And we're back, with some more Keys & Kingdoms ideas acquired from watching my Disney collection.
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LEGENDARY CHARACTERS
Peter Pan: A very early idea was to make a Peter Pan-inspired character called Frederick Faun... that name originates from when Keys & Kingdoms was a Kingdom Hearts parody and I was converting every individual character to a parody character. Now that Keys & Kingdoms is an RPG, Kingdom Butts will be a non-profit parody that just uses actual character names, and Peter Pan is in the public domain anyway, so I might ditch the parody name, or I might not, I like it. Anyway, I picture this character as an archfey, and... exactly like the original literary Peter Pan, just acknowledging that Peter Pan would in fact be terrifying and not whimsical. Formerly human, eternally twelve years of age, with a detachable shadow, the ability to mimic voices and sounds, boundless charisma with which he seduces children into following him out their window, and a complete disregard for anyone else's life.
Merlin: Always had a plan for Merlin, taking far more inspiration from Stan Lee than from Disney's Merlin or the original Arthurian legend. I wouldn't examine his story in any official Keys & Kingdoms stories, because those are supposed to be where he has cameos, but I'd put his background in some sourcebook somewhere so maybe players can do more with him. For sure, he travels through time and has knowledge of the future, and likes visiting important historical events, which is both a Stan Lee joke and a Merlin joke. I get the vibe it's a connection to fey magic that gave him his time-dancing capabilities... and that's just about all I've got, so, time to research real Merlin lore and see what else makes him tick.
Mary Poppins: Here's one whose name I most certainly can't use directly, wouldn't want to, but... gonna rip her off, to be sure. A legendary character who is... basically a perfectly ordinary woman who happens to have gotten her hands on a few very powerful magical items, with which she, uh... I dunno. Saves children, I guess? In a more literal sense? I'll build on that. And has tea parties on the ceiling. And flies kites? Well, that wasn't really Mary, I just wanted to remember it.
Santa Claus: The K&K version of Santa Claus is a bishop, like the real St. Nicholas was, and class-wise he's a monk, fighting with a candy cane-shaped staff. Did I say that already? He owns a massive factory that employs elf labor (as in high-fantasy elves like Legolas, not Keebler elves)... what precisely does this factory do? If Santa is a bishop, a bishop in service of whom? We know he has ties to Jesus, a minor demigod in this setting; as Jesus was from Israel and St. Nicholas from Turkey, I imagine they both inhabit Khuvira, or maybe Santa's from there but moved his operation to Nastiin at some point? Ooh, how about this -- maybe this version of Santa has a lobster motif, as Jack claims he does in Nightmare to make him sound more impressive to the people of Halloween Town.
Now what I like are Santa Claus stories in which adults take him seriously: he gets media coverage, and military and police get involved when things are out of the ordinary with him. He deserves that kind of gravitas. So... what does this Santa Claus do? Something that involves a lot of travel and charity? And, more details from The Santa Clause: I'd say he can freeze time, maybe rewind it a few seconds. Rides around on a sleigh, naturally. Flying reindeer, I always forget about them for some reason. Maybe a flying reindeer is more than just an ordinary caribou that can fly, maybe it has all sorts of other magical properties as well! Now, I'm not going to cover the sequels to The Santa Clause in my collection, but I know that the second is about Mrs. Claus and the third about Jack Frost, so I'll keep them in mind for the overall Santa Claus mythos.
The Easter Bunny: Makes a cameo in The Nightmare Before Christmas, often depicted as a colleague of sorts of Santa Claus. So, big pink bunny... anything like the Hugh Jackman version, or is that too on the nose?
Punch and Judy: I've heard this name many times but never knew what it was. I always assumed from the title that it was some kind of mid-20th century sitcom, but when a Punch and Judy puppet show appeared in The Santa Clause, I decided to look it up. Turns out, it's a traditional puppet show, a popular British seaside attraction dating back to the 16th century. That puppet character with the big nose and chin who always beats up the other puppet with a big stick, I always assumed that was just some generic Renaissance-era puppet show trope, but nope, that's Punch. That was a cool discovery and, as the Punch and Judy puppets appearing in The Santa Clause appear to be living puppets not controlled by any puppeteer, maybe I can implement a couple of legendary puppet characters into the world.
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UNIVERSE
Multiverse
I know that every Keys & Kingdoms setting is connected by some sort of multiverse, yeah? It's incredibly difficult and rare, but you can get from Cosmos to Christalss... some third campaign setting inspired by My Little Pony, while I'm converting all my old fanfiction ideas into original stuff! I originally wrote down that maybe one could also access Nanhias, the setting of my group's Dungeons & Dragons campaign, but... no, K&K has different underlying metaphysics from D&D now, so I'll limit Nanhias's multiverse to other actual D&D settings.
Stars
Let's talk about stars! In Kingdom Hearts, the original inspiration for K&K, every star is another world... except when it's not, sometimes they represent individual people instead. In Dungeons & Dragons, the stars are a glimpse of the Astral Plane, or possibly the alien horrors that lie beyond it. And in the wonderful world of Disney, when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true. In Cosmos... some combination thereof, I imagine, or maybe every culture has different theories and nobody knows for sure. What I do know is that the stars in Cosmos's sky are not luminous spheres of plasma held together by their own gravity millions of miles away from the planet and many hundreds of times larger than a planet. Cosmos isn't nearly so insignificant in the grand scope of the universe as our own Earth is in the scope of ours, the same way that Cosmos itself didn't take 4.5 billion years to form -- in Cosmos, ancient beliefs about the nature of the universe are absolutely true. Regardless of the nature of stars in this world, the whole game definitely has to have a very prominent star motif.
Ancient cultures believed in the "firmament", a dome that covered the planet (which was flat, of course), and that the stars were little holes in it or some such. Timon in The Lion King suggests that the stars might be fireflies stuck up in the "big bluish-black thing". Maybe there's some truth to that in Cosmos, that the "atmosphere" is some kind of solid outer surface of the planet, and the stars, hmm, I don't think they're just little holes in the firmanent, I think they're somehow connectd to the Astral Plane, the other worlds, the souls of the dead, eldritch abominations, all that stuff.
Origins of the Universe
As I've just alluded, Cosmos and its universe are about 12,000 years old. Or, wait, that was the age of the reign of the gods, and, as I've recently solidified in my own personal world-building not on here, all of the current gods, as they did in mythology, have parents who did stuff, so, okay, throw in a couple more millennia onto the overall age of Cosmos itself.
The origins of Cosmos ought to bear much more resemblance to a creation myth than anything scientific, but nevertheless, the "Rite of Spring" segment of Fantasia, all about the early days of Earth, did get me thinking that these origins surely involved volcanic hellscapes and extinction events.
Creation myths came to mind in Melody Time, with its outlandish representations of Pecos Bill and Johnny Appleseed. Pecos Bill's story in particular had some wild stories about how various geographical features came to be. Maybe there's... some truth to stories like that in some places? I dunno.
