Wendigo

Wendigo. Pencil, 2004.

Weapons with Provenance

Hrunting, Sting, Anduril, Excalibur, Grayswandir, Green Destiny... magic weapons in fantasy fiction are unique items with a history. In D&D, magic weapons tend to be generic types. This irks me, especially when having a +1 longsword by the time you're second level is pretty standard in most campaigns.

Honestly, how many lost magic swords do you think should be floating around in a campaign to await discovery? I bet I could keep player interest if they knew that there were no more than half a dozen truly magical blades in the world that had been lost, and no more... and that only one or two smiths in the world knew how to make such weapons.

I'm hardly the first to suggest that RPGs are too generous in this regard, with their gross deflation in the value and scarcity of magic weapons. But how would you actually make this work in-game?


My thoughts follow after the break...

In the spirit of the season...

Bone Dancer, 2005, colored pencil and watercolor. Client: Atlas Games.

Key to Stormgate Map

As promised, here's a succinctly written key to the city map I've been working on. I'm using it as a setting for my current campaign -- a jumping-off point/home base for the PCs, who are assumed to be recent arrivals on the island.

More after the jump...

[Map] Stormgate Map

This is a schematic of a city I'm designing to be a default starting point for the DungeonTeller RPG world. Stormgate is a jumping-off point for adventure within the city itself, or in The Marches beyond. I picture it as the last foothold of human civilization upon a large offshore island that was once the colony of an empire from the mainland. Since its heyday, the island has slowly fallen under the sway of the monstrous humanoids and evil magic users who had dominated the place before the empire drove them into hiding. Adventurers still come to Stormgate from the mainland to explore the many ruins beyond the North Gate. I'll write up a gazetteer that describes the various districts and post it here.

 

You See a Pile of Skeletons...

A truly chilling life-size resin cast of skeletons unearthed at Herculaneum.

 

2d6 and 2dTricks

Saw the "A Day in Pompeii" exhibit at the Museum of Science today. Among the treasures were 2d6 (foreground, smaller) and two hollow dice that could be loaded with lead weights.