Welcome to the Item Book for PrinceCon XXII. The book that you are holding is the culmination of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of hours of effort by countless people over many years. This book is the current attempt to consolidate the item descriptions and previous books from PrinceCon XVII, XII, VI, and earlier conventions. For the first time in years, we have a complete item book that matches the current PrinceCon system, practices, and power levels. With luck, this book should help the GMs at PrinceCon referee the standard items more consistently and with fewer problems than ever before.
The list of contributors to this book has grown almost too long to include, but I wish to thank at least some of the principal people involved. The cover mentions only those who made significant efforts for this edition; it doesn't hint at the multitude of contributors over the years. I particularly wish to thank Shantanu Saha for his composition of several hundred item descriptions for this edition. Daniel Eisenstein was instrumental in the major editing effort for PrinceCon XVII; other contributors at that time included Geoff Cohen, York Dobyns, Nick Howe, and Tim Oliver. Robert West performed a major overhaul of the book for PrinceCon XII, in addition to vast amounts work before and since. Prior to that, a large number of people contributed to the production of the PrinceCon VI book, including Peter Mayewski, Mark Cribbs, Tom Pennington, and Marian Pugh. Of course, the original editorial and creative effort of Howard Mahler, Dave Parker, and Steve Tihor for the PrinceCon VI book still remains a primary contribution to this item book and to the PrinceCon system today. I apologize to the countless others whose efforts are lost in the dim recesses of time and memory for being unable to acknowledge their invaluable work properly.
Almost all of the item descriptions in this book have changed over the years; many of them are not well playtested in the current system. Please read the descriptions of all the items you are including in your item list to ensure that they work the way you think they do. Many descriptions were changed in this edition of the book. Wherever possible, the original intent of the items was retained; however, some descriptions were completely rewritten. Some items have been deleted entirely, either because of their inappropriateness at PrinceCon or because of the difficulty in updating them. Please do not include an item in your list if you have questions about how it works or if you suspect it's broken or misleveled. Also, please report any mistakes you discover in this book to whoever is currently responsible for the editing.
In the following pages, I will discuss a few important topics concerning items. Please familiarize yourself with these sections; the information is certainly useful. Meanwhile, I hope you find this book a valuable source of information and inspiration.
Keith Kline
By default and for most items, the activation or use of magical powers takes place in the item phase of the round. There are a number of obvious exceptions. An item with a constant power, like armor or most protective items, is always in effect. Scrolls with mage spells or clerical prayers on them are used in the appropriate casting phase. Any item that modifies a spell (or prayer) being cast by the user takes effect in the spell phase during casting. Missile or melee attacks with magical weapons take place in their respective phases. Note, however, that spells or other powers projected from weapons by default only take effect in the item phase.
Many types of items, such as armor, boots, necklaces, and rings, are worn. Restrictions on the number or type of such items that can be worn by a single character are usually stated in the section's introduction, although in some cases (such as armor) such restrictions should be obvious. Other items must by default be held to be used. Unless otherwise specified, holding a magical item in hand prevents the gestures that accompany spellcasting. At most one item at a time can typically be held for use.
The system conventions described in the conbook are used in the item book as well. Many ranges, speeds, and areas are given in inches ("), representing the scale distance of 1" = 10 feet underground or indoors, and 1" = 10 yards otherwise. (In a very few cases which should be obvious from context, the term "inch" refers to the short unit of measure instead of the scale distance.) For ranges of nonphysical item effects (such as Detect prayers), stone is usually treated as 10 times its actual thickness. Many items have a burnout chance, explained below; others are limited in the number of times they can be used per day, per week, etc. By default, each limited use recharges exactly one "time period" after being used. For example, if an item with one use per day is activated at 11 p.m., it cannot be used again until 11 p.m. on the following day. The only standard exception to this rule is an item which can cast a limited number of clerical prayers "per day". Such an item recovers its uses at whatever time of day a cleric of the appropriate religion would recover his prayer points.
