As I draft my rules for improvisational magic, the next step is to see how those rules fit with magic items or artifacts. Here is an attempt at doing that.
Why Do I Need Rules For Magic Artifacts?
One of the benefits of an improv magic system is the ability to open up magic artifacts to a huge range of effects. Having rules for applying the improv system to magic artifacts will help develop these items in a consistent way.
If you take a look at magic items in The Fantasy Trip or even GURPS, the rules for creating them focused on specific spells and their effects as embodied in an artifact. I always thought this was pretty limiting in how a magic artifact was defined.
On the other hand, if you look at the old Advanced Dungeons & Dragons magic items compendiums, you can see a plethora of magic items with a huge variety of effects that are not embodied in any specific spell. That flexibility, that… openness… is one of the things that makes magical artifacts wondrous.
If you couple that openness with the themes of rarity and danger in magic, you can see where you are really only limited by your imagination in the kinds of artifacts you create. This is where the improv magic really fits into building them–in a structured way.
How These Rules Will Work…
With that in mind, the way I see magical artifacts being defined with the improv rules is pretty similar to the way spells themselves are built. First, you define the effect you want the magical artifact to embody, then you identify the rank that effect will require. After that, you identify trade-offs to meet that rank requirement and "buy down" the cost of using the artifact.
Things to keep in mind under these rules:
- Magic artifacts are never "always on," and require mental will to use them, even weapons and armor.
- There is always a cost to use them, even 1 point of ST–in blood.
- Use is never automatic, and requires a test against IQ to use the artifact–even weapons and armor.
One thing to also understand I that there is a difference between creating magical artifacts and using them.
Creating magical artifacts is always a Third Rank spell. The reason for this is that all magical artifacts should be rare and dangerous. Very few sorcerers would have the ability to successfully cast a Third Rank spell, and even fewer would attempt it.
So to create a magical artifact, you first work out the effects that the item will embody. Create fire, see in the dark, summon a demon–whatever. Once that is done, select the appropriate spell rank that the effect would have.
Now the fun begins! Select spell requirements to buy down the cost of the Third Rank spell to create the artifact, as well as the cost to use it. In other words, spell requirements chosen during artifact creation can help make the artifact less costly to use.
Keep in mind there should always be some cost to use a magical artifact, and the more powerful the higher that cost. That is where the horse trading between the player and the Referee comes in. Of course, if the referee is creating the item, then the decisions are all his.
After the details of the artifact are worked out, if a player is creating the item, the process for casting the creation spell follows normally. That would include the final test against IQ. If the Referee is making the item, you could assume the test was passed. (Of course an interesting idea is an artifact where the test failed and something else was created, something that is not what was originally intended…)
Now the cost to actually use the artifact is a function of how many trade-offs were selected in creating the item. As I said, there should always be a cost to the character, usually in blood or some kind of loss. These would be defined during the creation process. Keep in mind that items are never always on, and require an IQ test to use.
What Next?
That was a bit more than I intended to write here, but what is next? I need to write these up and post in the House Rules section.
I also want to use these rules to write up a number of magical artifacts. This will serve two purposes: 1) I can tweak the rules as I need, and 2) I can come up with a number of artifacts to post in the Artificer column.
It will be interesting to see how well these rules or this process matches up with the wide number of magic items already defined in gaming. I came up with the process because it seemed a logical outflow from the magic system, and I have run through a few items when I was working it out.
Still, it will be interesting to see how common items actually look with these rules. I am betting that they will look a lot darker–and more dangerous–than in the general high fantasy games or settings!
Marko ∞
