Conceptualizing Quirky Magic Items, Part 1 - Unusual Forms (Patreon)

My Day 23 entry of my #Dungeon23 Project has a list of ideas for quirky magic items to put in a creature's loot pile for PCs to pick up and enjoy. I like making objects for PCs to use that aren't just the standard options, and in my experience players enjoy them as well, as long as "quirky" doesn't become an excuse for less effective, embarrassing, or too strongly themed in a way that doesn't match the characters.

For example, a ring that shoots bolts of acid is typical and fairly boring. A bracelet of a serpent that raises its head to fire bolts of acid is more interesting. A boutonniere of a flow that shoots acid bolts is very strongly themed to modern fashion and clowns, and many players won't like having to integrate it into their character's aesthetics. A big rubber nose that shoots acid bolts is only appropriate for a tiny fraction of characters, and its mere existence may cause other players to take a campaign less seriously.

I go into my favorite trick for conceptualizing quirky items below, and I'll expand this series of articles with more tips and tricks as time goes on.

Unusual Form: One easy way to make something quirky is to give it a fairly typical function, but an unusual form. Both a magic crossbow that makes fiery attacks and a magic shield that defends you from arrows are pretty typical, but a magic crossbow that shoots enemy arrows out of the air (defending you) and a magic shield with a dragon painted on it that can breathe bolts of fire as a ranged attack are both quirkier. Of course, in those specific cases, the quirk may also give a character an advantage in having a single item that can both provide offense and defense, so the powers may need to be limited (just a few uses per day, or requiring extra actions to use depending on you game system).

If you want to avoid that kind of dual-function quirk, just pick something with the same general utility as the more typical form. Instead of a magic wand a character could gain the same benefits from a magic book, handkerchief, drinking stein, lump of coal, feather, d6, petrified fish, clothes pin, wooden apple, pinecone, hairbrush, nutcracker, candlestick, rolling pin, or ball of string.

Even if all you are doing is changing out one otherwise-useless-in-combat handheld object (a wand) for another, it's a good idea to consider the aesthetics of how your new quirky magic item works. For example, let's say you are using your game's rules for a wand of summoning, which brings creatures to aid the holder. Even if your quirky version acts exactly the same way, you can bring a lot of interest by having its new form tie to its function. If it's a book, perhaps the book has illustrations that leap to life as the summoned creatures. If a nutcracker, it might grow into a wooden toy version of the summoned creature, if a ball of string, it might have a length of string fly forth and form an outline that acts like the summoned creature.

You can do similar things with consumable items, such as potions or medpacks. A magic consumable might be a muffin, a peppermint candy, a can of soda (Boltzz Cola is prone to being used for magic elixir delivery), sardines in a can, tobacco you smoke, lip balm, incense, or anything else you can think of that is consumed when used as intended. Again, these can be tied to their magic function through aesthetics.  A potion that turns you invisible might seem to have nothing to do with a bad of animal crackers, but if the bag contains just one chameleon animal cracker that makes you invisible when you eat it, a conceptual link is formed.