Official ICE Forums
Systems & Settings => Rolemaster => Topic started by: Zedul on May 01, 2011, 03:19:24 AM
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What is the best magic item in its category in your campaign? I would love to see what other GM's have cooked up as the ultimate prize.
Here is pretty much the most powerful Misc Magic Item in our world... only one PC has ever possessed it.
THE MANASTONE
Base Un-attuned Power = x10 pp Multiplier for all realms (the owner of the stone gets this benefit just by picking it up.
Attunement (Sheer Folly)
Attuned Powers:
x20pp Multiplier for all realms
The Manastone functions as a Factor 2 PEM Earthnode with a radius of 10’ per level of its wielder.
It grants the caster to master magic and overcast spells at up to 1.5x level without the normal ESF penalties. It also increases the casters racial base for Power Points by 300%
All spells at or below casters level are Class I
All spells at 1.25x the casters level are Class II
All Spells at 1.50x the casters level are Class III
+25 BSC for all friendly casters within radius
+50 BSC for wielder
Caster gains free use of the following lists to level:
Earthblood’s Ways
Node Mastery
Earthfocus
Nodefunctions
The radius of the node also serves as protection against magical storms and null storms.
Some believe the stone is the heart of an ancient titan or earth elemental; others have called it simply the “The Sourceâ€
The stone is jade green, roughly the shape of an egg and etched with ancient runes that are indecipherable. It's most recent wielder fashioned a beautiful woven harness to carry it within.
I'd be interested to see the range of "most powerful" in campaigns.
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I have number of artifacts in my campaign world that compete for the title of being the ultimate magic item.
*The planar anchor, artifact that is said to anchor reality. In practice it nullify magic fields and dimensional warps. Strong magical beings like avatars of gods can use internal magic, but they can not extend the magic outside their body. Lesser magic is totally nullified. The limitations are that the natural range is 1000 steps and the artifact weights 50 tons. Even the current owners, the troll nation, try to avoid the chore of moving the artifact since it require manual labor and use magical mirrors to project the effect to other parts of the world. The problem of aligning mirrors every 1000 steps is the lesser problem compared to moving the boulder. The background of the artifact is that it is resting place of elemental god of air that was slain by a curse that would prevent him from rebirth and the tombstone was created to nullify this curse so that at least his mind could be assembled even thought the artifact prevent him from recreating his body.
*The armor of the skies. Leather armor covered with diamonds that eats magic energy to empower a energy field that protect the user. The downside is that it also drain the users power points. There are some limited magic artifacts that can be made to work with the armor and borrow the power points it has drained, but in general the armor will suck any magic items worn by the wearer dry.
*The dagger of MaMeth, ritual dagger that work as power point battery with unlimited capacity. The only way to refill the dagger is to sacrifice a victim with magic ability to the evil god of MaMeth. Each sacrifice will beacon the users location to all things serving MaMeth. MaMeth is best described as a fallen god of the Cthulhu mythos kind so you better be a MaMeth follower or have a good plan...
*The stone of void. This stone project an energy field that destroy any matter. Typically this includes the wearer also since the magic storm released is not directed in any way. There exist a companion artifact in the form of magical glove that will protect the wearer from harm and allow him to project the field. The downside is that the energy that would have destroyed the wearer will instead hit a living being that resembles the wearer the most. This is typically someone from the family of the wearer of the artifact, but if to much power is drawn from the void stone the counter field will expand from the victim and destroy everything around him or her. In ancient times this artifact was sealed far below the earth after it destroyed a city, unfortunately some players took the artifact without considering why it had been hidden.
The interesting thing IMHO is not the actual powers of the magical items, but what limitations you build into the artifact...
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You know, I rarely use or give out magic items, but my players never seemed to mind. Well, they regularly lost all their stuff anyway, so...
THE MANASTONE
Base Un-attuned Power = x10 pp Multiplier for all realms (the owner of the stone gets this benefit just by picking it up.
Attunement (Sheer Folly)
Attuned Powers:
x20pp Multiplier for all realms
The Manastone functions as a Factor 2 PEM Earthnode with a radius of 10’ per level of its wielder.
It grants the caster to master magic and overcast spells at up to 1.5x level without the normal ESF penalties. It also increases the casters racial base for Power Points by 300%
All spells at or below casters level are Class I
All spells at 1.25x the casters level are Class II
All Spells at 1.50x the casters level are Class III
+25 BSC for all friendly casters within radius
+50 BSC for wielder
Caster gains free use of the following lists to level:
Earthblood’s Ways
Node Mastery
Earthfocus
Nodefunctions
Man, this thing's no joke. For something this powerful I'd have to tack on a bizarre and somewhat annoying (but painless) side effect. If you give this thing the characteristic that it constantly summons tens of thousands of ladybugs that swarm all over the bearer, that'll get my vote for Best in the World :D
OR, if we're just coming up with uber-powerful items, how about this:
GM's Hat
Once donned, allows the wearer to control the unfolding of events in any direction he desires for as long as he wishes :P
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GM's Hat
Once donned, allows the wearer to control the unfolding of events in any direction he desires for as long as he wishes
(Disad, you get to do all the paperwork)
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Sling Stone of Essence Mastery: when this stone strikes a foe, a lvl 55 rr at -120 is made. Failure results in target teleported to a random plane. Stone only affects non essence users. Agianst essence users, it delivers normal damage. However, any essence user struck auto attunes to the stone and becomes its new owner, until another essence user is struck with it.
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Bag of Holding.
'Nuff said.
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I have number of artifacts in my campaign world that compete for the title of being the ultimate magic item.
