'Sup /tg/.
How do y'all feel about legendary weapons with a history to them? I'm not so much looking for crunch here, I'm just hoping we can share cool fluff for weapons of legend, both blessed and cursed.
The sword known as "Beautiful Singer" is a dueling sword of extraordinary craftsmanship and incredible beauty, as much a work of art as a weapon. She is incredibly light, seeming almost to float in the wielders hand. And when she cuts through the air, it is said that the sound she makes rings in the ears of her wielder as the most haunting and beautiful song in all the world. However, the blade is said to bear a terrible curse.
These are the facts which are known for sure: She was created for a great warlord, renowned both for his swordsmanship and his passions. This warlord never married, but had regular beds in many pleasure houses throughout the land. One of his consorts was a courtesan whose beauty was said to be unmatched. Her voice was also without equal, and it is said that she used to sing him to sleep. The courtesan fell in love with this warlord, and wished to marry him. Of course, a nobleman such as he could never marry a woman of her profession, so she instead begged him to forsake all other women but herself. Now as we all know, a man, particularly a man of such great passions as this warlord, could not deny a request coming from such a lovely woman as she. He agreed, but his passions were to be his undoing. In time he inevitably became unfaithful to his love, and when she learned of it, she attempted to kill him. Of course no mere courtesan could best a warrior of his caliber, but she caught him off his guard. Ordinarily he would have tried to restrain her, but he reacted without thought to her surprise attack, and slew her.
(cont.)
>>44193626
gay as fuck
>>44193626
(cont.)
And here is where solid fact ends, and folklore and speculation begin. It is said that the warlord was so distraught at her death by his hand that he brought the blade that killed her back to the smith who crafted it. The warlord was something of a poet, and so he composed a piece in her honor, and had it inscribed on the tang of the blade.
"The glorious sun,
night on reaching its zenith,
shaded by my hand."
The warlord had only shaded the sun, however. He did not extinguish it permanently. It is said that her spirit followed the weapon, and while the poem was inscribed, she entered the blade. Since the warlord's passions had betrayed her, she would ensure that they became his downfall as well. The sword seemed all the finer after her death, a fact only to e explained by her spirit's strength guiding it. But her will exerts itself from within the sword. She drove the sword's first master mad with rage and jealousy until he could no longer control himself. The urges within him took over, and he died senselessly in a duel. He drunkenly accused another noble of sleeping with one of his favorite whores, and was cut down in the street, too blind with hate for his sword to find its mark.
Since that time, the weapon has changed hands many times, almost never peacefully. Usually after her master has brought about his own ruin through foolish actions taken over some perceived slight or insult.
>>44193673
super fucking gay
>>44193626
I've read worse, 7/10. Brevity, man.
Oh hey, somebody else on /tg/ has read Daughter of the Sword.
This is the only weapon you need to know about. Motherfucking Beast Spear.
Players probably won't care.
If you have a legendary weapon, and you give it to your players, give them 1-2 sentences max. about how it looks. Maybe give a small hint about its history. ("Its design is very distinctively ______, maybe an expert could tell you more.", "It has a name engraved on it", "It looks like it's made out of an odd material")
A good way to make players actually curious is to have the weapon have a special effect, but you need to know a bit more about it to use it right. But PLEASE don't just have it be a magic word that you learn that makes the weapon better, that reeks of plot point. Instead, for example, you could just have the weapon have some oddly specific feature, like, the critical threat range is doubled at night. Or, it deals a little extra ice damage to humanoids. But don't tell the players this, just give them subtle hints. Roll the stuff secretly for them. ("For some reason, that blow you just landed sliced right through the enemy! You're not sure what gave you such strength all of a sudden", " "Make a survival check" [success] As you pick the loot up off of your fallen foes, you notice something unusual. A lot of them seem to have signs of recent frostbite, but your spellcasters didn't use any cold magic.")
The players could go for weeks without knowing what the effects actually are. Then finally they might get a chance to learn more about their weapon, and then they do, they'll all shout "OOOOOOOH!" In unison. That's when you know you've been a good game master. When your players realize the answer to a mystery they didn't even know they were dealing with.
>>44194919
This. When you give your players a magic weapon, don't tell them mechanically what it does. If you really need to mentally jerk off give them some history on a successful knowledge/spellcraft roll of why the weapon is famous and see if they can work it out from there.
>>44193626
I'm doing a D&D 5th edition campaign right now. Since I don't like the idea of "mundande" magic weapons, all the magic items I've given my players have elaborate histories and traits associated with them. To do away with the "upgrading" of gear, I'm going to have it so that these items of power grow in power as their bearers become more attuned to them and learn more about their histories.
Basically, every magic item in my campaign is "legendary."
>>44194919
>Players probably won't care.
