Tome of Artifacts, Weapons of Legacy and other powerful items

[Mouseferatu]

It's fun being lead developer on a massive project, isn't it?

Heh. Define "fun."

Seriously, I enjoyed most of it, and having seen what people have turned in, I'm psyched about the book.

It was a hell of a lot of work, though, and I'm sure I'll wish someone else had been in charge when we start hearing from the people who don't like some of the design decisions.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Relics is a book on artifacts. Each on has specific powers, a clear history, and plot hooks and such.

Then I'd say it's similar in general concept, though I'd like to think our random creation appendix is unique.

I'll leave it up to you folks to decide which has the better ideas and/or execution, once you have both books in hand.

 

[Crothian]

Then I'd say it's similar in general concept, though I'd like to think our random creation appendix is unique.

I'll leave it up to you folks to decide which has the better ideas and/or execution, once you have both books in hand.

The random creation appendix does sound unique. And I look forward to seeing this.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Then I'd say it's similar in general concept, though I'd like to think our random creation appendix is unique.

I'll leave it up to you folks to decide which has the better ideas and/or execution, once you have both books in hand.

But in essence, if you already have Relics, doesn't sound like this is bringing a lot to the table. It's one of the big problems with the d20 crowd in that so much has already been covered.

Relics-Weapons of Legacy-Tome of Artifacts? Do people really need three whole books devoted to powerful items? Of course this doesn't count Arms & Armor, or Artifacts of the Ancients: Swords & Staffs.

I know I'm looking forward to it. I'm always interested in seeing what's new out there. I just don't know if the "market" is. THey usually are for monster books though so maybe magic items will be in the same ballpark.

 

[Mouseferatu]

But in essence, if you already have Relics, doesn't sound like this is bringing a lot to the table.

I suppose that ultimately depends on which book has the content you (and by "you" I mean "any given consumer," not necessarily "Joe") finds the most inspiring and most useful.

As you point out, there are lots of monster books out there. One could easily argue that the MM serves up all the monsters a campaign could ever use, but many people like having more options to choose from.

As for what the market wants/can handle? If I could predict that flawlessly, I'd be a lot richer than I am. I know that I liked the idea for this book, as did the folks at Necromancer, and I trust them not to greenlight a book--particularly a large hardcover--unless they're confident in it.

For what it's worth--and I realize it's probably not worth much, since I'm naturally going to have a bias--based solely on the material I read for this book, and doing my best to leave aside the fact that it was my idea, I know that I'd buy it if I hadn't been involved in it. Even if I didn't use many of the artifacts specifically, the various stories and ideas in here are sufficient to inspire dozens of adventures. But again, that's me.

 

[MerricB]

I find Weapons of Legacy great because it makes items matter without detracting from the PCs own abilities. (Any item that *requires* a prestige class to use isn't something I'm interested in, and that's a major flaw with the levelled items rules in Unearthed Arcana).

However, as WoL doesn't have the items dominating, their stories are much less engaging. The rituals do give some importance to the items' histories, but it's not like an artifact (e.g. Sword of Kas) where the entire adventure is likely to revolve around it.

Tome of Artifacts is sounding *long* at this stage; WoL is 'only' 224 pages. Will ToA be 320 or thereabouts? There's likely to be more detail there.

Cheers!

 

[Crothian]

WoL did a great job with the iotem histories and with explaining ohw new items can be created. The thing I don't like is the costs, I find them rather boring and not cxreative. The costs are all character sheet related and that's not something I like.

Relics on the other hand has negatives that are a bit odder and wierd and I think fun. they are much more powerful on the average then WoL being true artifacts. Having used many of the items from RElics they can be very powerful, more so then anything in WoL.

It will be great to have a third book to contrast here.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Tome of Artifacts is sounding *long* at this stage; WoL is 'only' 224 pages. Will ToA be 320 or thereabouts? There's likely to be more detail there.

Nothing approaching 320--and I almost faint merely to contemplate the development task such a book would have been --but definitely longer than WoL's 224.

 

[Crothian]

Nothing approaching 320--and I almost faint merely to contemplate the development task such a book would have been --but definitely longer than WoL's 224.

Come on...you can do 320...or 400...

 

[MerricB]

WoL did a great job with the iotem histories and with explaining ohw new items can be created. The thing I don't like is the costs, I find them rather boring and not cxreative. The costs are all character sheet related and that's not something I like.

The bonus here is that the items are very adaptable to different characters; also, the costs are commensurate with the balance of the game. The items of legacy can be used in a campaign from level 5-20 (and beyond).

Have you seen the Game Mechanics' take on these sort of items? I've only really seen their examples in Unearthed Arcana, and it seemed very much to be "item as prestige class", which really wasn't at all what I wanted.

Artifacts tend to be a lot more one-shot; if the PCs have them, it's only for a very limited time.

They're great for campaign hooks, however.

Cheers!