By default, if two or more items have similar effects, only the most powerful single item takes effect. Pay careful attention to items of protection. Of course, only one suit of armor and one shield can be used at once by any character; Bracers of Armor Class N interact with armor as detailed in the item description. All protective bonuses from armor (including Bracers of Armor Class), rings, cloaks, and similar items of protection are not cumulative by default. The interaction of such items is usually explained in the item descriptions; as a general rule, if a character wears more than one such item, the largest bonus applies to each effect. For example, if a character wears Armor +2 and a Cloak of Protection +1, he gets a +2 bonus to his base armor class and +5% to his saving throws. If he wears Armor +1 and a Cloak of Protection +2, he gets a +2 bonus to both his base armor class and his saving throws. If he wears Armor +2, a Cloak of Protection +1, and a Ring of Alertness (+20% to mental saves), he gets a +2 bonus to his base armor class, a +20% bonus to his mental saves, and a +1 bonus to his other saving throws. Even more complex situations may arise; try to use this guiding principle in deciding what bonus applies.
Unless specified otherwise in the item description, no more than one item that allows a mage to add level modifiers to a spell can be used at a time. This is true even if the items could be used to add different modifiers (e.g., Extra Range and Extra Duration). GM's should be extremely careful introducing exceptions to this rule; a mage with several levels of modifiers added to his spells can be devastatingly potent late in the convention. Unless otherwise specified, items (including scrolls) that duplicate mage spells do not allow a mage to use his own spell points or other magical items to modify the spell effects.
The GM may always prevent absurdities.
Each item description begins with a statement of the item's level and any restrictions on who can use it. If no restriction is stated, the item by default can be used by anyone. If the entire group of items has a class restriction (e.g., wands are usable only by mages), this is noted in the material at the beginning of the section.
Magical weapons and armor can only be used by characters that could use the nonmagical versions. Certain other items (e.g., holy symbols) are restricted to particular classes. Any restrictions applicable are listed with the item description. In general, the class restrictions listed in an item description are necessary but not sufficient conditions; for example, the statement "Usable by C" does not grant a cleric the use of a weapon or item normally prohibited to clerics of his religion! By default, fighter-mages can use items appropriate to either class.
By default and for most items, burnout is rolled before the item takes effect. For a few items (e.g., scarabs), burnout is specifically checked after each use instead of before (the net effect of such a burnout is one additional use). Normally if an item burns out it turns to dust and is gone. Rip up the card. By default, if an item with a burnout roll has multiple functions, burnout of any function renders the entire item nonmagical. Burnout chances should always be listed in the item list. Burnout chances in this book are suggestions and are listed for leveling purposes only. A GM may specify a different burnout probability or method for an item in his item list.
The word "cursed" has grown somewhat ambiguous over the years. At PrinceCon, the term "Cursed" (often capitalized) refers specifically to items which cannot be transferred or discarded without supervision from the Hireling Hall Desk or a GM. A Cursed item is rated by the level at which it defends against Remove Curse. The simple notation for this is Cursed-X, where X is the level of the curse. Cursed items are generally hotlisted. The level of the curse should always be specified in the item list, even if a default value is listed in the item book. When a Cursed item is given out, the item number should be written on the character sheet.
There are many items that have a negative effect or are generally undesirable but take no special permission for a character to get rid of. An item that bestows some curse upon a character (such as the possessor's ears fall off, or the possessor turns into a chipmunk), but which can be removed freely, should not use the "Cursed-X" notation. Of course, the curse bestowed by such an item has to be written upon the character sheet if it is permanent, and the level at which this effect defends against Remove Curse may be noted in the item description. This sort of item often appears in this book as an item "of Curse". An item which may be freely discarded but not transferred (e.g., an item which may be ignored or removed, but which works only for the character to whom it was given) must also be noted on the character sheet, but should not use the "Cursed-X" notation.
The level with which a Cursed-X item defends against Remove Curse is X. Unless otherwise noted, Remove Curse is the only means short of death by which a character can rid himself of a Cursed item. The Hireling Hall Desk will generally remove any cursed item, regardless of its level. If a GM does not wish a cursed item to be removed there, or wishes it to be removed only under certain conditions, this should be noted prominently in the item list. The descriptions of a few items (e.g., the Galileo Medallion) state that they cannot be removed by any means. Such an item should also be noted in the item list, along with a specific statement as to whether Hireling Hall can remove it.
By default, any Cursed item against which a Remove Curse succeeds becomes nonmagical, and the item card should be ripped up (either by the Hireling Hall Desk or the GM refereeing the removal). The descriptions of a few cursed items specify that they are not destroyed by a successful Remove Curse. If a GM wishes a standard cursed item to be functional after it has been removed, that must also be clearly stated in the item description. Remember that not all Cursed items are bad; they just can't be discarded.
