Immonen
2011-07-27, 08:26 PM
So I had this idea a few minutes ago.
Depending on the campaign setting, magic items are either something that you can get from the local magic shop, or ancient artifacts of great power, with names and everything.
Given the second one, such items should have a history and a legend behind them befitting the item. However, it's rather hard to come up with those on the fly while writing up treasure in the dragon's lair/ lich's tomb/ wizard's tower.
So, there should be some method of creating random histories, as an aid to DMing such a setting. My idea: for each effective +1 bonus an item has (or spell effect, in the case of staffs, rods, rings, wondrous items, etc.), one card is drawn from a typical playing card deck. Each card corresponds to a major event in the item's past, ex. a great hero wields it against a dragon, it defends its previous bearer from a basilisk's gaze, it's used to slaughter a village, and so on. This would result in minor items having boring/ short lives, while the truly epic and legendary items like Nine Lives Stealer would have long and interesting pasts.
Thoughts? Suggestions for a table? Death threats?
Depending on the campaign setting, magic items are either something that you can get from the local magic shop, or ancient artifacts of great power, with names and everything.
Given the second one, such items should have a history and a legend behind them befitting the item. However, it's rather hard to come up with those on the fly while writing up treasure in the dragon's lair/ lich's tomb/ wizard's tower.
So, there should be some method of creating random histories, as an aid to DMing such a setting. My idea: for each effective +1 bonus an item has (or spell effect, in the case of staffs, rods, rings, wondrous items, etc.), one card is drawn from a typical playing card deck. Each card corresponds to a major event in the item's past, ex. a great hero wields it against a dragon, it defends its previous bearer from a basilisk's gaze, it's used to slaughter a village, and so on. This would result in minor items having boring/ short lives, while the truly epic and legendary items like Nine Lives Stealer would have long and interesting pasts.
Thoughts? Suggestions for a table? Death threats?