Have you used Artifacts in your games?

[VirgilCaine]

I have the 1e DMG, with its (relatively) large list of various artifacts, and recently printed an old .pdf I bought with a few (Crystalmancy: The Powers of Gems) and am thinking about where I could put all these artifacts in my campaign world and what I could do with them.

The obvious things are--

*Someone else has found an artifact and lots of NPCs are gearing up to find and stop the someone else and/or confiscate the artifact and keep it safe/unleash it's power on an unsuspecting world.

This could mean less protection from evil (all the paladins are gone) or less trouble now that the evil cults are running around trying to destroy the Widget of Good and not poisoning wells and kidnapping virgins.
Of course, once they find out they're on the same side, they would probably stay together...

Could mean MORE trouble (i.e. adventure hooks) as Slaadi and Modrons enter an area of the Prime, trying to find the Widget of Chaos/Law. Or celestials/demons/devils/yugoloths.

*An artifact has been sighted, and lots of people--good and evil, and looking for it, perhaps including the PCs.

*An artifact has been found, and a group is questing to destroy it.

But have you ever placed an artifact (besides the Eye/Hand of Vecna, please) in the PCs hands?

What else can be done with an artifact? Any advice so that a campaign doesn't solely revolve around an artifacts recovery or existence? Or is that a good thing?

 

[diaglo]

But have you ever placed an artifact (besides the Eye/Hand of Vecna, please) in the PCs hands?

yes. The Wand of Light.

i gave the 1st lvl magic-user in a campaign a magic glowing wand from his mentor. the wizard told him he needed to take the wand to a certain place and all would be revealed. this was his first quest.

the apprentice gathered his childhood friends to help him on his journey.

they met others on the way.

and we went from there.


The Wand of Light... was a scroll tube with Nystal's Magic Aura cast on it by his mentor. the wizard wanted the young apprentice to go out into the world and test himself....

 

[JoeGKushner]

I've used many of them.

1. Stormbringer: There was a huge time in my younger days when my campaign was heavily influenced by Moorcock and the Eternal Champion, Million Spheres bit.

2. Arch-Mages by Mayfair has a mechanical dragon. One of the players had to hunt this down to battle an evil force that had the Mighty Servant of Luke-O. Both destroyed in final battle.

3. Black Razor: Not an artifact per say, but back in the 1st and 2nd ed days, it might as well have been.

In some cases, NPC's were out to get those items for themselves, but I tried to minimize the impact of the items when those who were coming up against the characters knew that they had such items. For example, undead and constructs are excellent ways to handle soul stealing items. Or when dealing with a trully vile person, fill the blade up with the souls of lesser servants and then send in the big boys.

In other cases, the artifacts are just background details. "There rules the paladin king Thothak and his mighty Shield, Observer the All Seeing. No evil is permitted under his rule."

One of the things I love about The Game Mechanics, a PDF company published by Green Ronin, is that they have Artifacts of the Ages, an item that starts off small, and continues to gain power as the players grow in level. This allows an easier time of scaling without sacrificing the 'cool' factor.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

The biggest scam I ever played on my players involved an artifiact. This was a LONG time ago, still under 1e. They went on a quest to find the Hand and Eye of Vecna, only to discover that they were still attached!

That was really a lot of fun that we all had.

 

[Voadam]

But have you ever placed an artifact (besides the Eye/Hand of Vecna, please) in the PCs hands?

Yes,

Mithril Breadknife of Greyhawk, the PCs had this for a long time until one gifted it to Baba Yaga.

Blackrazor, temporarily. They were hired to recover it and did so, wielding it once before turning it over to the owner.

Wave temporarily. Ditto.

Crown of Soldiers/Crown of Souls. Stole it from its guardian dungeon, party split up and the PC carrying it died and turned undead when the darklord recovered it. Then the party reformed and recovered it again but unleashed the more powerful dark force within it.

They entered Baba Yaga's hut.

They almost destroyed a Book of Vile Darkness, but it was later acquired by Baba Yaga.

 

[Belen]

Not really. I never thought they needed an artifact. I may use one one day for an adventure, but never anything they are intended to keep.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

I've used an artifact once before in a game; only then, it wasn't considered an artifact.

Used 2 Decks of Many Things in an old 2nd ed. AD&D game. The PCs were all low-level/starting characters, & they happened to enter a room where a crazy outsider (a rather evil slaad in a weird humanoid disguise) was trapped in statue form. The PCs wound up freeing him (by settign off a trap in the room), & they had to draw a card from one of the decks that the slaad presented them with.

Some PCs did OK, while others were doomed to their deaths.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I've never used one of the core D&D artifacts, but I have used artifact-level devices in games. Mostly, they were ultratech devices capable of manipulating magical fields in ways that mere "modern" mages couldn't begin to understand, and thus couldn't duplicate.

 

[Matafuego]

Yes but I made them all up...

A Hammer forged by the Avatar of a NG Healing God (Kinda like Pelor)
A Silver Arm forged and enchanted by ancient fey (with lots of cool Illusion tricks)
A Fire Sword that embodies the Plane of Fire forged in ancient times by an Azer
and a Chaos Gem (which is now destroyed... it had to be burned in Hellish fire)

all those in the hands of my PC's... I'll never reveal the tricks of my NPC's =P

 

[Arnwyn]

I have yet to put a published artifact in the PCs' hands, but my campaign is based around retrieving a number of lesser-powered artifacts (of my own creation). They are dangerous to use until they are all brought together, so the PCs just keep them hidden away.