"Mundane" Magic Items

[Jkeown]

So... Everyday Items you'd make if you could:

 

When I was single, I'd have given my right arm for a pair of glasses that would tell me about the girls I met. While a ring on a finger is a nice giveaway, knowing the truth of a woman's (or man's) marital status might be of benefit. After all, those rings can be removed when need arises.

 

Datin' Goggles: (Total: 23 Active Cost, 20 Real Cost) +2 PER with Sight Group (4 Active Points); Independent (-2), OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 1) plus Detect Marital Status 12- (Sight Group), Discriminatory, Analyze, Range (Real Cost: 14)

 

I plan to introduce these at the start of a Caleon episode, with the symbology in an arcane and totally made up code the wearer will not understand. I'm sure seeing strange symbols over every head in town will result in much confusion and fun for all. Then again, they might firgure it out after only a few minutes of reasoning. I plan to use symbols for Unattached, Dating, Engaged, In Love, Unrequited Love, Married, Happily Married, Divorced and probably a few others. This way, the PCs will have to ask a lot of questions to figure out the code.

 

Uh-Oh... Would Universal Translator decode the symbols instantly? Is a made up code a "language?"

[Vanguard]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Well, it depends. I was going to say that it was a code and I didn't think UT translated codes and the like.

 

But, the more I thought about it the more it sounds like what you're doing is a language. You're just using Runes and Sigils for words. So, I believe that UT, mechanically speaking, could translate it, if you allowed it.

[Teflon Billy]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

I'd personally rule that Universal Translator has no ability to translate what amounts to a magical language (otherwise, it'd permit people to read, understand, and consequently cast spells from spell books without hinderence)

 

TB

[Erkenfresh]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

You might consider allowing a Cryptography roll, since that skill covers breaking codes. How many fantasy characters will have it though? Unlikely, but it could happen.

[Dale A. Ward]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

I'd personally rule that Universal Translator has no ability to translate what amounts to a magical language (otherwise' date=' it'd permit people to read, understand, and consequently cast spells from spell books without hinderence)[/quote']

I wouldn't hesitate to allow UT to translate a magical language. Just because you can read a spell from a book doesn't imply that you can call up or control the thaumaturgic energy required to cast said spell.

 

On the other hand, items like scrolls and rune stones usually have the energy bound within them... batteries included, so to speak. Therefore, they could be used by anyone capable of reading the mystic symbols. Fortunately, they're usually one-shot items.

 

On the scifi side of things, just because you can read binary code doesn't mean you can program a computer. I have used UT as a complementary skill for someone attempting to use or reprogram an unfamiliar computer system, but they still need Computer Programming.

 

Bottom line... UT does exactly what you say it does. Nothing more... nothing less.

[Curufea]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Marital status is often shown in different cultures with different dress styles - a magic item equivalent is quite appropriate for a fantasy setting.

 

An item I'd make if I could (in a pre-industrial setting)-

Infinity fridge. Preserves food and drink for as long as it is stored in there. Possibly a travel version as well. The full featured version may also reduce the weight and/or have more capacity than its size.

[Teflon Billy]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Marital status is often shown in different cultures with different dress styles - a magic item equivalent is quite appropriate for a fantasy setting.

 

An item I'd make if I could (in a pre-industrial setting)-

Infinity fridge. Preserves food and drink for as long as it is stored in there. Possibly a travel version as well. The full featured version may also reduce the weight and/or have more capacity than its size.

Would this fridge also prevent vermin from eating the things stored in it?

 

TB

[Blue Jogger]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Ring of Endurance - +4 Recovery while worn. Cheap, but oh so useful, especially with all that manual labor and walking in most fantasy campaigns.

[Curufea]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Would this fridge also prevent vermin from eating the things stored in it?

 

TB

 

I think I can't think of a more appropriate term than "it would be hermetically sealed"

 

So yes - no vermin, parasites or bacteria.

