Touchstones. Your Opinions, Ideas, Sources.

[Thomas Percy]

It's a holiday, I read a lot of books of not-my-so-favorite WotC.
In: Dungeon Master's Guide II, Planar Handbook with its WebEn and Sandstorm I found new rpg idea of Touchstones.
I like it very much, I've introduced it to our main campaing last weekend for my player bard PC. She was so pleased, that interrupted and asked me durning Pirates with Depp movie .

Does anyone else use this material (Touchstones) in his sessions?

• What are your likes and dislikes?
• Do you have any ideas on new Touchstone sites (especially for classic-fantasy-medieval-setting such a Baldur's Gate outskirts)?
• Where I can find more Touchstones besides 3+1 books I already mentioned?

 

[Land Outcast]

what are those?

are they [magic items] stones which allow telepathy between the ones holding them? If so, I unwittingly introduced them two years ago... with the first party I DMed, the first one of ours to grow from 1st to 20th... and beyond!... but I digress...

Is it that or did I completly miss the point?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No, they're locations that characters can visit and "power up" at. I find them a little odd, especially since any BBEG worth his salt would either build his fortress atop one and destroy any that he can't personally control.

 

[Nellisir]

No, they're locations that characters can visit and "power up" at. I find them a little odd, especially since any BBEG worth his salt would either build his fortress atop one and destroy any that he can't personally control.

I like the concept, but WotC (so for as I know) hasn't put out any guidelines to creating new ones, pricing them, or using them in a campaign. Many are extremely limited; ie only functioning in one area, or for 1 week, or some other significant limitation, and many only function once per person.
Cheers
Nell.

 

[Shemeska]

Short Answer: They are the fireflowers and mario powerup mushrooms of DnD.

Longer Answer: I might have hated them less if WotC hadn't blown the last 40 pages of the Planar Handbook, a full fifth of the entire book, with the damn things. Plus, the implimentation was hideous. To use one touchstone as an example... yes, you go into a specific spot in Sigil, look at a mysterious object, and then kill whatever 1d4 random monsters show up on the provided encounter table. Killing them "establishes" you in the area and you can claim the granted power. No. No it doesn't. It just gets you arrested and thrown in the city Prison for murdering 1d4 people.

Some of the touchstones are nifty site ideas, but they're then presented as not places of mystery or wonder, but conveniant powerup sites to give nifties to munchy players who otherwise seem to need some payoff from their DM to be motivated to go planeswalking in the first place. Yeah, the planes aren't worth going to unless there's a bribe. Lovely. *peery look*

Plus, if they're just sitting there giving away power, the hell that they'll only have 1dX random monsters there, they'll have an Abyssal Lord or some other planar mover and shaker's fortress perched on top of it and zealously defended by whoever wants to profit from it monitarily, or to study it, or to fuel some ideological crusade be it the Blood War or some other goal. Such things don't exist in the randomly rolled vacuum of generic flavor that they're presented in.

 

[Thomas Percy]

1.
To use one touchstone as an example... yes, you go into a specific spot in Sigil, look at a mysterious object, and then kill whatever 1d4 random monsters show up on the provided encounter table. Killing them "establishes" you in the area and you can claim the granted power. No. No it doesn't. It just gets you arrested and thrown in the city Prison for murdering 1d4 people.

2.
Some of the touchstones are nifty site ideas, but they're then presented as not places of mystery or wonder, but conveniant powerup sites to give nifties to munchy players who otherwise seem to need some payoff from their DM to be motivated to go planeswalking in the first place.

3.
Plus, if they're just sitting there giving away power, the hell that they'll only have 1dX random monsters there, they'll have an Abyssal Lord or some other planar mover and shaker's fortress perched on top of it and zealously defended by whoever wants to profit from it monitarily, or to study it, or to fuel some ideological crusade be it the Blood War or some other goal. Such things don't exist in the randomly rolled vacuum of generic flavor that they're presented in.

ad. 1
I know you are joking. I most cases I understand that 1d4 guys near a Touchstone are simply a table of the guys you most probably meet there, such as 1d4 bakers and 1d2 millers on the Baker Street. They are background.

