Box Of Wonders

[NeroVenedict]

Or something like that....So I'm making this awsome magic item for my players to stumble upon! It's almost 10 pages now though. It is a box that when you open it, something RANDOM from the game comes out! I've included all weapons and magic items from the PHP,DMG, and other assortment of books and a lot of made up stuff too! Basically you roll a Dice to find out which random order of a chart your gonna roll on to come up with 1 of these following categories.

JUNK-70%
COMMON-15%
UNCOMMON-5%
RARE-2%
ULTRA RARE-2%
SUPRISE!!-6%

many charts to roll threw but it doesn't take very long since the players can only open it once per day.....And most of the time they are likely to pull a dead cat out!
Junk: This mostly consists of rotten fish, dead animals, handfull of dust, and spell component type materials like eagle droppings, pinch of bat furr etc.....but I also throw in a bunch of random chances to get an OLD item. If you roll an OLD item...you go to the OLD charts which has OLD armor, Clothes, weapons. upon getting one of those categories you roll a D20 to see what crappy item you get. For example: Weapon- a -2/-2 Long sword** or -10/+10 crossbow*** the ** means it breaks after getting a succesfull hit and has a chance to stick into the enemy causing 1d4 every round and 1d6 to pull out. the *** means it breaks after a single use (you fire the crossbow and the whole thing breaks under the tension. the bolt flys wild and astonishingly HITS the opponent and goes right threw him!) Also on the Old clothing if you roll a 1 you get a normal article of clothing that's not bad. if you roll a 20 you get a minor magic item like boots of catfall but it can only be used once and no longer has any enchantment on it after it's 1 use.

Common: Big list of anything you can buy out of the PHP and some other stuff. Also has the NEW category like the OLD category but it's got Armor, Clothing and weapons from the PHP and other books that have normal stats. Then like the OLD charts it's got chance of getting some minor magic items that have limited uses.

Uncommon: Full of potions, rings, minor magical stuffs that's not really a BIG deal. Also has normal weapons, some +1 nonmagical and magical items and it has a NEW+1 chart to go to with armor, clothing and weapon.

RARE: full of moderate magical items and has Moderate+2+3 charts that have some cool gear in armor, clothing weapons with moderate magics or moderate physical enhancements.

Ultra Rare: This is, Ancient Artifacts, Major Magic items like Ioun Stones of certain types, Staffs of power, Scrolls potions and other things that would have a major effect on gameplay (be it good or bad...many cursed objects come out of here too.) Also has a +4 and up chart with armor weapons and clothing.

SUPRISE!: This is the FUN part. The players can potentially open the box of wonders and get sprayed by water, cause a mild snow storm for a period of time around the area they opened the box, create a life size stone statue of themselves that appears near them, or a Giant sized statue. It could present them with a wrapped gift with a (roll on common chart) gife inside...or rare or uncommon. It can spray blood into the air, or throw a frog at them. It could potentially even let out globes of darkness and the likes around the party or inact a silence spell. The Surpise is a D4+D4 to roll and see what sub category you roll. You have 4 options split into a 16 options grid. Evil, neutral and good. Evil can curse the user or all around the user of the box, it can send spikes or attack the user or party, it can potentially even kill the user. It can also have a rare chance to summon a creature from the abyss, it has the chance of sommoning a random monster encounter! it does evil things to the user and her friends. Neutral is like all the stuff I explained above...acts that don't really effect the user in a negitive or postive manner. the GOOD can heal, give wishes, give blessings, up stats etc.......summon a creature to fight witht he party for so many days...etc.

Over all it's an awsome box, awsome item. Even though the character could potentially get a awsome weapon, or awsome power, or even get killed! or unleash hell on earth. The chances of pulling out a dead cat are far greater and you will most likely pull out junk and never ever see a +10 Vorpal sword of dancing and basket weaving come out. hah. I thought it was cool. And some of it's tables make for great random treasure as per the encounter seeing as how I have pretty much every random table chart and more in this box of wonders. And yes I was inspired by the jesters bag of holding from icewinddale. But hey my players get a kick out of it. and if they do pull a dead cat, and find some awsome way to use it creativly in the mod for the day then i may award them experience! not an uber amount...but a handfull of XP.

Anyway, I was wondering what you may think about this? maybe have anything you'd like to add or take away from it? I'm open for suggestions. I can easily splice in new tables, it's a very versitile item....and can be changed constantly if I wanted it to.

 

[shilsen]

What level are the PCs? How much of an effect such an item would have on the game depends to a great extent on the level of power that the PCs have without it.

Personally, as DM and as player, I hate this kind of item since its rewards are purely based on randomness and have nothing to do with PC choice. That being said, since your players get a kick out of it and you evidently do too, more power to you.