*The planar anchor, artifact that is said to anchor reality. In practice it nullify magic fields and dimensional warps. Strong magical beings like avatars of gods can use internal magic, but they can not extend the magic outside their body. Lesser magic is totally nullified. The limitations are that the natural range is 1000 steps and the artifact weights 50 tons. Even the current owners, the troll nation, try to avoid the chore of moving the artifact since it require manual labor and use magical mirrors to project the effect to other parts of the world. The problem of aligning mirrors every 1000 steps is the lesser problem compared to moving the boulder. The background of the artifact is that it is resting place of elemental god of air that was slain by a curse that would prevent him from rebirth and the tombstone was created to nullify this curse so that at least his mind could be assembled even thought the artifact prevent him from recreating his body.
*The armor of the skies. Leather armor covered with diamonds that eats magic energy to empower a energy field that protect the user. The downside is that it also drain the users power points. There are some limited magic artifacts that can be made to work with the armor and borrow the power points it has drained, but in general the armor will suck any magic items worn by the wearer dry.
*The dagger of MaMeth, ritual dagger that work as power point battery with unlimited capacity. The only way to refill the dagger is to sacrifice a victim with magic ability to the evil god of MaMeth. Each sacrifice will beacon the users location to all things serving MaMeth. MaMeth is best described as a fallen god of the Cthulhu mythos kind so you better be a MaMeth follower or have a good plan...
*The stone of void. This stone project an energy field that destroy any matter. Typically this includes the wearer also since the magic storm released is not directed in any way. There exist a companion artifact in the form of magical glove that will protect the wearer from harm and allow him to project the field. The downside is that the energy that would have destroyed the wearer will instead hit a living being that resembles the wearer the most. This is typically someone from the family of the wearer of the artifact, but if to much power is drawn from the void stone the counter field will expand from the victim and destroy everything around him or her. In ancient times this artifact was sealed far below the earth after it destroyed a city, unfortunately some players took the artifact without considering why it had been hidden.
The interesting thing IMHO is not the actual powers of the magical items, but what limitations you build into the artifact...
Interesting stuff there.
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Thank you Yammahoper and Pastaav for sharing your items and the flavor of your campaign.
The spirit of Rolemaster has always struck me as "epic" I have I.C.E. books laying at my feet with +120 swords that do 7 full attacks and 7 full parry's per round, and magical hourglasses that burn up entire cities and raise skeleton hordes to conquer empires with... just saying.
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Item of forecasting (Sort of helmet, or similar item)
The idea is simple, it's like an intuition spell only that is not a general idea, its like playing for real without dangers.
When you activate this item, you have to control your power points, hit points, experience points, everything. Then you start playing, like normal game, but this items works like saving the game as videogames. You have X time to advance the game, being sure that you can't die or make a big mistake. At the end of that time, usually (we will see later the options) you come back at the place and situation where you were at the time of activating the item. You will remember everything, you can also with good memory draw a map, or remember specific details that can come important later in the game. The caster will be the only person with this info, probably other players had played this alternative reality, but they will have to play as if they don't know anything.
Note that caster is aware that he is in a forecast reality so he can risk more , because he knows that he can't die. If he dies while in forecast reality , everything will resume at the origin point no matter what, even mind-altering spells on caster.
Options recommended: Spell only once per day or week. Not more than five minuts of forecasting. Rolls can change this forecast reality and real game, so you will see and remember for example when you try to cross swiming a river that there are animals hidden, but maybe sometimes you roll enough to swimm and sometimes you will not. The caster will not gain any experience points, hits, or lose power points at the forecast reality.
Options for GM: If the forecast result satisfactory, GM can allow the players to accept this reality exactly, and don't force the players to repeat everything again.
Allow other players to remember what happened in the forecast reality in order to play it later. Some players will argue that they are true living and learning with this experience , but i will not allow them to earn the experience points.
it gives players a way of being succesful in difficult missions without powerful items.
Hope you liked.
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If you're going to have "The Most Fabulous Object in the World", you have to have a "Fortress of Ultimate Darkness" to keep it in, no?
;)
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Improbability Drive hands down.
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Item of forecasting (Sort of helmet, or similar item)
The idea is simple, it's like an intuition spell only that is not a general idea, its like playing for real without dangers.
When you activate this item, you have to control your power points, hit points, experience points, everything. Then you start playing, like normal game, but this items works like saving the game as videogames. You have X time to advance the game, being sure that you can't die or make a big mistake. At the end of that time, usually (we will see later the options) you come back at the place and situation where you were at the time of activating the item. You will remember everything, you can also with good memory draw a map, or remember specific details that can come important later in the game. The caster will be the only person with this info, probably other players had played this alternative reality, but they will have to play as if they don't know anything.
Note that caster is aware that he is in a forecast reality so he can risk more , because he knows that he can't die. If he dies while in forecast reality , everything will resume at the origin point no matter what, even mind-altering spells on caster.
Options recommended: Spell only once per day or week. Not more than five minuts of forecasting. Rolls can change this forecast reality and real game, so you will see and remember for example when you try to cross swiming a river that there are animals hidden, but maybe sometimes you roll enough to swimm and sometimes you will not. The caster will not gain any experience points, hits, or lose power points at the forecast reality.
Options for GM: If the forecast result satisfactory, GM can allow the players to accept this reality exactly, and don't force the players to repeat everything again.
Allow other players to remember what happened in the forecast reality in order to play it later. Some players will argue that they are true living and learning with this experience , but i will not allow them to earn the experience points.
it gives players a way of being successful in difficult missions without powerful items.
Hope you liked.
That's pretty crazy powerful! Yea that definitely goes to the top of "best item in the world". I don't know if I'd give out anything THAT good!
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Mine would have to be The House That Jack Built.
Jack Schidt was a famous explorer. He doubtless had some Elven blood, because he certainly spent more than one human lifetime exploring the world. He went so many places and met so many people that you were indeed an ignorant hick from the sticks if you didn't know Jack Schidt.