Civilization
The Three Caballeros depicts a penguin village with canals instead of streets. Always a neat idea! Places where you have to be canal smart and keep the kids off the canals.
You know what I like? Cuisine! All sorts of food traditions for the different cultures and places of the world. It's one of those things I don't think is discussed enough in world-building. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea provided a good example when Nemo pointed out all the of the dishes at his table were fished from the sea. I'd say his meal was unnecessarily gross, I mean, aren't there fish in the sea, and other things that normal people eat? What's with the sea urchins and whale milk and fillet of sea snake, Nemo?
So, as far non-civilized people, well, I suppose barbarian tribes are technically civilizations too, but... point is, they're everywhere. Some are more willing to get along with "civilization" than others; I imagine in this pre-industrial world there are still uncontacted people and tribes out there in the world. Possibly cannibals, I dunno.
So... duels of honor? Those ought to be things somewhere. Davy Crockett got me thinking about that, and also politics, his second story is focused on his political career. Intrigue and stuff, big factor in civilization.
In terms of culture and history... well, I figure that, for instance, even though all six nations in the north worship the Norse gods in theory, only Athundoft, the country actually based on Scandinavia, has much in the way of Norse mythological themes. In Sheafell, based on the British Isles, that's where you find things like swords in stones, ladies in lakes, and men in kilts. Arthurian themes and Celtic stuff are most likely to be found in Sheafell... these Arthurian-style knights just happen to pay tribute to Odin instead of the Christian God. And not just Arthurian and Celtic, but more recent British motifs too -- like cities that look like the London of Charles Dickens books.
Any city needs local flavor. You can't just have your heroes wander around in the city with other people being only in the background, yeah? And then of course, there's the seedy underbelly, every city needs one of those. Including in the myshka parts of the city! What do ordinary people do for a living in these setting, besides farm and stuff? In The Prince and the Pauper, Mickey sells kindling and Goofy sells snowcones. Place to start. In Beauty and the Beast, Maurice is an inventor... not really a thing you can be in modern times. It would be foolish to say there's nothing left to invent, but we're at the point where you have to have a hefty amount of education, expertise, and brilliance in order to invent things. But in Cosmos, there may very well still be tinkerers out there, hoping to make their big break with their woodcutting machine.
Now, as I've said before, in order to be an RPG setting, it has to be so that Cosmos is a very dangerous place outside of civilized places; you have to be a badass adventurer in order to travel or even farm. And the place is full of treasure-filled dungeons -- the remnants of civilizations that have been lost to the ravages of this dangerous planet. So, what were these past civilizations? Gotta think about that, don't we. What used to be where the eighteen human nations are now? Among other things: Pompeii and Atlantis, or places like them, lost in similar ways. See, DuckTales: The Movie attributes the destruction of both of those cities to an angry Merlock -- not the only character I've seen blamed for both disasters (the other being Cosmo from Fairly OddParents), despite one city being real and one fictional. So... two disasters from which to take inspiration!
In Newsies, we follow a bunch of New York City newsboys. They live in a lodging house and are a veritable fountain of silly roguish nicknames and urchin backstories. The film got me thinking about world and story things such as child labor laws, and the flow of information in warfare and elsewhere. The costume design got me wanting to rewatch every film in the series to start taking note of every little set, costume, and prop idea, but, ah... as usual, I failed to realize how long things take. That would take a lot longer than just watching the films to take notes on major ideas.
Let's talk about Aladdin and its theme-park-ish but beautiful and vivid depiction of the Middle East, especially what we see in the streets of Agrabah in the early portions of the film. Agrabah has excellent local color: the lightly-armored city guards, the various merchants, and that place Aladdin drops into that's either a brothel or a harem, either way, nice place to visit if they let you. I was especially intrigued by my realization of the truly insane amount of street performers Agrabah has: the guy on the bed of nails, the fire-walker, the sword-swallower, the fire-breather, the rope trick guy, and the strongman. Quite a lineup!
In The Return of Jafar, building a bit on the Aladdin universe, I got to thinking about chancellors and viziers and whatnot; also executioners. Swinging back around to the original Aladdin, we know that Jasmine has rejected numerous princely suitors and, going back even further, lots of royalty came to see the birth of Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. Such dynamics don't seem like they'd be possible when Cosmos only has eighteen countries... I mean, I figure most of them operate on feudalism with lots of lords and governors scattered around, but the place might feel grander in scope if in fact all of these lords were kings. I dunno, just a thing I didn't think about before because I'm so used to writing fantasy stories about the adventures of very insignificant people. Maybe one of these days I'll have to tell a story about the kings and gods of Cosmos just to wriggle out of my comfort zone a bit.
And, ooh, here's a fun topic about civilizations and world-building: holidays. Disney released two Halloween movies in 1993... presumably that's why Hocus Pocus was released earlier that summer instead of both in the actual spooky season. Didn't want to compete with themselves. The universe of The Nightmare Before Christmas appears to revolve around seven holiday worlds: in addition to the Halloween and Christmas that dominate the plot, we see that the grove of trees also includes portals themed around Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, the Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving. So, holidays for Cosmos. Do we have to think about the origins of these holidays? Not really. Look at the seven holidays in Nightmare; does anybody really care about what those holidays mean? Not really. Even if you do care a whole lot about the things the holidays represent (either Jesus or America, from the looks of things), when the holidays come we just do the nonsensical traditions and enjoy each other's company in the context of the holiday's shallow trappings. In Hocus Pocus, the Sanderson sisters are appalled to realize that All Hallow's Eve has devolved into a night of frivolity and dressing in costumes. Maybe somewhere in Cosmos (or everywhere?) there's a night of exactly that and nobody really remembers what it actually means. And, of course, each country or region probably has holidays that others don't. And okay, maybe if someone from another country witnesses a holiday, a local can fill them in on what a holiday actually means as well as its traditions. But for the most part... let's not.
Disney's done a couple of adaptations of The Three Musketeers. Musketeers, or at least the trio in the story and their wannabe-musketeer companion, are swashbuckling heroes in snazzy uniforms. I assume a real musketeer doesn't so much with the swordplay and acrobatic stunts, my expectation would be for them to use, you know, muskets. In Disney's adaptation, one of Lady DeWinter's henchmen is a Korean guy who, as you might expect of a random Korean guy in a cheesy action film, employs taekwondo, making his fight scenes more interesting than those with DeWinter's normal mercenaries. That's a good storytelling and gameplay aspect, having one particularly interesting or exotic individual among a group of otherwise seemingly identical opponents mixes up fight scenes a bit. And there's a bit of historical accuracy there -- royal guards were often foreign mercenaries, because presumably they'd have no interest in local politics and would therefore just do their job of protecting the king. Didn't work all the time, but it was an idea, and I can easily see groups of mercenaries consisting of lots of guys who fight in the local style and a few who are from elsewhere, I dig it.
