Thaumaturgy Tidbits at the Tavern - Have a Beer Bear on Me ;)

This Bear Would Probably
Dispense Dark & Tan ;)

I figure if I'm going to brainstorm, I might as well post as the process works it's way out.

As I said earlier, most magic items found in RPGs (and similarly written about in RPGs) have to do with magic weapons and magic armor.  It certainly makes sense from a gaming POV, as many, if not most, RPGs revolve around combat. Therefore, you give the players what they need to get better at combat. When we think "Christmas Tree" effect, we think of weapons, armor, stat buffers and saving throw adjusters.  Do any of these really help the Wizard as he goes about his daily business in his tower or about town?

So what we really need are magic items that are useful, even if they aren't directly useful for combat.  Some of them might be indirectly useful for combat, and many players will certainly find a way to push these "non-combat" magic items into uses that the GM will never see coming.

Additionally, if we are looking to design / create / invent / pull out of collective butt holes magic items that don't directly fall into the "Christmas Tree" effect, we can, for the most part, design them without stats or numerical values. That's important, because if the idea behind the item can transcend game systems, it's chance of being used in someone's game just increased exponentially.

Some items will have more of a direct use in the average adventure than others, but inventive players will find a use for pretty much everything as some point.

Now, I have an idea for magic items based upon classic children's toys.  As such, I'm going to go with the idea that they are the inventions of a single Mage.  Maybe his son passed at an early age, and in the child's memory he uses children's toys to accomplish different tasks.  Well, magically enhanced children's toys.  Still need a name for the mage though.

Here's a quick example:

Beer Bear - This appears to be a child's stuffed bear of smallish size.  If one tilts the bear's head back and makes a poring motion with the bear, cold beer (up to the amount of a pint) flows forth.  The type of beer that the bear dispenses depends on the color of the bear.  Black bears dispense stout and brown bears dispense a pilsner.  The bear will dispense beer up to 8 times in a single day.

Hard to beat the image of one of the PCs going to sleep in a dungeon, holding his Beer Bear tight to him, of fear another party member may take off with it ;)