#1 : Ring of reverse levitation

Magic items are a very powerful and fun part of many RPG's. Why? Because they open up narrative branches to your game in unusual ways. Another aspect of magic items is that they are single objects. That means they can be transferred to different players. This in contrary to spells. These are usually restricted to certain classes and aren't unique (any druid can have druidic spells).

Magic items can do anything to your narrative. Magic items can take all kind of forms, both in appearance and mechanics. They can be restricted to be used one time only, like a potion that needs to be swallowed or a powder that needs to be burned. Others are more permanent like wearables, jewelery, clothings and such.

More interesting are magic items that have drawbacks: you gain some extra power at the cost of something else. Whether it is worth is using them depends on the situation and on the risk the player is willing to take.

We'll be exploring magic items often. We'll see how an item can be used or misused. Maybe we can fine tune the item to make it more balanced and interesting. We obtain the magic items via Instant Adventures, since making sense of randomness is what this blog mainly is about. Magic items can be generated here. Today we start with a ring of reverse levitation

It's a ring. That means it can be worn by anyone. Anyone with the right size of fingers that is. The one ring in The Lord Of The Rings had this magic ability to grow and shrink. I assume this was done on purpose by Tolkien to account for the fact that it could be worn by Frodo, Sauron and Isildur. What I find so great about this little fix to maintain consistency is that it opens up a new property of the item and can create new narrative behavior: growing the ring makes Frodo almost loose the ring. Likewise shrinking the ring can prevent the bearer, or anyone else, to take it of. Taking this to extremes we could see how a shrinking ring can cut of someone's finger (this makes me think about a spell that can shrink stuff, used in this way could be very powerful).

Does a ring have to be worn to use it? I tend to believe it must. Otherwise it could be any kind of object: the ring part adds something to the narrative if, in fact, it is used as a ring.

Rings have a certain durability associated with them. Rings have a permanent ring (pun intended) to it. Rings are often valuable items made of precious metal, decorated with precious gems. So by itself it already could be an expensive item to own. Being a precious item make is vulnerable for theft. Even if the magical properties aren't obvious it is still something people will want.

If you make the ring out of less expensive material like bone, wood or rock it will affect the durability of the item. Wood can burn, rock can break, bone is susceptible to acids.

So here you have your mechanics to make the item less permanent in case it turns out to be too powerful.

So, the ring of reverse levitation. It does levitate stuff ... people .. the bearer. Only, it does not levitate. It does the reverse. What is exactly reversed? The levitating (rise into the air)? Or the direction of the levitating. The antonym of to levitate is to land. Now that could be useful. Certainly for the players of the falling kind. They might benefit from landing.

A ring of landing could be quite useful in mountainous areas or in sky-cities.

If on the other hand we opt for the reversal of the direction (into the air) we get something like sink into the ground. This is potentially very harmful for any subject of the effect of the ring. Unless a save way to do so is included with the magic. The ring can be very handy for exploring underground dwellings or multi-level mines.

If you reverse the lifting part, you can end up with a ring that takes things out of the air. Birds, dragons or flying wizards.

The description doesn't make it clear what exactly is levitated. Is it the bearer, or some other people and stuff? To answer this we can look at the functioning. Obviously if the ring's powers is harmful it like won't have the bearer as subject. You'd never wear a ring the potentially can kill you. If the power is beneficial it could be both for the bearer or someone else.

Duration, power and range

If left undefined the ring could be used to reverse levitate cities, countries, mountains. You could sent a castle to the other side of your planet. This makes the ring far to powerful. You don't even have to be there to make it happen. You only have to wear it. To limit the area to which the ring has effect you can say it needs to touch the subject, or the bearer needs to see the subject.

That doesn't solve all. If the bearer touches a city, will that count too? You can see all three moons hanging in the sky for that matter. There need to be more limitation. Something like weight might do it. One can reverse levitate a subject equal of less the weight of the bearer.

How far can the subject be reverse levitated? Again this is not solved by using touch or sight. Though the touch component can make for nice narrative shifts, like: what if you let a wooden board sink into the earth while standing on it. You'd be using it as some subterranean elevator. Just release the board to get off.

The powers can be limited in time. Maybe it drains the bearer or comes with a cost. This a nice mechanism the forces the player to balance the benefits of the action against the harm it will bring.

This trade-off can directly interact with the game mechanics. Does using it spend resources (hit points, mana, XP?) or does it influence the roll of the dice? Maybe by using it you get a penalty on subsequent throws. What game mechanics will be affected is of course largely dependent on the game system you use. I believe a ring of reverse levitation can be a powerful item and should have some sort of trade-off.

To wrap things up I present you:

Ezrak's Last Ring Of Reverse Levitation

This inconspicuous ring made of the metallic wing bones of the long extinct mud-swimmer Droth is thought to be the final work of Ezrak. Due to an mispronunciation of the word Upllewh during the invocation to fixate the final spell hook to the ring the item ended up to have some erroneous behaviour, the most notable quirck being the direction of the levitation, hence the name. Ezrak ended up 10 meter below the ground, crushed by 25,000 kilograms of solid rock.

Anything the bearer of the ring touches while uttering the magic word will gently sink down, passing through most materials without resistance leaving an empty space lasting while the object is being touched by the bearer.

Ironically the magic word is "Upllewh." It took seven assistent thaumaturgist three weeks to find the correct pronunciation.

The mass that can be moved using the ring roughly equals the mass of the bearer.

Todays pre-rolled die is the plain old 1D6. Any of the numbers has a 16.67% change to be rolled, says AnyDice.

