“Artifacts” is one of the more challenging domain template fields for me to fill in. I’m terrible at names, but have found tools to help.

In fact, I’ve kitbashed a few of them together, to give me a selection to work with. I started with this master table:

1. &artifactType of &artifactOwner
2. &artifactDescriptor &artifactType
3. &artifactDescriptor &artifactType of &artifactOwner
4. &artifactOwner’s &artifactType
5. &artifactOwner’s &artifactDescriptor &artifactType
6. &artifactDescriptorColor &artifactType of &artifactDescriptorColorNot
7. &artifactType of &artifactDescriptorColorNot

(Syntax is because of a program I wrote >25 years ago… that I still use for this stuff astonishingly. I’ve recently thought about rewriting it to use more a modern language and whatnot, I’ve learned a lot since I wrote this one, but since it works I frankly can’t be arsed.)

These give me output such as

1. Jewel of Dhamenggak, Crown of Rurtrux
2. Sable Life Axe, Fire Gem
3. Eternity Fang of Jallym, Ash Scepter of Vuren
4. Akor’s Dagger, Tho-Malaugh’s Crystal
5. Zolrak’s Rebirth Amulet, Oon’s Black Air Bow
6. Jade Jade of Flame [well I would hope so! … okay, can’t all be winners], Pale Axe of Earth
7. Crown of Water, Hand of Fire

As might be expected, not all the generated strings are winners, but that’s okay.

I can see from the output (I’ve seen many more output strings than you have, of course) that I really need more artifact types. Right now I’ve basically just got weapons, regalia, and body parts, and only small selection of each.

I’ve got ‘small god names’ tables from Matt Finch’s most excellent Tome of Adventure Design, some naming tables from Raging Swan, I’ve also got some general purpose tables (colors, materials) I’ve built up over time.

1. Death Eye of Dol-Maugh
2. Jewel of Dhamenggak
3. Axe of Water
4. Eternity Fang of Jallym
5. Sword of Water
6. Bow of Death
7. Jade Jade of Flame
8. Eye of Athasha
9. Eye of Dereg
10. Spear of Saern
11. Green Ring of Flame
12. Akor’s Dagger
13. Fire Gem
14. Wutomb’s Claw
15. Zolrak’s Rebirth Amulet
16. Claw of Death
17. Yshzoa’s Life Hammer
18. Hera-Phetha-at’s Ring
19. Hand of Water
20. Crown of Water
21. Aquamarine Crystal of Water
22. Belda’s Earth Fang
23. Amulet of Earth
24. Life Tooth
25. Tolon Shaltoa’s Sand Axe
26. Sable Life Axe
27. Zitya’s Water Spear
28. Knife of Earth
29. Crown of Death
30. Herak’s Hammer
31. Hand of Ptoshoth
32. Scarlet Amulet of Death
33. Crown of Wind
34. Fire Sword
35. Ash Scepter of Vuren
36. Wind Gem of Lotul
37. Bareshtua’s Dagger
38. Pale Axe of Earth
39. Magenta Bow
40. Storm Gem of Raveph
41. Sleph’s Water Fang
42. White Knife
43. Hand of Fire
44. Crown of Rurtrux
45. Purple Wind Gem of Iqu-Aunros
46. Oon’s Black Air Bow
47. Ring of Starmetal
48. Tho-Malaugh’s Crystal
49. Gola’s Dagger
50. Earth Claw
51. Magenta Tooth of Qua-Quakeer
52. Nol-Hotlat’s Earth Crystal
53. Water Bow of Leng
54. Orheshaeesh’s Air Crystal
55. Moss Crown of Ythkal
56. Verdant Jewel of Ankhagoriraj
57. Eye of Tor-Sundirra
58. Belor-Tua Yeus’s Black Life Hand
59. Agate of Air
60. Eye of Ash
61. Moss Gem of Death
62. Hand of Ir-Hotlat
63. Sword of Life
64. Red Water Spear
65. Antimony Wind Sword
66. Axe of Yg-Rurtrux
67. White Fang of Breeze
68. Air Crystal
69. Direla’s Green Earth Knife
70. Knife of Death
71. Zhabor’s Tooth
72. Rebirth Sword of Moles
73. Scepter of Air
74. Beryl Scepter
75. Crystal of Rock
76. Green Rebirth Alexandrite
77. Axe of Breeze
78. Thartya’s Bow
79. Kal-Broth’s Sword
80. Llag-Sundirra’s Crown
81. Kirhena’s White Earth Axe
82. Ring of Air
83. Hammer of Yg-Cath
84. Ra-irajtala’s Red Scepter
85. Oang’s Ebon Air Scepter
86. Crystal of Lamlath
87. Amulet of Yolela
88. Lhamrul’s Tooth
89. Tooth of Zshoth
90. Spear of Breeze
91. Gilda’s Green Eye
92. Green Hammer of Fire
93. Knife of Wuatem
94. Bluesteel Earth Amethyst
95. Tooth of Life
96. Axe of Oela
97. Crown of Zyr-Carthe
98. Amulet of Sandstone
99. Hotlat’s Blue Flame Spear
100. Magenta Fire Crown of Molashaagor

Now, I know almost nothing about any of these, but they can help me flesh out the domain aspects and the pantheon members as I exercise the deity template.

Closing Comments

Random generators can be great to have in my toolbox. I have to remember to not try to tune them too hard, so they only give ‘good’ results. This isn’t because I don’t want good results, but because trying to curate them too firmly means throwing away a lot of good options.

In other words, if you want to see weir stuff that looks imaginative, you need to accept that you’re going to see stuff that is good, bad, and ugly. I can be selective after I get the list; trying to be selective in generating the list limits the possibilities.

This is part of why I need these tools: when I try to invent things like names and so on, I internally self-restrict the output. Doing that with these tools defeats the purpose of creating these tools.

That said, it looks like entire categories of output records are of little interest to me. They may well get tuned out by the time I’m done.

In the meantime, I now have a hundred artifacts I can mine for the domain aspects, and I’ve got a way to get many more.