The tale’s the thing with the artifact known as the Taleblade. Take a look at what it could bring to your campaign—it just might add another story element that your players will remember for quite awhile.
The Taleblade is appropriate for mid-heroic level characters.
The Taleblade begins as a sleek rapier with a silver hilt. Though masterfully constructed, the sword is unadorned. Once acquired, however, the Taleblade begins to record the deeds and experiences of its owner and companions. Over time, the Taleblade records its owner’s journeys in incredibly fine, flowing script along the length of the blade.
As noted last week here on the Kobold Quarterly blog, we’re continuing to look at an interesting option for presenting weapons and armor in your game. If you missed the first installment of this series, you can read the first part here.
The following keywords are designed to substitute the numeric bonuses applied to armor, shields, and bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing weapons. Using these keywords breaks away a layer of metagame language and makes a world of difference to the player characters (and their players). Now the fighter can walk into the weapon shop and ask for a sword of carving, confident that the shopkeeper will know exactly what he is looking for.
The shopkeeper nods. “Two swords coming right up.”
“Not two swords,” the fighter says. “One sword. +2.”
“Three swords, sir?” the shopkeeper asks.
“I want a +2 sword,” the fighter repeats, slowly and deliberately. “Just one sword, but +2.”
Clutching his patience, the shopkeeper raises an eyebrow. “+2 what, sir?”
In chess, saying a piece is killed or captured and then removing it from the board serves its purpose. In a roleplaying game, evocative language separates a rule that stumbles from one that strides. A carefully chosen key word creates the immersion that is so important in a fantasy setting. More than just an exciting explanation of the power the characters wield, key words illustrate what the characters experience. Dealing 1d6 damage per level to all creatures in a 20-ft. radius is a dull spell until it is called fireball and described as an explosion erupting on a medieval battlefield, scorching the horde of incoming orcs. This language illustrates a scene that is far more interesting than what is really happening: a series of d6s are rolled and the result is compared to a stat block to determine who lives and who dies.
Remember asking for some video of stuff getting cut and smashed? Good! Check this video out:
What else do you want to see? We can do videos on the subjects of previous written Real Steel articles, or we can do something completely new. Tell us what you want to see! If we like the idea and it’s practical, we may just give it a try.
What video is next? I’m thinking something “edgy.” As always, feel free to axe questions… have I offered you a Danish?
The tale’s the thing with the artifact known as the Taleblade. Take a look at what it could bring to your campaign—it just might add another story element that your players will remember for quite awhile.
