Comments on: Bringing Back the Magic

By: Trazendo a magia de volta

Trazendo a magia de volta — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:05:46 +0000

[...] Postado em 23 de setembro de 2009,Â Por Brandan Landgraff no site D20 Source com o tÃtulo original â€œBringing Back the Magic“. [...]

By: Putting the Wonder back into Wondrous Items « Sea of Stars RPG Design Journal

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:09:28 +0000

[...] September 27, 2009 I have been seeing a lot of articles on this theme -such as Bringing Back the Magic and the brilliantly named “Is this a +3 Dagger I see before me?“- and I wrote about a [...]

By: Ravenous Role Playing » Blog Archive » Friday Five: 2009-09-25

Ravenous Role Playing » Blog Archive » Friday Five: 2009-09-25 — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:52:37 +0000

[...] Bringing Back the Magic Stop introducing boring magic items into your game! Give them a back story, a purpose, a history and some character. This seems to only be done with artifacts in most D&D games, but there’s no reason that “long sword +1″ can’t be called “Bartuk’s Blade of Bane” with a good story behind it. For more ideas on how to do this, head on over to D20 Source and check out their post. [...]

By: Friday Links for September 25, 2009 | Moebius Adventures

Friday Links for September 25, 2009 | Moebius Adventures — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:08:52 +0000

[...] First we have “Bringing Back the Magic” from Brandan Landgraff at d20source.com. As someone who’s been investigating how to add more “crunch” to wizards, I have to say I hadn’t thought much about magic items until I read Brandan’s entry. As he says, a +3 flaming sword just doesn’t have much pizazz – “all too often it is easy to think of a magic item as a +3 flaming sword, rather than the legendary fiery blade wielded by the mighty conqueror Hulkgar the Bad during his annexation of the kingdoms of the north”.Â You can find this great article here. [...]

By: Stitched

Stitched — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:34:35 +0000

You can also tie in the lore into a running sub-quest; tracking down information to unlock all the powers or bonuses piecemeal

By: Jonathan Drain

Jonathan Drain — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:15:52 +0000

D&D 4th edition only supplies a short sentence of description per magic item. I think a DM should supply the following for every magic item he spawns:

1. A longer description of its appearance and effect. This is what the player sees.
2. A description of the item’s background. This includes the item’s creator, the method used to create it, previous owners, and how it got to where it is when the player characters find it.

One or two sentences for each can suffice. This encourages DMs and players alike to think of the world at large, and makes magic items more than just mechanics.

By: Stitched

Stitched — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:08:37 +0000

It could also bring back the old chestnut where you can’t use an items powers without identification/research first.

By identifying or having it researched, you can learn the lore (if applicable) or the inherent bonuses the item confers.

By: Fitz

Fitz — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:03:32 +0000

I totally agree here. The idea that a sword is simply a slightly better sword because it’s magical doesn’t do it for me either. I love adding more crunch to items and quests to personalize them.

Other examples could be collecting individual pieces of a sword or inscribing magic runes on a blade over time to give it additional strength or powers or even having to recharge a holy weapon by returning to a holy site every so often… The options are endless!

Great article!

By: Sian

Sian — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:01:06 +0000

I have to agree, the replaceable, anonymous nature of D&D magic items leaves a bad taste for me. Heroes of legend (or more recent legend like LotR) maybe have two named weapons through their career, perhaps only upgrading because they need something special to tackle some specific threat.

I much prefer PCs to get neat expendables, armor and other wondrous items, a weapon is so personal, so spiritually important, that I’d rather see them get upgrades to a weapon with some history and maybe retire it, (note I said retire not sell,) once they need to quest for a holy avenger or such. PCs shouldn’t be penalized for this sort of thing. ;)