Marginal Worlds
A Magic Item Expansion Pack from The Maniculum Podcast
If you've read any of my other articles, you know that the core concept behind DMing the World is about creating richer shared storytelling by using the world around us as inspiration. Finding ideas in modern fiction is great, but there is an unlimited amount of topics that we can pull from if we just lift our eyes to look at the world, its cultures, and its history. Sometimes the stories we find are heavy and serious, sometimes they are light and whimsical. But whatever your style of TTRPG is, you will find something that you can pull from and use.
There is a whole subgenre of 5e products now built around telling D&D stories without using a modern fantasy foundation. Sometimes those are based on other cultures, sometimes they are based on other time periods. But, I am pleased to say that there is a growing community of creators that want to use role-playing games to help others learn more about their world and use it for inspiration. And I love when I am able to spotlight other creators who are working in this field.
If you've not listened to The Maniculum Podcast, I highly recommend it. Zoe Franznick and Mac Boyle do an excellent job of bringing those cultures and time periods (specifically medieval in their case) into the spotlight and helping their listeners find those useful touchstones in medieval literature and events that we can bring into our modern RPG storytelling. In each episode, Mac and Zoe, who are medievalists as well as game designers, look at a specific literary work or a specific topic of medieval life and give a detailed account of it. This discussion includes plenty of levity and research to keep things entertaining and engaging. At the end of the episode, they reflect back on what they've just discussed and pull out the parts that will make for interesting characters, monsters, and magic items. If you are a DM or GM that loves diving deep into history, I cannot recommend their work enough.
From all of these discussions, Zoe and Mac have pulled together 50 magic items that are based around real-life items that can be found in museums or medieval manuscripts. These magic items can be found in Marginal Worlds, their first TTRPG supplement that is now live on Kickstarter. Marginal Worlds is a deck of cards with these magic items detailed and illustrated for use in any TTRPG campaign. They are system agnostic, though an appendix of D&D 5th Edition rules is included in the accompanying Game Master's guide. This makes it easy for you as the GM to drop these into whatever game you are playing and help them fit into that story.
The cards and book are beautifully illustrated by Soojin Paek with just enough whimsy to make them fun but given detailed abilities to actually make them useful. Each item has a description and a series of icons that help the GM quickly know if this is item is rare, sentient, cursed, or designed for high level. There is also a red d20 icon that quickly helps a DM know which ones already have D&D stats in the guidebook.
I also appreciate that they have included footnotes on each card and a glossary of sources for each item so the reader can seek out that work and read it for themselves.
Some of my personal favorite items are:
The Hawthorn Mazer which summons different fae creatures based on the type of drink poured into the bowl. It also has the potential to summon a representative from a fae court that will negotiate with the summoner. This can lead to all sorts of complicated faerie stories and would work well if you are playing in a world where the Feywild is a part of the story. This one is already in play in my home campaign!
Curadmír: Cauldron of the Hero's Portion which is a bit like a variable Hero's Feast in D&D terms. A character who dishes up pork stew from it will get a portion equal to their honor (however you want to define it). The size of the portion determines what effect is bestowed on the character. This would work really well in a campaign built around the court of a specific kingdom. Each knight or member of the court could eat from the cauldron before setting off on a quest and depending on their honor be blessed ahead of time. The knave of the group will end up being left with nothing but a saggy potato!
The Helpful Pot of Mouse is an item much like my beloved Mouse Cart that is just whimsy at its best. This item, though it is originally of ancient Greek origin, looks like something out of a Studio Ghibli film and its ability fits that perfectly. After letting a certain mixture of herbs steep in wine inside the pot, a congealed mouse will form when it is poured out. This mouse lasts for a day and will complete a small task. There are also optional rules for making the mouse more of a familiar or animal companion!
Marginal Worlds also includes legendary weapons like Hrunting, Beowulf's sword, the Axe of the Green Knight, and Gae-bolga, the spear of Cú Chulainn to either gift directly to your high-level characters or to provide inspiration for their own legendary weapons.
Marginal Worlds is a fantastic collection of magic items inspired by real-world literature. It combines quirk and legend with true functionality. Use it out of the box or as further inspiration for the TTRPG of your choice. It’s a great example of what DMing the World is all about.
I highly recommend backing Marginal Worlds on Kickstarter and supporting The Maniculum! Their work is outstanding and I look forward to more gaming material like this from them in the future.
The Marginal Worlds Kickstarter Campaign is now live at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/themaniculumpodcast/marginal-worlds-magic-item-expansion-pack
The Maniculum Podcast can be found at: https://www.themaniculumpodcast.com/
Reviewer’s Note: An review copy was provided for this article in advance.
