ACKS Magic Item Generator

Github Link

I'm working on putting together a magic item generator for ACKS (in the little free time I have). I'm doing it in PHP (because I hate myself).

I'm posting here as I'm working on it because I'm interested in seeing what people are interested in terms of output.

At the moment, what it does is select an association (which has a set of spells included in it), selects an item to generate, generates the various different parts of that item, applies spell effects and then outputs a paragraph about it.

What the output will consist of (eventually) is:

  • Item bonuses
  • Item description
  • Item spell effects - high chance of being linked to its association
  • Item creation story (short sentence) - linked to association
  • Total price based off these values

Examples of current outputs (only weapons - no creation story):

This is a +3 sword, it has a blade made out of copper. The grip is made from brass. The flanged pommel is made from slate. The item allows the user to cast Delay Poison a number of times equal to its charge. The item allows the user to cast Locate Object once per day. The item allows the user to cast Cure Serious Wounds once per hour. The item is associated with Evil.
This is a +1 sword, it has a blade made out of copper and its hilt is made from iron. The pommel is chimera horn in a skull shape. The item allows the user to cast Restore Life and Limb once per three turns. The item allows the user to cast Hold Person once. The item is associated with Evil.
This is a +0 dagger with a hilt made from brass. The grip is made from silver. The smooth pommel is made from brass. The item allows the user to cast Cause Serious Wounds once per day. The item allows the user to cast Silence 15' radius once per day. The item is associated with Evil.
This is a +3 dagger, the blade is teeth in a curved shape with a grip of spiked topaz. The pommel is bronze in a skull shape. The item allows the user to cast Dark three times per day. The item is associated with Evil.
This is a +3 morning star with a haft made from basalt. The item allows the user to cast Commune once per hour. The item allows the user to cast Glyph of Warding three times per day. The item allows the user to cast Finger of Death three times per day. The item is associated with Evil.

This is a +2 war hammer with a haft made from ivory. The item allows the user to cast Invisible Stalker once per week. The item is associated with Evil.
This is a +0 club with a haft made from basalt. The item allows the user to cast Speak with Dead three times per day. The item is associated with Evil.
This is a +2 club, the head is copper in a skull shape and its haft is made from amber with a grip of uneven silver. The item allows the user to cast Cure Disease a number of times equal to its charge. The item allows the user to cast Commune once per hour. The item is associated with Evil.

The current problem with it (at the minute) are the spell effects. What I'm considering doing is reducing the chance of "better" spell effects (permanency etc) with higher level spells.

Also, the descriptions are going to be reworked as the way to do it clicked with me earlier on today.

The end goal is something like:

This is a +2 sword with a curved blade made out of engraved elephant ivory. The ornate hilt is crafted from copper and the grip is uneven silver. The pommel is in the shape of a howling wolf head. This sword has +3 against humanoids. The wielder may cast Striking once per three turns. The sword was forged when a warlock wished to kill an ogre.

Any comments?

seems promising.  anything that makes it easy to generate more details around magic weapons than "this is a +2 sword" is useful.  If you're able to, you might use the magic items from Lairs & Encounters as inspiration.  Most of those items have just enough description to hint at a backstory.

I was actually inspired to do it by the new magic items in the back of the Heroic Fantasy compendium, which have that sort of "This hints at a backstory" effect.

I love this idea! I try to include hints of backstory in all the magic items I place in my games. 

I feel like it's harder to do for your base model magic items.  How do you make this +1 weapon different from this other +1 weapon of the same size in a way that will be interesting to players but won't necessarily bog down the game?

At the top end it's somewhat easier because you can toss on all kinds of extra magical effects.

I can’t find it at the moment, but somewhere hidden around here, I had a system I was working on to derive the value of art objects based on their (randomly generated) craftsmanship and materials via a series of random tables.

If I ever found it and got it to work, it could be used on magic items as well, so you might have a beautiful rune-inlaid copper +1 sword or a chipped pig iron +1 sword, for example.

Added a Github link to the main post. What I recommend doing is downloading this file and copying and pasting it into a PHPtester (I use this one). The output will then be on the right hand side.

I don't have my own site set up at the minute, so I was actually going to hassle Alex to see if he was interested in hosting it.

Anyway, here's some example outputs from the current version:

This is a set of +2 lamellar armour. The item allows the user to cast Light with a total of 8 charges. The item allows the user to cast Bane with a total of 8 charges. The item is associated with Evil. This item costs 27,000gp.
This is a +2 short sword with a bronze blade etched with elven script. It has a long guard engraved with dwarven script with a long emerald grip with dwarven runes inscribed into it. It has a long pommel made from mahogany with dwarven script etched into it. The item allows the user to cast Remove Geas once. The item allows the user to cast Protection from Good once per turn. The item allows the user to cast Anti-Magic Shell once per week. The item is associated with Evil. This item costs 52,500gp.
This is a +2 crossbow. It has thick eucalyptus limbs embossed with timeworn marks with a long grip. It has a thick string made into the shape of a raven head with a thin blackwood stock in the shape of a raven head. The item allows the user to cast Vigor once per three turns. The item allows the user to cast Cause Disease once per week. The item is associated with Evil. This item costs 74,000gp.
This is a +3 great axe with a tined head made from sapphire. It has a thick kingwood shaft with a thick grip made from silver in the shape of a lion head. The item allows the user to cast Protection from Good, Sustained once per week. The item has the spell Invisible Stalker as a permanent effect. The item allows the user to cast Feeblemind once per day. The item is associated with Evil. This item costs 219,000gp.
This is a +1 two-handed sword with a thick demon bone blade engraved with ancient songs. It has a short slate guard made into the shape of a human head with a grip made from basalt. It has a long pommel made from iron in the shape of a human head. The item allows the user to cast Confusion once per hour. The item has the spell Cloudkill as a permanent effect. The item is associated with Evil. This item costs 162,000gp.
This is a +0 short sword. It has a convex blade with a thick guard. It has a grip made from copper made into the shape of a lion head with a long silver pommel incised with gnomish symbols. The item allows the user to cast Continual Darkness with a total of 21 charges. The item allows the user to cast Locate Object once. The item is associated with Evil. This item costs 33,000gp.
This is a set of +2 scale mail armour, it is made from thick iron made into the shape of a disc. The item allows the user to cast Striking with a total of 16 charges. The item allows the user to cast Hold Person once per day. The item is associated with Evil. This item costs 49,000gp.

I also forgot to mention that I haven't loaded in multiple associations in the current version yet (someone give me some ideas!).