Of course, this meant that he spent the vast majority of his time among strangers, in places where he was ignorant of the local customs and economy. It is natural in such cases to want a good weapon and a good shield. The shield Jack commissioned is a medium large roundshield (21" radius), slightly convex. Both rim and boss are nicely decorated, but there is a bit of the edge decoration just behind the very bottom of the rim that, when pressed, will cause the center to separate from the rim. It opens like a round hatch because indeed, that's exactly what it is. Look into the hatch and you'll be looking down the spiral staircase into the living room.
The House That Jack Built is an 18 room mansion, with some really amazing niceties like refrigeration and heat. You carry the door.
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What is the best magic item in its category in your campaign? I would love to see what other GM's have cooked up as the ultimate prize.
By no means the most powerful but I (and perhaps my players) are having a lot of fun with the Tapesty Room (C&T III was it?). It took them a while to figure out how to open it (I used a riff on the Tony Orlando and Dawn "knock three times" lyrics). But now it has a kitchen, bedroom, storage etc.
Regards,
Old Man
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Mine would have to be The House That Jack Built.
Jack Schidt was a famous explorer. He doubtless had some Elven blood, because he certainly spent more than one human lifetime exploring the world. He went so many places and met so many people that you were indeed an ignorant hick from the sticks if you didn't know Jack Schidt.
Of course, this meant that he spent the vast majority of his time among strangers, in places where he was ignorant of the local customs and economy. It is natural in such cases to want a good weapon and a good shield. The shield Jack commissioned is a medium large roundshield (21" radius), slightly convex. Both rim and boss are nicely decorated, but there is a bit of the edge decoration just behind the very bottom of the rim that, when pressed, will cause the center to separate from the rim. It opens like a round hatch because indeed, that's exactly what it is. Look into the hatch and you'll be looking down the spiral staircase into the living room.
The House That Jack Built is an 18 room mansion, with some really amazing niceties like refrigeration and heat. You carry the door.
Ok that's a cool item... putting it on my loot list! Nice work. :)
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One thing that occurred to me a year or two after I thought it up... it might be a good idea to always have someone you trust on the outside. I mean, if the shield is laid face down, what is a person trying to open the door from the inside working against? The mass of an 18 room mansion on one side and the mass of a planet on the other side, no? Seems like you might have a tough time getting that door open.
There's probably an emergency exit somewhere.
Oh and here's a nasty one... The Dagger of the Damned. It's a Black Alloy Dagger with no magical bonus that does Dark Absolution on any successful hit (1 or more hits delivered). Be careful not to fumble, huh?
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Item of forecasting (Sort of helmet, or similar item)
The idea is simple, it's like an intuition spell only that is not a general idea, its like playing for real without dangers.
You know, I had a similar idea that I used in a WoD game years ago. But it was an ability, rather than an item. It was limited in that you could only go a few rounds into the future, depending on how developed it was. Never occurred to me to embody this power into an item, though I like the idea.
If you need other ways to limit it, maybe you could have it powered by something that needs to be replenished. Something like... sand! Not just any sand though... magic sand! :P
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One thing that occurred to me a year or two after I thought it up... it might be a good idea to always have someone you trust on the outside. I mean, if the shield is laid face down, what is a person trying to open the door from the inside working against? The mass of an 18 room mansion on one side and the mass of a planet on the other side, no? Seems like you might have a tough time getting that door open.
There's probably an emergency exit somewhere.
Oh and here's a nasty one... The Dagger of the Damned. It's a Black Alloy Dagger with no magical bonus that does Dark Absolution on any successful hit (1 or more hits delivered). Be careful not to fumble, huh?
That's one horrible dagger in the hands of the all powerful Nightblade with unpresence we were talking about in the other thread!
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It's a horrible dagger in the hands of pretty much anyone. But at the same time, it's a fairly well self-correcting problem. Everyone fumbles eventually, and when you do, chances are good you have to RR against Dark Absolution yourself.
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Well, we try to avoid extremely powerful artifacts in our campaigns, so I won't contribute much here. However, as stated earlier here, ICE have some extremely powerful items listed in some of their adventures. I think the most powerful that come to mind was from one of the "Lords" books, concerning lords of Middle Earth (OK, that's not really an adventure, but still). Morgoths Iron Crown. Yep, no wonder Iron Crown Enterprises made the Iron Crown the most powerful item in all their books. I don't recall all it's abilities at the moment (look it up if you have the book!), but there sure were many. I DO remember the most powerful ability, though - it lets you cast 20 spells each round. I don't think this was ever meant to be found by any adventurer, though. I don't really see why they made stats, skills and items for all the Valar, except of course because they thought it was fun :-)
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Well, we try to avoid extremely powerful artifacts in our campaigns, so I won't contribute much here. However, as stated earlier here, ICE have some extremely powerful items listed in some of their adventures. I think the most powerful that come to mind was from one of the "Lords" books, concerning lords of Middle Earth (OK, that's not really an adventure, but still). Morgoths Iron Crown. Yep, no wonder Iron Crown Enterprises made the Iron Crown the most powerful item in all their books. I don't recall all it's abilities at the moment (look it up if you have the book!), but there sure were many. I DO remember the most powerful ability, though - it lets you cast 20 spells each round. I don't think this was ever meant to be found by any adventurer, though. I don't really see why they made stats, skills and items for all the Valar, except of course because they thought it was fun :-)
I do it in my campaign all the time, as an example:
_____________(God the Dead, The Skeleton Lord)
Necromancer– Level 880**
CO:144 AG:119 SD:112 ME:141 RE:127 ST:138 QU:122 PR:124 IN:150*** EM:131 AP:-25
AT: 30 DB: 1,300 Hits: 26,900 BSC: +1366 EAR: +984 Melee: +1,260 (Ultimate Dark Absolution*)
Power Points: 60,000***
Now obviously the characters are not going to go up against this god, but I do have a framework for my deities for completion purposes. Say the good gods and the bad gods decide to duke it out?
