Level Up (A5E) Sins of the Scorpion Age, Sword and Sorcery Campaign Setting
- Thread starter Steampunkette
- Start date
Tales and Chronicles
Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix
I think I could publish a cooking book based on the setting, like Heroes' Feast!
Can someone make scorpion or crocodiles plushies?! On a Ziggurat dice tower?
Can someone make scorpion or crocodiles plushies?! On a Ziggurat dice tower?
Criteria for interesting magic improvements to weapons and armor:
All Criteria require a "Noteworthy Foe". This can be a famous warrior, a powerful monster, or some other story/setting important character or creature. A Demigod, for example, is a noteworthy foe.
If a blow would have killed you and it missed by 1-2 points while you were at very low HP your armor may be magic and you and your DM should work together to determine how/why it saved you.
When you go to Sacrifice your Shield to negate a critical hit and see it repaired it should also be upgraded this way.
The weapon used to strike the final blow upon a Noteworthy Foe, or one which strikes a Critical Hit, should also be empowered.
All Criteria require a "Noteworthy Foe". This can be a famous warrior, a powerful monster, or some other story/setting important character or creature. A Demigod, for example, is a noteworthy foe.
If a blow would have killed you and it missed by 1-2 points while you were at very low HP your armor may be magic and you and your DM should work together to determine how/why it saved you.
When you go to Sacrifice your Shield to negate a critical hit and see it repaired it should also be upgraded this way.
The weapon used to strike the final blow upon a Noteworthy Foe, or one which strikes a Critical Hit, should also be empowered.
Current framework:
Players gain Legacy. Legacy points are a sliding scale that goes up through activity, and goes down by being spent. You can earn Legacy through two core mechanics:
Deeds: Great deeds include things like killing powerful monsters, landing devastating blows upon noteworthy foes, or surviving against all odds in a deadly situation. But it also related to roleplaying your character's Traits, as any time you gain Inspiration for clever deeds or acting in accordance with your background or alignment, it also counts as a Deed. Each Deed grants 1 Legacy point.
Labors: When a player takes on a Quest or other important undertaking they undergo a Labor. Each Labor that is successfully completed can grant between 3 and 10 Legacy points.
Legacy Points are spent to imbue common items with magical power. This can be anything from a common sword to the crown of a Kingdom. Any object you imbue with these points becomes a Legacy Item, and will grow in power as you add more points to it. Legacy Items can be taken from you, but unless you willingly give the item to another, it's powers cease to function outside of your hands. If you should perish, the item ceases to function until used by someone with an Ideal trait compatible with yours, or a Bond trait connecting them to you.
Any legacy item immediately gains a +1 bonus. For weapons this is an attack and damage modifier, armors and shields get an AC bonus, accessories grant a bonus to saving throws.
Legacy Points are spent on Special Functions. Some are small cost expenditures, like Immune to Harm, which keeps the item from ever being destroyed. Others are much larger, like a Special Function which causes your Berserker Rage to reduce damage taken from Poison and Fire.
At different point expenditures, the item grows in power. Becoming a +2 item and eventually a +3 item if you put enough points into it.
Players will be encouraged to give their items special names, which can grow their legend in turn. The bonus from your highest Legacy Item is applied to your Renown.
Players gain Legacy. Legacy points are a sliding scale that goes up through activity, and goes down by being spent. You can earn Legacy through two core mechanics:
Deeds: Great deeds include things like killing powerful monsters, landing devastating blows upon noteworthy foes, or surviving against all odds in a deadly situation. But it also related to roleplaying your character's Traits, as any time you gain Inspiration for clever deeds or acting in accordance with your background or alignment, it also counts as a Deed. Each Deed grants 1 Legacy point.
Labors: When a player takes on a Quest or other important undertaking they undergo a Labor. Each Labor that is successfully completed can grant between 3 and 10 Legacy points.
Legacy Points are spent to imbue common items with magical power. This can be anything from a common sword to the crown of a Kingdom. Any object you imbue with these points becomes a Legacy Item, and will grow in power as you add more points to it. Legacy Items can be taken from you, but unless you willingly give the item to another, it's powers cease to function outside of your hands. If you should perish, the item ceases to function until used by someone with an Ideal trait compatible with yours, or a Bond trait connecting them to you.
Any legacy item immediately gains a +1 bonus. For weapons this is an attack and damage modifier, armors and shields get an AC bonus, accessories grant a bonus to saving throws.
Legacy Points are spent on Special Functions. Some are small cost expenditures, like Immune to Harm, which keeps the item from ever being destroyed. Others are much larger, like a Special Function which causes your Berserker Rage to reduce damage taken from Poison and Fire.
At different point expenditures, the item grows in power. Becoming a +2 item and eventually a +3 item if you put enough points into it.
