Legendary magic items, loot & everyday items?

[Verderer]

Premise: it's pretty hard to be a GM when you're busy with work and everyday life, or are just plain too lazy to create some aspects of you campaign world. There is some stuff I'd love to insert straight into my games.

One of these things is equipment, magic items, loot and just plain common everyday items, such as pint of ale. I have understood Arms of Legend is pretty much a reprint of the old RQII Arms & Equipment guide? While this book contains some excellent material and rules, what I'd really love to see is a book full of premade magic items, (random or not) lists for loot, and price lists for everything, from magic items to to every day items. Ok, not for unique hero-stuff, but I'd like to know how much you ask for a potion or a unnaturally sharp sword, for example? In some worlds they do sell these things, you know?

While it's nice to have rules for creating enchanted weapons & armour etc, I would in addition welcome some generic magic item lists/data to populate those treasure hoards, chests and catacombs, you know? It may not be hard to create them but it is time-consuming, and requires at least of mediocre understanding of the rules, let alone some sort of organised mind to compile them. :roll: I don't really excel in this area. I find it really annoying that there isnt' a monetary value for various magic items, potions, and especially every day stuff your PCs are likely to consume or use. I don't want to wing it every time my players go shopping.

Keep most of the magic items relatively generic (a +1 sword or a ring of protection from D&D style games), so they can be inserted into most conceivabale Legend worlds, and use a cohesive system to put a monetary valuefor everything if possible. While it is nice to have unique & priceless enchanted items specific to each Legend world, I would welcome a more generic take on this theme. Something like those loot & scoot type of fantasy games have. I don't want to custom make EVERYTHING. Hope I make at least a little sense here?

 

[Dan True]

Take a look at my Eberron conversion (link in my signature). There I have included a bunch of generic magic items, along with d&d-style rules for creating such.

Beware that the system is much different form d&d so the effect of magic items is much more deeply felt, as people die a lot easier and armour is much more useful - as it affects every hit you take, and not the all-or-nothing-protection from d&d.

You can also find some ordinary items (albeit Eberron styled), monsters and generic NPCs.

- Dan

 

[Prime_Evil]

The generic magic items in your Eberron conversion are great - albeit quite powerful in a Legend campaign! You should consider developing a version of your magic item rules that are not tied to that particular setting and either submitting them to Mongoose or releasing them as a separate OGL sourcebook.

I wonder whether it might be worth introducing a system of non-magical enhancements for items that expands on the Quality rules from Arms of Legend with a broader range of Enhancements - weapons that give access to an additional combat maneuver, armour with a reduced ENC penalty, ornate sacrificial daggers that give a small bonus to summoning rituals, that sort of thing. This would enable the GM to reward characters with items that provide a modest benefit without the Christmas-tree effect that seems to occur in high level D&D.

 

[Dan True]

The generic magic items in your Eberron conversion are great - albeit quite powerful in a Legend campaign! You should consider developing a version of your magic item rules that are not tied to that particular setting and either submitting them to Mongoose or releasing them as a separate OGL sourcebook.

I have though along the same lines - using the magic items in my Eberron conversion only makes sense for very high-magical worlds like Eberron. Worlds where adversaries are as likely to have a wand up their sleeve, as the PCs are, or you will have to fight squads of 'Scorched Book' anti-mage troopers.

I do however not have the time at the moment to do it. I am planning a Pirate Campaign for my group, and was going to collect my material on Port Royal into a Pirates of Legend supplement - but that will likely also be delayed along with Modern Legends. School and starting a business takes up a lot of time :| Might get around to it sometime this decade...

- Dan

 

[Verderer]

Yes, something that would include several power levels (or flexible scaling), so you could decide which ones to use, would be real nice. 8)

 

[Prime_Evil]

I have though along the same lines - using the magic items in my Eberron conversion only makes sense for very high-magical worlds like Eberron. Worlds where adversaries are as likely to have a wand up their sleeve, as the PCs are, or you will have to fight squads of 'Scorched Book' anti-mage troopers.