Also, when my deities do come down from their planes and interact I have rules about it. Their avatars can only manifest on the prime material plane at 10% of their normal level... so in the case of my chief bad guy here, he is limited to 88th level as an avatar which is something a very high level party might try to thwart. Has it ever happened in 30 years of gaming? No... but seeing the stats on these guys is fun for the players, especially for the ones who follow X or Y deity. It also allows me to approximate the scope of their powers in a world changing conflict or cataclysm.
We have lots of epic items in the campaign...
The Favorite of my Players? Their Skyship.... it has no special powers other than the fact that it can sail through the air and it goes pretty fast, though they are careful to avoid dragons and rocs and their ilk. ;)
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I'm okay with the occasional extremely powerful artifact (although while I created the two I mentioned above, I never had them show up in treasure or scenarios that led to treasure), but I generally try to make it so that there are things you have to watch out for. Like for example the dagger above, where the first time you fumble suddenly you don't like that item quite so much. Or the shield with the mansion in it, where if it's lying on its face, anyone inside trying to open the door is pushing against an 18 room mansion on one side and a planet on the other.
Once a character is powerful enough to have an item like that in the first place it's often hard for a GM to challenge them, to find things they have to watch out for if they want to survive. Fine and good, in my game they can watch out for their own items.
;)
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I'm okay with the occasional extremely powerful artifact (although while I created the two I mentioned above, I never had them show up in treasure or scenarios that led to treasure), but I generally try to make it so that there are things you have to watch out for. Like for example the dagger above, where the first time you fumble suddenly you don't like that item quite so much. Or the shield with the mansion in it, where if it's lying on its face, anyone inside trying to open the door is pushing against an 18 room mansion on one side and a planet on the other.
Once a character is powerful enough to have an item like that in the first place it's often hard for a GM to challenge them, to find things they have to watch out for if they want to survive. Fine and good, in my game they can watch out for their own items.
;)
I notice that many GM's here take great pride in the degree and amount of limitations they place on items, powers, and the ability of players. Not saying that's your thing but wow, I read it a lot.
I read that on the D&D forums a lot as well.... "In my campaign I make the players walk uphill in the snow both ways and fight dragons in their underwear with rusty cursed -15 daggers!"
I am quite frankly surprised at this and don't always understand the logic. I know if I tried any of these things my table would be empty...
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Well if you notice with the two examples I gave, the hazard is intrinsic to the nature of the item. So it's not just a "I'm the GM, therefore it's my job to make sure that nothing is truly cool and nice, everything has to screw up their day somehow" kind of thing. It's more of a "I'm the GM, therefore it's my job to give the players constant, gentle reminders that the world is not, in fact, on their side, and that the item of awesomeness you found in treasure was made by someone just as normal, fallible and prone to not fully thinking through consequences as you are yourself" kind of thing.
Something like that dagger is, in the long run, a world unbalancer, which gives me a deep interest in giving it fairly stark limits. But when all is said and done, its flaw is something you can easily figure out for yourself if you stop and think about it. My players learn early that not thinking things through will get you killed pretty quickly, so I feel like they should spot the dangers of something like that dagger almost immediately. Basically such limits/flaws/dangers are just a reminder not to assume that the creator of such-and-such item considered every possible eventuality, and of course since he's not here with you you cannot take it as given that he foresaw the situation you're currently in when he was creating it. Nor is the item itself sentient, it's not going to do your thinking for you.
If you get the dagger, I expect you to realize early on that it's not suitable for everyday use. If you get the shield, I expect you to realize early on that going inside it doesn't render you safe from everything the GM can possibly do. In short, no it's not okay to let your brain turn off, no matter how good the stuff is that you have. And if you don't let your brain turn off, you're actually pretty safe.
All that said, I have had people tell me that I'm a very "anti-heroic" GM. I want the players to think of themselves as normal people trying to muddle through, and be shocked and surprised when they hear the stories and realize it's about them. "No, it wasn't like that, it was... I mean yeah, we did that, but... yeah, we did that too, but.... you've got it all wrong, we're not really heroes, we were just trying to live through it."
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All that said, I have had people tell me that I'm a very "anti-heroic" GM. I want the players to think of themselves as normal people trying to muddle through, and be shocked and surprised when they hear the stories and realize it's about them. "No, it wasn't like that, it was... I mean yeah, we did that, but... yeah, we did that too, but.... you've got it all wrong, we're not really heroes, we were just trying to live through it."
Our campaign was born in middle school in the late 1970's, we were all reading the Elric Saga and someone brought the Gods, Demigods, & Heroes D&D booklet to school and showed us. We all rushed out and bought the red and blue book sets and the little side booklets and sat down and figured out how to play. The idea originally was that we could play out a different version of the Elric Saga with different characters. Other loves were Conan, LOTR (of course), and the Thomas Covenant series.
All of those books had earth shattering conflicts and massive artifacts (I mean, obviously everyone's eyes glazed over at the thought of owning "Stormbringer" or "Mournblade") or having the ring of kings and summoning deities and demons to fight for you.
From the get go that initial group of kids were excited about being like Elric and hacking down the gods themselves. The excitement was so real and tangible and so incredibly fun that it made an impression with me. Of course we all went overboard and soon everyone and their dog had an artifact of immense power, we were 12 years old after all!
But the idea was there, and I designed my world with a real epic feel as a result.
I start them slow, but I build it to a real world shaking level for the payoff... typically I plan an arc of adventures with a campaign objective, when said demon/demi god is defeated and the X evil artifact is destroyed or the Y good artifact is used for its final purpose the arc is completed.
None of this is based on "how" I think rules and restrictions should be enforced, or how many magic items they can have or how powerful they should be or what their limitations are. There is at no point where I look at the rules and say "this should be limited because" or "they should not get this because" ... as a matter of fact all the treasure is put specifically at spots in the story and most of it is stuff they are absolutely going to need in order to arise victorious.
