D&D 5 - Trinkets and magic items

I've been poring over the D&D5 PH again. I still like what I see. There's far too much to comment on everything, but a few aspects have caught my eye.

One of my pet hates in a lot of fantasy games and settings is the prevalence of Ye Olde Magic Item Shoppe – a shop, usually run by a level 20 wizard, selling a wide range of magic items. 

Such places miss the point about enchanted objects. Such things should be rare and wonderful and extraordinary – not just commodities made in their thousands in a magical factory somewhere. There needs to be a sense of wonder.

D&D5 agrees – the PH expressly comments that “you won't normally come across magic items... to purchase. The value of magic is far beyond simple gold”. Yes!

The new PH also contains about four pages of trinkets – odd objects that characters can have in their possession. I've seen a review on Amazon hotly complaining that these trinkets are useless, with no powers or benefits for the character possessing them.

This proves that the reviewer has not understood the point of these items. The trinkets are plot hooks. Objects a DM can seize upon to build a scenario, or even a campaign around. I've used such things more than once in starting a campaign – one character had an amulet that after many sessions proved she was of noble blood (and that the noble family in question intended to sacrifice her for evil purposes – but that's another story). Another character had a bracelet which turned out to be one third of an artefact that would open a portal to another world. Trinkets are the kernels of stories.

And that, once again, is why I like the look of D&D5. It is not setting out to create complicated mechanics systems so you can minimax characters – it is trying to tell stories.

SFFSat 27/9/14 - Blue Ice 6

SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. This is my snippet for it - please also explore the other blogs that are part of this set - you can find the information here. 

This is part six of Blue Ice. Anton deGama is in the rings of Saturn, planting bio-engineered plants on a chunk of ring ice, when his colleague Kellerman sees something blue moving on the ice. Despite all common sense, Anton moves towards it, to see living creatures moving towards him...

Each creature was shaped like a snowflake hexagon atop a crystalline frond. The six panels could change their attitude independently, to grab sunlight and to focus it through the crude crystal lens at the base of the frond. The thing moved by directing the faint sunlight through the organic lens onto the ice below it: as the ice burned away, the spreading water-vapour pushed the creature onwards. It obviously relied on the marginal gravity of the fragment to keep it from drifting off into space.

Anton suspected the creatures were not greatly dissimilar to the draxbloom or svenskite plants that ringfarmers cultivated, clearly formed from the same silicorganic genetics. But Anton had never heard of anyone bio-engineering anything like this.

Kellerman was demanding that he reply. He finally murmured "They're alive, Kellerman."

"I was beginning to wonder if you were, Anton! What are alive?"

Anton briefly described what he could see, watching the creatures devouring his crop. Each one enfolded a draxbloom in its snowflake. The motion was so slow and sensual that Anton for a brief, delirious moment wondered if this was some bizarre mating ritual. But then he saw the flower petals shattering and the fragments being absorbed. This was a ritual of consumption, not reproduction.

As always, comments appreciated!

SFFSat 20/9/14 - Blue Ice 5

SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. This is my snippet for it - please also explore the other blogs that are part of this set - you can find the information here. 

This is part five of Blue Ice. Anton deGama is in the rings of Saturn, planting bio-engineered plants on a chunk of ring ice, when his colleague Kellerman sees something blue moving on the ice. Despite all common sense, Anton moves towards it...

Anton could feel centrifugal force increasing as he got closer to the equator. This ring-chunk was nearly a kilometre long, and he was almost tiptoeing across the surface. Ahead of him, there was a crystal shimmer from the surface. A blue shimmer. Anton froze (an all-too-literal word) as he studied what he could see.

"DeGama! Get away from there, Anton! Get off the fragment! Anton! Talk to me!"

Anton could hear Kellerman punching keys, and guessed that she was disengaging from the Deep Space Observatory. He suspected that Jodrell University would not be amused at the delay in the repair works to their prime research tool. But his attention was on the two dozen cobalt blue shapes, each a metre across, moving slowly through his crop towards him. 

 

They were not anything he had ever seen before, but Anton had no doubt that they were alive.

 Next time, we find out what these things are.
As always, comments appreciated!
 

SFFSat 13/9/14 - Blue Ice 4

SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. This is my snippet for it - please also explore the other blogs that are part of this set - you can find the information here. 

This is part four of Blue Ice. Anton deGama is in the rings of Saturn, planting bio-engineered plants on a chunk of ice the size of an ocean liner, when his colleague Kellerman sees something blue moving on the ice. Anton moves towards it...

Anton needed a successful harvest to stay in business. He had chosen draxblooms because they were tried and tested – they would not give a large profit, but the bio-tech was well-established in the rings and was a safe option. 

 

"DeGama? What are you doing? Talk to me, groundhog!"

He checked his footing as he replied "I'm not losing my crop if I can help it, Kellerman. Keep your scope on me and warn me when I'm close."

"You're close now, dimwit! Get out of there, DeGama! Get back aboard the Rose and survey it from space!" Anton could hear Polestar's contralto rising in pitch as the ship responded to Kellerman's mood. 

 

All logic dictated that he get off the ice-cube. Anything abnormal was dangerous. He resolutely ignored common sense, and kept moving.

Sorry - still no reveal of what Anton is facing. Maybe there will be the start of an answer next time... As always, comments appreciated!

Cover Reveal! Sorrel in Silver

I have a cover!

Still only in early form, and it may change yet. Don't trust the barcode, either - it's a mockup just to see how it looks.

If anyone has any thoughts or reactions to it, I'd love to hear their comments!

No definitive release date for Sorrel in Silver, but I'm hoping for early to mid October.

SFFSat 6/9/14 - Blue Ice 3

It's good to see SFFSat back! SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. This is my snippet for it - please also explore the other blogs that are part of this set - you can find the information here. 

This is part three of Blue Ice. Anton deGama is in the rings of Saturn, preparing a harvest of yellow plants on a chunk of ice the size of a football field, when his colleague Kellerman reports that she can see a patch of blue - and that it is moving...

 

Kellerman's comment made no sense. All round him the ice shone with yellow petals, drinking in the thin sunlight. He could see no hint of anything amiss. Except... the equator had a faint cyanic tinge that had not been there before.

His helmet hissed again. "DeGama? I've got my scope on your rock. That blue colour is definitely moving."

Anton swore unthinkingly into his mike, evoking a sharp protest from Kellerman. Nothing – in his not inconsiderable experience – could make a chunk of ice change colour, except human action. And no one else had any right to be on this fragment.

"DeGama, that blue is moving your way." Kellerman's usually calm voice was carrying more than a trace of worry. A corner of Anton's mind registered that she did care about him, after all, but he was more concerned about avoiding his flowers as he walked across the ring chunk towards the mystery.

As always, comments appreciated!