A Tip in Making Art Objects

Today I’m sharing a little method I use for coming up with interesting treasure items. 

First, a bit about Art Objects, as I see them. Falling somewhere between gems and magic items, a category between the two that presents interesting treasure in material detail, Art Objects are uniquely made, have a history and are significant to a people. They should be valuable enough that it’s always worth selling while being peculiar enough to tempt player characters into wanting to keep for themselves. 

Like so.

The most effective way I've found with creating Art Objects is to directly search out archaeological objects from history. This can be as simple as following museum and archaeology accounts on social media or by browsing catalogues on museum websites. Photographs along with clerical details are much more spirited than previously generating treasure objects from various random-tabled books and websites.

This object above, for example, is one I saved this morning. It could fit into several of my games where snakes and würms are motifs. I could switch out snakes for centipedes, the silver for brass, etc etc.

As a rule of thumb whenever an Art Object is found I give it a 1in6 chance of being a magic item. This is not apparent at first, but clues on the object should hint at its purpose. For example, the Spouted Silver Serpent Bowl from above might transmute the blood of serpents into liquid silver when the proper ritual is performed under moonlight, or what have you.

A direct conduit to speaking with a defunct godling.

Placing an egg into the cup will hatch a pseudodragon in 4d6 days.

As for assigning a worth to these objects, I usually just make up a value in gold as it fits in the context of that individual game, whether or not XP advancement is determined by treasure acquisition. For DCC or Meatheads, an Art Object could be worth d66 to d6666 gold pieces. For the level 14 pathfinder/spelljammer game I've been running for the past six years I usually roll d8888 gp, anything less is not worth their time as small business tyrants.

Cheeky fella.

For assigning attributes to Art Objects that could be worn as armor or used as weapons, you can never go wrong with a 1:1 as simple as "Armor as Chain" or "Damage as Axe" with appropriate modifiers and abilities if the object is magical.

Finding the missing toe cap bestows the wearer the ability to walk on water or fire unharmed.

As +1 Axe, all vulpini critters within 5 miles act erratic from the blade's scent, cautious of its wielder.

This has helped me in offering more dynamic treasures to my players as well as to probe deeper into their significance within the game's contextual fiction. Hopefully this tip is fruitful to those who operate in a similar creation process.