Intelligent Items

jackslate45 · Feb 7, 2012

Consider this a shout out?

And I have not spent anything yet!

Qik · Feb 7, 2012

Sounds awesome, SK.

Maidhc O Casain · Feb 7, 2012

A shout from me as well - though I'd ask that we reflavor the bartering to my previously mentioned "grow with the character" concept.

In fact, I'd be happy to have a "Patron GM" just decide how the sword develops both in terms of personality and abilities. I'm envisioning just specifying how much money Kalinn can spend each time she's ready for another "upgrade" and letting the PGM take it from there.

Satin Knights · Feb 7, 2012

Oh, I am working in the idea of "start small and upgrade repeatedly later" into the extra rules. It will be easier to upgrade an existing item than starting fresh.

Maidhc O Casain · Feb 7, 2012

It would also fit Kalinn's character better if she were able to keep the usual mechanics and track upgrades in your thread, but fluff-wise complete upgrades via a ritual, or (more likely) having them 'just happen' IC. I can't see a reason this would present problems, but I may be missing something.

Satin Knights · Feb 7, 2012

I was going more for "the outsider/alien creature, who runs the shop, performs a ritual" to do the awakening parts. And even she cannot guarantee success or predict the outcome. So far I have come up with 24 different situational modifiers. Attempting the ritual without her could be worked in too with a penalty modifier, but how would Kalinn learn the ritual, especially the first time? After she has been through it once, she could foolishly try to do it on her own the second time, but with very uncontrolled messy results. Then we will see which way she goes the third time.

I still need to need to build the shop keeper, finding a weird race, and then building up a mystic crafter. The shop will also have a few constructs and other odd critters running around in it. Oh! I just realized I can resurrect an old character I haven't played since 1991. She shall be perfect for this.

I haven't built the personalty traits table yet. I have the perfect book in the house somewhere. It was from the second edition days. It has a table of 100 social traits and quirks. Another of 100 physical traits, etc. It was put out as a supplement for building NPCs in 5 minutes or less. It is just buried in the house somewhere at the moment. So, the first few may be generated by hand written random tables. Wait, PCGen has a good personality table. I can filch from there to start because it is OGL/Gnu?/Open.

I think we have enough positive interest, and so far no negative comments, that I can proceed with building a binder's shop thread. Anaerion will be the first customer. I won't get the thread up until the wee hours of the morning as I have a few hours of corporate work to do first.

JKason is kicking off his adventure. Therefore, I am going to invoke a slight time bubble. Anaerion is hereby declared to have went shopping now, which will take a day or three IRL to accomplish, and has his new soul mate to go wandering into the DWI with now so he can get into the recruitment and game thread.

Maidhc O Casain · Feb 7, 2012

And that will work great - and be very entertaining - for that majority who are actively seeking to awaken or enhance their item. But Kalinn (as I envision her) isn't even aware that the blade she's inherited from her father - that's been passed from parent to child in an unbroken line going all the way back to her Dragon ancestor - is intelligent, and even once she becomes aware she's not the sort to go actively seeking to awaken it further.

As I said, I don't mind at all using the same mechanics & recording the results in the same place, but she shouldn't be shoehorned into the same fluff if that doesn't work for her story and personality. Nor should she be penalized mechanically if that fluff doesn't work for her.

Qik · Feb 7, 2012

Not sure if this would be helpful, but perhaps Kalinn somehow finds the shop without intending to? SK's NPC could recognize the blade's inherent intelligence and offer to brign it out.

Maidhc O Casain · Feb 7, 2012

I'm truly not trying to be difficult, although reading through my last post I can see it could come across as more than a little, um, strident.

But I just don't see Kalinn pursuing the awakening or enhancement of intelligence in her sword at all. And that's not at all the way I pictured the "growing along with her" aspect. When I used that phrase I was thinking of more than simply mechanics.

This is an old sword, long asleep but gradually awakening and becoming more aware of the world around it. As it grows more aware of the externals it also becomes more aware of the role it is supposed to play in that world, and gradually starts exerting itself more and more. I'm thinking more of self-enlightenment, or of old intellectual pathways that haven't been used in a LONG time waking more and more fully as they are used (much like us old crotchety folk need more and more time to stretch and move around before we're fully limber and alert in the morning

).

It looks to me like so long as we use the thread SatinKnights is setting up (and many thanks to you for it, SK! Not meaning to detract from this undertaking at all as it's a really cool idea!) to keep the record, and use the same mechanics as we would for any other intelligent item (cost, wait times, dice rolls, etc.) it should be acceptable to write the fluff in a way that preserves Kalinn's story/personality/development the way I see her.

(Also, I'm not ruling out that at some point in the future she wouldn't go to the alien/outsider mage-smith for some help or advice . . . she's growing organically, and her story will change with each adventure, and with the entrance and exit of each other character in her life. But for now . . .)

GlassEye · Feb 7, 2012

Mowgli said:
...it should be acceptable to write the fluff in a way that preserves Kalinn's story/personality/development the way I see her...

I agree. I think the fluff that SK is presenting is perfectly fine and will probably work for most cases but there should be space for the telling of other stories, like Kalinn's.