There's a big difference between the magic of D&D and the magic of Legend and it's not just a matter of power level - Legend seems to imply a setting where "mundane" magic may be common, but potent forms of magic - and enchanted items - are rare. By contrast, classic D&D implies a setting where low-powered magic is surprisingly rare, but extremely potent magic exists and adventurers who survive are almost certain to stumble across it. Eberron is a bit of a strange setting for D&D, because it does assume that low-powered magic is commonplace. This probably makes it easier to convert across that Birthright, Dark Sun, or Planescape.

I do however not have the time at the moment to do it. I am planning a Pirate Campaign for my group, and was going to collect my material on Port Royal into a Pirates of Legend supplement - but that will likely also be delayed along with Modern Legends. School and starting a business takes up a lot of time :| Might get around to it sometime this decade...

That's a shame. If you need any help stripping out the Eberron IP and creating a generic version, let me know - I'd be happy to pitch it. Although there are some significant differences between the d20 system and Legend, there is a wealth of OGL material out there just waiting to be converted - the trick is working out what works with the flavour of Legend and what doesn't. Mongoose has proven that d20 conversions can work with Skarr: City of Orcs - there are still a few rough edges where it is obvious that material has been dragged across from one system to the other, but on the whole it's a decent piece of work.

 

[Lemnoc]

Seems, though, like any ol' sourcebook would yield clues for the costs of everyday items and common loot. A copper is a copper, and a beer is a beer :?

 

[Harshlax]

Well if you want limits for low powered magic items you could duplicate common magic effects, staying with 1 or 2 pt effects for the progressive spells. So a sword with a permanent bladesharp 1 on it, or a hammer with an Armoursmiths's boon on it (is that the right name, I forget).

They shouldn't be too powerful or game-breaking.

 

[Prime_Evil]

Seems, though, like any ol' sourcebook would yield clues for the costs of everyday items and common loot. A copper is a copper, and a beer is a beer :?

That's certainly true, but one of the fun things that you can do in a game that includes the Evaluate skill is introduce items whose apparent value differs from their actual value - a copper coin minted in the reign of a famous monarch that of particular value to collectors, or a keg of beer stolen from a brewery with a reputation for excellence whose products command a high price. If the adventurers don't correctly assess the true value of the item, they lose a certain amount of cash when they sell it on to a merchant. .This tactic should be used sparingly - no more than once or twice per adventure. Perhaps that tarnished pewter plate that the ogre has been eating off is actually fine silverware, and perhaps that strange scrap of cloth in his bedding is actually a rare scrap of silk?

This approach also works well in reverse if you scatter a few items through each adventure that appear more valuable than they actually are. If these items have a couple of points of ENC each, the characters can quickly weigh themselves down with worthless junk.

 

[Verderer]

Seems, though, like any ol' sourcebook would yield clues for the costs of everyday items and common loot. A copper is a copper, and a beer is a beer :?

The thing is, which one? It would better be one of the corebooks, because I for one won't be buying each and all sourcebooks available for Legend. It's a pity the old RQ Arms & Equipment book had prices for entire houses, but nothing (as I recall) on pints or a legs of mutton?

I have several BRP/RQII sourcebooks which have small lists specific for each campaign world, but they're not very extensive, and how can I be sure their prices are comparable with some other campaign world prices? A more extensive core list in a corebook would make things easier, because it would give a point of reference for (almost) every item/product/service etc. Then in campaign specific books you could merely refer to this corelist, add more stuff to it or list items which aren't available, or instruct how some items would be cheaper/more expensive than in the corelist. While AoL & RQII A&E contains lists of many items, it's by no means extensive enough.

you need to have pricelists for food & drink (I can't believe such an obvious thing was omitted), and you need to have some way of putting a monetary value on enchanted items, spells and potions etc. The lack of these things severely limits the use of Legend for some types of campaigns, where enchantments are relatively common and where money is routinely used in trade. One such example is Clockwork & Chivalry, wherer you have a very developed trade in the 17th centrury Britain, but how much do potions cost? So you may not need them for all Legend campaigns, but you need them for many, so why limit the system in such a way?