Let's talk a bit more about monarchy. Many Disney heroes are royalty, and the concept is examined rather thoroughly in The Lion King, right there in the title and all. The fantasy genre has a strange obsession with monarchy and the line of succession, and fantasy readers are starting to get put off by that. Think about it, in how many fantasy stories is everything made better because the guy with the most legitimate ancestral claim to the throne replaces the guy with the second-most legitimate claim? We're a modern audience, we know that's bullshit, but we accept it and it feels triumphant because, I guess, we know the characters, but reality is seldom so kind.
So, yeah, restoring the rightful king is a fantasy standard, maybe we should be a bit less pro-monarchy than other fantasy worlds. Or, alternatively, maybe we go the opposite direction, and legitimize monarchy by going all "fisher king" with it, like how Scar's ascension brings about a drought, a storm starts when Simba returns to fight for his throne, and life returns to the Pride Lands when Simba wins. Also, there's a certain thing that I imagine varies from one monarchy to another: inbreeding. Some might notice that people are stronger with genetic diversity, others might exclusively be permitted to choose a partner among their own second cousins, or... even closer relations, because Simba and Nala are totally half-siblings, obviously Mufasa is also Nala's father, that's just how lions work, don't try to deny it.
The Lion King also discusses a belief in ancestors who live among the stars, and Simba eventually gets to converse with the dead Mufasa. I mentioned earlier when talking about the countries that there might be elements in Gyanshi where, though nominally under the authority of the Norse gods, they worship their ancestors, and I guess this kinda happens in The Lion King too, I'll probably learn more about that when it's time to cover Mulan. As I said, most of the time it's limited to prayer, but the very powerful (whether magically or politically) can directly summon their ancestors for advice and assistance.
Nature
Er, not a ton to say here, I guess just a few details from The Lion King. Like a savannah watering hole, always a super-cool place to see, so many species! And scrubland geysers, for hazards and, you know, a villainous atmosphere.
Traveling Realms
You know, "realms" is a really good word, I just realized. I didn't want to call them "planes" or "dimensions", I've been going with "worlds" for a long time, but "realm", yeah, that's a good one. So, how does one travel from one realm to another without the use of a spell akin to plane shift, a spell that's either very high-level or known only to certain interplanar creatures? We know that to get to the celestial realms, you climb into incredibly noticeable landmarks -- a mountain, a bridge that leads all the way to the sky, a pyramid way out in the desert. Maybe Yggdrasil, well, I had the idea that it is a place, an impossibly huge tree, not one whose branches actually connect all the realms, but has a certain magic that can, at least, get you to the Feywild or the Shadowfell. Portals to hell dimensions can open in all sorts of ways, and the elemental planes, I imagine portals to there can be found when certain kinds of magic mix with certain natural features, like windy tunnels, hot springs, mud, or volcanic activity.
Anyway, what brought it up was Return to Oz. Most visits to Oz are caused by a tornado, so... maybe storms have such a power, to bring you to other realms. What we have to remember is that inter-world travel isn't a triviality. It feels trivial sometimes when you're deep into an adventure, but that's not true -- it's just very powerful heroes and villains who can do that, just like heroes have hundreds of gold pieces and great weapons and abilities; these are things unimaginable to most people.
Realm of Dreams
An idea I had at no point in particular was for there to be a Realm of Dreams of some sort, another alternate dimension where anything anyone's dreamed exists in some tangible-ish form... and you can go there. So, separate from the Feywild, despite the Feywild having something of a "fairytale dream" atmosphere. In particular, I had this idea due to a very early realization that not very much of the premise of Pixar's Inside Out could make its way into, well, any other story -- quite unique. I'll think about this a lot more when the time actually comes to watch Inside Out, but the general idea is that the five emotion characters, with their sparkly, brightly-hued skin, can be converted into some sort of rulers of the realm of dreams... or maybe just ordinary archfey in the Feywild.
Alice in Wonderland is all a dream, so Wonderland would provide some inspiration for the more stable aspects of the Realm of Dreams. The various creative critters seen throughout that film might populate the place. Toontown, seen in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, is a good exhibition for the more hectic and chaotic aspect of the Realm of Dreams, as it's not too far off from what dreams are really like.
Shadowfell
In the opening scene of Snow White, the queen summons the Spirit of the Magic Mirror "from farthest space, through wind and darkness." Could this be the Shadowfell, or some sort of hell dimension? In Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, the Spirit is capable of sucking the player through the Mirror into its home dimension where it can fight you. For the matter of what sort of creature the Spirit actually is, and what kind of magic item the Mirror is -- first we have to figure out what sort of place the Spirit comes from.
The Nightmare Before Christmas takes place in a universe where there are seven interdimensional towns that represent holidays. Now, I think most of these places ought to be in the Feywild, so we'll talk about them in a second, but Halloween Town, I'm thinking the Shadowfell -- there is an implication late in the film that you can get to Halloween Town via any graveyard. The most iconic geographical feature of Halloween Town is, of course, the Curly Hill. Maybe, like Jack being a "white lich", curly hills can be a plurality. Tim Burton says there's no magic in Halloween Town, so maybe the way the curly hill unfolds is purely natural, for the given Shadowfell value of "natural", like the way some plants will open or close if you stimulate their little hair thingies. I also realized for the first time that the sun in Halloween Town looks like a jack-o'-lantern, reminding me of a little thing I'd been working on with my D&D campaign, the idea that the sky in every realm looks, well, different from the sky we know here on Earth. Gonna do that in this universe too. There's no sun in the Shadowfell, it's always dark, but, yeah, the sky is not dark in an earthly nighttime sort of way.
Feywild
A good template to begin our version of the Feywild, would be Peter Pan's Neverland. Specifically, I say Neverland, or a place like it, would be a tiny island in the Feywild. A place where you don't age... a place where you very swiftly forget your past. A fun place, if you're into life-threatening adventures and your past really was that horrible, but an existentially terrifying one too. Indeed, time and memory are pretty big themes of the Feywild as a whole. And let's keep in mind that the Feywild isn't inhabited by only fey creatures; maybe some ordinary people have managed to tame it and live there, such as elves, dwarves, merfolk, goblins... anybody, really.
As I said a moment ago, I'm thinking the non-Halloween holiday towns of The Nightmare Before Christmas might be replicated here in the Feywild. Instead of these towns representing holidays, maybe they represent the four seasons, with some mild holiday motifs; the autumn one can have some of the Halloween motifs that don't work for the Shadowfell version, namely the vibrant orange that represents pumpkins and autumn leaves; the Shadowfell is never quite so colorful.
My final thought about the Shadowfell and the Feywild, well, they need new names, not the D&D ones. "Shadow Realm", perhaps? That's from Yu-Gi-Oh, right, or rather the dub? Well, I'm sure that's not the only place that term has been used, but, no, I find it a bit too generic. The Feywild resembles the Celtic "otherworld" and some Asian spirit worlds. "Otherworld" is an evocative name, and it would work if there was only one otherworld, but no, there are quite a few, it's not specific enough to be about the fey one. "Shadow Realm" and "Fey Realm" work, for now, but they're not quite good enough, D&D wisely threw "fell" and "wild" in there, in a stroke of brilliance I'm not sure I can replicate.
