A Lapidary of Wond’rous Stones (PRINT)

BEFORE MAGIC ITEMS, THERE WERE MAGIC STONES

A ruby is worth money. A diamond is worth more money. An adventurer sees either one and immediately begins calculating how much wine, armour and irresponsible carousing it might purchase.

Our ancestors were rather more imaginative.

To them, stones and minerals possessed powers of their own. Some protected against poison, disease or witchcraft. Others inspired courage, revealed deception, reconciled lovers, summoned storms or rendered their wearer altogether too interesting to be left unattended.

These beliefs were gathered into books called lapidaries—catalogues of the strange, sacred and supernatural virtues attributed to the treasures buried beneath our feet.

A Lapidary of Wond’rous Stones draws upon this rich tradition and brings it to the gaming table.

Rather than presenting another collection of conveniently manufactured magical trinkets, this booklet treats gems and minerals as wondrous things in themselves. A stone need not have been enchanted by a wizard to possess strange properties. It may simply be behaving according to the secret laws of an older and considerably more interesting world.

Use these stones as:

• Unusual treasure with practical value beyond its sale price.

• Components for spells, rituals, medicines and alchemical preparations.

• Protective charms, sacred relics and symbols of authority.

• Clues embedded in legends, heraldry, jewellery and burial goods.

• Rewards that encourage players to investigate rather than immediately liquidate everything they find.

• Inspiration for merchants, mines, cults, quests, curses and entire adventures.

The material is presented for OSR and D&D-style fantasy games, with suggestions that can be adapted easily to most traditional roleplaying systems.

Give your treasure hoards history. Make jewellers, miners and scholars useful. Let the party discover that the dull-looking stone they almost threw away can cure poison—while the magnificent gem they fought three ogres to obtain may inspire lust, madness or civil war.

Gold buys things.

Knowledge tells you which things should never be sold.

PRINT EDITION

• 37 pages

• Digest-size paperback

• Black-and-white interior

• Perfect-bound

• An OSR resource

• Suitable for D&D-style fantasy games

Written by Neil Coates
Edited by James “Grim” Desborough

A compact resource for Games Masters, worldbuilders and anyone who thinks treasure ought to be more interesting than a number written beside the word “gems.”