The king has an ancient sword said to have been taken up by the kingdom's semi-divine founder

>the king has an ancient sword said to have been taken up by the kingdom's semi-divine founder
>expose the players to peasants regularly claiming that the one who wields the sword can perform miracles, the sword itself is unstoppable in battle and will lash out with fire at enemies of its master, and if nothing else all agree the wielder will be blessed by the gods themselves
>the nobles do not have the same myths around it, but all agree it must be somehow tied to the kingdom itself or otherwise magical, since the king is so protective of it
>if the party works for the king, he eventually bestows the sword upon them as a symbol of their allegiance
>the sword itself is just a rather old sword that you probably shouldn't swing due to its age and wear
>it's actually a bit shitty, since it was a sword of a dead soldier that the founder wielded after his was lost in battle

Is this a dick move?

Hmmm, yes. Just a bit, since it seems like unless the King is in on some practical joke, he wouldn't keep a useless sword. In times of combat, he would of at least thought of using it once, and would have either proven it's usefulness, or would of thrown it away.

Though if you want to make it up to the players, you could always have inscriptions on the sword, or another component (like a sheathe that it needs to be put into after every battle, or else it can't use it's ability next time) that can be found. Anything that would give another step to an adventure and could offer the sword as a powerful tool eventually. Even if not nearly so powerful as described in the legends.

> After all, why would everyone in a kingdom know of a weapon, if it was a fraud?
> Why would it be protected, if it had no value?
> How would it be talked about so much, if there was no proof of it's ability?

>Hmmm, yes. Just a bit, since it seems like unless the King is in on some practical joke, he wouldn't keep a useless sword.
It's a national symbol. Not everything needs to have combat application, what is important is how people see it. The rumors the peasantry have about it are more powerful than +2 to hit.

The twist: The king is aware, as are all the nobles that the sword is shit, because it's just some random dude's sword from centuries ago, and serves as a figurehead device of sorts.

The ACTUAL sword of the king from centuries ago that was lost is incredibly powerful, durable beyond the ages, and ensures whoever is wielding it is, in essence, a god of victory in all things he endeavors.

It is held, by the BBEG.

Then the King wouldn't give it away, not to anyone. As should it become ever known that it is NOT useful, it'll shatter the peasants' belief in the king and what he says. Not to mention it'd make the kingdom appear a lot weaker.

It'd be much better to either not give it away, or make it useful. If it's a symbol, as you say, then the king should keep it. A symbol that is visible to his people is a constant reminder and this will keep them loyal and feeling secure. A symbol that is missing or gone provides no security, and will eventually fade into a story of, "One time, we held a powerful sword". Not particularly useful, for something with such a large reputation.

If you're going to keep the sword as a symbol, rather than an object worth using, you're better having the king give something else. Perhaps land, or money. Maybe even small noble titles. But not a symbol so great (but oh so useless as anything other than a symbol.)

This is also an interesting idea.

> While not technically magic, the sword still grants bonuses to the wielder, as enemies and allies are likely to recognize it and act accordingly - with fear or awe.

>Why would everyone in a kingdom know of the weapon, if it was a fraud?

It's not a fraud per se. It was a sword the founder used, and would be considered a relic by the faithful just for that.

>Why would it be protected, if it had no value?

It was a valuable relic and a symbol of the kingdom, since the founder's cool sword was lost to time. And the myths that have sprung up about it probably help keep the king in power, since he could always threaten to use the sword's miracles in the face of rebellion, or a new myth could be made up that the sword could only be held by a chosen heir to legitimize a king's rule in the face of strife.

>How would it be talked about so much, if there was no proof of its ability?

That's a bit of a trickier one, but at first people learn that the king is hiding away an old sword that was used by the founder. If people question why he'd do that, they'd probably come to the conclusion that it's magical or tied to the founder in a divine sense. The king could probably stoke those myths themselves if he wanted to hire some bards to tell some fanciful tales.

>the dead soldier who formerly owned the sword is now a spirit, but still protective of his former king
>the sword itself is ordinary, but wielding it causes the ghost to assume you are his liege and to protect you from harm

Then why should he give the sword to the players?
It's immensely more useful to him than land or money. It's keeping his population and maybe some ennemy in check. You never give a symbol of the royalty. Do you imagine a king giving his crown to someone?

