Whether it’s your source of power gained through years of schooling or a found stick that piqued your interest on an adventure, a magic staff is a narrative gold mine. Spin some good tales with your magic staff!
Stuff about a Magic Staff
- materials
- wood
- ash, oak, maple, birch, alder, chestnut, blackwood, ebony, cherry, mahogany, dogwood, eucalyptus, ironwood, lacewood, poplar, olive, aspen, sycamore,
- willow, hemlock, yew, pine, spruce, cedar, cypress, fir, redwood, tamarack,
- iron, aluminum, copper, bronze, lead, silver, gold, zinc, tin, fantasy alloys, steel,
- bone, skull, cartilage, sinew,
- boiled leather, hard-cured fabric
- resin,
- stone,
- wood
- designs, patterns, motifs
- snakes, wolf, eagle, badger, owl, cat, lizard, elk,
- braided, inlaid, laminated, twined, carved, chiseled, chipped, embossed, etched, entwined,
- gems stones, obsidian, wire, leather, glass, crystal, diamond,
- hidden blade, protruding knife end, mace-like head,
- laminated, dovetailed, lathed,
- feathers, leather, fur, skulls, bones, sinew, dried ears, horn, hoof, organs, blood,
- painting, writings, runes, letters, hieroglyphs, wards, glyphs, images, charcoal lines,
- cord, strap, lash, lanyard, tassel, twine, thong,
- things it can open: a magic door, portal to another dimension, passage through solid stone, hole, locks, chests, closets, secret door,
- things it can unleash: monster, a beast, a blast, energy, phantasm, element, fart (or other gas), oozing blob, spells, force field, illusion,
Actions with a Magic Staff
Remember, when you use a magic staff for anything, you should roll the dice and use the dice charts to see how successful the effect is. Try the dice; it’s a ton of fun!
- cast a spell, block a spell,
- conjure a storm, summon a creature,
- enchant someone,
- blast a fireball, ray of cold, beam of light, fork of lightning,
- curse, bless, call forth holy power, invoke the hand of a god,
- spit acid, shoot magical darts,
- smack someone on the head, block an arrow, parry an attack,
A magic staff could make your characters:
- heal, surge with energy,
- protected from evil or energy of some kind,
- double in size, grow in strength
- time travel, teleport, turn invisible,
- communicate with thoughts, see the future, scry, glimpse beyond a closed door,
- know something, feel something, remember something,
Environments where Magic Staves might be
- magic labs, schools, colleges, libraries, catacombs, towers, archives, armouries,
- castles, citadels, palaces,
- dungeons, ancient caves, grottos, clandestine sanctuaries,
- bottom of a well, sewer, ditch, river bank, buried in the silt of a floodplain,
- travelling caravan, transport train, wagon, cart,
- festival, market, town fair,
- auction, abandoned storage locker, garage sale, estate sale, flea market, Dr. Droog’s Emporium of the Surreal,
- town dump, junk yard,
- archaeological dig, mass grave site, ancient battlefield,
- bottom of Lake Winnipeg,
- on display at a hair salon (it looks really nice and fancy)
- in an unopened gift box,
- airport luggage carousel,
- used to prop open a door,
- theatre prop room, circus wagon, gypsy tent,
Characters with Magic Staves
- sorcerer, sorceress, witch, mage, necromancer, naturomancer, warlock, wizard, charlatan,
- elf, gnome, dwarf cleric, faerie, cyclops, tree-folk,
- environmentalist, hippy, green freak,
- orc shaman, ogrewiz, kobold holy man,
- parade leader, military general,
- hill hermit,
- elementalist, firelord,
- wiccan, druid,
- carnival magician,
- naked hermit,
- that weird librarian,
- gang leader,
- tinkerer, antique collector, trader in a lonely outpost,
- ornery old neighbor,
- storage locker facility manager,
- woodland protector, forest god, tree guardian,
- county reeve, town mayor, sheriff,
Notes on the Magic Staff
- Give your magic staff some epic qualities which means some cool powers and also some “price” extracted when characters use it. This type of trade makes for good narrative.
- Limit the power of a magic staff by giving it a number of magical turns, charges, energies, shots, uses,
- Magic staves, like lots of magic stuff, may have a strong personality and can in fact be a character as well as a “thing;” check out emotional traits or other character descriptors to give the staff in your narrative a personality
- Side effects of magic staff use:
- blisters, welts, hives, reactions, swelling
- age, drain life,
- tire, weaken, hunger, thirst,
- pass gas, take on a foul odour, bad breath, rapid hair growth, nausea, sweat profusely,
- anger, depression, self-loathing, possessiveness,
- accidentally summon an oozing blob
- paranoia,
- faint,
- inebriation, intoxication, manic high,
- sudden craving for biscotti and chai,
- twitch, stutter, shiver,
Developments
- the magic staff teleports your character somewhere to start a new adventure… how will you get home?
- a magic staff has a personality all its own… and it wants to take over the mind of the holder of the staff; can you let it go?
- a magic staff wants to find its original creator and urges the holder “home”
- a magic staff may possess a set of values that it wants its holder to uphold… and it may not always cooperate
- a powerful wizard is looking for their staff, and your character has it; what will you do?