Behind the Screen: The Legendary Chuck Item...
Posted by Dante at 9:35 AM
I had a Dungeon Master in college that would handcraft a special (usually awesomely powerful) magic item for each member of the adventuring party and sprinkle them throughout the campaign. Some we found, some we didn't (and found out about it later), but they all shared some common charactaristics.
These items would be exceedingly powerful. Some had a drawbacks, but in general they would be described as legendary, unique, or spectacular. We even took to calling them "Chuck Items" in the honor of our DM himself.
Usually these items were crafted outside the normal rules system for creating magic items. They would sometimes have complex combinations of effects or very specific rituals that had to be done to activate abilities. They often had significant lore surrounding them that would unveil itself as the campaign unfolded.
An example was a bow that SR's character came across named Harvester. It had numerous colored gems inlaid in it that could be activated to do different types of elemental damage. Each time you used the colored gems, the bow was drained and it had to be recharged by killing undead. If you activated all of the gems at once, it would do an immense amount of damage. Unbeknownst to her, Chuck later told me that each time she did this there was a chance that the bow would be destroyed but it did not happen during the course of our campaign.
(If anyone is interested in the D&D 3.0 stats for this item, I am told that SR retains a copy she might be willing to share!)
Learning from the Master
I have employed this same pattern in my campaigns. The process of creating an "outside the box" awesome item tailored to your players is alluring, but I have often found that if you don't temper it with a drawback or some sort of control mechanism it can heavily unbalance your game.
Since we're quickly approaching the end of the Keep on the Shadowfell module and the beginning of my original campaign content, I am thinking more about how/if I am going to execute this process for my new campaign.
A few words of encouragement: making a tailored magical item that suits a player character is a GREAT way to heavily involve them, especially if you give the item a rich background or legend to go along with it.
The player feels special and gets that moment of sheer excitement every time their awesome toy does what it is supposed to do. To me this is essential to a satisfying D&D experience, especially for new players.
A question to those that have come before
For those of you Dungeon Masters out there: have you tried something like this yourselves? Players, have you ever received a tailor-made item? If so, did it improve your gaming experience?
Finally, if you're reading this: thanks Chuck. They just don't make D&D moments like that anymore!!
These items would be exceedingly powerful. Some had a drawbacks, but in general they would be described as legendary, unique, or spectacular. We even took to calling them "Chuck Items" in the honor of our DM himself.
Usually these items were crafted outside the normal rules system for creating magic items. They would sometimes have complex combinations of effects or very specific rituals that had to be done to activate abilities. They often had significant lore surrounding them that would unveil itself as the campaign unfolded.
An example was a bow that SR's character came across named Harvester. It had numerous colored gems inlaid in it that could be activated to do different types of elemental damage. Each time you used the colored gems, the bow was drained and it had to be recharged by killing undead. If you activated all of the gems at once, it would do an immense amount of damage. Unbeknownst to her, Chuck later told me that each time she did this there was a chance that the bow would be destroyed but it did not happen during the course of our campaign.
(If anyone is interested in the D&D 3.0 stats for this item, I am told that SR retains a copy she might be willing to share!)
Learning from the Master
I have employed this same pattern in my campaigns. The process of creating an "outside the box" awesome item tailored to your players is alluring, but I have often found that if you don't temper it with a drawback or some sort of control mechanism it can heavily unbalance your game.
Since we're quickly approaching the end of the Keep on the Shadowfell module and the beginning of my original campaign content, I am thinking more about how/if I am going to execute this process for my new campaign.
A few words of encouragement: making a tailored magical item that suits a player character is a GREAT way to heavily involve them, especially if you give the item a rich background or legend to go along with it.
The player feels special and gets that moment of sheer excitement every time their awesome toy does what it is supposed to do. To me this is essential to a satisfying D&D experience, especially for new players.
A question to those that have come before
For those of you Dungeon Masters out there: have you tried something like this yourselves? Players, have you ever received a tailor-made item? If so, did it improve your gaming experience?
Finally, if you're reading this: thanks Chuck. They just don't make D&D moments like that anymore!!
Labels: behind the screen, Chuck Items, Dante, DM Advice, rpgbloggers