Overworld
In Jack and the Beanstalk, adapted into "Mickey and the Beanstalk" in Fun and Fancy Free, the beanstalk leads to a world up in the clouds, where a giant has a castle. 13th Age, a game and world I'm rather fond of, has an "overworld" as well as an underworld; a world in the clouds, presumably the home of cloud giants? And D&D has always had cloud giants, I assume it ain't just a name. So, yeah, maybe there's something like that? Alternatively, maybe cloud giants just like to hang around in heavenly realms like Asgard and Olympus. Those are entire worlds after all, far more than just the godly palace. And... maybe magic beans are another way to get there. So, the overworld? Maybe a thing, maybe not.
Hell Dimensions
Well, I know these places are where fiends come from, and that there's a load of them. Do evil mortals go here when they die? Uncertain; the worlds of the Greek, Norse, and Egyptian gods each have their own sorting algorithm of where people go when they die, so I think that would be a subject for the celestial realms. Anyway, bringing it up because The Black Hole ends with the heroes and villains entering the black hole. The heroes end up in a very heavenly place, the two villains in a hell dimension of some sort, fused to each other. So... something to happen when two bad guys who don't like each other meet their just end, that's quite the punishment.
Cyberspace
The computer setting of Tron. In Tron: Legacy, it's called the Grid. We don't get a ton of world-building about the place in either film... we just definitely get a ton more of it in the first film, where it looks much more interesting, the sequel's version is just kinda gloomy. We know from both films that time is measured in "cycles". I remember in the sequel, Kevin Flynn specifies that one millicyle is eight hours -- eight hours inside the Grid, because Flynn spent 20 human-world years trapped in the Grid which the inhabitants of the Grid experienced as 1,000 years. So, math time.
This means time passes 50 times faster in the Grid. So that eight hours the film spent inside the Grid was a little less than ten minutes in real time, did I get that math right? And "milli" means one-one-thousandth, so one cycle is 8,000 hours -- a little over 333 days inside the Grid, and a little over six days outside of it. Did I completely fuck up that math? No I did not; to make certain, I Googled the way the Tron world measures time, the Tron wiki basically confirmed everything I just said, as well as pointing out that Grid inhabitants use "cycles" in much the same way humans speak of years.
Gah, I don't know. See, I really, really wanted Cosmos to be the "all things Disney" campaign setting, and since Tron has a lot of spotlight, at least in the context of Kingdom Hearts... I'm thinking maybe Cosmos has computers, and that they work via cyberspace. I'm thinking maybe that's a thing that has to be done. Let's figure out how to do that.
Anyway, notable aspects of the Grid as presented in the original Tron: one landmark the heroes come across when out in the wilds of cyberspace is a pool full of glowing blue liquid, which they ecstatically drink from, calling it a "pure source" of energy, apparently something that's not easy to come by. Also, there are buildings called I/O towers, which are treated as churches, and are the places where programs go to commune directly with their Users.
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MAGIC
So, as I've said previously, I don't have a whole lot of ideas for constructing the magic system. A good place to start might be by categorizing the magic. D&D separates magic into two categories: divine and arcane. Divine magic is used by the cleric and paladin, and technically also by the druid and ranger... though one might consider classifying their brand of magic as nature magic rather than divine? And arcane magic is used by the wizard, bard, sorcerer, and warlock.
We might also differentiate the primary spellcasters (most of them), the secondary spellcasters (paladins and rangers, whose progress at learning new spells goes at about half that of the primary spellcasters), and the tertiary spellcasters (the eldritch knight and arcane trickster -- fighter and rogue subclasses that are capable of learning bits and pieces off the wizard spell list).
As of 5E, there are no actual rules about arcane vs. divine magic, and since every class has a unique spell list, there aren't many thematic similarities. One noteworthy aspect is that arcane magic doesn't include healing. The bard is an exception, but the wizard, warlock, and sorcerer don't have anything in the way of healing or restorative magic. A bit odd, isn't it? I didn't think much of it for a long time, but then the first time my fiancee made herself a D&D wizard and started scanning her options looking for healing magic, I realized she really had no reason not to think that was something wizards could do. D&D is the only universe I've seen where being a wizard means you're not a healer.
I wrote a bit related to that in Kingdom Butts, a Kingdom Hearts parody story that eventually evolved into the core idea for Keys & Kingdoms, as with the parody I was trying to make a Kingdom Hearts universe that made sense. In the scene I speak of, Sora asks Donald, a wizard, why he never uses healing magic -- a question often asked by players of the KH games, the answer being, you have to set Donald's tactics so he fights defensively, then he'll prioritize healing you. Anyway, in this Kingdom Butts scene, Donald splutters angrily and protests that he doesn't know any healing magic -- he's a wizard! Healing magic comes from the gods. Wizardry is about unlocking the secrets of the universe, learning how to alter reality! And so, Sora asks, throughout all the centuries that the art of wizardry has existed, no wizard ever thought to unlock the secrets of cleaning up wounds? Donald tells him to shut up.
I mean, I get it. Clerics and druids are about healing and bolstering and protecting -- they have some offensive magic, some pretty good stuff at that, but that's not their primary focus. It's sorcerers and wizards who generally blast the battlefield with huge bursts of fire and lightning, as well as providing the really hefty defensive stuff, well, primarily for themselves. I suppose if wizards could heal, they'd be even more overpowered, even more the guy who does everything, than they already are.
Anyway, those were just my thoughts on the magic system as they stand right now. Let's talk about the ideas I've had about the magic system based on the collection.
First of all, I want there to be huge emphasis on the three components in D&D spellcasting: verbal components (the words you have to say), somatic components (your intricate magical hand gestures), and material components (objects that are required for the magic to work). In D&D, most spells have all three components, but a few only have one or two, to mix things up and still give you an edge in moments when you can't move or speak. Most material components are worthless items -- string, feathers, bat guano, dust, little things -- which your spellcaster is assumed to be carrying around at all times, while more advanced spells require a more hefty object, such as a mirror or a crystal ball, which you need to acquire in order to cast the spell. Sometimes, such as with the diamonds required to raise the dead, the spell consumes the item, so you have to get new diamonds every time the spell is cast. The spell description tells you what the material components are, but not the verbal or somatic components. For good reason; it's more fun when the players improvise what spellcasting looks and sounds like. All the same, in stories, I'd like to display consistent incantations and gestures and make them a much bigger production than they are in D&D. Just need to find a way to do that without it quickly becoming tedious and annoying! And material components being a bigger deal too; like I said, I like the idea of having to find certain things. Think what a big production it is just for the Queen in Snow White to magically disguise herself, or for Jafar in Aladdin to do some divinations to find his "diamond in the rough". Spellcasting shouldn't be that difficult, it does need to have combat utilities after all, but it should be that wondrous.
