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Artemicion
2014-02-03, 08:21 AM
I am about to start a new campaign (home brewed rules) with 5 players and I am looking for some advice.

I intend that throughout the campaign every PC find unique magical items that are particularly interesting and that either grow with them or that will stay interesting for the whole campaign. But I got only two so far!

The first is heavily related to the main plot of the story. The characters will find the diary of a man who has found the fabled Orin, an intelligent magic item that makes gods out of mortals. The diary will have powerful magical protection though. One will be able to turn a page only once he has retraced the path that the writer of the diary has taken. Which means that if the PCs want to find the Orin, they will need to basically follow to redo the adventures of the writer of the diary. Of course the item has a twist.

The diary is actually the Orin which is testing its holder with a bunch of adventures to see if he is worth of receiving godly powers.

The second item is, I must admit, directly stolen err... inspired by Nowhereman583 http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=322649. A bag filled with salt... and surprises!

I still need three interesting, quirky, mysterious, growing magical items to add in the campaign... Any ideas?

hamlet
2014-02-03, 09:28 AM
The book sounds like a great big ticket to a nice train ride.:smallwink:

You would have to handle that one very carefully or the players are going to get understandably upset. There's got to be lots for them to do other than to follow along the rails. Make the whole quest for the Orin almost a side quest.


As for additional items, have you thought about relics of the last person to complete the quest? Perhaps a cloak that used to belong to him/her/it that still carries some of the feelings/emotions of its first trip through these adventures and will react oddly to the person wearing it, perhaps inciting fear or uneasiness the next time it starts remembering where it is and realizing that the wearer is in danger. Perhaps it has some protective powers that the cloak itself can trigger almost as a reflex and the wearer might not be able to fully control. Might even cause some issues (think Rodney McKay and the Ancient personal shield device maybe).

A finger bone from a digit lost by the original questor. It literally points the way when the heroes are lost, but it has a wicked sense of humor.

Red Fel
2014-02-03, 09:31 AM
A classic one is the evolving sword. Assuming you have a swordsman-type in your party, he may not be as interested in books or salt-shakers as he is in a keen blade.

Throw out a simple weapon, the equivalent of a +1 masterwork sword. Then start growing it based upon his feats and his actions. For example, if he does many good deeds, make it a Good-aligned weapon. If he spends his time protecting the innocent, give it a Defending enhancement. If he uses it to deal the killing blow to a fire elemental, turn it into a Flaming weapon. Basically, make the weapon a living testament to its wielder's deeds. (In fact, that would be a good name for the weapon - "Testament.")

Now come up with a story. The weapon is in fact a dormant life-form. It is actually learning and growing based on its experiences in the wielder's hands. At a certain point, if the wielder's actions merit it, you may even make it an intelligent weapon, capable of communicating. It will come to see the wielder as a sort of foster-parent-figure. You may even make it Animated later, and give it the ability to move on its own. It may even grow literally, as well as emotionally; it may start as a shortsword, then become a longsword, or even a greatsword, depending on the wielder's use and proficiencies. (Obviously, don't turn it into a weapon he can't/won't use, that's just cruel.)

You could do a similar thing with a staff, if you wanted, but I think the sword strikes me as cooler.

Side note: Be cautious when using magical items like this. If you have a particular way you see the item evolving over time, it may feel like railroading if you force your players to go by it. They may simply use the item, and decide they like it as-is, and not feel the need to go on an elaborate quest to make it bigger and better. Don't force it, or else they may give up on the item entirely rather than let it run the campaign.

Artemicion
2014-02-03, 09:48 AM
You would have to handle that one very carefully or the players are going to get understandably upset. There's got to be lots for them to do other than to follow along the rails. Make the whole quest for the Orin almost a side quest.

You are absolutely right. It is intended much more as a side quest related to the main plot (a new star in the sky, which happens to be a new home for a new god... who will it be?) rather than the plot itself. If there are players interested in godhood in the group, well this might be a plot hook they decide to bite upon. Otherwise, they will need to decide what to do this the book. Some might hire to PCs to investigate, while some others will definitely want to get their hands on the book for their own nefarious reasons...

Your other ideas are great, although I would rather the other quirky items not be Orin oriented, to provide other plot hooks rather than reinforce this one.


A classic one is the evolving sword.

Yeah I had thought about this one, especially since one of the characters will be a sword mage of some sort, casting status ailments spells through his sword. I thought it might evolve depending on the spells channeled through it (cast too many poison spells through it and you will get a blade with a vitriolic sense of humor, for example).

I felt it might be a little too classic though. But of course, it is classic for a reason!

Red Fel
2014-02-03, 10:17 AM
Yeah I had thought about this one, especially since one of the characters will be a sword mage of some sort, casting status ailments spells through his sword. I thought it might evolve depending on the spells channeled through it (cast too many poison spells through it and you will get a blade with a vitriolic sense of humor, for example).

