When making magic items do u firmly establish what it does or do u let ur players make descriptions?

When making magic items do u firmly establish what it does or do u let ur players make descriptions?

When making magic items do u firmly establish what it does or do u let ur players make descriptions? I am not worried about OP items as I would reserve final say on the item. Im more interested in what would be more fun for the player; finding a fully fleshed out item or finding something they get to help create.

8 thoughts on “When making magic items do u firmly establish what it does or do u let ur players make descriptions?”

  1. Something they just find, that they haven’t been questing for? I’m probably going to just make it up and reveal it in play (via Spout Lore, or Discern Realities, or some GM move).

    If I’m stumped, or I just want to get some unexpected inputs, I might be like “Ovid, what sort of unholy death magic were the Necropomps of Necrodor famed for?” and then make up the object based on that.

    If I like started the game/adventure with “Ovid, what are you hoping to find here in the Secret Tombs of Titch?” and the player’s like “Oh, the Thought-Gem of Titch the Magnificent!” then I’d probably probe for more details about what that Thought-Gem is supposed to do, and then put my fingerprints all over it and decide exactly what its all about (maybe between sessions as prep, maybe as a GM move… offer an opportunity or reveal an unwelcome truth).

  2. Legacy has this cool set of moves around “Devices” that would be neat to work into DW. Lemme try:

    When you discover a magical or aberrant item, state what you think it might be capable of, and the GM will give a clue to it’s true function and any related side effects.

    When you wield a magical or aberrant item, say what you expect it to do and roll +INT. On a 10+, choose 2; on a 7-9 choose 1:

    – It works as you expected

    – It can be used again

    – There are no side effects

  3. Maybe add in:

    When you spend days or weeks in study of a magical or aberrant item, you learn more of what it is capable and take +1 ongoing when you attempt to use it.

  5. Jeremy Strandberg so I was wondering this when my party’s thief back stabbed a wizard I had planned to drop this powerful staff. He recognized him as agent of the big bad and straight up murdered him. The party never saw him use the item and wondered what it could do. It summons demons. It didn’t seem to me like a fighter thief and barbarian should know what this does. They have yet to get it to the wizard they know to have it checked out.

    Pretty sure I will have it possess the NPC so I can still have them fight unholy hellspawn.

  6. Greg Jones, were I in your shoes… yeah, I wouldn’t let the fighter or thief make up jack squat. You’ve already got sense of what it does. They’ve established that they’re characters don’t know what it does, and wouldn’t have any reason to know. So it’s a mystery! Excellent!

    And it sounds dangerous, so maybe stat it up as a danger, with an instinct and (GM) moves and the like.

    Oh… or you could go “major arcana” on them and do something like this:

    https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nageZXQ7mGxzZygJhmoJDBV9lzTMiZZ3q15N1fM7vgvFe3ngU-i5LpY8JssRKydS8FYXARktM_HkjqNI1fVUw-HGu5Kylv-eQBk=s0

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