What are Four Legendary Treasures one might Search for in your Game?

Whenever someone says legendary, I hear that familiar pling from Diablo as a Pavlovian Response somewhere in the back of my head.

For me there are two types of Legendary Items.

On one hand we have the MacGuffins. They are items that in itself do not hold any power, but are needed to complete something. They act as keys. Players will have to collect them, to either destroy them (like a Horcrux) or use them to destroy the BBEG. Apart from some inherent problems when designing such quests, this type of items are more bespoke to campaigns and I do not feel that they are treasures.

The other type of legendary items, are those magical artifacts with immense powers. The kind of items that have a badass name. I particularly love the concept of the Vestiges of Divergence or progressive magic items in general. Items that level up with you and they unlock more and more power. They could also change on how you play your class, adding a unique spin to it or giving you abilities that normally you wouldn't have access too.

Four is also an interesting number. There are four cardinal directions or four elements (at least in the western world). When designing a set of such legendary items I would suggest to use this kind of common theme. The idea is, if the player's find one item they can guess that there might be other items and thus they are more likely to go search for them.

Similarly if there's a common background connecting these items, they can also be grounded into myths, legends and folklore around the world. Let's say, four heroes had slain a BBEG in the past. Their souls now rest in parts of their equipment scattered around the world. This would also explain some of the powers the items would have, as they are the lingering powers of those heroes. You can also unlock more and more memories from these heroes, unlocking more powers from their items.

These kind of legendary items are truly unique. They are not just some items were a powerful wizard has cast an enchantment on them. A good legendary item has a history. Not only who crafted it and how, but also who might have wielded it in the past.

I can recommend Artefact a fun, little Solo RPG, that let's you explore the history of an artifact. I did something similar for a spaceship (from the same author) in my Bucket of Bolts playthrough.

Here are some ideas for items, based on these concepts:

• Shadowbane, Sword of the Southern Hero
• Dusksong, Tome of the Western Hero
• Edge of Time, Mantle of the Northern Hero
• Reclaimer, Branch of the world tree, Staff of the Eastern Hero