The "Poor Unfortunate Souls" number in The Little Mermaid provides some pretty cool examples of the components. The material components in Ursula's spells include little bottles of grotesque and miserable-looking living things, a jellyfish that happens to be passing by, a butterfly in a glass orb, a tongue... lots of living things. Her verbal and somatic components are performed as part of the song: "Beluga, sevruga, come winds of the Caspian Sea / Larynxes, glossitis, et max laryngitis, la voce to me." A place to start. Linking verbal components with the musical aspects of the universe seems like an important thing to do; I wrote a moment into the second episode of The Choices where a villain casts a knock spell by saying, "Knock-knock, let the devil in" and casting her next spell with, "Malevolent as I've ever been", the opening lyrics to Eminem's song "Venom". Might build off that...
And here's where we start talking about trying to drum up a magic system that's more Disney-esque than what we're used to. For example, true love serving as a counterspell, via a kiss or some other act of devotion or sacrifice. So... maybe a relationship meter game mechanic, to make sure the players can't fudge it by just breaking every curse by claiming they love the victim. Maybe a nice and simple one. Like when a DM or player just decides when a character's alignment has shifted due to their behavior, maybe a DM keeps tangible notes of relationship levels with other characters. Could be a nice and simple one! For example, in Baldur's Gate II, when your hero is romancing one of your fellow party members, there are only four stages: 0 means the relationship hasn't started yet, 1 means it's in progress, 2 means she's in love with you, 3 means you failed the romance subplot and it's over. Maybe not that simple (nor as irrevocable when you hit 3) but something like that. So, acts of love can break spells. And according to Merlin in Sword in the Stone, love is one of the strongest forces in the universe. It's all well and good to say that, but how to fit that into an actual system?
An important magical element: familiars. The tiny animals, or other sorts of tiny creatures, who assist wizards -- a guide and advisor, or for the adventuring wizard on the road, serving as a guardian, scout, and spy. Some wizards use a spell to summon the perfect familiar to them, others cast a bonding ritual on a creature they've already met and befriended. In the editions of D&D I'm familiar with, familiars are bound to all sorts of restrictions that I really don't like -- like how far away from their master they can get, that their master is the only person they can talk to, and that they're usually a formless spiritual creature summoned by the caster to take the form of an animal. Don't like it. Finding a familiar, I think, should be the process of bonding with an existing creature, and that creature should be a character in their own right. Bonding with a familiar (magically, that is, not just relationship-wise) is a process, and, well, there are definitely things I expect from such a connection.
So, here's just my off-the-cuff thoughts on what having a familiar is like. Telepathy, for one, with unlimited range. Life-forces linked together: if the master dies, the familiar dies; if the familiar dies, the master undergoes severe physical and mental trauma which they're likely to survive, but they'll never be the same. And if a familiar is a beast, it gains human intelligence and the ability to speak. Not just with their master, but with anyone, in any language their master knows (if a familiar is a non-beast creature that can't talk, like a pseudo-dragon, it still can't talk). Oh, and familiars have the option to break off the mystical connection with as much or as little forewarning and fanfare as they please. A beast familiar probably won't do so unless it's become very clear that the master/familiar relationship has become abusive and there's no hope of salvaging it, while a familiar that was a supernatural creature to begin with, especially a fiendish or aberrant creature, might do so at the slightest disagreement, or the slightest sign that their master is "going soft". A master can only break the connection with his familiar if he has a replacement familiar on-hand -- so only some wizards have the heart for it. Breaking off the relationship isn't as dire as one of the parties dying, but they're both eternally changed -- a beast familiar will keep its uplifted intellect, and the two parties will always have a somewhat accurate notion of the other's location, emotional state, and health -- so entering such a relationship in the first place is not to be done lightly.
So... what do the two participants get out of this relationship, apart from the master having the assistance of a small animal, and the familiar getting whatever pampering the wizard can provide? I would imagine there are all sorts of magical perks that get better and better as time goes on. Like what? I dunno. Oh, and I suppose there should be an upper limit on how big a familiar can be; traditionally, cats are the largest animal that can take on the role. I'm thinking beast familiars top out at Small (so, about the size of an average dog breed, not one of the bigger ones), and then we can have a very small selection of non-beast creatures of Tiny size or smaller that can also be familiars.
Spells
Here's some various ideas about individual spells which have been cast in Disney films, or might be cast to produce effects seen there.
In Pinocchio, Pinocchio and Jiminy search the ocean for Monstro by... walking along the bottom of the sea much as if the water was air, only wearing stones in their trousers to make sure they don't float back up to the top. In Kingdom Hearts 3D, Sora follows Pinocchio into the sea, equally inexplicably; he's slightly less susceptible to gravity in these scenes, but otherwise operates as normal. Well, maybe that's a spell! To not only breathe underwater, but also maneuver as you would in your natural element. That spell wearing off would also explain how Pinocchio apparently drowns near the end of the film despite being totally able to breathe underwater before. I mean, not in the movie, in the movie it's just nonsense, but in a retelling.
Mickey's fantasies in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" include astral projection and control over the weather and waves. That's super-epic stuff, naturally, gotta be really good at magic to get near to being able to do that.
I had a thought that some major pieces of fairy tale magic -- such as the curse on Princess Aurora, Ariel's bargain with Ursula, or the spell placed on the Beast's castle -- could be achieved with a wish spell. This would imply that Maleficent, Ursula, and the unseen Enchantress are incredibly powerful wizards or sorcerers, though, and people that powerful, well, they really ought to be harder to come by. And charge a lot more money. Maybe these spells are more of a geas? I ought to look deeper into what that sort of thing entails. I definitely don't want it to be, like, outside the context of the laws of magic, I never want that to be a thing.
In a lot of media aimed at children, being a wizard or sorcerer often takes the form of changing yourself into animals, and nothing else. Sometimes turning other people into animals, usually amphibians. In the Disney catalogue, this can be seen in The Sword in the Stone, which explicitly states that this is, by definition, the only thing a wizard duel consists of, and in DuckTales: The Movie, in which changing his shape appears to be the only power of the villain Merlock. ...Not sure how to apply that observation, but let the record show I observed it. I suppose the Merlin-versus-Mim duel is an excellently creative exhibition of what can be done with an all-shapeshifting duel, but I'm not sure how much of it can be applied to a game.
Another piece of magic I've seen a bit of in 5th Edition and never in any game before it is magic that messes with the memory; there are spells for modifying memories, and leaving the Feywild brings the risk that you'll forget everything that happened while you were there. You don't see that often in tabletop games, but it's certainly great for stories! Heck, it's just about the scariest and most tragic thing magic can possibly do. Sometimes it's even funny. Good shit.
Let's talk oracular barnyard animals. Yeah: Hen Wen, the pig from The Black Cauldron, how did the pig come to be the kind of pig that sees visions and stuff? Speaking of visions, let's talk about seeing the future. Great device, I like it, I like when writers take us to the point where the future vision happens exactly as we saw it but with all sorts of circumstances we didn't know about that twist the prophecy a bit. Not really a thing you can do when you're GMing an RPG, as the dice factor and the unpredictability of your human players mean you can't write your way perfectly to the future vision. So, I guess this means that, as a general rule of the world, visions of the future are visions of things that only may be.