All of this of course is inspired by all those epic fantasy novels I read... our players are like Rand Al Thor's circle of friends, or Frodo's circle of friends, or Elric's circle of friends... they are dictating the fate of the entire world and wielding artifacts that can level cities and it starts by guarding a wagon of wheat from level 4 bandits with rusty short swords and daggers.
They undergo the hero's journey, and sometimes they fail, in fact in one case the party failed in such an epic way that the entire world was overwhelmed by darkness and plunged into a dark age of horror and death that lasted for nearly sixty thousand years. I had to redo my maps, start afresh with new lands and new peoples ... a world emerging from the darkness looking for a scant few heroes to put things right again. The next set of characters had to deal with the repercussions of living in a fallen world created by the blunder of their previous characters.
Now granted, this campaign is not for everyone...
I lose newer players here and there who feel "overwhelmed" by the task at hand and see no possible way to defeat the bad guys I have set before them. In fact one pleasant fellow called me up one night and complained that he was depressed and having trouble coping with work and his family because he was so distressed over the events in the game. He felt that it was simply too intense and too high pressure and he wanted a simpler campaign where he did not feel like the world and everyone in it were riding on his decisions. He had too many magic items, too many spells, too much stuff to remember, and in every fight that came up he was unsure of what to use and what to do, and he was just frustrated.
Obviously here was a player who would get behind a more limited campaign and did NOT appreciate the epic scope of my tales. Which means my way is obviously not right for everyone.
What I am saying is... I see no benefit to any set of restrictions to any one way of doing things.
So when I say "what is the most powerful item in your world?"
And GrumpyOldFart tells me "It's a shield castle, or a +0 dark absolution dagger that does x. I think "cool - reminds me of a Glen Cooke novel", and understand it is a more restrictive campaign and yet very powerful in it's own way. Those are neat items that I hadn't thought of... the reason for the thread to begin with. It makes us better GM's to see the actual scope of what someone else is doing.
But when X person simply says "I don't give out magic items, I run a tight ship and I beat my players down. I have nothing to post here". It makes me wonder: What story is inspiring this guy? Certainly not any fantasy novel I have read.
Just a thought.
GM's are like movie directors, sure we like to put our vision across but we must always balance that with the need to put butts in the seats!
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Our campaign was born in middle school in the late 1970's...
{snip}
From the get go that initial group of kids were excited about being like Elric and hacking down the gods themselves. The excitement was so real and tangible and so incredibly fun that it made an impression with me. Of course we all went overboard and soon everyone and their dog had an artifact of immense power, we were 12 years old after all!
But the idea was there, and I designed my world with a real epic feel as a result.
Same here, but we were barely into high school. But the result was that before we were out of high school, the characters had grown so powerful that I might as well have thrown all the monster books away, because nothing short of the Gods could challenge them. Mere dragons and arch-liches were "nuisance monsters".
Which is why when...
I had to redo my maps, start afresh with new lands and new peoples ...
...I decided that I was going to tone things way down, because to be honest I didn't want to have to completely redesign my game world again in another two years or so.
Not to mention that by the time we were all in college, the idea of a group of adventurers starting from the Rockies and having an adventure that took them across a thousand miles of orc country to the Appalachians seemed plenty 'epic' enough, and more realistic (therefore more satisfying) to us by that time.
Yes, we started out as young kids wanting to be Elric or some such.... but before too many years, we found that we'd rather be Cortez or Pizarro.
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I would point out that while Thomas Covenant, LOTR, and the Elric Saga all feature powerful uberitems, in each case the bearer of the Item of Ultimate Power experiences it as a curse, not a blessing. And anyone who envies Elric was so caught up in adolescent power fantasy that he pretty much missed every point in the series. Elric is powerless in every way that really matters; he's pretty much a puppet. If you want to mimic such settings, your powerful items should indeed come with significant drawbacks.
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Zedul, your campaign sounds like fun. I like the fact that you allow the PCs to fail, and their failure has a significant impact on the campaign world. A game without training wheels allows some real tension, and imo, a unique kind of fun.
I might be one of those GMs your talking about, the ones who rarely give out special items. But then I've rarely run an epic campaign, mostly sticking to personal goals of the PCs as defined by the players. Somehow, those goals rarely involve acquiring powerful magic items :/
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Zedul, your campaign sounds like fun. I like the fact that you allow the PCs to fail, and their failure has a significant impact on the campaign world. A game without training wheels allows some real tension, and imo, a unique kind of fun.
I might be one of those GMs your talking about, the ones who rarely give out special items. But then I've rarely run an epic campaign, mostly sticking to personal goals of the PCs as defined by the players. Somehow, those goals rarely involve acquiring powerful magic items :/
Ultimately Vector, you have to please your party... though I would add that you can sometimes please them by doing something they did not expect and planning a campaign they may not necessarily know they want. Best thing about being a GM is the unexpected surprises!
I do let players reach some goals but I find if I cater a campaign specifically to PC personal goals it leads to boredom and infighting between players when those goals conflict with each other. In the early years we had lots of inter-party intrigue and even PC throw-downs which let to some nasty at table situations, even a fistfight IRL which was ZERO fun.
I decided after all that to challenge the players in such a way that they had to work together to survive the campaign. And really I took my cue from the books, as rdanhenry pointed out, it doesn't matter HOW powerful the artifacts and PC's are if the framework of the campaign and the world is set up to support it. In our campaign we have two opposing swords that are uber powerful and everyone wants them, but each sword as a powerful will and that will dictates almost what the character can do.
