Magic Items

Magic items in Tavern Tales are highly versatile and customizable. Rather than explicitly telling you what a magic item does, each entry asks several questions about the magic item and provides possible answers. As the GM, you can choose any answer you want, or even invent new answers. This approach allows you to scale magic items to match the adventurers' power. For example, you can select weak answers for upstart adventurers, or strong answers for true veterans. You might also leave some questions unanswered to control a magic item's power, or to let the players unlock additional powers at a later time.

Getting Players Involved
Consider letting your players answer magic item questions. Giving your players a chance to determine a magic item's effects will make them feel more invested in the game. Several options are listed below.

Let them choose
Ask a question and give a range of answers. It may be necessary to tweak some of the answers so that they are all approximately equal in power.

Ask them an open-ended question
Ask an open-ended question and let your player figure out the details. They might come up with creative options that you never considered

Unlock its true power
Since magic items are variable, you could say that magic items start off weak. Players could unlock a magic item's true potential through in-game feats (uncover the item's history, bond with it, pour magical energy into it, etc).

Reward and punishment
You may want to alter a magic item's power based on player actions. For example, suppose a magic item is locked away in a chest. If a player makes an incredible roll to pick the chest's lock, you might pick a stronger answer. If the player made a a terrible roll, you might say that the magic item is cursed. Basically, the player's roll determines how strong the magic item is when the chest is unlocked.

Discover its history
Every magic item has a story. Rather than immediately telling the players what a magic item does, you could tie a magic item to its legend. Before players can use a magic item, they must first investigate its history. The more they reveal, the more powerful the magic item becomes

"GM: You discover a sword among the ruins. There are runes on its surface -- it's obviously magical. Player: Cool, what's it do? GM: Who knows? Player: Heh, fine. I'll go to the temple, then. Maybe the priest who hired us knows something about it. [Later] GM: Alright, you're back at the temple. Player: I approach the priest and show him the sword. 'Do you recognize this? We found it in the ruins.' GM: He scrunches up his nose and looks it over. 'Hmm... I've never seen it before, but I saw one of these runes in a holy text. It's the sigil of an angel called Dariel, I think.' Player: That's a great lead! If the priest is fine with it, I'll research the rune int he temple library. I'm looking for everything I can find about angels. GM: Sounds like a Mind roll. Player: I was thinking the same thing. Ha! I rolled 21! I find an entry about how Archangel Dariel forged Flamedrinker to slay a demon named Agkor. As soon as the knowledge enters your mind, the runes on the sword emit golden light. How about this? The sword tells me the location of the closest demon. GM: 21 is a great roll. You can be more ambitious. Player: Archangel Dariel speaks to me through the blade. He's an expert on all things demonic."

Magic Items
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