Ursula in The Little Mermaid practices significantly more magic than any Disney villain before her. Her spells have a lot of red tape and bureaucracy attached to them, characteristic of the villains in films by John Musker and Ron Clements. Her deal with Ariel is sealed by a binding magical contract which King Triton is unable to circumvent. That gave me the idea that maybe you need someone's written consent in order to cast buff spells on them, as D&D always specifies that these spells can only be cast on a willing ally. Maybe only some spells, that would be rather inconvenient, and all that stuff about making magic a much bigger production might already be starting to make it too inconvenient for battle and such. Still, the letter of Ursula's bargain is definitely unlike anything you'll find in an RPG magic book, hence that wish idea earlier, but... maybe that's a mechanic. You write down the terms of the spell you want to cast, the deal you want to make, and the GM determines based on some guidelines in the guidebook if you are, in fact, powerful enough to make such an arrangement. Customizable fairy tale spells. Well, that certainly opens up way more possibilities than an ordinary RPG spell list! That's always been the goal of the system, to make fairy tale tropes make sense by an RPG engine.
Anyway, other Little Mermaid spells. Ursula mentions a pair of past clients, a fat mermaid she made thin and a gawky merman she made buff so they could be together, because only attractive people can be in relationships, as we all know. Disguise spells in D&D, whether they're illusions or actual body modifications, have the rule that you can't be more than a foot taller or shorter than you actually are, and you have to keep the basic body plan of your species, but your bulk can be as different from your own as you want. Mm, that doesn't add up, there should be rules on changing bulk. I mean, for one thing, changing your body mass ought to alter your Strength score, right? And vice-versa, while we're on that. Also, changing your physical form tends not to be permanent in D&D magic, when it usually is in fairytales. How do we get that to work? And while we're at it, the alter self spell in D&D has a few options: in addition to altering your body as a disguise, you can also give yourself natural weapons, or make yourself aquatic. A spell clearly written with humans in mind -- what if you already have natural weapons, or you already are aquatic? Just a thing to keep in mind, since this game system has a very different assortment of core playable peoples!
And, final Ursula paragraph... well, first of all, what does a magical dealmaker like Ursula gain from being paid in her client's voice? We know that late in the game Ursula disguises herself as a human woman who sounds like Ariel, so that's what she ultimately uses the voice for, but that's a backup plan, why did she want it in the first place? If Ariel was a bard, as she probably would be if she were a D&D character, then that payment would make her unable to cast any spells with verbal components, but that's not actually the case here. Of course, Ursula was counting on scamming Ariel out of the bargain; she probably took her voice in payment because she imagined that Ariel would be unable to win over the prince if she couldn't speak. But let's pretend for a second that Ursula was actually on the level, as the sea-witch was in the original fairytale; let's say one's voice is the typical payment for such a magical favor. Why? ...Gotta think about that. Anyway, when Ursula is disguised as Vanessa, her reflection reveals her true self -- I imagine that should be a side effect of some illusion spells. Not all, or they'd be pretty pisspoor illusions, but some. And certainly not spells that actually modify the body, as in Ursula's case, because, you know... that doesn't make sense. And for the final battle, Ursula makes herself gigantic, a moment awesome and iconic enough that it made me waver in thinking size-shifting could never work. Most spells of growth merely double your height, and accordingly scale up your weight and strength... square-cube law and all that. But a more powerful growth spell, as Ursula acquires from the trident, yeah, let's keep those in mind. Of course, as Ursula is a magic-user, making herself huge obviously didn't do much to boost her power and just made her a bigger target, but, you know, it's about presentation.
One super-epic spell? How about one that raises earthmotes out of... the earth, I guess. Floating islands upon which powerful wizards build their fortresses, evil and otherwise -- like Merlock in DuckTales. That's a spell, a very high-level one, and I imagine the world is full of the results of people who have cast it in the past.
Hmm, let's swing back around to the part where you construct your own magical effect and the GM determines if you have the power to create that effect! When it comes to the curse placed on the castle in Beauty and the Beast, I think that's the sort of large-scale thing that actually would require a wish spell, or the equivalent. Now, if you cast a wish spell in 5E and you wish for anything other than replicating the effect of some other spell on the spell list, there's a 1-in-4 chance that you will never cast the wish spell again for the rest of your life. ...Yeah, I think a certain Enchantress is petty enough to take that chance just to screw with some prince.
In Hocus Pocus, Thackery Binx is cursed with immortality (and being a cat). Now, a curse of immortality, meh, that doesn't really work in an RPG. In a game, there has to always be a risk, so a hero can't bear such a curse, and there has to always be a chance of victory, so a villain can't either. Then again... Binx clearly can die, he just comes back to life immediately. I suppose you see that sometimes in video games, a completely immortal enemy who still gets a health bar you can whittle down to represent that at least you've tired him out enough to get away. In a tabletop game, perhaps this is also true, you can deal damage to someone cursed with immortality and eventually kill them (they probably regenerate, so it's harder), but when you do kill them, they come back, mm, make it a day later, if they came back immediately they'd overwhelm you.
Also in Hocus Pocus, er, there's the bit where the witches can't set foot in the graveyard. Loopholey enough that they can fly over it on their brooms, of course, they just have to be real careful not to fall off the brooms. I'm pretty sure that's how one or two of them actually die. So, yeah, that kind of... thing, where you completely ward a certain creature from an area. I always saw that kind of warding as meaning such creatures are physically incapable of passing through the barrier, but yeah, when the rule is they can't touch the ground, and they might fly over it and eventually fall off, then, I guess, yeah, dying makes more sense.
Also also in Hocus Pocus, hmm, I wrote down "witch circles", what does that mean? I imagine it refers to the circles spellcasters draw on the ground for certain spell effects? I don't remember that in Hocus Pocus. I also took note of ontological inertia -- that's a fancy way of saying that stuff tends to keep being stuff. As TV Tropes notes, sometimes things in fiction don't have ontological inertia, most notably in Disney films with magical villains; e.g., when that villain is defeated, every evil magic thing they did during the climax gets undone, whether that makes sense or not. I noticed it in Hocus Pocus, I guess because I hadn't seen it before so I noticed it when it happened even though, you know, it's way bigger and more obvious in The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, guess I was just used to that. So, what we have to do is figure out what sorts of lasting magical effects in K&K end when their caster dies, and what sorts don't.
Let's go back around to the curse of immortality and think about another thing that, well, prevents death. Aladdin specifies that genies can't kill, and this fact had to be considered in The Return of Jafar when Jafar, now a genie himself, wants revenge. How does he maintain his menace when he can't kill anyone? Well, a recurring line throughout the film is, "You'd be surprised what you can live through," and various encounters with Jafar play that line first for humor, then horror, and eventually, hope. Rag on Disney for making cheap sequels all you want, that's damn good writing right there. So I guess what that means... first of all, K&K genies can totally kill, but if there is a being that's cursed to be unable to kill someone, well, that guy can still harm you. A whole lot. You will never drop below 0 hit points when you're fighting him, but he can cause you endless pain and suffering, which... is frightening in a story, but absolutely meaningless in an RPG, so I guess if he gets you down to 0 hit points he can then kidnap you or something, there's no tension in him just being able to take your hit points away.
