Doctor Strange has come and gone in theaters (or at least it has in my area). I didn’t get a chance to see it as many times as I necessarily would have liked, but I did get to see it a couple of times, and it got me thinking about magic and how it is presented in a lot of tabletop games.
What got me thinking the most was the scene where Mordo and Strange are sparring in the courtyard. Mordo spends a few minutes talking about magical powers that cannot be sustained on their own, and so sorcerers imbue items with the power instead, giving the power longer life. These items are known as relics that sorcerers wield and utilize. Mordo for example wields the Staff of the Living Tribunal and wears the Vaulting Boots of Valtorr. Furthermore, he implies that the relics choose the sorcerer instead of the other way around; when Strange asks him when he will get his relic, which is of course confirmed when the Cloak of Levitation comes to his aid and defense during the battle of the New York Sanctum Sanctorum.
The conversation got me thinking about magical items and how they are normally presented in fantasy roleplaying games like Pathfinder and Dungeon and Dragons. The characters raid dungeons, slay monsters, and loot vast treasure hordes in order to get various magical items: +1 weapons, cloaks of elvenkind, rings of protection, and boots of speed are all items that can be found within these games. Players often have wish lists as long as their character sheets about what kinds of magical gear they want to equip their characters with.
It got me thinking about how a game could be impacted by simply adapting a different take on magic items and replacing them with relics as they are being presented within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.*
Portable Power and a Measure of Control
This really is no different from how magical items function in a “normal” game. They are meant to be wearable or portable pieces of equipment that can be used to create or mimic magical effects for characters that might not otherwise have access to those powers, either through lack of spellcasting as a class feature or lack of access to certain spells. However, magical item creation has become less of an art and more of a science as editions have changed over the years. That’s not always a bad thing – being able to reverse engineer something to figure out what the designers did can help you to keep game balance at the table, but when it is implied that the GM follows the same rules as the players, it makes it harder to introduce items that then break those rules. Not impossible, just harder.
Replacing magic items with relics allows the GM to control what he wants within his game – magical footwear can oftentimes only have one of several effects because of how magical items are constructed. If you change those fundamental rules, you also change what they are capable of doing, allowing you to come up with some truly unique items.
Worldbuilding in a Can!
Though not specifically called out in the film, it is implied that the relics in Doctor Strange are one of a kind items, created by sorcerers in the days of old, giving them connection to the world and hinting at other stories that have taken place within the world. We don’t necessarily know who Valtorr was, but we know that he was important enough to have created a relic that has survived to this day.
This idea is also present in a lot of the fantasy fiction that inspired and is inspired by games like Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder. Bilbo doesn’t find a magical sword – he finds Sting. Harry doesn’t just wield a vorpal longsword to face the Basilisk – he wields the Sword of Godric Gryffindor.
This makes each magic item that you find special in the sense that it is unique. You aren’t going to find another pair of boots that function the exact same way in another treasure room on the other side of the continent. And it also makes each item, even those that aren’t that powerful special in terms of being connected to the world.
Blue Light Special!
The final thing I’ll discuss here that can be easily noticed by replacing a “traditional” magic item system with a relic system is that it removes the character’s ability to “shop” for magical equipment, both figuratively or literally. If the magic item chooses the character, that power is taken out of their hands. While this could be frustrating to players who like to control that kind of progression for their characters, I can also see the fun in letting go of that control and seeing what the GM decides to send my way. Finding a use for an off the wall relic seems a lot more satisfying than finally getting that magical quiver that my archer has been jockeying for.
On the other side it’s important for the GM to play fair here and give the players relics that their characters are actually going to be able to get use out of. Just because you control the flow of magical items doesn’t mean you get to squash player fun.
This also continues to nail down the idea that these items are unique and special. You’re not going to find another ring of protection +2 that you’re just going to sell when you get back to town because you don’t have use for it. It’s a unique relic that has its own use and its own place in the campaign world. And speaking of selling magical items, this also prevents characters from simply physically going shopping for magical gear. It’s just not going to happen with magical items like this.
*I understand this isn’t as simple as I make it sound. I realize that the systems are built on the idea that characters should be receiving “x” amount of magical gear by “y” level so they can face “z” threat. I also realize that there are other games out that don’t rely on this kind of math and are thus better suited to a system of magical items like this. What I really wanted to get across, however, is how different the flavor of a game can feel by changing the flavor of how you present magical items to the players – and that is something that can be done regardless of system.
Ben Erickson
This really verges on some of the “legendary items” from 3.5, where the item had a series of increasingly powerful effects that you had to unlock through certain actions that had to do with the item’s past. I don’t necessarily like the idea of an item requiring you to go on a specific pilgrimage to make it better, but the concept of a quasi-intelligent item that grants new powers as you go along seems like a good one to me.
5e already went down this path somewhat, removing the +X from a lot of items. A ring of protection is just a ring of protection, and gives a simple +1 to AC and saves; there isn’t a +2 or +4 version of the same item (and the fixes to the way the math levels up over time mean that +1 will remain relevant, more or less, all the way up).
But personally — I’d certainly rather find a quasi-sentient Ring of Hearts Unbound or the Earth King’s Obsidian Staff that houses the soul of a Dao general, than get a simple ring of resistance or staff of fire.