The item list is the link between this book, the GM's imagination, the GM's scenario, and the players. Not surprisingly, it is very important.
All magical or nonstandard items that players can possess at the convention take the form of item cards (index cards). Each card has a number that refers to a list that each GM puts together. The item list describes each of the items that the GM can possibly distribute. The format of an item card is the item number, which is the GM's initials along with a 3-digit number (say RAW-100), and some description, not necessarily complete or accurate, of the item. Typical information might be Long Sword +1, Potion of Cure II, Fog Horn, or Stone of Hobbit Throwing. Burnouts can be listed on the card; just write "BO 10%" or the like. If the item appears nonstandard to the player---that is, if the item is not described in this book or if it differs somehow from the description in this book---then "NS" should be written by the item number. If the information on the card is inaccurate, then the item should be hotlisted as described below. Note the important distinction between the terms "nonstandard" and "hotlisted": the "NS" label is an open reminder that the item does not appear in this book, but inaccurate or deceptive cards should be hotlisted.
Hotlisted items are those items which another GM should read before running. This certainly includes all deceptive items that appear as standard. If the item description in this book says something like "this item appears to be some other type...", the item that it appears to be must also be specified in the item list. The hotlist should include any nonstandard item that is deceptive or has so much play influence that a GM should not just skim over it. A limited section of the numbering scheme for each GM's item list should be the hotlist section. That is, each GM should set aside some range of numbers to be hotlist items and nothing else. All the hotlisted ranges will be consolidated and placed on one sheet of paper. It will be much easier to run if each GM limits himself to one or two ranges of hotlist, instead of scattering the items throughout the list, resulting in a hotlist of 20 numbers that will inevitably start blending together by Sunday morning. Obviously, security is a consideration too. A range of 500-999 is probably inappropriate for a hotlist; players will catch on. But a smaller range in the middle of a list will be harder to detect.
All burnout chances must be in the item list. If the burnout chance of a standard item is not written on the item card, this need not be denoted as NS, unless another GM might somehow assume that the item has no burnout. But other GMs can be assumed to have at least a minimal understanding of the PrinceCon system, and it's hard to run a Wand of Fireballs without the burnout, so GMs should head to the item list if it isn't written on the card.
We hope that with the NS notation and the consolidated hotlist ranges GMs will be able to deal with the common standard items very quickly without having to look them up in the list. This has been a major inconvenience in some past PrinceCons, so it is in everyone's interest to make the system work as well as possible.
Items in this book are leveled. One purpose of this scheme is to provide a rough basis for comparison between items, but the main purpose is to give guidelines to GMs for when a particular item should appear in the convention. The scale of the leveling is as follows:
The run numbers given here are as counted by the players, not the GMs. Expect many players to play six times; seven runs is possible, but it's not common. The times listed assume that the convention runs from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. Nonstandard items should be compared to standard ones to determine when they should be handed out.
The set of religions available at PrinceCon changes frequently, depending on the theme and on the decisions of the Director. There have been more than a dozen different religions available to players since their introduction at PrinceCon IX. Every attempt has been made to avoid references to specific religions in this book. In some instances (e.g., the Cup of Alhazien, the Light of Right) such references are fundamental to the item, and therefore remain. Whenever a GM includes an item in his item list whose description mentions a specific religion or prayer, he would be well advised to confirm that the religion and its prayers are among those currently defined in the conbook.
The character class of thief no longer exists at PrinceCon. Most of the items once usable exclusively by thieves have translated naturally to those presently usable by scouts. However, a small number of items designed specifically for thieves (such as Tools and Lockpicks) still allude to the class for the sake of completeness and history. These references should not interfere with the use of the items under the current system.
Tables for randomly generating magical items disappeared from this item book years ago. GMs have had less need for such tables as the practices in PrinceCon and in campaigns have evolved over the years. Magical items are supposed to be designed to fill some role in a convention scenario, obviating the need for random generation. However, a few traces still remain of the original tables. In particular, in the Weapons and the Armor sections of this book, some suggestions can still be found for randomly generating suits of armor, types of swords, or the special powers of an intelligent magical weapon. These guidelines are simply available for those who want them; they should not be regarded as firm rules for creating items.
Last Modified on September 10, 1995.
ammulder@princeton.edu