I felt it might be a little too classical though. But of course, it is classical for a reason!

It is indeed a classic for a reason (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvolvingWeapon). (There are some good examples on that link, if you're ready for TV Tropes to ruin your life (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife).)

But what's this? You already know your party composition? That changes things!

I would suggest that you come up with concepts that are tied to your PCs as individuals. Not as classes, mind you, but as people. For example, is one an evil character, reluctantly forced to become good? You could give him a cursed relic of some kind, that weakens him when he is evil, but boosts his power when he is good - and as he becomes more good, the item itself becomes more powerful, eventually revealing itself as some sort of "wicked soul imprisoned in a magic item seeking redemption through noble acts" deal. Do you have a character who fights for his lost love? You can have some sort of relic that rewards his heroism with the promise of true love, perhaps going so far as to, in its final form, become a living thing, perhaps some sort of angelic cohort. (Unless that's weird for you. I dunno. Throwing things out there.)

Tie the concepts to who the characters are as people, to their backgrounds, their histories, their dreams and wants and emotions, and you are grabbing the players by the feels. And once you have them by the feels, you can squeeze- Ahem. And once you have them by the feels, you'll have an unparalleled level of immersion.

NichG
2014-02-03, 10:34 AM
Here's two items recently uncovered in my campaign:

The Diary: This is a sort of choose-your-own adventures diary of a young girl living at a country estate. As someone reads it, their thoughts shape how she reacts to situations, and those changes become real parts of the history of the world. The book contains random bits of arcana or lore that the girl encounters, but of course it can end suddenly if you direct it the wrong way. The places are real and things the girl mentions can actually be located after the fact.

The Clockwork Bird: This globe is encircled with rotating gears, and at the center is a clockwork bird. If you roll the globe along the ground following the path of one of the gears, it either gets larger or smaller. There is some specific combination that can make the globe quite big indeed - city-sized, in fact, but it requires escalatingly difficult Intelligence checks to discover the combination. The bird turns out to be a flying city populated with gearwork creatures, and if you make it large enough it can actually fly (it starts to levitate at a few feet in diameter) or even be entered and interacted with from within (giving the player access to whatever clockwork civilization exists within and the products of its artistry).

Artemicion
2014-02-03, 11:18 AM
I would suggest that you come up with concepts that are tied to your PCs as individuals.

I must admit I am a little ambivalent about tying the items directly to the character concepts. My original idea was to provide the PCs with interesting or mysterious thingys and let them see if the wanted to investigate them or not. They would not have been "woa this is so tailored for me" items but rather "hum that's weird, think we can do anything with it?". Hence the shaker.

I do get your point about engaging the characters, but I usually try to do that with NPCs, locations and PC specific side-quest rather than items. However, I do really like the ideas mentioned, and the angelic cohort seems pretty funky. As soon as I know better what the players intend to play (I only have vague ideas so far), I will definitely give a thought about character specific interesting items.


Here's two items recently uncovered in my campaign

The Diary is very intriguing, but I must admit I am not exactly sure I would be able to manage it properly in game terms.

The clockwork bird sounds awesome! And weird! I really like the idea of a clockwork item/machine/puzzle that, when you manage to use properly, has interesting/mesmerizing effects. Wind the right spring, push the right button, roll it in the right direction... either be bright enough to figure out how to use it or find indications here and there of combinations that will make it work (now this is going away from your also very intriguing idea, but this would fit very well in my campaign).

This kind of reminds me of Heward's Mystical Organ or the Machine of Lum the Mad... but easy to carry! (and probably much less dangerous).

The Cats
2014-02-03, 12:00 PM
Hourglass of Perfect Recall
This small hourglass holds enough sand to time 30 seconds and has a triangle carved into one end and a square carved into the other. When the hourglass is flipped with the square-end up the sand will run through as normal. When the hourglass is flipped again, however, the user is granted a 30 second long perfect vision of all events that occurred within 30 feet and line of sight of the hourglass while the sand was pouring. The user cannot take any actions for the duration of the vision. Once the vision ends the hourglass resets.


Does't exactly grow with the characters but is interesting and likely to be useful throughout the campaign if the players are clever.

There's also the idea of modular golems. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16893891&postcount=2) Each piece of a golem acts as a useful magic item on it's own then when all are put together, you get a golem!

And wearable golems (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16900606&postcount=3). Miniature golems you can wear like a gauntlet, backpack, necklace or beard. (There's also one you can use as a mirror and one that transforms into a liveable hut in there if you're curious.)

NichG
2014-02-03, 01:07 PM
Another fun one, from my previous campaign: gloves that caused any container held in them to transform water into a substance appropriate to the container. So if you fill a beer mug with water, you get beer; if you fill a wine glass with water, you get wine; if you fill a human skull with water, you get blood. Obviously this needs to stop short of a few ridiculous things, like a potion vial :)