2 5 5 5 4 6 3 2 1 5 2 5 6 5 6 3 2 6 5 2 6 6 3 6 6 1 4 2 4 5

4 5 2 5 2 6 4 1 6 5 2 6 5 6 6 5 4 4 3 3 4 4 4 3 3 3 4 1 5 3

6 1 2 3 4 3 3 5 1 6 6 5 3 3 5 3 5 6 5 4 6 4 3 1 3 6 6 5 2 6

5 5 2 1 6 6 6 6 6 3 3 1 3 5 3 2 5 1 4 5 3 5 5 5 2 3 4 3 4 1

5 4 3 1 1 4 4 1 6 2 6 2 3 1 5 1 4 5 6 1 5 3 1 5 5 2 5 4 3 4

5 6 5 4 3 6 3 3 3 3 5 2 6 6 4 6 4 5 6 2 5 3 3 4 2 4 2 6 3 1

2 2 6 2 6 1 5 5 5 5 4 1 6 4 2 1 6 3 3 6 4 5 1 6 2 4 2 5 6 2

6 2 1 1 1 4 1 6 2 6 1 1 4 2 4 6 2 2 4 4 2 4 3 3 5 3 2 5 6 2

2 1 2 5 5 3 6 1 4 4 6 1 1 6 5 2 5 6 3 3 6 5 2 5 1 1 3 2 5 1

1 5 2 6 1 5 2 6 6 5 1 3 2 5 6 3 5 5 5 3 6 1 5 5 2 2 1 6 3 2

3 1 1 5 3 5 1 1 3 1 5 3 2 6 4 6 5 1 5 2 2 5 3 2 6 1 3 2 1 6

1 6 4 1 3 4 2 6 3 5 6 5 6 5 1 6 3 1 1 2 3 2 2 6 3 2 3 2 2 4

5 3 6 6 3 6 3 2 3 4 5 3 3 5 3 1 2 3 5 4 6 1 1 1 6 5 5 1 1 1

1 4 6 3 6 6 6 2 6 3 3 5 2 1 1 1 3 5 5 3 6 2 2 6 2 5 5 2 3 5

4 5 4 1 2 2 3 3 1 4 1 2 4 6 5 6 2 5 3 4 1 3 6 4 4 5 5 6 3 5

2 3 2 4 1 1 1 4 3 6 3 2 4 1 2 4 3 6 6 6 3 4 1 4 6 5 1 1 2 1

4 1 1 2 5 2 4 6 1 3 6 1 1 1 4 2 1 1 6 1 2 2 3 3 6 3 3 6 1 4

6 2 1 6 6 3 2 3 5 4 5 3 2 1 1 5 6 3 6 1 1 2 1 2 3 2 4 4 6 5

2 1 5 3 6 2 2 3 2 6 1 1 5 1 5 5 1 6 3 2 6 6 5 6 3 1 4 6 2 5

2 3 6 5 4 4 4 3 3 4 3 4 4 4 3 5 5 1 6 6 2 3 3 3 1 2 6 3 5 4

1 6 2 1 4 3 6 5 3 4 6 1 4 6 4 6 4 5 1 1 3 1 5 4 6 2 4 2 6 1

1 2 4 4 3 4 2 5 3 1 3 4 6 4 2 4 4 6 4 5 2 3 4 2 5 5 4 3 2 3

6 1 2 2 1 1 4 5 5 3 4 5 6 4 1 2 3 2 2 1 5 4 1 4 6 1 5 5 3 6

A general purpose dungeon map. Now, I can imagine this to be the place for some sort of secret ritual. Six small chambers (for prisoners? For young virgins? For monks?). The large room with the pillars is connected to the preparation room for the priestess. Or is it the thaumaturgic retreat of the Necromancer? To the right is a cave with a well of some kind of power. Maybe a gate to another world? The lair for some underwater entity?

A basic general purpose fantasy map.

transparent version

My goto tool for map making is the unsurpassable Inkscape. Inkscape is a free and open source vector drawing program like Coreldraw and Adobe Illustrator. The usability, availability and features makes this one of my favourite applications. While it's easy to get started once you get a grasp of vector-driven drawing, there are so many functionalities to learn that will ease and enhance the mapmaking experience.

Later on I'll add tips and tricks for map makers how to make good use of Inkscape.

A List of Lores that can be randomly told to the players during a game to create a history or to provide waypoints. These lores or rumors need to be rather vague to allow multiple interpretations. Adventures sprout from here.

1. A tree that bleeds a liquid gold substance
2. An old hermit that lives in the forest seems to getting younger
3. 300 Years ago the palace of Queen Eophelia was covered by a sandstorm, it's location lost to posterity. Recently spires are said to be seen extruding from the sand
4. A tea brewed with / inhaled fumes of burned raisin secreted by corpse beetles is said to enable you enter the realm of the dead
5. Firewood is highly insulating and resistant to fire. The trees in a firewood forest generate constant electricity burning anything in the forest except the trees
6. Songs of the clouds. When the second moon aligns with the third moon, the clouds can be heard singing
7. Legendary wine, produced during the green storm. Only a handful of bottles are left
8. On the steppes there once lived a orange coated people that hunted the great Ummurha to extinction
9. This town is the birthplace of the legendary Bard Of Peridir
10. This town was build on top of a much older town. This happened at least three times

This blog will be the sublimation of my thoughts and writings about games, game mechanics, maps and other stuff that I find interesting.

About me

I am a dedicated dad and husband who is fascinated by randomness and creation. During the day I create code and applications. During my free time I create music, games, maps, food and drink.

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