>That's a bit of a trickier one, but at first people learn that the king is hiding away an old sword that was used by the founder. If people question why he'd do that, they'd probably come to the conclusion that it's magical or tied to the founder in a divine sense. The king could probably stoke those myths themselves if he wanted to hire some bards to tell some fanciful tales.

More likely that legends about what the first king did in battle were attributed to the sword (Or that his prowess has somehow rubbed off onto the sword), and, say the second king hanging onto it would just feed into that. Then the third king keeps it and now it's a permanent part of the kingdom's folklore. X generations later, and it's a legendary weapon.

This kind of thing really doesn't take a concerted effort. Just holding onto it makes it a national symbol. This happens IRL all the time. Things used by leaders and passed down are known about by the general public. It having been successfully used before being held onto is what makes people attribute power to it directly.

Depends on the game and your players' expectations. Some systems favor gags like this - Song of Swords, or WFRP 2e, for example.

This is a cool idea.

If players aren't capable of using this sword they are idiots
Even if Excalibur was a shitty sword it would still hold power

What if the current king was a legitimate believer of the myths and was aghast to find the sword was just an ordinary, crappy sword? He keeps it under wraps to avoid panic, but he figures that if he gets a legendary enough figure to wield the sword again, it will become the mythical blade it's supposed to be.

But why doesn't he realize the sword was never magical, you ask? Because the idea of it being magical is so central to him, he won't come to that idea first.

>While the sword is useless as a sword, the numerous legends that surround it have made it the basis for a powerful miracle. Should the proper ritual components be assembled and used correctly, its power may still be made manifest.

"the final act of every warrior is to lay down his sword".

The sword is completely ordinary in terms of physical terms, however, planting it in the ground, taking five steps back, and kneeling, once per day summons the soul of the king to take up the sword again in defense of his people. The king is an incorporeal specter, unaffected by physical blows, but bound to the sword, should the sword break, the spell is broken forever.

>it was made by the God as a joke
>it's basically "Spiral Energy: Sword edition"
>the founder of the kingdom had unbreakable will to strive forward, so the sword powered him and itself up.
>the royal line after him was just unworthy and didn't have what it takes to wield the true power of the weapon.

i think it's a great idea. it's completely typical in terms of stats. what sets it apart is its roleplay value. the PC's are carrying the KING'S SWORD of TOTAL VICTORY. wielding it around peasants would give them a place to stay and instant respect. pulling it out in front of enemies puts the fear of god into them. even if it's not anything special stats-wise, it would be fun to see how they use the sword's reputation to their advantage.

considering stealing this idea for my campaign.

>Hmmm, yes. Just a bit, since it seems like unless the King is in on some practical joke, he wouldn't keep a useless sword. In times of combat, he would of at least thought of using it once, and would have either proven it's usefulness, or would of thrown it away.

What is symbolism...

When fucking with the players they should ideally feel like it's their own fault for missing retrospectively obvious clues or similar.

>unless the King is in on some practical joke, he wouldn't keep a useless sword.
What is sentimental value?

I always like the idea of use "common" items as "legendary"

Its a annoyance when a player have his father sword, a sword that was in his family for ages and then discard it because he found a better weapon in a dungeon, it doesn't make any sense character wise, hell I have the mach3 shaver of my grandfather and i will never get rid of it, and it's a shitty shaver and i have like 3 more shavers, but it's my grandfather shaver, it's the only thing I have from he after he passed out

I will use the idea on my next campaign

Heh. One of the characters in my game had a longsword he inherited from a legendary bloodline.
Its name literally translates to 'Blade' because it was a nonmagical sidearm symbolic of inheritance, and is replaced whenever it gets two old.
It's magical now, but it wasn't when he got it.
That was an amusing revelation.

It exists within the same space as the concept of the sword being legendary. The actual sword is shit and is basically a rust bar.
However due to belief and the influence it gathers creates a magic "dimension" itself creates to fulfill those beliefs. This dimension makes no sense in it's own right. Even concepts that would directly contradict each-other can happen in this dimension of the sword.