[Vondy]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

I'd personally rule that Universal Translator has no ability to translate what amounts to a magical language (otherwise, it'd permit people to read, understand, and consequently cast spells from spell books without hinderence)

 

TB

 

Being able to read a text doesn't mean you understand, or know how to apply the principles therin. For instance, a layman trying to grasp the concepts in a dissertation on quantum computing may be able to read it, but its unlikely, without learning a whole host of other things first, that he'll actually grasp its contents, or be able to work in the field. I would think magic is much the same. Just because you can read the language a mytic disquisition was written in doesn't mean you have a clue about how to use it.

[Pavanne]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Flushy: This box looks like the typical close-stool. Close the top and push the button (say the magic phrase, whatever) and the top opens a portal to The Plane of Water and the bottom opens a portal to....do we need to know?

 

Anyway, whatever's inside is flushed away. No muss, no stink, no breeding pit for disease.

[Kenn]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

I plan to use symbols for Unattached' date=' Dating, Engaged, In Love, Unrequited Love, Married, Happily Married, Divorced and probably a few others. This way, the PCs will have to ask a lot of questions to figure out the code.[/quote']

 

Widowed. Unhappily married. Married but gettin' some elsewhere. Pre-divorce seperation. Shacked up, but won't be gettin' married. Theoretically available but several friends want to keep him/her unattached.

[captainNeda]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

I wouldn't do this as a detect. Marital statis is a state of being, not something tangible that could be detected. There are signs that indicate marital status such was having wedding rings and such, but these do not necessarily have to be true. Actors where rings and remove them while acting.

 

As you're describing it, this really should be a form of telepathy.

 

Think of it this way, what would be the difference between this detect and one that works against someone's occupation? Heck if my GM allowed this, I'd go for a detect house wife, salesmen, firemen, bank robbers or supervillians (boy that would really spoil a game adn tons of secret id's). How would this detect be any different than a detect friends of Kevin Bacon?

 

I can understand a detect vs certain genetic markers, electromatic wave lengths, vibrations, sounds, types of objects, but marital status is a state of mind in how we Identify ourselves. Married, widowed, divorced, single, engaged, are all states of mind, just like an occupation. I can go from single to married as fast as I can go from computer programmer to unemployed, or unemployed to entrepenuer. Marriage is a relationship. My marital statis is how I identify with another person, or people, and how they with me. Is this any different than my relationship with people as a friend, a stranger, a coworker, a buddy, an aquantance, an enemy or a romantic interest? In each of these cases it is how the other individual thinks of me, and I think of them. Doctor Destroyer may like you, and consider you a friend, but how would you know that. Seeker may hate your sorry butt and call you an enemy and Quantum may be gaga over you, but without telepathy, how would you know?

 

Imagine how would this work on a person that was a blank slate? Jane Doe showed up buck naked with total amnesia, Would this detect you described work on her? An investigator could check her out physically, identify the signs that show if she had kids or not, was a virgin or not, wore certain types of clothes in a while (possibly including wedding rings), but can any of that prove she is or was married?

 

Maybe a detect marriage license or signature, that works at the courthouse, but not marital status. Maybe detect rings, but not wedding rings (because honestly how could you tell a set of matching rings in a set from a set of matching engagement rings). Maybe a detect vs any marker that indicates marital status, but not the status itself. Does that make sense?

[Lucius]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

No.

 

LA

p

[Captain Obvious]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Flushy: This box looks like the typical close-stool. Close the top and push the button (say the magic phrase, whatever) and the top opens a portal to The Plane of Water and the bottom opens a portal to....

 

The Chinese "Hell of Other People's Crap".

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

I can understand a detect vs certain genetic markers, electromatic wave lengths, vibrations, sounds, types of objects, but marital status is a state of mind in how we Identify ourselves. Married, widowed, divorced, single, engaged, are all states of mind, just like an occupation. I can go from single to married as fast as I can go from computer programmer to unemployed, or unemployed to entrepenuer. Marriage is a relationship. My marital statis is how I identify with another person, or people, and how they with me. Is this any different than my relationship with people as a friend, a stranger, a coworker, a buddy, an aquantance, an enemy or a romantic interest? In each of these cases it is how the other individual thinks of me, and I think of them. Doctor Destroyer may like you, and consider you a friend, but how would you know that. Seeker may hate your sorry butt and call you an enemy and Quantum may be gaga over you, but without telepathy, how would you know?