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MAGIC ITEMS
Wizard Hat: The story of The Sorcerer's Apprentice relies on the premise that the apprentice gains some of his master's powers by taking his hat. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but at least in Disney's version, Yen Sid demonstrates that he's perfectly capable of using magic when his hat is off. Regardless, the iconic cone-shaped wizard hat... probably does something, something magical. It's a "Wizard Hat", because, well, sorcery is something you're born with, you can't really teach sorcery, so, clearly Yen Sid is more of a wizard. A "Warlock Hat", the kind with a wide brim where the point doesn't stick straight up, probably does something a little different.
Book of Flying: Mickey, in his Sorcerer's Apprentice incarnation, is often seen flying around (or floating on water) atop a giant book. Not sure why a giant book would be one's object of choice for enchanting to fly around, but... looks kinda cool.
Magical Drugs: Some sort of fantastical drug that makes you trip... makes you see things like the "Pink Elephants" number from Dumbo. Hm, relevance? Maybe the GM can use it to foreshadow things, or maybe you can astral-project to the Realm of Dreams when you're in such a state. Just thoughts.
Talking Hat: Inspired by "Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet", a segment from Make Mine Music. It made me think of an episode from the Netflix revival of Mystery Science Theater 3000 -- in the film Wizards of the Lost Kingdom, the villain wears a hat that resembles a crab, and Jonah and the Bots spend the whole movie pretending the hat is an actual character and feeding it dialogue. So, why would one want a talking hat...? Well, generally, a sentient magic item has other uses apart from being able to hang out with you. The line between a sentient magic item and a creature of the construct category is a thin one. For a talking hat, I'm going to go with "item", since it only talks, it can't move around on its own. So... what can it do?
Singing Harp: Again, dancing on the border between creature and item, but definitely a character -- a singing harp carved in the shape of a beautiful woman, as in the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment of Fun and Fancy Free. Her singing brought prosperity to Happy Valley... sounds OP, but let's hang onto that theme.
Magic Beans: Which grow a beanstalk that leads to the overworld, presumably. Funny thing, there's a D&D magic item called the "bag of beans". When you plant a bean, the instant gigantic beanstalk is only one of a massive amount of things that can happen, you roll dice to determine exactly what happens, and all the options are super weird.
Submarine: When 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was written, Captain Nemo's electric submarine was a thing of pure science fiction. Still is, I suppose, I imagine real subs still don't run exclusively on electricity, but don't quote me on that. In Cosmos, it seems reasonable than an electric submarine -- with the iconic narwhal-like design Disney gave to the Nautilus -- would be a thing that runs on magic as much as genius engineering.
Broom of Flying: The classic magic item wielded by a witch. She flies on it, maybe ties her luggage on it. And, you know, you don't have to be a witch. You just need to, well, find one of these. Perhaps Mary Poppins's "Umbrella of Flying" is a modified version of the classic broom... and it also talks, right, the umbrella? Well, any magic item can be converted into a sentient magic item. Also, in Hocus Pocus, the three witches have their brooms stolen and so somehow quickly rig up some new rides out of a modern broom, a mop, and a vacuum cleaner. It's an old joke, but a good one, though I don't imagine it's possible to quickly improvise a magic item like that. You know what I like? Swiffers.
Bag of Holding: An iconic item from Dungeons & Dragons: an ordinary bag with an extradimensional interior. It has a (usually) limited amount of space, but always way more space than the actual size of the bag. Most artistic depictions show the Bag of Holding as a simple cloth sack, but in 5th Edition, they illustrate it as a pretty neat-looking satchel. And Mary Poppins? We all know she's got one.
Smoky Staircase: Yet another Mary Poppins example: some sort of item to summon a sturdy staircase made of smoke, as Mary Poppins conjures up late in the film. Sounds useful.
Magic Paintings and Books: I've always liked the whimsy of being able to enter the world of a painting or other work of art -- like the sidewalk chalk sequence in Mary Poppins. Speaking logically, I think it would only work if the painting was specifically designed for such -- if it was merely a spell, I don't imagine the magic would otherwise be able to figure out what kind of story a painting was supposed to have. Oh, also books! Books that actually take you into a whole 'nother world, like a lot of depictions of the Winnie the Pooh world.
Sulfuric Motorcycle: As ridden by the main protagonist of Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Of course, in the film it's a horrible pollutant -- it's incredibly loud and belches unsightly green smoke which presumably smells like, well, sulfur. I expect witches to be more environmentally conscious. Seems more like the thing a demon-serving warlock would drive, not a witch. Though I still don't know the K&K-verse's definition of "witch".
Bed of Transportation: The main plot device of Bedknobs and Broomsticks. One merely needs to sit on the bed and tell the bedknob where you'd like to go, and it'll fly you there. Or something, I'm 65 movies deep into this collection, I don't remember every detail. It's whimsical, to be certain, and so much comfier than a broom, I would imagine.
Amulet of Substitutiary Locomotion: The Star of Asteroth is the MacGuffin of Bedknobs and Broomsticks, the material focus for what's called a spell of substitutiary locomotion. Simply put, they animate objects. We've gone over animated objects, and maybe this amulet allows you to perform that spell on a much grander scale, as the heroes in Bedknobs animate an entire museum full of suits of armor to fight Nazis, as you do.
Carousel of Aging: A thing appearing in Something Wicked This Way Comes. I forget who rode it... and whether they became older or younger... but it's certainly an appropriate image, a carousel representing progress or, well, the opposite. The opposite of progress, of course, is congress. Galaxy brain!
Magic Tattoos: For lack of a better category, let's say a tattoo qualifies as a magic item. Magic tattoos in stories usually mean animated tattoos, most famously seen in Moana, but apparently they were also in Something Wicked This Way Comes, I don't remember that, but I wrote it down. In RPG worlds, of course, you expect a magic tattoo to do something protective or otherwise useful, not just be cool, so let's think about that shit.
Lunchpail Tree: A seemingly natural phenomenon seen in Return to Oz which apparently is in the Oz books: a tree that grows metal buckets, inside which you can find a fully prepared lunch. That's a bit too whimsical for my tastes, but maybe something like it... maybe a sword tree, or... I can't think of a second thing, but yeah! Something like that. Not a natural occurrence, but a paranormal one left behind by some ancient magic, just... trees that grow artificial things. Yeah.
