Breccia
2022-03-07, 11:31 AM
Not that it matters, but this is 5E.
So the campaign I'm writing is based around rune magic, a special form that fell out of practice centuries ago that the players, in their travels, re-discover. Every time I make a campaign, I like to add a little something to the PCs to make them a little stronger than normal, mostly as a justification for why they're the main characters and nobody else is. Oh, and more exciting combats and tougher challenges.
Anyhow, the gimmick this time is the players will have a single magic item they can upgrade over the course of the campaign, by acquiring runes and slotting them in to increase the item's power. Each item would be individually created for that character, based on what that player/that character wants.
For example, this might be the sword of a ranger whose favored enemy is undead:
https://i.imgur.com/HuFkKzO.png
And a combat Wizard might get this ring:
https://i.imgur.com/7YVfhhI.png
The rules, as I currently have them written:
1) The color of the rune is mostly for my benefit to keep the rune's rarity clear. Yes, it's the standard grey/green/blue/purple, but the real items won't have actual colors on them. It's purely me using an existing code to keep things clear. As shown in the image above, the introductory/grey powers should be pretty minor.
Players will have no trouble finding the introductory runes -- you basically find them in magic coffee pots and hot plates. They'll find a few and find others in antique stores or the houses of quest-giving NPCs.
At higher level, 7th to be more precise, the runes will have a meaningful cost -- sacrificing a permanent magic item of uncommon (green) rarity to rip the rune out of it. As a DM, the advantage for me is items in treasure troves that turn out to be unpopular can simply be "burned" this way. But +1 weapons and rings of warmth aren't exactly thick on the ground. They'll still find some unattached runes in important quests, of course, but might have to decide which PC gets it first. (Burning magic items for their rune makes that decision easier)
2) Runed items have a special "attunement". You can only have one rune item, period. Nobody else can use your rune item, period. There's a rune research lab they'll find around level 5 that might let them bend those rules, for example, "Could my ring possibly swap to a wand?" or repairing a broken weapon into another weapon. Players will be told that giving away or selling these items is a costly mistake, and I won't let them get irrecoverably lost or stolen by complete random chance.
3) You can activate one rune per character level. You can swap out, but you have to return to the rune research lab to do it, so it's more involved than "long rest" and closer to "in between game sessions". (The game group meets once/week and it's tradition we level up between game sessions, not during)
Runes always start at a specific spot (in those pictures, the bottom) and you can follow any path from any spot already activated. You can go backwards -- that's mostly for me, in case I don't put effects in an order the player likes.
Regardless of what they find, rarity changes will happen at pre-determined main storyline points, level 7 and 13. They can't "blitz" into the +2 weapon at 4th level, for example, even if they can reach it.
4) As the items won't be available/active till level 3 and we start at 1, I'll have a few sessions to see what skills, spells, and abilities they like. There's no point in giving the cleric a helmet that empowers the aid spell if they never prepare it, and no point in giving the rogue a dagger if they only use their shortbow.
By the time the party reaches level 7, I should have a much better idea what the player and character want -- hopefully because, after exploring the system and understanding what it means, they outright tell me. The goal isn't to lock out player choices or break their goals. If a character's backstory has them wishing they could one day summon lightning from the skies, giving them a wand of cold wouldn't help.
This also means the items they get should at least have the potential to be an item they actually hope to use, and they won't have an ugly choice. "Man, I really love flaming swords, but my runed item is a battleaxe +1 with a bunch of effects which help combat. I'll guess I'll keep using it, even though we just found this flaming sword, it's too much of a downgrade if I swap".
5) To that end, a DM friend of mine suggested (at 7th level) the idea of having the runed item move to a nonstandard slot, that therefore wouldn't stop them from using other items. Upside is they can use everything they find, downside of course is these items are standard. At least if the choice is available, the player can pick.
6) Ideally, each item will offer enough offense, defense, and utility powers that there are meaningful choices to make. I don't want to drown them in options, but they should always feel like levelling up and adding a new rune gives them something that's at least useful, even if it's not amazing.
And it will be impossible to take every single choice. The above examples have the mandatory first grey slot and then eight others. At 7th level, they'll have six of those and therefore miss three. At which point, they'll move ahead to the uncommon runes as they'll be objectively better.
And now comes the part where I ask for help.
A) How many options?
The images above have a starting point and four paths of two slots each. I'm not married to that. Since the goal is to never let them take every single option, having more options works for me. Nor does each item need to have the same number of options, however, for balance that's where I was leaning at first.
B) How many branches?
The sword above has all paths converge at "weapon becomes +2" but the ring does not. Should splitting the item's abilities into different paths be the standard? It would mean you can't get as far in any one "green" path if you want to split the abilities up.
C) Should there be paths at all?
My DM friend suggested that, rather than having the "grey" options in order, they are simply all available, or possibly in tiers separated by level. You can't socket a "green" rune unless you have six "grey" runes, no matter which six. I'm not sure about that one.
D) Adverse effects of this system?
Are there any problems, other than
i) players are too powerful
ii) rune items aren't balanced when compared to each other
that you forsee? If you were a player in this campaign, what would you need out of this system to prevent feeling trapped or restricted?