It doesn't activate just by wielding it, but rather knowing the fullest possible extent of what one's imagination and belief can bring about and how this wild and tumultuous mixture of thoughts and ideas can forge a new world. For better or for worse. The burden of a king. The burden of a lord. The burden of someone who believes they can claim the right to rule and all the chaos of good and evil it can bring. How one gets it? Fuck if I know. Maybe they aren't supposed to get it.


Other than that its a hunk of junk that exists within the same space as a sword that is basically an unstable dimension that could rewrite reality. (Example: Cutting doesn't work normally as it would with other swords. It writes a plausible reason for why something would appear and be that way. Like that it always existed in that form or that it just divided itself.)

>Pic not related

>>it's actually a bit shitty, since it was a sword of a dead soldier that the founder wielded after his was lost in battle
i mean, definitely there should be more of a story there. like he stood by himself against twenty men and just stared them down. something incredible and not miraculous, which people tie to the sword and expand to "the king killed a hundred men with a sweep of his hand"

Yes, but now I know how to execute this one magic sword idea I had bouncing around.
I've done something barely similar to this in a game I'm playing. Gave a pretty good base sword to this kid that was in ranger training as my character was also a ranger and I thought that with the entire city being overrun with zombies there would be a good bit of fighting in the future. Boy was I fuckin' wrong. Character told him the sword was called some elven shit that just means "trainee", since it was the sword he trained with during his adolescence. When the kid said he'll give it back after the zombie shit was dealt with my character told him that he himself hasn't even found the guy that gave the sword to him in the first place his father, to which the kid says "then I'll have to get good enough at tracking to find you so you can give this sword back to him".

GM then tells me I accidentally started a ranger "school" tradition of giving the student a blade for their final test to be tracking down their mentor and returning the blade to them.

I can't think of a reason the King would give away such a valuable sword, even if it's a loan. It's a powerful status symbol that should be kept by the King's side and it would be rather bad for word to get out that the sword has no unique properties about it at all.

>Sword was once powerfully enchanted, but after centuries of being protected as a symbol of the kingdom and founder and used only for ceremonial purposes, enchantments have worn off
>Ancients used long-forgotten smithing methods that make weapons and armor very amiable to enchanting; enchantments on these ancient objects are always more powerful
>If one can find someone who knows the ancient enchantments on the sword, it can be re-enchanted

Someone post the royal mace with that guy who killed the gunman in Ottawa

>heh

It's the Excalibur, isn't it? As in the sword is not magical, it's the scabbard that has magical properties?

it's would have, not would of, user

>Is this a dick move?
This depends entirely on how the players approach acquiring the sword.
If they approach it from a disrespectful desire to score fat loot, it's only a little bit dickish.
If they accept the honor with grace and duty, and then the truth is revealed with a smirk on your face, you are a total dick.

If they don't wait to be given the sword and instead steal it, it is friggin' hilarious.

All in all, reward players justly.
Competency begets reward.
Dickish behavior begets dickish rewards.
Decent behavior begets decent rewards.

Wasting sessions worth of your players time to pull off a one-note joke begets a book upside the head.

>GM then tells me I accidentally started a ranger "school" tradition of giving the student a blade for their final test to be tracking down their mentor and returning the blade to them.

Okay, this is pretty good.

I'd say it should probably at least be usable, since the king has been keeping it (and theoretically maintaining it) for so long. Depending on the setting it's the sort of thing that would potentially be magically maintained once in a while.

It should also have more of a (true) backstory than just "important dude used it for one battle after he dropped his regular one." Maybe he was about to die at a very crucial moment but then he found it (or one of his soldiers gave it to him) and he went on to miraculously win the battle, or something like that.

Also, for a sword like that with such a mythos surrounding it, the PCs would have to be some super hot shit for the king to give them the sword. As has been said already, something so ingrained in popular consciousness is a powerful symbol if nothing else, so the king wouldn't just hand it over to anyone less than the HEROES OF THE KINGDOM (cue fanfare).

