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GameMastery Guide / Rewards / Starting Treasure / Starting with Magic Items

Setting Items

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 108
Another way to add flavor to starting magic items is to use them to introduce details of your world, whether you’re using the Pathfinder world of Golarion or a setting you have created. Make a list of each treasure item selected, or the most notable piece of standard gear carried by each PC. Avoid consumable items, which are unlikely to have survived long enough to have interesting histories attached to them. Develop quick snippets of narration referring to their histories. For example:

“Your sword’s blade is new, but the haft is a crude, castiron handgrip bearing the runes of the fell king who ruled a duergar kingdom in Nar-Voth 2 centuries ago. The haft gives your sword its magic.”
“Faint hieroglyphs on the hand of the mage you wear around your neck date it to ancient Osirion. The mummified appendage might have belonged to a vizier of a god-king, who lived and breathed 5,000 years ago.”

Highlight facts about the world you expect to take on greater significance in the course of play. Alternatively, you might choose random setting details and then use them as inspiration for adventure hooks. The first example above suggests that the party will eventually meet duergar or journey to Nar-Voth, while the mummified owner of the third item might eventually come back to repossess it.

As with heirloom items, slip setting items into your narration at suitable moments as the action progresses rather than front-loading them into your opening session preliminaries. Be ready to collaborate with players on modified descriptions in case they decide that your suggestions don’t fit their character concepts.

Archives of Nethys

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Setting Items