Update: Out with ye!

Thanks to Dragonlordmax, Mourngrymm and Roack for their assistance finishing off the list. Go to Comment

Number 27 was one that I had to fight to avoid fleshing out more; it's one of my favorites, but the site is PG, so I can't really flesh it out any more than I did. Go to Comment

Only voted Go to Comment

I think this has just the right amount of backstory to justify it's existence. The origin myth is always a major part of any magic weapon, and as far as those go, this one is pretty good.

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Funny you should mention Excalibur, since it was one of my considerations when making that comment. "Historia Regum Britanniae" (predating d'Arthur by ~3 centuries, and one of Malory's sources) does give some origin to Excalibur (it was forged in Avalon).

More importantly, every single mythic weapon I've read of has SOME backstory to it. A weapon found inside an 8-headed snake demon, a deity's weapon on-loan, the weapon of a famous hero that acquired similar characteristics, etc. The backstory gives it a place in the world, and in a number of cases explains the weapon itself. Nothing exists in a vacuum, and magic weapons are no different. Even if the players don't ever learn of the backstory, it still gives you ways to link it to your world.

Generic items of obvious utility do not require a backstory; one presumes that healing potions first came from some alchemist, and so on for items that see common use. But more unique items, those with truly special characteristics, such as anti-shapechanger chakram, require some sort of explanation for where their abilities came from.

If they don't, it feels too arbitrary, and harkens back to the old D&D magic item tables. I never much liked those, because they made the magic items feel detached from the surrounding setting. An origins myth of some kind negates that, and also gives extra tidbits to add to a world. "Oh, those are the Sacred Chakram of the New Moon, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself! You must be holy warriors, to be graced with such a divine weapon." Go to Comment

The purposeful-yet-aimless drifting makes this the perfect recurring villain. PCs won't be able to take him down the first few times they encounter him, and by the later ones they'll start to realize that he's got much more up his sleeve than they bargained for.

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Yes Virginia, speculative biology goes beyond flora. I do wonder whether the ecosystem could truly support a metal creature as active as a squirrel, however. They'd almost certainly be restricted to groves of Hemangini trees.

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I believe the submission you were thinking of is this: http://strolen.com/viewing/Goldleaf

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I liked the interesting quirks of Goldleaf trees, and for the same reasons do I like this. An interesting piece of world-fluff.

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Sci-fi p-zombies. The interview log really added to this, taking an already well-thought-out idea and giving it an even more interesting "face of the enemy" as it were.

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Minor flavor. Definitely usable, since communication is essential for any group of soldiers.

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I liiiiiiiiike this. So many opportunities and ways to incorporate this into a game. Nicely done.

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The mechanism I have in mind for them would be sigils carved into the tube, which are then activated/powered by the ether capsule once it's broken open. So theoretically they could be recharged, but my intent was that they're small, they're cheap, and they're one-shot. You light one up and toss it where needed, just like an actual flare.

Cost and amount are negotiable. XD Honestly, that's left up to the GM; how much light do you want your players to have available?

As for being 'beige', yeah, they are. Honestly, I was thinking that they're pretty much a fantasy port of the real thing. It's a device that's proved useful to us over the past few decades, surely they'd come up with something similar in a magical society. A nice bit of fluff to add to the world, and even gives a bit of utility to the players too. Go to Comment

Oasis ahoy! It's always interesting to read submissions that have seen playtesting; they always seem to read just a bit differently compared to submissions that haven't benefited from live interaction, and seem filled with much more usable elements.

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Hail the chosen weapon of Mathom (tomorrow, of course; we've much too much to do today)!

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@Echo: We do want things to happen, but sometimes nothing of note happens. Considering there are a mere handful of 'Nothings' in the chart, I'd say that balances noteworthy with mundane nicely.

@DLM: I second Echo, in that I can see this being used easily. It might also benefit from being converted into a random generator program, considering you've done most of the hard work for it (the content generation).

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I'll agree mildly with the plot hooks comment, but I think this castle and it's story add significant depth to a world, even if the PCs never set eyes upon it's walls.

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I like it, but I really don't have anything constructive to add to the conversation. Continue onward good sir.

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Only voted Go to Comment

It might be a problem with your browser, or it could be that the site is designed almost-exclusively for computer browsers. If you go to yonder forum, you can make a post asking Strolen about it.

http://strolen.com/guild/index.php/board,3.0.html

But yes, you should have a voting dropdown box right above the comment box. Go to Comment