Do you give magic items a history? If so, I could use help

[DariusOfCT]

How often do you DMs give important magic weapons/items a bit of history? I don't mean every potion that cures d8 points of damage or +1 dagger, but an important magical sword or similar.

I'm going to give the players some magical weapons in the near future and was trying to come up with a bit of history for each weapon/item. Most of it is along the lines of "this blade was once wielded by the great elf swordmaster, Targaris, who used it to slay the evil lich king when it was attempting to subjugate the entire world under its evil thumb."

However, I'm at a bit of a loss coming up with a background on a magical rapier. Any ideas that I can pirate? It would be wielded by a rogue. The area the PCs are in is near pirate-infested waters and also borders an oppressive tyrannical slave-trading kingdom, but that does not necessarily limit it to a pirate/freebooter or somebody fighting slavers.

 

[sckeener]

Out of curiosity why are you making the history up? Is there someone going to explain it to the pcs or are they casting spells that are going to fill in all the blanks?

I like to describe interesting items and then work out the history later....

I wish I had my notes here to share, but I do remember one magic item that was very funny for me as a DM.....because they destroyed a perfectly good magic item.

I gave the players a Clock of resistance, but I had it made out of lion skin. One of the players was so offended by it (and I had no clue this would happen) that she demanded that the item be destroyed. The reason...her animal companion was a lion......that is it....

we were playing in Mulhorand (egypt)....they had tons of animal hides...and heck the cats they honored they mummified....it made no sense to me the destroying of it...

I usually don't give out gold pieces in treasure. I usually have the players find silver and copper, but the gold pieces I usually have in art....and the descriptions I give for the art work usually results in more adventures as players become intrigued by certain objects....

 

[Evilhalfling]

I don't normally do paragraphs of background on weapons, but I like to occasionally flesh something out. Normally in some way related to the weapons powers.

My last was a longsword named "Cold Reflections" frost and dragonbane; NE it only had empathy I <B empathy. It could cast mirror image once per day. Instead of inflicting a negative level it inflicted a -4 on initative, which it would supress if the user was being selfish and evil. Basically it forced you to think twice before undertaking any heroic action.

The backstory was written in a previous campaign, where it had been stolen from its maker/wielder (a PC) by a pair of dragons, (one a similacrum of the other) and given to a similacrum of the PC, where it wrecked appropriate havock until the party was able to recover it. It was given intelligence years later by worshipers of the god of winter (BBEG of orginal campaign) but it developed its own hatered of dragons, after its second wielder was slain by a red. Eventually recovered it passsed from adventurer to adventurer looking for those with the power and greed to hunt dragons.

The player of the orginal Fighter, recognized its make from a legendary craftsman and disarmed the wielder, passing it off to the party duskblade. Its user tried to recover it twice, once as a Mohrag. It was eventually lost when the PC was subdued and carried off by a dragon. It had promised not to kill him but the sword did not finish the trip with him. Presumably dropped over a forest in mid flight.

----
as for your issue what about a key in the pommel? Captain Archibald the pirate used half a great horde to enchant the weapon and have the key bound into its hilt. An equal amount of treasure was buried in a metal chest, in his favoriate island haunt. Since the key is not magical identifying the sword won't find it, until it slips from the swords pomel in the heat of battle. Now the PCs need to do some serious research and find the map as well. (name of owner, favoriate island, location of his first mate's son ...etc. )

What does the sword do?

 

[Dan Bell]

You could make it sort of like the Sword of Calsten from Harn:
Sword of Calsten
The Sword of Calsten is one of the more famous swords of Hârnic history. It was owned by King Calsten, who fought with the Dwarves against the Gargun. It passed down the line of Kaldor kings, and was used to dub knights of the realm.

The Sword of Calsten has spent many centuries among the most treasured items of Kaldor. That is, until it was stolen by thieves fifty years ago right out of the Royal Treasury. Torastra, the King of Kaldor at the time, received word that the Sword had been sold in open market to a noble in Chybisa. Using the Sword as a pretense for war, Torastra invaded the tiny Kingdom of Chybisa and a short war known as the Treasure War ensued. After a seige of several years, Torastra conquered Chybisa.

With Melderyn's help, the exiled royalty of Chybisa regained their kingdom, but in turn broke fealty with Melderyn. The Sword of Calsten has never been found.
Just change the names, dates, etc.

 

[DariusOfCT]

Out of curiosity why are you making the history up? Is there someone going to explain it to the pcs or are they casting spells that are going to fill in all the blanks?

I like to describe interesting items and then work out the history later....

I wish I had my notes here to share, but I do remember one magic item that was very funny for me as a DM.....because they destroyed a perfectly good magic item.

I gave the players a Clock of resistance, but I had it made out of lion skin. One of the players was so offended by it (and I had no clue this would happen) that she demanded that the item be destroyed. The reason...her animal companion was a lion......that is it....

we were playing in Mulhorand (egypt)....they had tons of animal hides...and heck the cats they honored they mummified....it made no sense to me the destroying of it...