My most coveted artifact is something I will call here "Vorpal Blade X" Vorpal Blade X is a nasty nasty weapon that treats all AT even Eog, as AT1 - its of slaying vs any evil creature and it grants it's user a natural 106 strength and fires proto elemental lightning bolts. However Vorpal Blade X has a 375 Willpower, it is dedicated to the cause of Law and Order and Goodness and does not allow it's wielder to flee from things like... oh, Dragons, Demons, Demi-Gods, and if it senses an army of bad guys around the corner, character must go out and fight said army, alone if need be. The sword does not allow its wielder to be anything less than fanatical to the cause, if it finds you unworthy you start taking 1 Holy Crit per round until you die or get your act together.
Yes it is an overpowered but I have had parties spot that damn sword and walk away, knowing full well if one of their friends picks it up they are always at risk for a TPK if they run into something they cannot handle and the sword expects them too anyway...
But I don't build those things into magic items based on balancing the game, I do it based on the story of my world. I believe a good campaign story should balance the game by itself.
Take LOTR for example... you don't run around Middle Earth with a ring of power causing havoc, or else you draw the gaze of the eye....
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Ultimately Vector, you have to please your party... though I would add that you can sometimes please them by doing something they did not expect and planning a campaign they may not necessarily know they want. Best thing about being a GM is the unexpected surprises!
Agreed :)
I do let players reach some goals but I find if I cater a campaign specifically to PC personal goals it leads to boredom and infighting between players when those goals conflict with each other. In the early years we had lots of inter-party intrigue and even PC throw-downs which let to some nasty at table situations, even a fistfight IRL which was ZERO fun.
Yikes! Did somebody just quit smoking? Though it's true, it can be difficult at times to keep harmony within the party. It's a fine art and may take a lot of effort and imagination to do just right. Plus some people are just going to fight, anyway :P
I decided after all that to challenge the players in such a way that they had to work together to survive the campaign.
I agree with this as well. I guess the only difference I draw is in what I use to motivate the PCs. I haven't had anybody say they want to save the world, or defeat the "Lord of Darkness", or amass a bunch of mind-blowingly powerful magic items. I let the players tell me what fuels their character, that way there's always gas in the tank ;)
Naturally, that doesn't mean they won't accomplish other, more earth-shattering things as well. It will just more likely be in the course of doing what they really care about.
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In the early years we had lots of inter-party intrigue and even PC throw-downs which let to some nasty at table situations, even a fistfight IRL which was ZERO fun.
HaHaHa ;D I can imagine two gamers throwing fists at eachother at the table, knocking over pizza boxes, spilling coffe and dices flying in all directions! Terrible and hilarious at once! :laugh1: Anyone had a boxing skill? Any crits scored?
We do tend to take this game waaaayyy to serious, dont we..
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In the early years we had lots of inter-party intrigue and even PC throw-downs which let to some nasty at table situations, even a fistfight IRL which was ZERO fun.
HaHaHa ;D I can imagine two gamers throwing fists at eachother at the table, knocking over pizza boxes, spilling coffe and dices flying in all directions! Terrible and hilarious at once! :laugh1: Anyone had a boxing skill? Any crits scored?
We do tend to take this game waaaayyy to serious, dont we..
Yea back in the day we were all in college/high school so we were fueled by those little tony's freezer pizzas, and JOLT Cola!
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I can't escape the vision of the GM holding one of them back while yelling at the other one, "Shut up Fred, you're unconscious!"
::)
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I can't escape the vision of the GM holding one of them back while yelling at the other one, "Shut up Fred, you're unconscious!"
::)
No I just stayed out. Our group had some real life scrappers and military guys, including a Marine and an Army Ranger. RPG's were popular with military folks for awhile there in the late 80's.
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I think one of the coolest items we had in our campaigns was a hat that allowed you to become another profession. If I remember is was taken from a D&D item from somewhere.
Basically the first time you put the hat on you pick another profession and start at level 1. When you have the hat on you earn exp and level as that profession. When you have the hat off you progress normally in your 'real' profession. If separated from the hat for more than a month you lose everything it has accumulated.
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I would point out that while Thomas Covenant, LOTR, and the Elric Saga all feature powerful uberitems, in each case the bearer of the Item of Ultimate Power experiences it as a curse, not a blessing. And anyone who envies Elric was so caught up in adolescent power fantasy that he pretty much missed every point in the series. Elric is powerless in every way that really matters; he's pretty much a puppet. If you want to mimic such settings, your powerful items should indeed come with significant drawbacks.
I have a story line where the players are looking to accumulate a set of armor which has been scattered over the years that belonged to a legendary hero that supposedly comes back to fight epic evils throughout the centuries. Each individual piece (gloves separated and all) has ended up strewn across the settings known lands and each has it's own magical properties or powers and a separate adventure is required to find each piece. When collected it makes an amazingly powerful magic item... but the players don't know when they put the helm on said legendary hero will potentially possess their character (hence, how he returns repeatedly over hundreds of years).
I say "potentially" because so long as the player(s) are following a path that is beneficial to the legendary heroes agenda he will lay dormant. The armor will seem somewhat sentient to the player(s) because it may not allow certain actions and may try to force others in accordance with the legendary heroes morals. In reality it is a subtle attempt at mind control without fully possessing the player. But eventually it will attempt (and likely achieve) full control over the PC when faced with it's ultimate foe.
That can be a lot of fun if you... oh, do something like... make the ultimate foe/bad guy some high ranking person that the characters serve.
Or maybe a dragon. Watch the party try to run away then say "Uh, guys, Bob decides to fight the dragon" and everyone, including Bob, says "WHAT!?!" (Of course to be fair you really have to make sure there's actually a way for the party to succeed or at least not get killed).
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I would point out that while Thomas Covenant, LOTR, and the Elric Saga all feature powerful uberitems, in each case the bearer of the Item of Ultimate Power experiences it as a curse, not a blessing. And anyone who envies Elric was so caught up in adolescent power fantasy that he pretty much missed every point in the series. Elric is powerless in every way that really matters; he's pretty much a puppet. If you want to mimic such settings, your powerful items should indeed come with significant drawbacks.
