Mr. R Posted December 10, 2021 Report Share Posted December 10, 2021 Rolemaster had Laen Atlantis has Orichalcum Guild Wars 2 has Deldrimore Steel and Amalgamated Gems My point is that these different sources had some sort of magical material. Now why am I asking about them? Well in most (not all) Fantasy Hero settings, magic items are Independent (What the GM givith, the GM can taketh away) But if you craft your own item, well you pay for it out of your hard earned Character Points. Which can hurt if the item ever gets lost or destroyed. So do you ever have those magical materials which if used in the creation of a magic item will supply "X" points to the real cost? For example in the Bola Desert is an ancient city. Exploring the city is difficult as it is surrounded by a living storm that circles around the city and tries to kill any who get in and loot it (curiously if you take nothing from the city it will allow you to leave in peace) One side effect of the Living Strom is Lightning Sand. This form where the lighting has repeatedly struck. If you can dig out a sample of the lightning sand (basically glass) it will provide up to 5 points towards the creation of a magic item. So any examples? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted December 10, 2021 Report Share Posted December 10, 2021 Hero Games fantasy books have included a range of magical materials over the game's history. Most of them are just used as a component of an enchanted item justifying its exceptional magical properties; but the description of one substance from The Turakian Age setting matches your example. Yubha are purple-black gemstones native to the island nation of Thûn. The Thûnese believe them to be the congealed blood and tears of one of their gods, imprisoned by other gods far below the surface of the Earth. The sorcerer-priests who rule Thûn covet them for themselves, but some Thûnese covertly mine and sell them to foreigners, because each carat of pure, flawless yubha provides three Character Points toward the creation of magic items. Moreover, a spell caster can substitute a yubha for an equivalent amount of gem or gem powder as a material component in any spell. It would not be unreasonable to apply the above approach to any other magical materials which are used to create enchanted items, regardless of whether their default descriptions include that option. As I mentioned, Fantasy Hero books have noted a variety of those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted December 10, 2021 Report Share Posted December 10, 2021 Yep. When I have done settings with "this stuff is magical by nature," it's not a matter of this stuff adding points, but this stuff being a mandatory material, or of this stuff being easier to enchant (bonuses to Enchantment skill rolls or considerably reduced time to enchant, etc.). Lord Liaden 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted December 10, 2021 Report Share Posted December 10, 2021 The whole spectrum of those options are available to a GM to use for item enchantment in their campaign, and none of them need be exclusive. My favorite of all these substances appears in the old Magic Items supplement for the first edition of Fantasy Hero (pre-4E). Blood Iron is iron mined from beneath a blood-soaked battlefield. The metal can be used to forge truly ghastly weapons which inflict terrible damage. Moreover, blood iron can acquire other qualities over time depending on how it's used. The outstanding example from the supplement is Harvest Moon, a huge Troll-forged battle axe wielded in their wars with Men. Harvest Moon absorbed the Trolls' hatred of Men and inflicts wounds on them which bleed more copiously than normal. However, the axe also radiates an aura of hatred which prompts Men near it to be more hostile toward whoever bears it. (BTW Magic Items is available in PDF form from the Hero website store. It's system stats are quite outdated, but it includes quite a few innovative concepts and SFX.) Ninja-Bear and Chris Goodwin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urlord Posted December 10, 2021 Report Share Posted December 10, 2021 Back when I was playing RoleMaster, we noticed that High-Elves had a natural +20 DB and RR to cold. So, they were hunted, killed and skinned to make soft leather clothing by nearby marauding barbarian tribes. It was awesome! Eyrie, Spence, Lord Liaden and 1 other 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted December 10, 2021 Report Share Posted December 10, 2021 6 hours ago, Urlord said: Back when I was playing RoleMaster, we noticed that High-Elves had a natural +20 DB and RR to cold. So, they were hunted, killed and skinned to make soft leather clothing by nearby marauding barbarian tribes. It was awesome! Man that is grisly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted December 10, 2021 Report Share Posted December 10, 2021 12 hours ago, Urlord said: Back when I was playing RoleMaster, we noticed that High-Elves had a natural +20 DB and RR to cold. So, they were hunted, killed and skinned to make soft leather clothing by nearby marauding barbarian tribes. It was awesome! I _like_ it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeroGM Posted December 10, 2021 Report Share Posted December 10, 2021 Next week on Showtimes blend of Yellowjackets and Swords of Shanarra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted December 10, 2021 Report Share Posted December 10, 2021 Magical materials are an important part of the Exalted game. Most magic items incorporate at least one of the Five Magical Materials -- jade, orichalcum, moonsilver, starmetal or soulsteel -- which have special affinities to the Terrestrial, Solar, Lunar, Sidereal or Abyssal Exalted. However, there are also other materials that are magical, ranging from the natural but rare, to the supernatural, to things that should be flat-out impossible, except powerful Exalted and certain other creatures can do "impossible" things. The Books of Sorcery: the Black and White Treatises has an extensive discussion with numerous examples. Magic items in Exalted don't cost character points, but you could crib the ideas and assign point values to various materials. Dean Shomshak Lord Liaden and Mr. R 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted December 10, 2021 Report Share Posted December 10, 2021 My second "Supermage" playtest campaign included a story arc set on the magic-soaked world of Loezen. As part of designing that setting, I invented various materials that were sometimes used in magic items: power crystals called Wizard Spar, resonant Sonorglass (an impooirtant school of magic relied on musical instruments), green-hued Sunsilver, and pale blue Cerulium. The antigravity metal Ascendium, which supported the flying cities of the long-ago Age of the Cloud Lords, is of course now very rare since mislaid bits fall into the sky. I didn't assign specific point values, though. It was all just "local color." Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted December 10, 2021 Report Share Posted December 10, 2021 And for my alternate-history Fantasy Europa campaign, I jotted down a list of exotic substances that could supply points for magic item creation, ranging from the bones of saints to water from the core of a thunder egg or geode. Taking a cue from the grinoires of ceremonial magic, in which rituals must be performed at specific times or places, I also assigned point values to times and places of occult significance. Easy circumstances with low point values: Full moon, thunderstorm, churchyard at least 100 years old. Incredibly difficult, with high point value: "green flash" at sunset, planetary conjunction that happens only once a century, the South Pole. None of this ever got used, as none of the PCs ever wanted to make a magic item. Dean Shomshak Mr. R 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted December 10, 2021 Report Share Posted December 10, 2021 6 hours ago, Duke Bushido said: I _like_ it! We know how you feel about elves. 💀 1 hour ago, DShomshak said: None of this ever got used, as none of the PCs ever wanted to make a magic item. Dean Shomshak The GM's lament, pearls of prep cast before swine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted December 11, 2021 Report Share Posted December 11, 2021 Quote So do you ever have those magical materials which if used in the creation of a magic item will supply "X" points to the real cost? Yes, quite a few. Most very fine and rare materials will provide "matching points" to enchant with. That is, you spend one CP, they will donate 1 CP in return to lower cost of making magic items. The amount of points is limited by the quantity and quality of the materials (Gems, high end metals, special leather, etc). Lots of details on this in the Jolrhos Field Guide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted December 11, 2021 Report Share Posted December 11, 2021 Steve Long took an interesting tack when describing orichalcum in The Atlantean Age source book. Yes, it takes and holds enchantments extremely well, and can be alloyed with steel for extraordinary hardness. But it can also be used as an energy source to "fuel" magic spells, i.e. provide an Endurance Reserve for spell casters. Orichalcum crystals come in two forms. One provides a set amount of Endurance only, and when exhausted crumbles and is useless; but the other will recharge to be reusable, i.e. has a Recovery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeroGM Posted December 11, 2021 Report Share Posted December 11, 2021 An example of the liquid Mana (found in pools) being used from Joe Madureira's Battle Chasers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sallos Posted May 21, 2022 Report Share Posted May 21, 2022 Fantasy Hero 6th has guidelines for using 'magical' materials to offset the cost of item creation. It's on page 318 and breaks down a baseline on how many points you could substitute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asperion Posted May 21, 2022 Report Share Posted May 21, 2022 Most modern advanced metamaterial could be used in some fantasy setting and say it was created using either magic or alchemy process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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