Welcome to Multi-Genre Magic! We’ve been developing this for a while, on the basis that magic items should be fantastic and exciting with history and legends behind them, rather than the beloved but often overused +1 sword. We intend to post monthly updates providing magic items for every genre of roleplaying along with setting and general information via this blog.
Sections
All of our magic items are written across four sections. The first section is the One Page Summary. It includes graphics, item name, description, brief summary of abilities, and a side box with Core Genre(s), Origin/Source, Party Impact, Pricing, and Rarity. The second section is Powers and Abilities. It provides more detailed description of the item along with a full list of its capacities. It also provides notes on converting to different systems if applicable. The next section is History, which contains stories, legends, and other information about the item, set in universe. The GM is free to use them as purely fictional legends, factual accounts, or as the basis for their own adventures as the story demands. The last section is Skill Checks, which covers some potential results that a character analyzing the item might uncover, along with notes about the creation of the item if appropriate.
One Page Summary
Most of the One Page Summary is covered above. Categories within the Quick Guide are listed here.
Core Genre(s): Core Genres refer to in-universe setting. Any item can be used anywhere the DM wants of course, but this is where the item was intended to be used/originate from.
Broad Core Genres include:
Fantasy: Everything from heroic high fantasy to gritty sword ands sorcery. Classical to Renaissance technological levels.
Sci-Fi: Everything from slightly beyond modern Earth and hard sci-fi, to full on space opera in the 50th century.
Spy: Anything relating to espionage, typically within a modern setting.
Modern: Items that could, with some suspension of disbelief, exist now.
Super Hero: Items that a caped crusader could encounter on the regular.
Occult: Items that could easily find themselves being discovered by investigators into the unknown or innocents wandering into matters beyond their comprehension.
Victorian: Anything from the gaslight era.
Steampunk: Anything from the steamlight era with gears and whistles.
Apocalyptic: Anything intended to be used after the fall of civilization.
Origin refers to the source of power for the item, or its method of construction. Items can have multiple or uncertain power sources.
Arcane: Magic wielded through the use of mana or by learned mortal races.
Divine: Power wielded by the gods or god-like beings.
Cosmic: Power wielded by God. Fundamental forces of reality and the like.
Technical: Technological items working on natural laws. No apparent source of supernatural power.
Natural: Power drawn from nature itself.
Psychic: Power drawn from the mind or mental plane.
Spiritual: Power from external spirits or the inner self.
Alien: Items which work on inscrutable principles or powers. Items from realities with different physical laws would qualify.
Party Impact is similar to power level, but designed more on how it will impact the campaign than an abstract metric of utility.
Cursed/Corrupted items either are inherently cursed, with any positives being drastically outweighed by the negatives.
Blemished items have significant, even predominant, drawbacks, but are partially evened out by advantages or is otherwise unlikely to cripple a hero.
Novelties have no utility, and baring extremely clever play is almost always used for flavor instead of any mechanical bonus.
Interesting items have minor utilities that the players may experiment with, but no direct combat value.
Useful items are just that- useful. They may have minor utility or combat boosts, but they are not character defining items.
Adventurer items are the bread and butter of high fantasy or traditional D&D heroes- fairly significant bonuses that can generally be thrown into a mid-to-high level game without breaking anything.
Significant items are similar to Adventurer items with the stipulation that they are intended for higher-level game. These items can define a character.
Artifacts are extremely powerful and generally nigh-indestructible items. They can sometimes change worlds.
World-Breakers: These items don’t just change worlds- they destroy them. Often reserved for plot based items too mighty to be held… or casually used by overpowered PCs meddling-with-that-which-is-not-meant-to-be-meddled-with.
Oddities are items that cannot be classified.
Any of the above items could additionally be Intelligent– having a mind, personality, or directive of its own.
Pricing is based on gold pieces (GP) and is very approximate. Prices between worlds and settings vary drastically. We use a 100 CP = 10 SP = 1 GP scale. 10 GP equal roughly a cow, or how much it takes to start a very small farm. 1 copper piece is roughly equivalent to a pound of rice or flour. For reasons purely related to simplification, we equivalate 1 GP to 100 USD (in the year 2000) when we have to.
Rarity is how common the item is. Rarity can shift from region to region- desert magic items may be hard to find in the ocean (or not- the ocean is kind of like a very wet desert), but they would be more common in the arid drylands. Note that unlike certain system, we do not use rarity to signify power. Unique and Legendary items can be borderline trash, while Uncommon items can often be very potent. There are six classes of rarity-
Unique: One of a kind item.
Legendary: Incredibly rare, perhaps thought nonexistent.
Very Rare: Difficult to get, but not unobtainable for those of means. Potentially could even be manufactured.
Rare: While potentially still a once in a lifetime sight, rare items are often constructed, though not in mass quantities.
Uncommon: These might be constructed in mass quantities. While not an everyday sight, even peasants in high-magic settings have seen an uncommon magic item, if only on a passing noble.
Common: Common magic items are easily obtainable. Even the poor have access to it without great struggle, though the truly destitute may find themselves left out.
Powers and Abilities
Powers and Abilities lists more detailed descriptions of the item, along with main powers, secondary abilities, and hidden abilities. Most of this is fairly self-explanatory, though the Conversions side box could probably use some explaining. We try to stick with a generic D20 rules system and make the powers specific enough that it should be easy for any DM to customize to their game. Conversions include our suggestions about how to integrate the item into different rule systems- some of our favorites are GURPS, D&D 5e, and percentile systems. We sometimes put notes on how the item applies to cross-genre actions (like how sci-fi items might respond to magic) there as well.
History
History contains stories, information, legends, songs, and poems about the item. Most of the information is not presented from a narrator perspective, but designed to work as in-universe sources. How much is factual or fictional is up to the DM. Some of them function as adventure seeds, while others are deliberately distorted.
Skill Checks
Skills Checks covers player interactions with the item. It mostly lists various unorthodox approaches that could yield results and gives suggestions about rewarding successful skill roles against identification. It also includes what is revealed by magical or scientific analysis via spells like identification or dedicated laboratory study. Finally, it may include details about the creation of the item, if the DM allows it.
Hopefully, you’ll be able to use this guide and the items on the site to add more flavor and detail to your campaigns. The whole point of this site is to make running a game easier and make the game more interesting, so use as much or as little as you like.