I also am a fan of the concept of things used frequently by badass people (especially if they're magical in some way, like being semidivine) absorbing some of their badassness and becoming magical, so I'd consider giving it some minor enchantment (either from the founder using it at a critical moment or from all the faith the common people seem to have placed in it). Not necessarily even something directly combat-relevant, maybe it would even be something like whoever carries it having luck ever so slightly better than normal, and once in a while when things would go shitty (or otherwise not good enough) some random chance event will happen that'll help them just enough for things to not suck completely. Though that depends pretty heavily on how magic and enchantments work in your setting and system.

>something incredible and not miraculous, which people tie to the sword and expand to "the king killed a hundred men with a sweep of his hand"

And a dog.

>he eventually bestows the sword upon them as a symbol of their allegiance
Don't quite see that happening though

>>the sword itself is just a rather old sword that you probably shouldn't swing due to its age and wear
what did his grandpa stick it in a bucket of water and let it rust?
If you just keep a sword oiled it will last basically forever

>people wanting to make the sword magic
ah feck off.
It's like the holy lance. It's a relic that fills people with hope because they BELIEVE in it. That's it.
If the player do get their hands on it do not tell them what magic it has.
Let the legend make them see magic where there is none.

>The savior of the realm has an ancient sword said to have been taken up by the kingdom's semi-saintly founder
>expose the players to peasants regularly claiming that the one who wields the sword can perform miracles the sword itself is unstoppable in battle and will lash out with fire at enemies of its master
>the nobles do not have the same myths around it, but all agree it must be somehow tied to the kingdom itself or otherwise divine, since its wielder has done some unexplainable things before
>if the party works for the king, he eventually bestows the sword upon them as a symbol of their allegiance
>the sword itself is just a rather old sword that was split in two after its previous wielder tried to whack a prostitute with it

Is this a dick move?

>GM then tells me I accidentally started a ranger "school" tradition of giving the student a blade for their final test to be tracking down their mentor and returning the blade to them.
Ok this is neat i will steal as well

> "the king killed a hundred men and a dog with a sweep of his hand"
i actually like this more, i mean why a dog? what was he doing there? it sound more like a real legend with the dog added

it makes it belivable, in a way.
like, a hundred men? yeah sure ok, whatever buddy.
But a hundred men AND a dog? well why would anyone add a dog? it doesnt make the legend greater. it makes no sense. so...it MUST be true that he did kill that dog..therefore he MUST also have killed those 100 men!

I now want to play Mike Rowe as a paladin.
>Cleansing this realm of evil is a dirty job, but someone's got to do it

Depends how the players get the sword.

>By being dicks and stealing it they get the crap edition and learn that they are missing severeal components such as the magic sheathe, the magic parrying dagger, the royal seal ring and the magic grindstone that actually do the magic that the king uses.

>By being good little loyalists they actually get bestowed these items which the royal artificer wizard produces for the king and may actually order contracted weapons and gear from him by providing him with materials.

Yes, there you go.

meh a bit. but if you ACTUALLY want a dick move(fun one). just ripp off excalibur from soul eater, in DND form.
FOOL! my legend starts in the 12th centureh.!

No? If the sword is so powerful and mighty, he'd be using it the entire time to slaughter the fuck out of any foes. The jig should be up by the time the players realize that.

Yes. 100% Yes. Incredibly clever and is again stolen.

The dog was actually a Devil Dog.

The power is in the King, not the sword.

That's the big secret. Every time the King takes to the field, he fucks shit up. He's the country's superweapon. But it's far easier to let the enemy think that the power is something that can be stolen or broken, instead of letting them know the truth.

I mean, when he bestrides the battlefield like a colossus, the flaming sword he uses to carve entire formations apart isn't really 'any weapon he's holding'.

You could argue that the story of the dead soldier could be expanded upon - like maybe he actually was mortally wounded defending his liege, and gave him his sword with some flowery phrase like 'my blade is in your hand as are the thousands of soldiers at your back. The kingdom stands with its king.'

Kind of a bro moment, really, especially if the king chose to keep the sword instead of tossing it aside or getting a new one.

No sir, that dog was a Diamond Dog.