Greetings, 3WD-verse! DM Chris here. As I begin my preparation for our upcoming Lord of the Rings Roleplaying campaign, I thought it would be a cool exercise to talk about what I’m doing to get it ready. When you are operating from a sourcebook versus a published adventure, there can be the additional stress of … Read more
From King Arthur’s Excalibur to the mighty hammer of Thor, Mjölnir, the history of fantasy is filled with iconic magic items. Their names take them from something simple, like a sword or hammer, and make them as much a part of the story as the characters who wield them.
I’d like to share a funny scene that has played out in my head numerous times over my years playing D&D…
Bilbo, Gandalf, and the dwarves have made their way to the Last Homely House at Rivendell after their escape from the goblins. Lord Elrond investigates the ancient runes that adorn the magical swords the party found in the troll’s cave, finally turning to Gandalf after some time, “This weapon is called…+1 sword of goblin-slaying!”
Now, any of us that have read The Hobbit and/or The Lord of the Rings trilogy will recognize that particular sword as the fabled Glamdring, also known as “Foe-hammer” and “Beater” (Yeah, it has three different names. Tolkien was a master at deep lore). That’s a fair bit better than if Elrond had used it’s D&D equivalent’s name, as in my adapted scene above.
While not every magic item needs a collection of names like the aforementioned Glamdring, letting things like a +1 sword or Armor of Invulnerability into your world without anything more than a rules-based description as a name can diminish the power they can have outside of what they do.
