An idea sheet

Unearthly Aggregate sounds better now that I've slept on it.


Item worlds are based on the properties of the item. How well it is made, of what material, what markings, engravings, or embedded stones it is adorned with, and what it is (sword or bow or mirror or bottle) contribute to the seed of the world. You can enter a world and interact and make it grow to empower the item, or you could plunder it for more items and people, which reduces the item's power. Some stuff makes a world that consists entirely of a small 'dungeon,' which you can either plunder for treasure, or figure out the logic of that world and create more of it.

It all sounds so vague and undefined now that I write it, but in writing it I at least enumerate my ideas on it better.

Squidi has enumerated ideas how to do this very thoroughly (and wants people to use it). His stuff seems to evoke a very structured game, in which you need to explore things in order. I would rather a world like Pokemon Red or Ultima III-V where you must explore and experiment. Probably other Ultima games too, in fact, the whole Western RPG genre is defined by it. However, I could turn his gating algorithms inside out in order to ensure the worlds are beatable.

You can recruit people, and these people are the products of their worlds. I imagine a noncombatant hidden character would be easy to find if you enter the world of a piece of depleted rubbish, who would help do friendly NPC sidequest things and learn crafting, to help players less interested in it.  Some items you would craft just to create powerful allies, like a big mirror that has more room to be covered in runes would be useful for that, though not a weapon itself.  You can find people who don't use swords in a sword, but a legendary sword may hold a legendary swordsman.

After going through all that trouble, maybe the item should not be depleted if you take the legendary-item-user home. Maybe the legendary item should be sealed to the legendary-item-user. That... sounds actually like a good theme.