Saturday, May 10th 2008
I’ve located a few resources this week that Dungeon Masters may find useful.
Zen and the Art of Dungeon Mastering: At thirty-thousand words this collection of articles is a lengthy but valuable read. It dates back to old AD&D, but the advice contained is just as relevant in any edition.
The puzzle structure of Ocarina of Time: Gareth Rees analyzes a highly successful adventure videogame that holds similarities to Dungeons & Dragons. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time stars a heroic swordsman who enters dungeons and fights monsters to find loot and magic equipment, so you may be able to apply this to your own dungeoncrafting.
Story structure: it’s not just for movies anymore: Screenwriter Todd Alcott examines videogame Half-Life, a classic first-person shooter famed for introducing story to a genre previously characterized as “a dungeon crawl with guns”.
Thursday, May 8th 2008
This magic item originally appeared 17 Relics by The Le Press. A relic is a powerful magic item which once formed part of the body or belongings of some great figure. See Seventeen Relics for special rules on relics.
This simple-looking peasants robe looks and feels mundane, appearing non-magical even to detect magic. To look at it, few people would know that it was several centuries old. The Pilgrim’s Hood was the sole possession of Saint Taren of Rynwold, a pious king who eschewed his material wealth and traveled his kingdom anonymously, helping those in need. Some faithful villages still believe that Saint Taren walks among them unnoticed in times of strife, and parents in parts of the land commonly name their sons after this honorable figure.
The wearer of the Pilgrim’s Hood is divinely sustained without the need to eat or drink as long as he prays for ten minutes each morning and night. In addition, he begins to take on some of the mantle of the robe’s original kind-hearted owner. Spot checks to recognize his identity take a -4 circumstance penalty, and he gains a +4 competence bonus to Diplomacy checks. Like Saint Taren, they no longer fear journeying in hostile weather, and ignore the effects of both extreme hot and cold weather.
Faint transmutation; CL 5th; Price 6,000gp; Weight 1lbs.
Thursday, May 1st 2008
This magic item originally appeared 17 Relics by The Le Press. A relic is a powerful magic item which once formed part of the body or belongings of some great figure. See Seventeen Relics for special rules on relics.
Junnobel the Flighty was a traveling dilettante who made an incredible fortune as an adventurer by risking his life against unbeatable odds. When asked what his secret was, he jokingly replied, “I’m always wearing my lucky underpants!” That night, thieves replaced his underwear with an identical pair, and the next afternoon he tripped and fell from the top of a tower, dying on impact.
The otherwise mundane pair of underwear, it seemed, was a lucky charm after all. The player of a character wearing a pair of lucky underwear may, once per day, immediately choose to re-roll any die roll she just made. She must re-roll it after seeing the die roll, but before seeing the results - for example, if she rolls a natural 1 to save versus an unknown spell, she must choose whether or not to re-roll it before seeing the spell’s effect.
Moderate enchantment; CL 10th; Price 25,000gp