Let me rephrase this in a different way
Players don't care about listening to a 4 paragraph story about their +3 sword of goblinbashing. they are concerned about stuff that concerns them. OP's lore thing seems really elaborate for just a sword. keep it simple, dude.
the way I see it, you should get your players to try to explain the weapon by themselves. make them ask questions about its origins, leave some hints and make the weapon interesting without the lore. if they really want to pursue the weapon's origin, then maybe start showing(!!! not telling) them the lore
here's my idea of a cursed weapon. i'm not going to explain it at all and i won't need to. the name and the way the weapon works should tell you everything you need to know.
>>44195265
i should mention that this is kind of a loot game, which is why i'm displaying the stats so prominently. if i didn't, the players might throw the weapon away.
although it would be a cool to show them that it just deals 2x the damage of any other weapon without telling them about the catastrophic failure thing. kinda like a "well why did you think it was called the dead man's gun??" thing
could be fun
I like them. In my setting you've got the legendary iron weapons of the first humans who devastated a fey witch and her armies and left the fey with an intense fear of iron. The giant spear wielded by said witch. The sword that was struck so hard by a blacksmith that it exploded and covered an entire city in soot andcreated black people by staining their skin.
>>44194079
I've been found out.
But yeah.
The other two swords featured in the book are Glorious Victory Unsought, which brings success and glory to one who carries it without seeking to prove himself in battle, but dooms any who go LOOKING for the "glorious victory" its name promises, if I was gonna use it it'd just be bonus or penalty depending on how it's being used.
And Tiger on the Mountain, structures it is inside are protected from harm.
>>44195265
The idea for how I'd actually USE the Inazumas if I were to steal them for a game would be for the slightly modified versions of their histories to be entirely notes, and at best the players might stumble across a couple details here or their, more if they go digging. MAYBE discover the full background on Beautiful Singer in bits and pieces if I wanted to use it as a major plot point and not just a bit of cursed loot.
Post legendary weapons
- So what's the story behind the sword? Was it forged by long-extinct race? Created by legendary craftsmen? Passed for generations in your family? Was it looted from a dragon hoard?
- Well, I bought it for my first pay. That's all.
The sword in question was the absolutely entry tier sword dealing fuckload of fixed damage, but only in hands of the owner, since he pretty much "mastered" that very specific weapon into perfection.
>>44194919
>The players could go for weeks without knowing what the effects actually are
I cast identify on it.
>>44193626
The history should be as long as it needs to be and no longer, full stop.
Only plot relevant weapons should get histories longer than 3 or 4 sentences. Plot relevant weapons with histories longer than 3 or 4 sentences should have their histories revealed over the course of the campaign, in chunks no longer than 3 to 4 sentences.
>>44197692
>>44199476
>Only plot relevant weapons should get histories longer than 3 or 4 sentences. Plot relevant weapons with histories longer than 3 or 4 sentences should have their histories revealed over the course of the campaign, in chunks no longer than 3 to 4 sentences.
This baka omarashi senpai
>>44199510
Is this some kind of western polearm version of the Hunga Munga?
>>44199476
This man has the correct opinion.
I say this unironically; there are correct opinions to have about this matter, and this man has it.
>>44199103
You deduce that it is indeed enchanted, but with what, you have no idea. All you can discern is that is has some sort of connection with the moon.
Perhaps a more powerful wizard could help identify it? The elves of Lorthraine are also well versed in lunar magics.
>>44199856
In my years of having seen these things photographed, I have never once actually seen someone show how they're used.
>>44200865
>You deduce that it is indeed enchanted, but with what, you have no idea
Really? Not even an aura strength or school of magic?
I toss it in my pack, where it will sit until we run into these elves. I'm not about to get my soul eaten by another cursed weapon.
>>44200882
You throw them. The odd shape makes them bounce unpredictably and makes them harder to block.
>>44200951
See? With a small description like that, you can stop the metagaming.
I like to make magic weapons actually mean something, and if that means trekking across New Zealand to identity a single sword, even better.
>>44193626
The best weapons of legend are made through the story of the game itself.
The group I played with for almost two decades had a weapon that showed up about once a year, in different settings and campaigns, too.
It was called Grigor The Kingslayer. It started out as a normal, yet finely crafted longsword in one campaign back in the early 90s. But by 2005, it was known as throughout the realms as the accursed blade that sought the blood of kings.
I don't even remember if it had specific effects, but basically, it would always seem to find it's way into someone's hands at the most opportune time and be used to slay a king, or a chieftain, or a nobleman in power.
It started and ended many great campaigns, both long and short.
It's not much but if you view a weapon's description in Dwarf Fortress, it will have a list of everything the weapon has killed.
>>44201380
And who wielded it and got which kills
>>44201236
>Gregor has entered the game