I have a story line where the players are looking to accumulate a set of armor which has been scattered over the years that belonged to a legendary hero that supposedly comes back to fight epic evils throughout the centuries. Each individual piece (gloves separated and all) has ended up strewn across the settings known lands and each has it's own magical properties or powers and a separate adventure is required to find each piece. When collected it makes an amazingly powerful magic item... but the players don't know when they put the helm on said legendary hero will potentially possess their character (hence, how he returns repeatedly over hundreds of years).
I say "potentially" because so long as the player(s) are following a path that is beneficial to the legendary heroes agenda he will lay dormant. The armor will seem somewhat sentient to the player(s) because it may not allow certain actions and may try to force others in accordance with the legendary heroes morals. In reality it is a subtle attempt at mind control without fully possessing the player. But eventually it will attempt (and likely achieve) full control over the PC when faced with it's ultimate foe.
That can be a lot of fun if you... oh, do something like... make the ultimate foe/bad guy some high ranking person that the characters serve.
Or maybe a dragon. Watch the party try to run away then say "Uh, guys, Bob decides to fight the dragon" and everyone, including Bob, says "WHAT!?!" (Of course to be fair you really have to make sure there's actually a way for the party to succeed or at least not get killed).
That's a great storyline! Nice work!
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Any item that qualifies for a "The best item in the world thread" should have a story behind it. In the same way, every gemstone that qualifies for the label "priceless" should have a long and bloody history.
For gems at least, the stone's history is more often than not more than half of what gives it its extreme value.
As is no doubt apparent, The House That Jack Built was one that came to me when I was in a particularly smart aleck mood.
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Heh, the story?
The boy Celedor had a best friend, Tachys. They grew up in the holy city, acolytes together, the boy destined for the white robes of the priesthood, his friend for the black robes of a magister, they were inseparable, and though they looked nothing alike, became so alike in their tastes and games that they were often asked if they were brothers.
Their youth of heavy study and stolen moments of fun was interrupted by the start of the great war, their intellectual pursuits bent to martial ends. The war is in itself a story, but the two remained friends, though their duties often kept them apart for long stretches. Tachys eventually became high magister, while Celedor was eventually bodyguard to the high priestess, Selonde. Selonde was under a lot of stress in the war, and depended on her closest advisor and bodyguard. . .she was jealous of the fact that he would break off and spend time with his friend whenever possible, always at her side in time of trouble, and always eager to get away with his friend in any moment of peace.
Near the peak of the war, as the tide finally began to turn, Celedor was escorting Selonde via ship, in a terrible storm, somewhat fearful, and in a moment, Selonde threw herself at her bodyguard. . .surprised and shocked, without thinking and rooted in decades of training and oath sworn celibacy, he slapped her. . .there were many apologies given and apparently received.
Years later, the war almost over, the high general Pelos of the army was aging and dying, Selonde asked her high magister to craft a blade that would hold the general's soul, to be worn by the general's replacement, so that the old man's genius would not be lost in this key moment when it was most needed, as the forces of darkness were being driven back to their strongholds, and the last, worst push to eliminate them was near.
After much work, Tachys crafted a blade of near perfection of pale yellow laen. . .she took it with much thanks, but rather than present it to the general, she gifted it to her bodyguard. . .when he fell dead, his soul trapped in the blade, she accused Tachys of murder and treason, worse, conspiracy with the dark.
Thus started the war between the church and the mages, never again would magister be a holy office. . .
It was almost two hundred years before the blade was brought out of storage and granted to a new champion. . .who seemed to go mad, though he was a most effective champion. . .. seven more times did the blade get returned to the vaults and come back out in times of crisis, before it was given to Harold Miller, newest champion, almost a thousand years after Celedor's "death".
Celedor, Sword of Justice, Laen Shortsword +50 (Quality and material), Constant Utterlight 50'r when drawn, Sudden Light 3x/day, 3x PP multiplier for channeling. Slaying vs Demons and Undead.
The blade will attune to the wielder if they do not attune to it first (+10 skill in "attune to wielder" per week owned, cumulative). The blade contains the soul of all previous wielders, perfectly recorded, but imperfectly integrated, resulting in lots of helpful (or nagging) advice from a committee, with occasional attempts to take over and run things . . .sometimes when the weilder is asleep or unconscious, so not even aware it's going on.
The various stored personas have various personalties, agendas, goals and abilities. They are a collection of 10th to 30th level priests and paladins, with full sheets, and wills (RM2 scale) ranging from +65 to +120. They would surface or go away as the GM desired, they'd assert themselves (will contest) from time to time. . .they ranged out over a thousand years of time and varied backgrounds, so had a wide range of moral and cultural bases. . .so seemingly totally innocuous things might provoke them to "speak up" in the weilder's head, or attempt to take over and take action.
(Imagine having a crowd of holy men in your head, an Old Testament Prophet, a New Testament Disciple, A Dark ages Ascetic, A Holy Paladin of stick up the rear variety, A Champion of the high Byzantine Church, a Politically minded High Churchman, An earthly but parochial rural warrior with an unshakable belief in god, and a Religiously Motivated political assassin one hair removed from a serial killer.)
It was a pretty kick ass item, but in effect my character had multiple personality issues, with the GM often muttering in my head or passing me notes. . .and at times I'd just do things. . . .sometimes I'd be aware of them, and it seemed handy, like the blade would point the way places I'd never been before (but the previous owners had). . .sometimes I'd wake up, and people would talk to me about what I'd done the night before, and I had no recollection. . . .I once lost a whole week.
GM said it was handy for the sessions where I couldn't make it, since one of the blade personas would just run my character that day. . .
It was definitely a mixed blessing/curse.
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Heh, the story?
