Any Sourcebooks On Mythical Weapons?

[Cleomedes]

Are there any existing books which provide information on, and rules for, mythological arms and armour (eg. Excalibur, Kusanagi, Mjolnir)? Either fantasy or modern - since these supposedly real world objects could of course be applicable to either.

Just wondering, because if such a product doesn't exist I was thinking of trying to throw something together.

A while back I wrote a (non-RPG) guide to killing mythical monsters and acquiring legendary weapons (with which to more easily achieve such killing). As one might expect with this kind of slightly insane project, I've been having problems placing it anywhere. So in the meantime I was thinking of adapting some of my research/material into an RPG sourcebook.

Obviously material on mythological monsters would be obsolete, since these creatures have already been incorporated into RPGs (eg. hydras, krakens, werewolves). But I wasn't sure if there had been anything on legendary weapons.

Thanks.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

If you can lay hands on them, Role-Aids produced two supplements for 1e (or 2e) called Fantastic Treasures I and II. They were both full of little else but game mechanics for weapons of myth and legend. I own them both, and they're not bad.

Try this link:
http://home.flash.net/~brenfrow/ra/ra.htm

 

[Cleomedes]

Thanks for the info.

Since those were published 20 years ago, I guess a modern book on the subject would still be pretty viable.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

True, true. They'd be nice to have, though...some of the items come from very obscure sources. It'd be a great chance to research and upgrade them!

 

[rowport]

There was a book out from Sword & Sorcery last year IIRC, called Relics & Rituals: Excaliber that described a 'Round Table' setting, with stats for Excaliber, Holy Grail, etc. It was pretty good I think, but I have not read it in a while nor used it in-game.

 

[Crothian]

THe Indiana Jones game had abook called Artifacts that also has these type of things in it.

 

[Cleomedes]

True, true. They'd be nice to have, though...some of the items come from very obscure sources. It'd be a great chance to research and upgrade them!

Yeah, good point. I might see if I can get hold of them.

I'm a Classics & Ancient History PhD student, so I have all the ancient Greek and Roman stuff at my fingertips. But my detailed knowledge of other cultures - especially Asian stuff - is fairly limited, so I'll definitely have to put in some research time. I dug up some good international stuff when writing the manuscript I mentioned in the opening post, but it would certainly be worth coming up with more. Getting hold of these books might make things a lot quicker, as opposed to trawling through historical sources.

 

[Eternalknight]

i know Dragon had an article of real-world artifacts around the same time the Epic Handbook came out.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Yeah, good point. I might see if I can get hold of them.

I'm a Classics & Ancient History PhD student, so I have all the ancient Greek and Roman stuff at my fingertips. But my detailed knowledge of other cultures - especially Asian stuff - is fairly limited, so I'll definitely have to put in some research time. I dug up some good international stuff when writing the manuscript I mentioned in the opening post, but it would certainly be worth coming up with more. Getting hold of these books might make things a lot quicker, as opposed to trawling through historical sources.

Just off the top of my head, they include items (and a few creatures) from Japanese, Chinese, Amerindian, British, Persian, Hebrew, and Russian legends, myths and religions. A very broad spectrum of information.

 

[Cleomedes]

Excellent - Amazon.com had them both via a marketplace seller.

Thank again for the tip.