Players will be encouraged to give their items special names, which can grow their legend in turn. The bonus from your highest Legacy Item is applied to your Renown.
GuyBoy
Hero
Love the mechanic for creating magic items in this S&S manner. Evocative and carrying elements of Nietzsche (without the bad bits!)
Rain and gale surrounded the desperate combatants on the high pass, ever threatening to hurl them to a rocky fate hundreds of feet below. Astam was in deep trouble; the bronze leaf-blade sword he had purchased in the caravanserai had proven flawed, snapping against the minotaur’s great axe, and now the horned warrior, Goruust, had driven Astam back against the rocky face, inflicting a mighty wound on the man’s thigh in the process.
Thrice the bullish warrior smote it’s axe towards Astam’s neck, and thrice Astam blocked desperately with his figure-8 shield, the greataxe cutting through the stiffened hide of the shield in the process and also breaking Astam’s arm in the process.
He was going to die on this foresaken peak. In one last, hopeless gamble, the weakening warrior leapt at the bellowing Minotaur, smashing the broken shield into its face, just as it raised its axe for the final blow.
And caught Goruust unbalanced...hooves skidded on wet stones, Astam surged once more, and the minotaur bellowed again, this time in terror, as it toppled from the path, pitching and crashing against unforgiving rock as it tumbled to the valley floor, far below and out of sight in the darkness and rain.
Astam lay exhausted for a moment, then pulled himself to his feet. In pain, bleeding, he knew he had to get off this mountain and to the nearest village. He picked up his shield, rent by three mighty axe blows, but still structurally sound he thought, also noticing one of Goruust’s teeth embedded in the hardened leather. “You, my friend,” he whispered to himself, “ you saved my life. The least I can do is get you mended.”
Rain and gale surrounded the desperate combatants on the high pass, ever threatening to hurl them to a rocky fate hundreds of feet below. Astam was in deep trouble; the bronze leaf-blade sword he had purchased in the caravanserai had proven flawed, snapping against the minotaur’s great axe, and now the horned warrior, Goruust, had driven Astam back against the rocky face, inflicting a mighty wound on the man’s thigh in the process.
Thrice the bullish warrior smote it’s axe towards Astam’s neck, and thrice Astam blocked desperately with his figure-8 shield, the greataxe cutting through the stiffened hide of the shield in the process and also breaking Astam’s arm in the process.
He was going to die on this foresaken peak. In one last, hopeless gamble, the weakening warrior leapt at the bellowing Minotaur, smashing the broken shield into its face, just as it raised its axe for the final blow.
And caught Goruust unbalanced...hooves skidded on wet stones, Astam surged once more, and the minotaur bellowed again, this time in terror, as it toppled from the path, pitching and crashing against unforgiving rock as it tumbled to the valley floor, far below and out of sight in the darkness and rain.
Astam lay exhausted for a moment, then pulled himself to his feet. In pain, bleeding, he knew he had to get off this mountain and to the nearest village. He picked up his shield, rent by three mighty axe blows, but still structurally sound he thought, also noticing one of Goruust’s teeth embedded in the hardened leather. “You, my friend,” he whispered to himself, “ you saved my life. The least I can do is get you mended.”
Tales and Chronicles
Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix
I think you could take a look at the ''magic'' items traits list from Adventure in Middle-Earth (the Loremaster Book) and add a point buy system so that you can buy various ''Legends (traits)'' to add to your equipment with your Legacy points. Some of them have a bonus to a specific skills, become unbreakable, different ways to spend Inspiration, bonus to armor or damage etc.
In the same veins, the PHB of AiME also has a fighter archetype (weapon master?) where your weapon gains trait as you level.
(Btw, said book also has some good archetypes for different class that you might like, like the diplomat rogue, the rider barbarian or the knight fighter, which is more of a sworn protector than a RL knights)
Project Chronicle: Insight into Sword and Sorcery - steampunkette
No description.
Sword and Sorcery Primer for an early segment of the book.
GuyBoy
Hero
Really like this, and it’s both important and right to address the obvious issues that were present in the S&S of Howard and others; this allows you to Re-invent the beauty of the genre, as well as its energy, whilst dispensing with the unpleasantness. Elegant.Project Chronicle: Insight into Sword and Sorcery - steampunkette
No description.homebrewery.naturalcrit.com
Sword and Sorcery Primer for an early segment of the book.
Similar Threads
Recent & Upcoming Releases
-
June 16 2026 -
June 16 2026 -
September 16 2026 
Arcana Unleashed(Dungeons & Dragons)
Rulebook featuring "high magic" options, including a host of new spells.
Replies (250) -
September 16 2026 -
October 1 2026 -
October 6 2026 -
January 1 2027 -
January 1 2027