My PCs were rewarded by a pope for making a quest for him with free Touchstone feat and possibility to travel Vaticano->Celestia. They met lantern archon in the Destiny Point Touchstone (Planar Hdb.). A archon said he was there for divinations too, and he received an answer that he will meet in the future next person he see - then the PCs are comnig. It's a hook for an adventure I will make in the future.

ad 2.
My player who was rewarded with Touchstone feat isn't munch, she's not even powergamer. She's psychodrama nad storytelling lover and she has caught fire with Touchstones because of these reasons only.

ad 3.
You're absolutely right. And I don't have an idea how to make explain to my players (and myself) that nations make wars for eg. gold mine but they are not interested in source of unlimited supernatural abilities.

 

[vulcan_idic]

One possibility for why there isn't someone perched on it sucking it dry for the edge is if the existance/possibility of it was unknown - it's a big world out there and knowing something is theoretically possible is different from knowing that it actually exists, if so where, and how to use such a thing if you could find it.

For example we know about nuclear reactors. Have you ever wondered if, given that uranium is a naturally occuring substance, if there had ever been a naturally occuring stable, self sustaining nuclear reaction similar to that which occurs in a nuclear reaction which oddurred in nature with no human intervention? If you had thought about the theory, would you be able to locate one, or figure out a way to tap into the energy it created? Also it could be possible that Touchstones are a transient phenomena - i.e. in Eberron where the planes "orbit" the prime material it is possible that a conjunction creates a touchstone affect that lasts as long as the conjunction does - potentially anywhere from moments, to years and might reccur elsewhere or at a time table which is unpredictable preventing it from being reliably sat upon and tapped. Which leads to an interesting plot idea - a touchstone will be created at a certain place at a certain time, but will only exxist for a two minute window, aand there is an "arms race" to get it before the competition. Or, for a more permanent touchstone, perhaps there are other factors that make it difficult to sit on top of - it's at the bottom of the sea, or in the middle of a vast uninhabited desert where you could sit on it all you want, but as long as you sit on it there's nothing you can do with the power, and if you do sit on it you'll probably die of heat/dehydration, it's a disputed territory that several people want but are more interested that others don't get it than that they do, in a volcano, on the back of something like the island-fish/whale Jasconius from the tale of Saint Brendan the Navigator (I remember seeing something like this in a sinbad the sailor type film too, also reminds me a bit of the giant sea snail portrayed in the Dr. Dolittle movie with Rex Harrison). There are any number of possible reasons why such a source is difficult/problematic to just sit on.

 

[Mark CMG]

I use (what I call) touchstones in my 30 year old campaign world of Grymvald. Essentially they are large, round, flat stones carved with a particular symbols by a wizard long ago and set into the ground in many of the oldest trading and important cities (some now in ruins). These were meant to increase the accuracy of teleporting by giving the wizard (or others) a standardized location to target.

 

[Kafkonia]

Some of the touchstones are nifty site ideas, but they're then presented as not places of mystery or wonder, but conveniant powerup sites to give nifties to munchy players who otherwise seem to need some payoff from their DM to be motivated to go planeswalking in the first place. Yeah, the planes aren't worth going to unless there's a bribe. Lovely. *peery look*

You have to take a feat to use a touchstone, and you get a small benefit with the potential of a temporary greater benefit in the right situation. I don't think that constitutes a DM bribe.

 

[lukelightning]

Of course I have touchstones in my game!

They are the "real" touchstones that are just certain kinds of slightly-abrasive stone that you scratch soft metals on to test the purity of the metal (to spot counterfeit gold, etc.)

As for "places of power" touchstones, there are certainly many explanations as to why they aren't all controlled by BBEG's.

Perhaps they are rare and in the category of "lost lore" that the PCs uncover. Or perhaps they can only be found by a few, because of their metaphysical power ("those who are unworthy of the holy Wellspring of Eternity can never find it"). Or only certain people can tap the power. Or that it moves. Or that the BBEG does control it, but secretly!