I usually don't give out gold pieces in treasure. I usually have the players find silver and copper, but the gold pieces I usually have in art....and the descriptions I give for the art work usually results in more adventures as players become intrigued by certain objects....

Yes, a representative of the deity of one of the players will be giving them out to the players once they complete a certain task (it will reveal them to be heroes of destiny) I was going to have the rep. relate a paragraph or so on each item, but was having trouble coming up with some back story for the rogue's item.

 

[TwinBahamut]

If you want a few ideas for weapon histories, I will refer you to the Drakengard series of videogames. Each of the dozens of weapons (65 in the first game alone) in that game has its own (very) short story, which can be very interesting ideas for weapons.

Warning, the following links are to FAQ pages at GameFAQs.com. People seeking to avoid the "videogamey" taint should avert their eyes, and formatting is irregular and in plain text. Also, the Drakengard games are grim and gory, and the stories of their weapons can be fairly graphic and dark, so exercise discretion.

Drakengard Weapon Guide

Drakengard 2 Weapon History

 

[Tonguez]

I do one of three things

1- the Treasure has a history - eg the Rapier begun as a costume sword in the hands of a puppet named Pappilion. The Puppeteer was a kind man who had fashioned his Puppet by his own hands investing it with skill and love. Then one day the Dread Pirate attacked the Puppeteer and was about to slay him when somehow Pappilion leapt from his shelf and drove the sword into the Dread Pirates heart. Pappilion was treasured from that day and passed down the line of Puppeteers...

2 -the treasure is given to the PCs by some supernatural benefactor (a Spirit, a god, a dragon etc) ie the rapier is crafted from a fang of Quetzalcoatl and given as a boon

2- the treasure isn't actually what the mechanics say - eg the rapier is in fact the tail spike of a Remorhaz (sp?) and still radiates heat

 

[Thunderfoot]

I won't give you place names of even a weapon name - but maybe this generic history will help.

Before you is the rapier (name). The former wielder of this fine weapon was (name). He/she/it used this blade of obsidian color to foil his/her/its way into the vaults of (Title, name) of (Place). From whence this blade came, is unknown, but it is rumored that it may have been forged by (name), the god/goddess/power of smiths for the god/goddess/power or stealth (and or trickery/thievery). He/she/it then bestowed this blade upon their faithful servant (see above owner) in recognition of (great deed).

This blade was carried exclusively by (owner) until he/she/it met his/her/its demise at the hands of the Lich King (name). How it managed to excise itself from the lich's horde is unknown, but was unearthed many decades later by the faithful of (deity of which the party is in service) and sacrificed as an offering. The god/goddess/power has held on to this weapon and now bestows it upon you (character name).

Just fill in the blanks and you have a tailor made weapon for your campaign. In this way you don't have to go back and alter filled-in details that may not work with your setting, but have a foundation which gives you a leap off point. Maybe that lich is still alive (??) and wants it back. Maybe the sword is now the phylactery for said lich, maybe it is intelligent and killed the lich. All that is up to you,

 

[Set]

I haven't always done that, some loot is just that, loot, but other stuff has some sort of mood-setting value or whatever, and I color that up a bit. In my current Freeport game, some coins are silver and gold pennies, and other 10x larger gold coins called 'doubloons' and minted in Freeport are also popular. Some treasure items have serpent patterns, or are made of golden, jade or 'green steel,' because of the abundance of ancient Valossan loot in the area (comparatively, anyway).

Most recently they found some treasure from a Gnomish expedition, and I had the coinage be traditionally Gnomish, including tin and lead coins (in place of copper), silver and gold, and for the 'large coin' small flasks of mercury worth 25 gp. In my version of the setting, Gnomes have a bit of a fetish with heirarchies of metal, similar to ancient alchemists, and coins bear an alchemical symbol for the element they are made of, and are valued accordingly. Normally, I wouldn't bother with this level of detail, coin being coin, but in this case, interaction with a Gnomish crew is going to become relevant.

Pretty much every loot item should have a history, but my players aren't generally interested in that, so I just keep a few generic backstories lying around for the items that they *do* show an interest in and the rest is just oddly shaped collections of money.

 

[Orius]

I've been thinking of giving histories to the more powerful weapons in my campaign. The idea is that +1 or 2 weapons that have at most 1 special ability have no special history to recount. These weapons will be rolled more often than anything else, and it makes things easier for me as a DM. More powerful stuff, like +3 and above or weapons with several abilities on them get histories. I'll randomly roll something, and then make up a history based on the weapon's abilities. Here's two weapons I rolled up, I don't remember the exact abilities though:

Medusacleaver, +2 monstrous humanoid bane scimitar. This sword was commisioned by the warrior Hamza Abdul al-Rashid after his sister was murdered by a jealous medusa. He used it to slay seven medusas, starting with the one that killed his sister.

Gnomewrecker, +3 gnome bane quarterstaff. This staff was created by a vicious kobold sorcerer who tired of being the target of countless gnomish pranks.

I was planning to roll up a number of random weapons like this to just sprinkle around here and there IMC, but I kind of put those plans on hold because of the impending release of 4e.