and obscene to
anything they contact, they are called upon by only the most daring and
talented of men learned in the dark arts. One man called upon one, so that it
may consume his rival to the throne of a small kingdom in the Middle East in
7300 BC. The beast, able to understand the minds of men, came and made a pact,
doing the requested deed in return for a child to be chosen by the beast. The
foolish wizard agreed, and, after his rival (who also happened to be the
summoner's own older brother) was devoured by the tree-like horror, the demon
chose for its child the wizard himself (after all, he will always be his
mother's child).
But the wizard had a trick up his
sleeve: He had made an amulet which made it so that when one day he would be
killed, his killer would be trapped within the amulet as revenge. The beast was
so powerful, however, that it was able to slowly, over a thousand years,
reshape the amulet into something else. That shape was a hammer.
The Acquiring:
In one of my Rifts adventures, "Weekend in Pittsburgh" it's
background was that the hammer was found in an archaeological dig. It was taken
to North America as a museum exhibit. The spirit has slept for thousands of
years until the power of the rifts made it rise from its slumber, ready for a
new age of havoc.
Cool, no?
The ideas are what's important, and
stinky cheese is forbidden. By stinky cheese I mean the old "throwing
lightning bolts" and "glowing radiance" and stuff that takes no
inventiveness to devise, at least without good reason or explanation.
"Ah never go teh war
without mah luckay Besse!"
Belief is a powerful tool. Deific
theory, as explained in Dragons and Gods, is a perfect example of this. When
enough people believe in a god, they unknowingly feed it PPE and make it real.
The same thing applies with the "trusty .45" or the "lucky
hat" or the "sword of the legendary Sir Soandso", or even
"Billy's hot rod car". Anything can go through this process, even if
it's technological or already enchanted.
However, belief is not the only
requirement to making a personalized magic item. PPE, Chi or ISP are also
needed to fuel the belief, along with experience points. Here's the way it
works.
Say someone with no psychic or chi
abilities picks a lock with his "trusty pen-knife". He gets 25 XP for
picking the lock, but then turns to his buddies and says "Ah couldn't a'
dun it without me trusty pen-knife!" This does two things: First, the
pen-knife gets 1/2 the XP (rounded down to the nearest multiple of 5, which is
10 from the 25 gained by performing a skill; the owner gets the rest) and 1 PPE
(which is not taken permanently from the user's PPE base, but treated as if a
spell were cast). The pen-knife now has 10 XP and 1 PPE.
Over the course of the adventure, the
pen-knife is used to fend off a mugger, disarm a bomb and escape capture from
the mob (by cutting the rope tied behind his back, picking another lock,
freeing his friends and other stuff). This guys pen-knife (which has gotten
over 200 XP and 8 PPE) has been given a name: "Mel's Trusty
Pen-Knife".
The XP can be used to re-roll any skill
roll or combat roll at the cost of 25 of the stored up XP (only for an
applicable skill roll, such as a combat roll with the knife itself or a lock
picking roll) with the additional cost of 1 PPE. It can also be used to call
upon GM advice for a problem for 100 XP + 1 PPE (useful idea or action) or to
have the GM advise on an action to save the PC's life for 200 XP + 1 PPE
(plan/action that saves life of character), using the knife of course. Only Mel
can access the XP and PPE that he gave the knife. However, if he tells the
stories of his adventures with the knife to someone who he gives the knife to
(permanently) they can access it too, as long as they believe. No XP is gained
from the expenditure of stored item XP (so using the knife’s XP to pick a lock
gives no 25 XP reward to the user).
Now begins the magic part. Let's say
that over the course of the campaign, Mel's Trusty Pen-Knife gets more than 20
PPE and over 4000 XP. Mel can spend 5 PPE (or ISP or Chi if he were a psychic
or Chi master) and 1000 XP for a permanent +5% bonus on pick locks. For
the same cost, Mel can get a permanent +1 strike with the knife (GM won't allow
a parry bonus with such a small item). Other possibilities include +5% to the
art skill (carving), +5% to wilderness survival, +1 damage ("always sharp,
that trusty pen-knife of mine!") and so on. Anyone using the pen-knife can
access these permanent abilities, believer or no.
Now, thirty years later, Mel has died
and Mel's Trusty Pen-Knife is handed down to his son, Josh. Josh heard the
stories of his father's adventures so he can carry on the tradition in Mel's
name (and access the XP). Josh is a Physical Psychic (from Beyond the
Supernatural). Over the course of Josh's adventures he sees the wonderful
things that his father's pen-knife can do (a total of +10% to pick locks, +5%
to survival and +2 strike). Josh then begins to believe in the wonders of Mel's
Trusty Pen-Knife and starts feeding it XP, and PPE/ISP.
