One Bling to Rule Them All: Socketed Magic Items for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game (2013)

From publisher blurb:

Make treasure an adventure again!

Consider that magic, with all of its wonder, has been cheapened to the point where even the most miraculous of its manifestations can be identified with a great enough Spellcraft check. The great mystery has been bled out of it: it is merely a tool, something to be studied, harnessed, and taken for granted. Now, to some, this would seem to be only natural. It makes sense that a society containing so many accomplished wizards would be able to reduce magic to the point of it behaving as mere science. That being said, it's simply missing out on a great opportunity for fun!

One Bling to Rule Them All presents a socketed magic item format that the PCs use to produce custom magic items. Based on a triad of focal items, the weapon, the crown, and the baton, PCs quickly learn that various magical crystals and gems they find produce interesting effects in their equipment; however, the effect is different for each kind of focal item! When one of these crystals is analyzed, it is impossible to figure out exactly what it does. Instead, the PCs learn the school, aura strength, and emotion of the gem. This causes the party to make educated guesses and, sometimes, even take risks in the hopes that the next item summons a 30-foot cone of ravenous mosquitoes.

Why would a player hope for a cone of ravenous mosquitoes? Because it's possible in this system!

The capstone of each focal item is a nexus crystal. Nexus crystals are either an embodiment of raw, entropic power and have very random abilities, or have abilities that are thematically linked in an interesting fashion. In either case, nexus crystals are a one shot deal. Once installed on a focal item, removal destroys the nexus crystal. This makes things quite risky indeed once the party realizes that every single nexus crystal carries with it an annoying, and sometimes downright brutal, downside.

• Different abilities for different PCs, thus making it easier to avoid reselling and maintaining a proper wealth-by-level curve
• A solid injection of wonder back into the world of magic items
• Item emotions - analyze your crystals and determine their abilities by sleuthing and experimentation, or just plain dumb luck
• Nexus crystals - capstone crystals with random or thematically linked abilities, as well as a nasty little downside you need to learn to live with
• 73 lesser crystals with a total of 177 different abilities
• 18 specific nexus crystals
• A random generator that can produce over 3.3 million combinations of nexus crystals
• Tables to integrate into the main Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules
• Bookmarks, limited internal linking, and gem photography by Rob Lavinsky and others