Thursday, February 7, 2019

Sentient Weapons

About 2 weeks ago, I posted a question to Twitter -
One of the players in my 1e campaign has acquired an intelligent magic sword and I often overlook "playing" it in game. What tricks do you have for using a sword's personality in-game?
 I got a lot of feedback, and have been putting it into play (pardon the pun.)  Here are four takeaways that stick out to me:

  • Make it more visible. Ideas included: put it into your initiative rolls, hang a picture or quick reference card (QRC) from your GM screen
  • Flesh it out. Give it more than a name and a purpose. What are its likes, dislikes, and fears? Build a reaction table (or simple AI) for it. Give it some knowledge that could help the party (or misinformation/outdated information that might not help.)
  • Plan for it to act. Consider some things that it might do or say in a given situation, record these on its QRC.
  • (Unrelated, but worthwhile) Put together some lore.  Think about what players might learn about the magic item from a sage, Legend Lore spell, or similar.
I've put together a format that I'm using for magic items going forward.  I'm currently working on some items for my patreon, and having a template makes it so much better.  Here's what it looks like:


Name:
Description:
Special Purpose: 
5e Specific:
   Sentience:
   Abilities:
1e Specific:
   Alignment 
   Int:     Ego:      Personality: 
   Special Abilities:
   Speaks: Common, Orcish, & Ogrish.
Personality:
Mannerisms:
Lore:
Notes:

Thanks to my patrons over at https://www.patreon.com/mountainfoot  - their sponsorship makes it possible for me to make more stuff publicly available and re-usable.  If you'd like to help, and get access to additional maps available for your personal or commercial re-use, please sign up.  Sponsorship levels start at $1 each month.

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