“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:
- &artifactType of &artifactOwner
- &artifactDescriptor &artifactType
- &artifactDescriptor &artifactType of &artifactOwner
- &artifactOwner’s &artifactType
- &artifactOwner’s &artifactDescriptor &artifactType
- &artifactDescriptorColor &artifactType of &artifactDescriptorColorNot
- &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
- Jewel of Dhamenggak, Crown of Rurtrux
- Sable Life Axe, Fire Gem
- Eternity Fang of Jallym, Ash Scepter of Vuren
- Akor’s Dagger, Tho-Malaugh’s Crystal
- Zolrak’s Rebirth Amulet, Oon’s Black Air Bow
- Jade Jade of Flame [well I would hope so! … okay, can’t all be winners], Pale Axe of Earth
- 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.
- Death Eye of Dol-Maugh
- Jewel of Dhamenggak
- Axe of Water
- Eternity Fang of Jallym
- Sword of Water
- Bow of Death
- Jade Jade of Flame
- Eye of Athasha
- Eye of Dereg
- Spear of Saern
- Green Ring of Flame
- Akor’s Dagger
- Fire Gem
- Wutomb’s Claw
- Zolrak’s Rebirth Amulet
- Claw of Death
- Yshzoa’s Life Hammer
- Hera-Phetha-at’s Ring
- Hand of Water
- Crown of Water
- Aquamarine Crystal of Water
- Belda’s Earth Fang
- Amulet of Earth
- Life Tooth
- Tolon Shaltoa’s Sand Axe
- Sable Life Axe
- Zitya’s Water Spear
- Knife of Earth
- Crown of Death
- Herak’s Hammer
- Hand of Ptoshoth
- Scarlet Amulet of Death
- Crown of Wind
- Fire Sword
- Ash Scepter of Vuren
- Wind Gem of Lotul
- Bareshtua’s Dagger
- Pale Axe of Earth
- Magenta Bow
- Storm Gem of Raveph
- Sleph’s Water Fang
- White Knife
- Hand of Fire
- Crown of Rurtrux
- Purple Wind Gem of Iqu-Aunros
- Oon’s Black Air Bow
- Ring of Starmetal
- Tho-Malaugh’s Crystal
- Gola’s Dagger
- Earth Claw
- Magenta Tooth of Qua-Quakeer
- Nol-Hotlat’s Earth Crystal
- Water Bow of Leng
- Orheshaeesh’s Air Crystal
- Moss Crown of Ythkal
- Verdant Jewel of Ankhagoriraj
- Eye of Tor-Sundirra
- Belor-Tua Yeus’s Black Life Hand
- Agate of Air
- Eye of Ash
- Moss Gem of Death
- Hand of Ir-Hotlat
- Sword of Life
- Red Water Spear
- Antimony Wind Sword
- Axe of Yg-Rurtrux
- White Fang of Breeze
- Air Crystal
- Direla’s Green Earth Knife
- Knife of Death
- Zhabor’s Tooth
- Rebirth Sword of Moles
- Scepter of Air
- Beryl Scepter
- Crystal of Rock
- Green Rebirth Alexandrite
- Axe of Breeze
- Thartya’s Bow
- Kal-Broth’s Sword
- Llag-Sundirra’s Crown
- Kirhena’s White Earth Axe
- Ring of Air
- Hammer of Yg-Cath
- Ra-irajtala’s Red Scepter
- Oang’s Ebon Air Scepter
- Crystal of Lamlath
- Amulet of Yolela
- Lhamrul’s Tooth
- Tooth of Zshoth
- Spear of Breeze
- Gilda’s Green Eye
- Green Hammer of Fire
- Knife of Wuatem
- Bluesteel Earth Amethyst
- Tooth of Life
- Axe of Oela
- Crown of Zyr-Carthe
- Amulet of Sandstone
- Hotlat’s Blue Flame Spear
- 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.