Sea King's Trident: King Triton's trident is for ruling the seven seas! A legendary magic item to be sure, one that the heroes are unlikely to get their hands on because it belongs to someone important. Maybe someone not quite as important as Poseidon, but pretty close. So, what do we see the trident do...? Mostly, it shoots lightning. Magic lightning, so it's not quite as disastrous as what actually happens when you electrify water. Ursula proves that you can also use it to stir up waves and storms and, naturally, it's what she uses to make herself grow. And in the end, Triton uses it to turn Ariel human again. A human with clothes, which Ursula didn't bother with when she made Ariel human. For part of this, I get the vibe that Triton is a very powerful druid, but obviously there's a shitload of power inherent in the trident, gotta come up with a full list.
Genie Talisman: The talisman wielded by Merlock in DuckTales: The Movie. Not only does it grant him his shapeshifting power (seemingly his only power, so I guess he's not actually any kind of wizard), but when he combines it with the genie lamp, he gets infinite wishes. Pretty nice dual-purpose talisman, I wouldn't mind making a K&K magic item that also has two functions akin to that; it'd make for a nice shout-out.
Great Big Book of Everything: A trope named for an old Disney Channel preschool show, Stanley, what it usually calls to mind is the Junior Woodchuck Guide, the scout manual used by Huey, Dewey, and Louie -- a book in which they can find absolutely any piece of practical knowledge they need. It's a fun gag when such a thing is a mundane book which can't possibly be that big, but, I've never been one to include things in a story that don't make sense, so perhaps the Woodchuck Guide can provide inspiration for some kind of magic book that, I dunno, enhances knowledge in some way.
Flying Plate Armor: A magic item I came up with early on -- a suit of full plate armor that gives you the power of propelled flight. Remembered to write it down when I saw The Rocketeer, although he just has a jet pack and a helmet, no full plate. So... jet pack, note that as well. And, despite some high-tech stuff mentioned elsewhere, it's important to me that this particular item is in fact magic -- just struck me as more interesting. So, a way to magically emulate Iron Man. Or David Xanatos from Gargoyles, whom I've often called "evil Tony Stark". I'll surely lift some more details from the MCU later on -- they are Disney-produced after all, but that part will come after the main collection. Making a superhero campaign setting will, of course, necessitate a pretty thorough rewrite of all the rules.
Scrying Mirror: As seen in Beauty and the Beast. Where do you suppose the Beast got such a thing? This is a world with, basically, exactly two magical elements: the Enchantress and her curse... and a scrying mirror. What the hey? Of course, there's nothing truly exceptional about a moderately-powerful magic item such as that in the K&K universe.
Enchanted Rose: The symbol of the Beast's life. We're not entirely sure why he's so protective of it... it's the timeclock to his deadline, yes, but would anything actually happen if it were lost or damaged? I never got that impression. Maybe such an iconic item should actually do something.
Genie Lamp: Or bottle, or flask, or what-have-you. An ordinary genie is bound to this object, and that's how you create an imprisoned, wish-granting genie, who remains that way until... well, it depends. Maybe they need someone to wish for their freedom, maybe they're free after granting however many wishes are specified (usually three, but might be one, or seven, you know, mix it up), or until they beat you in a fight! While we're here, let's talk about the place where the lamp was found: the Cave of Wonders. What strange, restrictive rules the Cave abides by, no? Only a specific "chosen one" can enter, and even then, he can only touch the lamp, none of the other fabulous treasures in there? ...Sup with that? Back to the lamp, we learn a few things in The Return of Jafar. Firstly, we see that a genie is physically unable to move very far away from his lamp. Later, we learn that destroying the lamp kills the genie, but destroying it is no easy task, you need something with immense destructive power, like lava. And between these two revelations, we see Jafar imprison Aladdin's genie in a little glass ball... maybe genies are somehow just susceptible to... being trapped inside things? I dunno, I get this nagging feeling that that has to be a rule of some kind.
Evil Grimoire: We're talking the scary book from Hocus Pocus. It's got a blinky eyeball on it and can clearly tempt people into reading it, or send out a beacon for its true owner to follow, and at the end of the film, it's still awake. So the thing has a mind of its own, to the point it's seemingly the real villain of the piece. All these aspects, well, these clearly need to be aspects of a truly world-shaking artifact, not just any magic item!
Youth Potion: Well, that's not exactly what the witches in Hocus Pocus make, but... or is it, is it an actual potion? I forget. Regardless, this can be one of... many, many potions in the K&K world. Though perhaps not used by hags, I'm pretty sure they always look old and can easily use illusions to appear younger and more appealing. Nor, I think, are dead children required in the making of it, but... heck, who knows what goes into making potions? That's not covered in D&D. Maybe we should cover it.
Black Flame Candle: As seen in Hocus Pocus. Black flame is just a really cool visual, and, let's see, it resurrected the Sanderson sisters when lit by a virgin on a full moon Halloween night. Well, that's awfully specific, how often does that happen? For good reason, most magic items in RPGs work a lot more often than that.
Combat Wheelchair: Dr. Finkelstein from The Nightmare Before Christmas is the first prominent Disney character who uses a wheelchair. Earlier this year, a D&D player homebrewed a magic item called the combat wheelchair, allowing characters who need a wheelchair to go on adventures. It was a big hit among all D&D players who aren't assholes and I've heard whispers it may have been added to Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the newest official sourcebook. So, yeah! I say that's something to keep in mind from the beginning, accomodations for disabled characters, whether or not those accomodations are magical and/or combat-ready.
Frog's Breath: In Nightmare, Sally tends to slip poisons into Dr. Finkelstein's food so she can sneak out and enjoy some freedom. In one scene, she covers up the smell of the poison using an ingredient called "frog's breath" -- not entirely successfully, as it makes the meal smell like frog's breath and that gets Finkelstein's guard up. Amusingly, the ingredient is far more literal than you'd expect: Sally opens a jar, and a frog sticks its head out and exhales all over the food, and I think it'd be fun to shout-out to that ingredient, some magical item that masks poisons and ingredients via similar visual effects. Poisons, of course, belong in the gameplay section as they're usually not magic; they're a seldom-used part of D&D.
Severed Head of Tim Burton: In the final number of Nightmare, we see the vampires playing ice hockey with a pumpkin. That was a reshoot: in the original version of the scene, their puck was in fact the severed head of Tim Burton. At first, I thought maybe we'd just stick such a head in the background of some art somewhere in the guidebook, but the more I say "severed head of Tim Burton", the more amusing it becomes, I think I'd want it to actually appear in the text as a magical artifact of some sort. What kind? That, we'll think about later -- in the God of War series, Kratos acquires a different severed head of some magical being in each core game in the series and uses them for various purposes, so that'd be the place to start pondering ideas.
Bejeweled Flower: In Return of Jafar, Aladdin gifts Jasmine with a bejeweled flower he took from some thieves. It's a nice simple treasure, but its appearance reminded me of the Wand of Urik from The Secrets of Droon, always been fond of Droon, don't want to lift too much from it, since I hope to actually adapt it someday. Ooh, maybe after adapting it, it can be licensed as a K&K campaign setting. That would be cool, a Droon RPG... heh, random crazy dream. Anyway, yeah, wands. Wands that look like bejeweled flowers.
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And, let's break it up some more, I try so hard not to be so long-winded, so, this is a three-part entry!