A pre-emptive thank you to everyone for their help.
So the campaign I'm writing is based around rune magic, a special form that fell out of practice centuries ago that the players, in their travels, re-discover. Every time I make a campaign, I like to add a little something to the PCs to make them a little stronger than normal, mostly as a justification for why they're the main characters and nobody else is. Oh, and more exciting combats and tougher challenges.
Anyhow, the gimmick this time is the players will have a single magic item they can upgrade over the course of the campaign, by acquiring runes and slotting them in to increase the item's power. Each item would be individually created for that character, based on what that player/that character wants.
For example, this might be the sword of a ranger whose favored enemy is undead:
https://i.imgur.com/HuFkKzO.png
And a combat Wizard might get this ring:
https://i.imgur.com/7YVfhhI.png
The rules, as I currently have them written:
1) The color of the rune is mostly for my benefit to keep the rune's rarity clear. Yes, it's the standard grey/green/blue/purple, but the real items won't have actual colors on them. It's purely me using an existing code to keep things clear. As shown in the image above, the introductory/grey powers should be pretty minor.
Players will have no trouble finding the introductory runes -- you basically find them in magic coffee pots and hot plates. They'll find a few and find others in antique stores or the houses of quest-giving NPCs.
At higher level, 7th to be more precise, the runes will have a meaningful cost -- sacrificing a permanent magic item of uncommon (green) rarity to rip the rune out of it. As a DM, the advantage for me is items in treasure troves that turn out to be unpopular can simply be "burned" this way. But +1 weapons and rings of warmth aren't exactly thick on the ground. They'll still find some unattached runes in important quests, of course, but might have to decide which PC gets it first. (Burning magic items for their rune makes that decision easier)
2) Runed items have a special "attunement". You can only have one rune item, period. Nobody else can use your rune item, period. There's a rune research lab they'll find around level 5 that might let them bend those rules, for example, "Could my ring possibly swap to a wand?" or repairing a broken weapon into another weapon. Players will be told that giving away or selling these items is a costly mistake, and I won't let them get irrecoverably lost or stolen by complete random chance.
3) You can activate one rune per character level. You can swap out, but you have to return to the rune research lab to do it, so it's more involved than "long rest" and closer to "in between game sessions". (The game group meets once/week and it's tradition we level up between game sessions, not during)
Runes always start at a specific spot (in those pictures, the bottom) and you can follow any path from any spot already activated. You can go backwards -- that's mostly for me, in case I don't put effects in an order the player likes.
Regardless of what they find, rarity changes will happen at pre-determined main storyline points, level 7 and 13. They can't "blitz" into the +2 weapon at 4th level, for example, even if they can reach it.
4) As the items won't be available/active till level 3 and we start at 1, I'll have a few sessions to see what skills, spells, and abilities they like. There's no point in giving the cleric a helmet that empowers the aid spell if they never prepare it, and no point in giving the rogue a dagger if they only use their shortbow.
By the time the party reaches level 7, I should have a much better idea what the player and character want -- hopefully because, after exploring the system and understanding what it means, they outright tell me. The goal isn't to lock out player choices or break their goals. If a character's backstory has them wishing they could one day summon lightning from the skies, giving them a wand of cold wouldn't help.
This also means the items they get should at least have the potential to be an item they actually hope to use, and they won't have an ugly choice. "Man, I really love flaming swords, but my runed item is a battleaxe +1 with a bunch of effects which help combat. I'll guess I'll keep using it, even though we just found this flaming sword, it's too much of a downgrade if I swap".
5) To that end, a DM friend of mine suggested (at 7th level) the idea of having the runed item move to a nonstandard slot, that therefore wouldn't stop them from using other items. Upside is they can use everything they find, downside of course is these items are standard. At least if the choice is available, the player can pick.
6) Ideally, each item will offer enough offense, defense, and utility powers that there are meaningful choices to make. I don't want to drown them in options, but they should always feel like levelling up and adding a new rune gives them something that's at least useful, even if it's not amazing.
And it will be impossible to take every single choice. The above examples have the mandatory first grey slot and then eight others. At 7th level, they'll have six of those and therefore miss three. At which point, they'll move ahead to the uncommon runes as they'll be objectively better.
And now comes the part where I ask for help.
A) How many options?
The images above have a starting point and four paths of two slots each. I'm not married to that. Since the goal is to never let them take every single option, having more options works for me. Nor does each item need to have the same number of options, however, for balance that's where I was leaning at first.
B) How many branches?
The sword above has all paths converge at "weapon becomes +2" but the ring does not. Should splitting the item's abilities into different paths be the standard? It would mean you can't get as far in any one "green" path if you want to split the abilities up.
C) Should there be paths at all?
My DM friend suggested that, rather than having the "grey" options in order, they are simply all available, or possibly in tiers separated by level. You can't socket a "green" rune unless you have six "grey" runes, no matter which six. I'm not sure about that one.
D) Adverse effects of this system?
Are there any problems, other than
i) players are too powerful
ii) rune items aren't balanced when compared to each other
that you forsee? If you were a player in this campaign, what would you need out of this system to prevent feeling trapped or restricted?
A pre-emptive thank you to everyone for their help.