STAR TREK 2d20
  1. #1

    Question about Item stats

    Where do I enter that an item can cast a spell? Where do I put the spell?

    Also, if I roll a random treasure and it says "Additional Capabilities = Spell" and then a spell list, what does this mean exactly? Does this mean the person automatically knows this list? To what level? Assuming they need to develop Power Points to cast from it?

    Thanks.
    Last edited by alloowishus; July 17th, 2022 at 04:58.

  2. #2
    Sulimo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Pacific Time Zone
    Posts
    879
    To add Spells to Items, I did this (you can drag/drop spells into the Item Description, it's just another formatted text field, so you can pretty much do what you can do in Story entries):

    Click for larger version.


    I'm not certain it's feasible to create a drop down for every possible spell, so this seems like a good way to accommodate this.


    For the Additional Spell Item, I'm not sure exactly where you are seeing that, but I did find the Additional Capabilities = Spell which links to the Spell List Table (08-15), this all rolled automatically for me.

    Here is a series of Rolls (I skipped a bunch of the earlier tables, so I could get to this result quickly), starting at Table 08-10 Additional Capabilities - Bonus Item.

    I rolled an 85 which is this result:


    It then opened Table 08-15 Spell List Table and rolled on it with a result of 89:


    Finally it rolled on Table 08-15A Spell List Table - Mentalism with a result of 34:


    Which is the Gas Manipulation List.

    From there the GM would need to choose a spell from the list that works for the item in question. Typically the spell would be allowed to be cast X number of times daily (or maybe weekly if you were feeling like it was too powerful). The PC should not need Power Points to cast from an item, it's using the Items ability to cast the spell, the way to limit it is to have it only be allowed to be cast x number of times daily, usually 1-3 for most items, especially powerful items can have more.

    The Full Chat Output, you can see the Gas Manipulation Table come up in the chat at the very end.




    An example of a Daily item (5x as this is more an artifact level item).
    Last edited by Sulimo; July 17th, 2022 at 19:04.

  3. #3
    Ok thanks, I guess I am wondering what differentiates these items from a daily (x) item. It seems a little vague, i.e. not specified how many times per day/week and what level spell it contains.

  4. #4
    Sulimo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Pacific Time Zone
    Posts
    879
    A daily X item, usually just has one spell attached. For example something like a rod that casts firebolt 2x per day .

    Whereas what is being discussed is maybe something like a piece of armor, that maybe gives a +10 to DB, while also having some kind of spell attached (maybe something like Bladeturn, to keep with the theme of protection).

    The extra spell can be pretty much any spell, and it's left up to the GMs discretion as to how they handle it.

    Have a look at Vilya it has some continuous spells that are always active. It really depends on how powerful the item is. The more powerful the item the more powers it grants the user.


    This is actually one of the things I somewhat dislike about random treasure, it leaves too much left unsaid. The extra spell should fit the item in question, so it has some kind of synergy with it if possible (again, see Vilya). A random spell chosen from a random list may not be the best option for the item in question.

  5. #5
    Majyk's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    Canada (Insomniac)
    Posts
    243
    Apparently I can’t spread any reputation because I’ve done it for Sulimo already but +1 for the ever organized info with screenshots to support it.
    well answered, Sir.

  6. #6
    JohnD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Johnstown ON
    Posts
    5,315
    Blog Entries
    1
    Quote Originally Posted by Majyk View Post
    Apparently I can’t spread any reputation because I’ve done it for Sulimo already but +1 for the ever organized info with screenshots to support it.
    well answered, Sir.
    Yes agreed (I could give rep so I did for the both of us).
    "I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind."

    - John Diefenbaker

    RIP Canada, February 21, 2022

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Sulimo View Post

    This is actually one of the things I somewhat dislike about random treasure, it leaves too much left unsaid. The extra spell should fit the item in question, so it has some kind of synergy with it if possible (again, see Vilya). A random spell chosen from a random list may not be the best option for the item in question.
    I was bored one day so I took the MERP large map as created by the RM folks and went through all the ruins and generated random treasure based on random creatures.

    I was very interesting to do in FGU because of the way Dadakin set it up, you just roll once from the "master" table and sit back and watch it automatically roll all the sub tables for items etc. Sure saves a lot of time from doing it the old way!

    One thing I notice though is that magic items in general are pretty slim pickins, and I never rolled up any kind of artifacts, and I rolled a bunch of times! Would be more interesting if unique items showed up, at least in the rich and very rich tables.

  8. #8
    Sulimo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Pacific Time Zone
    Posts
    879
    Quote Originally Posted by alloowishus View Post
    I was bored one day so I took the MERP large map as created by the RM folks and went through all the ruins and generated random treasure based on random creatures.

    I was very interesting to do in FGU because of the way Dadakin set it up, you just roll once from the "master" table and sit back and watch it automatically roll all the sub tables for items etc. Sure saves a lot of time from doing it the old way!

    One thing I notice though is that magic items in general are pretty slim pickins, and I never rolled up any kind of artifacts, and I rolled a bunch of times! Would be more interesting if unique items showed up, at least in the rich and very rich tables.
    Nice.


    I've never used the random tables myself, Treasures of Middle-earth has similar tables for generating random treasure. I have not done a one-to-one comparison, but I would guess the tables are pretty similar.

    Random treasure is pretty good, but I think more powerful items should likely be hand crafted by the GM, but that's just me.

    I would find a +10 sword that also casts something like Long Ear to be kind of strange, a +10 sword with Blur might be a better combination, at least for me.


    The Treasures of Middle-earth book does have this note:



    That is good, but it might be faster to choose an appropriate spell instead.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
DICE PACKS BUNDLE

Log in

Log in