It is a whispered rumor. To some it brings great power, others will find only ruin. All manner of grotesque, vile, and egregious deeds are recorded within it's covers. These deeds share one quality that ensures it will be enshrined on the pages. They are all secrets. Secrets the powerful fear, and do not want known. Secrets they will protect, at any cost.
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The legend of the Morningstar ledger. This little gem popped into my head one afternoon, I don't remember what I was reading, that spawned the idea, and I don't have a use for it in any of my games.
However it does fit nicely in this month's RPG Blog Carnival.
Legends are one of the best story hooks you can use. They can lead your players to fame and fortune, or it can be a huge red-herring. If you've been playing for a while, you have the seeds of legends in your head. Ever had a character escape death by the skin of his d20? Then you have the seeds of a legend. If you treat it right, you a few legends. How did they escape? Was it due to some rare knowledge? Maybe an item aided them?
A creative DM/GM can use a legend to change the abilities of an artifact. How?, you might ask.
Back in the time of THAC0, I had Ranger character. I was really proud of Lethric. He used dual longswords and was quite formidable. Until he lost his right hand to a hungry mimic...
Or so I thought. The dice gods are fickle, ironically generous at times too. Same adventure, only in a dungeon. What did the dice gods give me? Yep... THAT hand. Not the eye, just THE HAND. So, back in the antediluvian high school games, things in the DMG were considered off limits to purely players. However if you shared DMing duties with someone then you were expected to keep the secrets of how the sausages were made. i.e. It was by mutual unspoken consensus that you didn't metagame when playing a character in someone else's game.
What to do... What to doo...
Legends usually have their basis in actual people or events. This is where the legend of Lethric Gillenhammer was born. Lethric would switch classes and become Magic-user. He would not attach the hand until I was sure I could use it. He starts searching for the eye. If I'm gonna try this, I gonna go for broke. Lethric's hand had been restored. Almost immediate after we got out of the dungeon where it got mimic munched. So I was more than able to advance as a MU. He did eventually find the eye. I enacted the plan. Keep in mind, I was fully under the delusion that I would be able to play Lethric again..... When you stop laughing we'll continue.
Lethric now had the hand and the eye, and ring of wishes with 2 wishes left. Using every ounce of Gygaxian Legalese I could think of, I wrote a 9 page wish. I gave it to a couple of friends to read and poke holes in. Sean found it. As Lethric was playing in his game, Lethric was subject to his game's mythology. Lethric removed his eye and cut off his left hand. The first wish broke the cosmos so the second wish could do what I wanted. I did it. I had severed the alignment consequences from the Primary power usage, and managed to contain the eye under a patch. To keep it from being used against the hand. I could use the hand with no repercussions. Eureeeka! Ok, wait a minute there Skippy, Sean had determined that yes Lethric could use the hand, if he could convince it to cooperate. Sean gave the hand a mind of it's own. It was now an obnoxious familiar.
In my gaming cosmos, the hand and eye are now endowed with an intelligence separate from the big V, and each other. Never played Lethric again. He's the Legendary wizard, quest giver, info dumper when I need him. And I can invest the hand and eye with whatever powers I need.
I mentioned earlier that legends make great story hooks. I have a few already written (of course I did). The Legends of Nohj.
Well, that was quite the ramble wasn't it?
I thought I had a coherent post in mind when I started this... Unhuh, yeah... right...
Anyone who has played more than one adventure, will have fuel for legends if and when they want to run their own games. The lore is the story behind it, or the out of game stuff that opened the door. It's all in HOW you tell the story.
I'm done rambling... For now. If I don't get to March's Carnival I'll just say
Happy Gaming!