 

[devilbat]

Personally, as DM and as player, I hate this kind of item since its rewards are purely based on randomness and have nothing to do with PC choice.

I agree. While it is imaginitive and if your party gets a kick out of it, nothing else really matters, but it sounds like something that would keep my group from ever accomplaishing anything else, ever again.

 

[EdL]

This item is seriously crocked. They'll open it every day. That means they will end up either doing horrible things (too many Evil rolls) or become too powerful (by getting too many powerful items). Trust me on this, it will happen. And no, it doesn't matter how low the percentages are, they'll roll them eventually.

 

[Endovior]

Sounds interesting... I'd like to see your tables.

That being said, I'd balance it by adding some kind of cost to open the box... make it coin-operated perhaps? (somewhere around 5 PP sounds about right)

Also (although again, I'd need to see your table before going into specifics) I'd shave the extremes a bit... there's nothing that gets a DM lynched so fast as the whole party dying without a save from a random result... or that wrecks the campaign so much as a +10/+10 Trinket of Epic Foeslaying in the hands of a level 1 character.

 

[NeroVenedict]

Yeah well it's still a work in progress. And yes they might get the Most badass weapon known to man...this DOESNT MEAN they will know how to use it. Because They way I GM, is I take pleasure in giving my PC's awsome treasure whether is MOUNDS of gold and trinkets..or the most powerful weapon known the the human race....how will they carry all that gold out? Will they even KNOW how to use the item? no..I say. Everything that I can throw into the game, I can use to an advantage. Yes it may be a +10/+10 vorpal sword of basket weaving and dancing, but what if it belonged to a powerful monster, to which they PCS now have to fight and the only way they can kill this monster is to sacrifice the weapon to kill him...or etc... I have ways to balance everything. And I like your Coing offer idea! I'm gonna use that. I'm also coming up with a system that basically, based on their level, and their stat scores...depends on the odds for certain items. Like if their intelligence is a 10...they probably won't get much more than a potion of cure light wounds or something as far as magic is concerned. Or if they have an 18 strength, they might get a Greatsword +4/+4 with some cool effect on it that isn't TOO magical...more easily then a weaker character that has a 14 strength. It's still a work in progress....and I'm actually gonna throw this box into my game when i get it completed as a PLOT piece. The person who made the majority of the good dungeons in the realm the Pcs are currently in...(or atleast designed the dungeons) Also constructed this box.

I also found a 10,000 percentile dice set! 4 D10's....one is 10000 the other is 1000 then 100 then 10 hehe I might use this as the odds instead making, the BADass items...1 and 10,000. lmao. I don't know. I still like the idea, it adds fun. and the RANDOM death...has will saves. and if they get killed then oh well...they shouldn't be messing with a BOX of wonders in the first place if they don't want to take the risk....it is clearly printed on the box, that this box is DANGEROUS......use at your own risk.

 

[dvvega]

Your idea is a great one if it makes your campaign move along and your players involved.

However the concerns discussed about the chances for getting too powerful are valid.

Personally I would perhaps adjust this so that the box can only be opened ONCE per month at the apex of the full moon or something.

It will make the item a desirable find, while controlling the gaining of items. And while they wait for the next month, the campaign world moves on - and of course people WILL try to steal it from them.

As an example I used a Deck of Many Things in my game - there is only one Deck in my world and it appears only once per year during the 5 unlucky days in a random location. It so happened that during this particular year, it appeared in the same country, the same village as the PCs. I decided to stick with my randomised determination and let them at it.

My wife was one of the players. Ever since I've RPG'ed with her, she has NEVER and I stress NEVER drawn badly from a Deck of Many Things and she's encountered 5 all up. Everytime she draws three cards (her favourite number) and every time she's gained - treasure, land, XP, items, wishes, whatever is good. Other party members have suffered miserably.

Why mention this? Because your box could end up behaving like the Deck in my world. One player just happens to be the luckiest person in the world.

D

 

[Mishihari Lord]

It sounds like fun to me, but I see a couple of issues.

First, if their first several tries result in dead cats, they're going to give up and sell it. There goes your work down the drain. So fudge the first roll and make it something cool.

Second, don't put anything in there that you're not willing to deal with on a long-term basis. Having a DM take/break one of your cool magic items because it's breaking the game is no fun. It happened once to me, and while I agreed that the DM was justified, it was still frustrating.

Third, understand that at least one of your PCs will die. Items like this and the deck of many things are like crack. People keep using it until somebody gets killed. Then _maybe_ they'll stop using it before they die.

And check out this link: http://www.warehouse23.com/basement/box/
It may give you some ideas.