Here are the rest of my first six weapons:

The Dagger of Tichanto the Fallen

Chaotic dagger +1,INT 7 EGO 5, COM empathy, POW control undead

Control Undead: the wielder makes a Turn Undead check as a cleric of equal level; a result of turn indicates the undead are halted and awed; a result of destroy indicates the wielder has exerted control over the undead and may command them at will.

There was a schism in the church of Saint Fiacra that ended with a rogue priest, Tichanto, and his inner circle buried alive under the stones of the church itself.

Entombed and overcome with thoughts of vengeance, Tichanto consumed his fellows while they lived. When he died, he became a Ghast and his entombed followers Ghouls.

Ever Tichanto yearns to escape his imprisonment and avenge himself but the consecrated grounds of the church have so far held him fast. That power, he has perceived lately, has started to weaken. Now, he prepares.

Fire-Belcher Flamberge

Chaotic longsword +1 / -1 vs dragons, INT 10 EGO 7, COM draconic, POW detect gold & gems / fire breath

Fire Breath: as breath, 30’ cone of fire, deals 1d6 damage per level of the wielder; one use, recharge by submerging the sword in great heat and flame for one hour.

This was once a gift from the great red wyrm, Xathrivrem the Belittler, to the leader of his cult, the anti-paladin, Kilperic. On Kilperic’s death, it was said the sword was buried at his side but rumor says the sword was secreted away by one of his lieutenants who have persisted in their dragon worship and continue to plot on behalf of Xathrivrem.

The Brass Staff

Lawful quarterstaff +1, INT 7 EGO 4, COM empathy, POW weal or woe

Weal or Woe: once per day, while the staff is held in the light of a sunrise, the wielder may ask one question that will be answered truthfully with a response of either weal (it is good) or woe (it is ill).

This staff, fashioned entirely in brass, was once housed in the temple to a Sun God. When the temple was razed, the staff was lost.

Dawnbringer

Lawful morningstar +1 / +2 vs undead, INT 7 EGO 7, COM empathy, POW detect undead / continual light

This weapon was forged for the war against the dread necromancer, Bailtang, and wielded by the patriarch, Gonalen.

After the cleric’s death, the weapon was housed in the church of Saint Fiacra, consecrating its grounds, until it recently, mysteriously disappeared.

The Fingers of Death

Lawful arrow +2 / +4 vs undead, INT 3 EGO 3, COM none, POW none

Only a single quiver of these arrows were ever made during the wars against Bailtang the Necromancer. During the final assault on his grim fortress, the arrows were spent and presumed lost. One, however, has since been recovered from a war memorial so there is yet hope the rest may be found.

Are they compatible in a special way? I don’t hear midderlands mentioned much these days. I’m not very familiar with it. What’s the elevator pitch?

This was already posted.

I had the thought of replacing the resource cost of spells in a system like an into the odd hack or knave hack with creativity.

How well this works is going to be very table dependent. If everyone playing are creative dynamos, they will go crazy with a system like this-- whether it goes too far or not will be on you as the GM. If only some of the players excel at this sort of thing, it will create an imbalance between a set of haves and have-nots: those who can muster up the haikus, insults, etc. and reap the benefits and those who can’t. I tend to think that unless you carefully craft the effects and cap them in some way, it can get out of hand either way to the detriment of the experience as a whole.

I played in a one-shot at PAX East. I haven’t played it as a campaign. If I were to run it, I would lean into the doom and the calendar and the like. As with other OSR games, I would set up an overall scenario that player-characters could be easily plugged into rather than a personalized narrative. I don’t think MB would be my first choice if I were setting out to referee a campaign but I think it absolutely can work and, if I loved MB, I would not hesistate to run a campaign with it.

It is! I may reach out that way.

If you disagree, I think that’s what the reply button is for-- state your disagreement and have a discussion (keeping it civil, of course). Just driving by and downvoting does not add anything, in my opinion.

Interesting! Thanks for the write-up!

Can you describe Law I a bit more? Also, got any practical examples of spell-casting that used this system?

Hey, not sure if you’re aware but there’s a whole genre that harkens back to old school D&D styled gaming. It’s called the OSR and I’ve got a community here on Lemmy if you’re interested in checking it out: !osr@lemm.ee!