 

Magic?

 

Seriously, it's not some nanotech or automatic record searcher. It's magic. A. If magic can't do those things, then what can it do? B. In OP's game magic could sure do those things if he wanted it to -- and who are you to tell him no?

 

If you have a problem with using the basic Detect mechanic to do these things, then say you have a problem with using the basic Detect mechanic to do these things. No need to resort to SFX justification.

 

Suppose in whatever fantasy world OP is creating -- including a modern day world with magic in it -- the act of marriage creates some kind of mystical vibrations in the aether, or whatever thaumababble you wish, that connects the two? That is surely an SFX justification for it. But, as I said, SFX justification is unnecessary if you don't think the Detect mechanic should be used.

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Especially since marriage is usually performed in a religious context, even more especially in a fantasy setting, the "divine connection as ordained/approved by the god(s)" may be a very real and detectable phenomenon.

 

I would never allow UT to read a code. Codes are *not* languages. What was described was a list of about a dozen different "marital statuses" each with a corresponding symbol. This is not a language. As a general rule of thumb, if you can't ask directions to the hotel in it, it's not a language. This is like a color-coded filing system. The color codes are not a language, and there is no way that you could automatically know what each color meant without looking at the files and figuring out the pattern.

 

OTOH, if the UT is actually magical itself, then I suppose you could buy it to automatically reveal any magical code associated with a magical item. I still probably wouldn't do it, and it's quite easy to simply disallow such shortcuts if you don't want your players to have them. Just because it's in the rulebook, doesn't mean you have to let your players do it.

 

And it really doesn't matter what the symbols are. As an example here is a list of possible symbols seen on different people with the dating goggles:

 

AABACBDBEBCCAFBGACHCBBADF

 

Now unless you know who I'm looking at, and what their marital statuses are, you'd have no way of knowing what each symbol means. Only because you knew in advance that it had something to do with marital status, can you start to make some deductions. Based on the fact that A and B are the most common, and G and H are the least common, you might guess that B is married, A is seriously involved, H might be widowed, D might be not of marriagable age, etc.

 

Does it *look* like a language?

[Pavanne]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Captain Obvious: OK, that's where it goes.

 

Chris Goodwin: Thank you for putting it better than I could. You are so right; no-one should say "you can't do it that way" because of the special effects s/he assumes for "that way."

 

Both: I'd rep you if I had any.

[Curufea]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Imagine how would this work on a person that was a blank slate? Jane Doe showed up buck naked with total amnesia' date=' Would this detect you described work on her? An investigator could check her out physically, identify the signs that show if she had kids or not, was a virgin or not, wore certain types of clothes in a while (possibly including wedding rings), but can any of that prove she is or was married?[/quote']

 

It would say she was married if she was married.

 

Much like if the wizard cast "return memory" she would get her memory back. Or if the wizard cast "know the identity of a stranger" he would know who she is, even if she didn't.

 

Some systems even have "detect evil". Explain that.

[Teflon Billy]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

It would say she was married if she was married.

 

Much like if the wizard cast "return memory" she would get her memory back. Or if the wizard cast "know the identity of a stranger" he would know who she is, even if she didn't.

 

Some systems even have "detect evil". Explain that.

Um, *looks around the classroom*,could it, uh, be magic, Sir?

 

TB

[Curufea]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Yep. Pretty much.

If you can detect evil, you can detect marriage (not that they are the same thing )

[Jkeown]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Yep. Pretty much.

If you can detect evil, you can detect marriage (not that they are the same thing )

 

You've never been married, have you?

[Curufea]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

And if I say how lucky I am because of that - I probably never will be

 

Actually, I don't mind marriage. It's the lead-up that is so tricky.

[Curufea]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

Now here-

http://www.curufea.com/hero/doku.php?id=resources:mundane_magic_items

[Kristopher]

Re: "Mundane" Magic Items

 

The Chinese "Hell of Other People's Crap".

 

Metaphorically, that's where I work.