1.4. Legendary Items - Legends Roleplaying System

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1.4. Legendary Items (updated 07/17)

Enchanted Items Legendary Item Collections

Legendary Items are special in some way. A sword might be of extraordinary quality, enchanted, or carry a name made famous by the exploits of a bold hero. In fantasy role-playing games they are most often called "magic items", but the concept is more broad and pervasive in Legends.

Characters are likely to acquire Legendary Items during the course of their adventures, such as recovering a flaming magic sword from a dragon's lair, a grimoire of spells from the tomb of a liche lord, or a shimmering shirt of mithril given as a grateful gift of service. Family heirlooms and custom-crafted gear can also be legendary items.

While a character can carry many items, Legendary Items are much more strongly associated with the character and deserve to be highlighted in his legend. Instead of gaining a normal Trait, the character can gain a new core trait with the name of the item, such as "Flametongue" or "Dragonscale Armor".

Legendary Items can grow in power along with the character. Like any core trait, the player can add supporting traits to create a trait line, tailoring the item to suit his preferences. Keeping an old sword and growing it with the character is a lot more fun than simply replacing it when a "better" sword comes along. In other games this would be analagous to increasing a +1 sword to +2, and even adding special powers. This is extremely flexible and highly personal, just like character creation.

Legendary Items are Trait Lines

Each Legendary Item is a Trait Line. The line typically starts with the name of the item as it's Core Trait, followed by supporting Traits. The character fully owns these Traits, and can use them just like any other Traits.

Item Class

You can declare one of the traits of the Legendary Item as a bonus to the item's Class (if any), provided that the item has an applicable trait. So weapons get a bonus on Weapon Class, armor gets a bonus on Armor Class, and shields get a bonus on Shield Class, etc. The character usually doesn't even need to be aware that the item is special--climbing a magic rope isn't so different than climbing a normal rope, just easier.

Use the most applicable trait if more than one trait could apply. You must do this even if that results in a lower-ranked trait. This makes items unique--you can use traits to create a distinction between a specialized parrying dagger and an envenomed dagger. The parrying dagger would put defensive traits at the top of its trait line instead of offensive traits. Without their traits the daggers would just be class 2 weapons, but with their traits they are memorable and offer different capabilities, while remaining simple.

Signature Traits

Legendary items can also have signature traits. See the list of Legendary Item Signature Traits for additional ideas. Unless it is obvious, legendary items should have notes describing how their powers are to be used. This can also include side-effects, side-benefits, restrictions, or whatever details the GM feels are necessary.

Enhancing Legendary Items

Legendary items are intended to grow with the character, as it is far more interesting and fun from a roleplaying perspective than continually swapping out items for those with better powers. The method is simple--just add more traits to the item! Legendary Items are Core Traits within your Character Tree and can gain supporting traits just like any other core trait.

Flametongue of Sengati (Weapon Class 4)
Flame burst
Fan the flames (MARTIAL STRIKE)

This sword has an undulating "flammenschwart" blade and ruby-encrusted hilt. If held upright for 1 Turn by a true warrior, its blade bursts into flame. The flame can be quenched by holding the blade pointed downward for 1 Turn. This blade is famous for having been wielded by the great warriors Asharat, who undertook a sacred pilgrimage to the legendary fire temple of Sengati and dipped the blade in the Fane of Fire. A warrior skilled with the blade can now channel his martial spirit to fan the flames.

Greater Legendary Items

Most legendary items found will only have a single core trait. However, powerful items may come pre-built with an existing trait line. The GM is encouraged to treat these items as rare or unique, introducing them to the game as major story rewards rather than as random loots. A powerful item might have a name, a history, a dispossessed owner, restrictions on who may use it, a curse, or magical quirks. There could even be other people looking for it!

Enchanted Items (updated 2009/06/13)

Many Legendary Items list a Magic Art rather than a Signature Trait. In this case the item is enchanted with a permanently Maintained spell, with specific effects detailed in the item description. Simply substitute the Rank of the trait whenever the Magic Art mentions the number of Successes rolled during casting. [ more... ]

Legendary Item Collections (updated 2009/06/13)

One variant on the concept of a Legendary Item is a "collection" of similar items. For example, a knife fighter might have a growing collection of short blades that he has picked up over time.

As with any Legendary Item, each item in the collection must be special in some way, and the collection must be very closely related.

Simply create a trait line to hold your collection, and list each item as a supporting trait. Note that that only the first trait in the line is free--you must pay for the supporting traits normally. [ more... ]