The boy Celedor had a best friend, Tachys. They grew up in the holy city, acolytes together, the boy destined for the white robes of the priesthood, his friend for the black robes of a magister, they were inseparable, and though they looked nothing alike, became so alike in their tastes and games that they were often asked if they were brothers.
White Robes and Black Robes, byzantine style church --- I use those same terminologies and factions in my game. interesting ...
PS cool item.
Now the spirit of the thread is being fulfilled! Thanks for sharing. :)
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Crimson
Crimson is perhaps the most storied sword in the annuls of the history. Some believe that the sword is an imprisoned goddess from the ancient world. The goddess of fire and passion who carried on affairs with the husbands of other goddesses until she was tricked, and trapped, her soul forged into a mighty weapon and sent into the world as penance. Others believe such a tale is petty nonsense and that she is the greatest creation of the Alchemist P'zar who killed his own wife after she betrayed him with another and punished her by trapping her spirit for all time. Though the debate rages on the tales are similar.
It was first possessed by the famous Istian King named Remel who made a desperate attempt to re-unite a dying empire in the middle second age. It is said that the blade ruined his life, turning his own wife against him which left him vulnerable to the plots of his enemies.
As the tale goes, Crimson was so attached to its owner that it refused to be taken from his corpse and continued to teleport back into his crypt until all so inclined to try to take it ceased attempting. In the end the ancient capital of the Istian Empire was razed by the Lich Tarlach and Remel’s tomb and the sword Crimson were lost for three thousand years.
According to legend, the sword is extremely possessive of its owner and oft develops affection, even a deep consuming love of its own wielder, male or female. “It†or rather “She†remembers every past wielder vividly, sometimes calling the present owner by an old name. Crimson is sensitive about previous owners and will become angered if they are insulted or dishonored. This can have dire consequences.
She has a long memory for enemies of the past and will immediately prompt her owner into battle for the sake of vengeance. Crimson sometimes manipulates its owner especially if the owner falls in love or has a previous relationship. She is a jealous blade. The sword has a terrible knack for “tinkering†with relationships and playing matchmaker with friends of the wielder. Fire, Love, and Passion are her domains.
She will sometimes even use her phantasm powers to take the appearance of a beautiful woman with golden hair and crimson eyes and use this personae to carry out her emotions in the real world. Above all Crimson hates the fact that her consciousness has been embedded in the sword and constantly longs for the day when she can be free of her “prisonâ€.
Crimson is a beautiful sword in appearance. The blade is 3 feet long and shaped like a geometrically perfect tongue of flame. The blade is crafted of a red glass-like material that looks like Laen but is in fact harder than Eog or Star Iron and more impervious to magic than Kregoria. Inscribed within the blade is an odd crescent shaped symbol. The hilt is intertwined with golden Eog and mithril swirls that are purely fascinating to behold and set within the pommel is a gigantic red ruby of indescribable beauty. A flame flickers within the ruby.
The weapon once fell into the hands of the Dark Gods after its 2nd owner was overcome in the great cataclysm but they were unable to find a way to destroy the weapon, neither by cold, fire, plasma, nether, chaos, nor even the forge of darkness at the heart of the world.
POWERS:
Crimson is a +60 Magical 2* damage Bastard Sword that is +100 vs. Undead and +30 vs. Fire Dragons & Fire Creatures.
Crimson is an intuitive weapon designed for both warriors and mages but most especially semi-spell users and can be wielded by either martial skill in Sword or skill in Directed Spell
Against Cold Demons, Cold Drakes, or Undead (even Lord Undead), she also does x3 damage and is of Slaying
Against Dragons, Constructs, Dark Elves, and other creatures of evil she is considered Holy
She does a Heat crit in addition to normal crits scored; Heat crits are shifted up one level (an “A†slash + a “B†heat et.)
Sword is intelligent (RE 106, WILL: 207) and she communicates via speech, empathy, or telepathy
Crimson has a great command of languages and learns new ones at a very fast rate
Crimson exudes an aura of warmth and sometimes sensuality; she always speaks with a pleasing, sultry accent. Everyone can hear her voice within a 100' radius when she uses speech.
She has an innate ability with fire and can cast any spell pertaining to fire up to 60th level she casts at her own behest of ability with an EAR of +260 and a BSC of +120
She has True Charm ability at 60th level, sometimes she uses this on the wielder, and she also has a +300 skill in seduction that she uses to get what she wants.
Once Per Day she can fire a Pure Proto-Elemental Firebolt with her own DS ability: +260!
(Attack is resolved on the Superior EAR table, crits are Heat, Disintegration, and Impact!)
Crimson acts as a x6 PP multiplier for Essence.
Crimson and its wielder are immune to the effects of all heat and fire, even Dragon Breath
At the same time, the wielder is immune to the effects of natural cold and takes 1/2 damage from cold attacks due to the warming nature of the blade.
For the warrior who likes to say "I love my sword!" Crimson is the perfect companion. She can cast a Phantasm True for the purpose of more “interactive†communication. Once the wielder earns her trust she will appear, especially at times of emotional need and make no mistake, this weapon is emotionally "needy". The phantasm has all the components, touch, feel, taste, smell, et. However no one but the wielder can see this apparition, which sometimes leads to “awkward†situations.
(Crimson takes the appearance of a ‘phantastically’ ;) beautiful woman - APP:110)
Crimson can Geas its owner at 120th level 1x per year
No magical ice or walls of ice can form within a 600’ radius of Crimson
She can raise the temperature in a 600’ radius to as much as +240 F (this is additive, if it was already 100, it would be 340)
Crimson can cast an Unstun X and a Pain Relief True 1x per day on her wielder
Crimson can teleport to her owner over any distance or plane at anytime
She is an Absurd attunement and failure results in an “E†heat critical, any evil creature who tries to touch her will take an E Heat, Essence, and Disintegration critical each round.