Tenkar's Tavern: Racially Aligned Magic Items

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Racially Aligned Magic Items

Post from my phone and in the car, so please forgive the typos ;)

I'm thinking for next week I may write up a magic item that is linked to one of the core Demi-human races. It's magical in anyone's hands but more effective when wielded by the aligned race.

Nothing I've written or plan to write is a game breaker - they are mostly minor. I'm just interested in trying out another twist ;)

Thoughts?

1 comment:

1-Hit WizardAugust 11, 2012 at 9:23 PM
I really fancy the idea that the same item functions differently from character to character within the same party. Though this would/should tend to be low-powered, imagine the rare item that does wondrously different things for each user: a magical helm that grows horns with an ac bonus for dwarves, turns itself into a soft sweet-smelling beret for elves, and becomes a frowny-faced fearsome metal mask for half-orcs.

Tons of possibilty. I like it.
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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

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Saturday, August 11, 2012

Racially Aligned Magic Items

1 comment:

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