After a handful of adventures, Josh has
given the knife 28 ISP and 5000 XP. Now Josh slowly realizes that,
through some psychic link with his father's pen-knife, he feels stronger with
it in his hand. Now the pen-knife has 4450 XP (only 900 of his own remain; 4100
were spent on this next power) and 4 ISP to draw upon, but the pen-knife now
has a permanent 4 ISP base (which recovers at a rate of 2 per hour, but can be
recharged at ley lines) and the psychic ability of Summon Inner Strength at
sixth level (Josh is sixth level when he gives this to the knife). This is
because the person playing Josh has selected to lose 4000 XP and 4 ISP (for a 4
ISP psionic) for Summon Inner Strength to be included in the knife's
repertoire, plus he sacrificed 20 ISP (it's a 5 to 1 ratio) and 100 XP to give
the knife a 4 ISP base, so that others (who have heard of the strengthening
effects of the knife) can activate the psychic ability without needing the ISP.
After the death of Josh at the hands of
a Goqua, the pen-knife is lost in the sewers where Josh met his end. The pen
knife still had 23 PPE and 3550 XP from Mel, plus 65 ISP and 5250 XP from Josh,
for a combined total of 23 PPE, 65 ISP and 8800 XP. What happens to this? Well
it rots. And, with any good rotting thing, it attracts decomposers and
parasites. So a random entity (a poltergeist in this case) senses the PPE and
comes down to feast. The poltergeist consumes all the PPE and ISP. It also
accidentally taps into the XP (which never leaves since nobody is around to
hear of the item's history & use it). The side-effect, and thus the trap
for the Poltergeist, is that it is transformed by the XP so that it thinks it
is Josh (who had more XP in the knife) as 3rd level character (8800 XP for a
physical psychic).
A few hundred years later the Rifts
come. A line walker named Lothos is searching for a D-bee who stole his amulet
and is using his magic sensing abilities, when he discovers an entity. He
scrounges around in the rubble and, to his left, a pen knife levitates five
feet into the air. Lothos tries to speak to the spirit and then the pen-knife
scratches a message into a nearby stone: "I am Josh." With that, the
pen knife hovers near Lothos so that he may take it, which he does. Josh's
spirit (who could leave now that someone else has the knife), sensing a huge
PPE base in Lothos, decides to stick around and help him in return for food.
Josh tells Lothos of his adventures, of
his father and of the wonders of the pen-knife, so that Lothos can use all the
abilities to their fullest. A deal is then struck between the two: the spirit
of Josh will protect Lothos (using the psychic powers of the entity) in return
for 1 PPE per hour, plus psychic expenses.
Lothos also contributes to the
pen-knife, adding to the abilities that the pen-knife had at the time. The
final abilities of the pen knife are as follows:
+10% pick locks; +15% wilderness survival;
the knife has 400 SDC (MDC in Rifts); +3 strike; +2 damage; an ISP base of 20
and the psychic abilities of Meditation, Summon Inner Strength, Mind Block,
Impervious to Cold; a PPE base of 30 and the magical abilities of Heal Wounds
and Seal. Plus it's an amulet of protection against the Supernatural (+2 vs.
horror factor). Furthermore, the pen knife is possessed by a poltergeist, who
has all the standard abilities of the poltergeist entity, but with the
personality of Josh.
Pretty good for a pen knife!
Should Lothos die with more than 5250 XP
in the knife (what Josh had), the poltergeist will change its identity to
Lothos. There's also a chance that a more powerful entity, like a possessing
entity, could want the food of the pen-knife for itself and scare away the
poltergeist. Then the possessing entity would become the spirit of Josh (or
whoever) and any subsequent owners might have to try and resist possession by
the ghost of Josh (or Lothos) if the entity doesn’t get its way.
Summary (all abilities must be
okayed with the GM)
1 re-roll of a skill/combat roll
25 XP +1 PPE/ISP/Chi
100 to 1000 XP + 1 PPE/ISP/Chi
+1% to a skill
1 PPE/ISP/Chi + 200 XP
+1 to a combat roll
5 PPE/ISP/Chi + 1000 XP
known psychic ability costing (N) ISP*
(N) ISP + (Nx1000) XP
known magic ability costing (N) PPE*
(N) PPE + (Nx1000) XP
known chi ability costing (N) Chi*
(N) Chi + (Nx1000) XP
+1 PPE/ISP/Chi base
5 PPE/ISP/Chi + 25 XP
+1 SDC/MDC to the item
1 PPE/ISP/Chi + 100 XP
* if the power is variable (such as telekinesis or body chi)
where more Chi, PPE or ISP can be fed into the ability for greater effect, the
creator of the power chooses a static value (such as a 10 ISP telekinesis).
This never changes.