Of course, it's the specific nature of RQ that is behind some of the quirks inherent in Legend, like enchanted/divine items being unique and hard to get, requiring a heroquest or something, and the enchantment system is rich, versatile and interesting, but it's a major headache when making certain type of campaigns. For some people this may be a non-issue, I understand that. But I believe I am not the only person who's bugged by this issue?

 

[Prime_Evil]

Of course, it's the specific nature of RQ that is behind some of the quirks inherent in Legend, like enchanted/divine items being unique and hard to get, requiring a heroquest or something, and the enchantment system is rich, versatile and interesting, but it's a major headache when making certain type of campaigns. For some people this may be a non-issue, I understand that. But I believe I am not the only person who's bugged by this issue?

By sheer luck, the assumptions built into RQ from an early date map against the assumptions of traditional swords and sorcery fiction from the pulp era. At a time when the trend in RPG design was towards power creep in the enchantment system, RQ emphasized the unique nature of every single enchanted item - if you look at early products like Plunder, you will see that pretty much every magical item was given an interesting backstory. By contrast, at the same time D&D only granted cool histories to the most potent artifacts and assumed the existence of a large amount of "generic" magic items.

However, although these assumptions suit my own tastes fairly well, I believe that a good fantasy RPG should be able to accommodate whatever power level the GM wants to model. If you want earth-shattering relics left behind by ancient empires in your Legend game, the system should be able to do this....

 

[soltakss]

Premise: it's pretty hard to be a GM when you're busy with work and everyday life, or are just plain too lazy to create some aspects of you campaign world. There is some stuff I'd love to insert straight into my games.

One of these things is equipment, magic items, loot and just plain common everyday items, such as pint of ale. I have understood Arms of Legend is pretty much a reprint of the old RQII Arms & Equipment guide? While this book contains some excellent material and rules, what I'd really love to see is a book full of premade magic items, (random or not) lists for loot, and price lists for everything, from magic items to to every day items. Ok, not for unique hero-stuff, but I'd like to know how much you ask for a potion or a unnaturally sharp sword, for example? In some worlds they do sell these things, you know?

It really all depends on the setting. Some settings have very few magic items and these are seen as very powerful and rare. Others have more common magic items which can be bought or sold at the local market.

While it's nice to have rules for creating enchanted weapons & armour etc, I would in addition welcome some generic magic item lists/data to populate those treasure hoards, chests and catacombs, you know? It may not be hard to create them but it is time-consuming, and requires at least of mediocre understanding of the rules, let alone some sort of organised mind to compile them. :roll: I don't really excel in this area. I find it really annoying that there isnt' a monetary value for various magic items, potions, and especially every day stuff your PCs are likely to consume or use. I don't want to wing it every time my players go shopping.

RQ2/3 had some prices for magic items, but the economics were a bit skewed - magic items were either cheap as chips or hideously expensive.

For example, enchanted items in RQ2 cost 1000L (Silver Pieces) for each POW point used in its creation, plus an extra cost for matrices etc. Potions could cost a fortune as well. RQ3 went the other way and made magic items really cheap.

Keep most of the magic items relatively generic (a +1 sword or a ring of protection from D&D style games), so they can be inserted into most conceivabale Legend worlds, and use a cohesive system to put a monetary valuefor everything if possible. While it is nice to have unique & priceless enchanted items specific to each Legend world, I would welcome a more generic take on this theme. Something like those loot & scoot type of fantasy games have. I don't want to custom make EVERYTHING. Hope I make at least a little sense here?

I've got some fairly generic items for RQ, which might fit Legend, but might need some tweaking. Have a look at http://www.soltakss.com/indexMisc.html#MagicItems and Alchemy here http://www.soltakss.com/alchemy.html, which might be useful.

 

[Verderer]

Wow, thanks for the linky soltakss, lots of stuff to read there. 8)