Lost Book of Magic: Magic Item Creation

[robertsconley]

I been working on a project I call the Lost Book of Magic. In the three years since I released Majestic Wilderlands I ran several campaigns using Swords & Wizardry. Along the way I further developed the rules and background I use to run magic in my setting. The Lost Book of Magic collects all that together much in the same way the Majestic Wilderlands collected my rulings and notes for the campaign as a whole.

One central chapter is the creation of magic items. The system is fairly system. Each item has a cost to create and takes X time. It is fairly expensive and takes enough that players think twice before making it themselves. It also serves as the foundation for the pricing of magic items. Being able to buy magic items has always been part of my campaigns.

I recently completed a rough draft of the chapter and formatted it. You can download it from http://www.batintheattic.com/downloads/ ... ev%205.pdf . I appreciate any comments.

It is a synthesis of what I read in the AD&D DM's Guide, the Rules Cyclopedia, and the prices I developed from GURPS Magic. It currently limited to the list of magic items (and effects) found in the Swords & Wizardry Core Rules.

[Mythmere]

This looks cool, Rob! I haven't read it in full (first I trawl through all the interesting sites, then I go back and read the longer stuff or listen to podcasts). But it looks really awesome, although using the denarii for gold pieces threw me for a moment.

[robertsconley]

But it looks really awesome, although using the denarii for gold pieces threw me for a moment.

Thanks

The reason for that is to somehow make it useful for the campaign which I run and but also for the general community. I use the silver standard and most D&D campaign use the gold standard.

Since the release of the Majestic Wilderlands I ran several campaigns using S&W+MW. Whenever I use a treasure table, or treasure from a published adventure, I just translate gp as d. It seems to work out roughly the same as when I ran Majestic Wilderlands under GURPS. So when it came time to list prices in the Lost Book I decided that d would be either gold or silver. Since I used the costs in AD&D and the Cyclopedia as a baseline it is should work without any issue for a gold standard campaign.

[Tatem]

I like it. If you keep it simple as it is, I will love it even more. I found a lot of stuff out there right now is completely overly descriptive.

[GreyKat]

I dig it! I always wonder about such things and I'm never sure if I should charge more or less for magical services.
Thanks for your hard work.

[Koren_nRhys]

Some great ideas in there Rob,and I can see putting them to use in my RC campaign. I like the Charms a lot.
I have a copy of Majestic Wilderlands and I imagine I'll be adding this to my collection when you release it!