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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!
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Bardic Lore: Ogham
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<blockquote data-quote="TheAuldGrump" data-source="post: 2122535" data-attributes="member: 6957"><p>Bardic Lore: Ogham is a more substantive work than its companion volume - Bardic Lore: the Fachan, which I received free this past St. Patricks Day with the purchase of BL: Ogham. In this case the booklet contains 12 pages, one of which is the OGL. The book has illustrations, pictures of the characters of the Ogham alphabet, and a photograph from Kerry of an Ogham enscribed stone. As with the Fachan the author, Daniel Perez, begins with the Bard Amergin Ó Míl* as this time he meets with a Druid carving an inscription upon a stone, a man who who will in time become his mentor. </p><p></p><p>This is followed by a historic account of Ogham (pronounced ‘OH-am’) and the 25 characters that make up its alphabet, designed to be scribed in either stone or wood. Mr. Perez adds a few optional characters for English letters who's sounds are missing from the Gaelic for those who wish to simply use Ogham as a cipher. He cautions that there is no proof that the language was ever used for mystical purposes, but then follows with some interesting ways to use them in such a fashion for a fantasy game. </p><p></p><p>Three of the uses described serve to create some very large magic items indeed, by scribing the characters upon the standing stones. Given that the powers he ascribes these stones have been featured in legends of standing stones from all over the British Isles I would call it a decent conceit. He follows then with smaller, more portable scribings that may be used to duplicate magical feats, like wands these items have a limited number of uses. Next comes a new item creation feat for Ogham inscriptions, and a new metamagic feat that is pretty nifty, I am going to be using in my D&D game when I pick it back up again in a few months, as well as some suggested additions to the Druid’s spell list. </p><p></p><p>As in Bardic Knowledge: the Fachan a description of what Bardic Knowledge has to say on the subject adds a bit of depth when the scribings are found in game. Unlike Fachan a web bibliography helps those who want a little more information find there ways. The bibliography also credits some print books, for those who prefer to do their research in a bookstore.</p><p></p><p>As a third generation Irish-American I give this 5 out of 5 stars, or 9 out of 10, again - the inclusion of Bardic Knowledge DCs brought the rating up a notch, I would like to see this idea used more often. This rating is likely biased by the fact that I was looking for magics to use on some standing stones in my game next week, but I found it exactly what I wanted for my OGL Steampunk scenario. I will be using the Bardic Knowledge information as Knowledge (History) for the game.</p><p></p><p>*EDIT* Without the Bardic Knowledge DCs and rthe fact that I needed the supplement that very week I would likely rate it 4/5, but it does, and I did, so I am leaving the rating where it is. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> I would also drop the number of charges in the minor Ogham scribings to 20 rather than 50, and use Craft Wonderous Item rather than give Scribe Ogham its own feat for purposes in my game. But just seeing people start using metamagic in my games would make it worthwhile! All together it would be fair to say that the rating is closer to 4.5 out of 5.</p><p></p><p>* For those of an historic bent, I suspect that this name is most likely taken from the <em>Song of Amergin</em>, an old Celtic lay in Ireland and Wales, though this is not confirmed in the product.</p><p></p><p>*EDIT* Confirmed, Amergin is indeed the same Amergin as the Lay of Amergin. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Picking up on an obscure piece of trivia gives me a warm feeling inside!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheAuldGrump, post: 2122535, member: 6957"] Bardic Lore: Ogham is a more substantive work than its companion volume - Bardic Lore: the Fachan, which I received free this past St. Patricks Day with the purchase of BL: Ogham. In this case the booklet contains 12 pages, one of which is the OGL. The book has illustrations, pictures of the characters of the Ogham alphabet, and a photograph from Kerry of an Ogham enscribed stone. As with the Fachan the author, Daniel Perez, begins with the Bard Amergin Ó Míl* as this time he meets with a Druid carving an inscription upon a stone, a man who who will in time become his mentor. This is followed by a historic account of Ogham (pronounced ‘OH-am’) and the 25 characters that make up its alphabet, designed to be scribed in either stone or wood. Mr. Perez adds a few optional characters for English letters who's sounds are missing from the Gaelic for those who wish to simply use Ogham as a cipher. He cautions that there is no proof that the language was ever used for mystical purposes, but then follows with some interesting ways to use them in such a fashion for a fantasy game. Three of the uses described serve to create some very large magic items indeed, by scribing the characters upon the standing stones. Given that the powers he ascribes these stones have been featured in legends of standing stones from all over the British Isles I would call it a decent conceit. He follows then with smaller, more portable scribings that may be used to duplicate magical feats, like wands these items have a limited number of uses. Next comes a new item creation feat for Ogham inscriptions, and a new metamagic feat that is pretty nifty, I am going to be using in my D&D game when I pick it back up again in a few months, as well as some suggested additions to the Druid’s spell list. As in Bardic Knowledge: the Fachan a description of what Bardic Knowledge has to say on the subject adds a bit of depth when the scribings are found in game. Unlike Fachan a web bibliography helps those who want a little more information find there ways. The bibliography also credits some print books, for those who prefer to do their research in a bookstore. As a third generation Irish-American I give this 5 out of 5 stars, or 9 out of 10, again - the inclusion of Bardic Knowledge DCs brought the rating up a notch, I would like to see this idea used more often. This rating is likely biased by the fact that I was looking for magics to use on some standing stones in my game next week, but I found it exactly what I wanted for my OGL Steampunk scenario. I will be using the Bardic Knowledge information as Knowledge (History) for the game. *EDIT* Without the Bardic Knowledge DCs and rthe fact that I needed the supplement that very week I would likely rate it 4/5, but it does, and I did, so I am leaving the rating where it is. ;) I would also drop the number of charges in the minor Ogham scribings to 20 rather than 50, and use Craft Wonderous Item rather than give Scribe Ogham its own feat for purposes in my game. But just seeing people start using metamagic in my games would make it worthwhile! All together it would be fair to say that the rating is closer to 4.5 out of 5. * For those of an historic bent, I suspect that this name is most likely taken from the [i]Song of Amergin[/i], an old Celtic lay in Ireland and Wales, though this is not confirmed in the product. *EDIT* Confirmed, Amergin is indeed the same Amergin as the Lay of Amergin. :) Picking up on an obscure piece of trivia gives me a warm feeling inside! [/QUOTE]
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