Review: "Arcane Tools, Treasures & Trinkets" by Timothy Dunham

Another recent supplement find: "Arcane Tools, Treasures & Trinkets" by Timothy Dunham.

The document clocks in at 71 pages, with 61 pages of item text, plus an index of items by category (armor, adventuring gear, summoning, etc.), and an art appendix for an illusion item. The publication is Pay What You Want ($2 suggested) for the bookmarked pdf. I sprung for the print on demand B&W softcover ($7 suggested price).

The content is 100 items, for the d100 aficionados in the crowd. Magic items range from minor one-use items to large, bulky items. All of the items are accompanied by an illustration, also by the author. Items are designed for OSR-adjacent games, but are loosely-described enough to be flexible for other game systems.

A few magic items are whimsical, such as the Scroll of Summon Feline (roll it out and a cat appears), or the Bee Holder Eye (a prosthetic eye containing a bumblebee).

Or this...

The majority of the items are useful, but not obviously overpowered: Cosy Bear Skin (a restful night's sleep, with the option to hibernate); Instant Rope Grubs (box of silkworms that manufacture 50' of rope in exchange for crushed gems); Imp Assistant (a box containing an imp in his library).

A number of items have the quality of benefit-with-cost, such as the Helm of Heavy Thoughts (18 INT, but you become morose and worrisome) or Elephant Stomach Belt (18 STR plus endurance, but your appetite increases considerably).

Take your gifts where you can get them....

I like that the majority of the items have a unique quality to them, and don't seem to be carbon copies from other similar publications. Similarly, the items are well thought out, and most have some practicality to them. They aren't weird for the sake of weird, for instance. There are certainly some of questionable value, but creative players may find a use under the appropriate circumstances. As the author notes on the backpiece, they wanted to provide items more interesting than another +1 sword.

I suspect one of my players may get this...

Like many supplements, I can see about 10% of the material having possible utility for my game, and modifying several more to match the tone or qualities for an adventure. Or at least to use them for inspiration for creating my own magical devices. No supplement is going to be universally useful, but we can pick and choose as we need, or build as needed. 

I definitely believe this is a good supplement of magic items, with a fine selection of readily useful material that can dropped into a loot pile for players to find creative uses for. I recommend that people take a look and find those items that suit their personal game. There is a lot to mine in this compact supplement.