Welcome to Developer Diary 9 for Runemaster and this week we will talk about Items and loot! What is a RPG without items and loot? Well… still a RPG but not as much fun!Runemaster divides items into three categories:Quest ItemsRandom ItemsUnique ItemsQuest Items, as I am sure you have already surmised, are items you gain as part of a quest. These can be anything from a long lost ring to a pyramid of dwarven skulls. These items cannot be equipped by the player, but may have many uses in the quests themselves. These are plot sensitive items and aren’t really of much use outside of their quest purpose - but could have immense power or value in the course of the quest. Quest items are necessary for the completion of some quests.We will have at least five different item types your Hero can equip: Belts, Weapons, Rings, Runes and Amulets. Each can be used, and all of them will have a bonus. Your Hero will only be able to wear one of each of these items at a time - so no stacking amulets for extra bling and/or lightning damageWe are using a system of prefixes and suffixes for randomized items you can find. A low level weapon can be named “Feeble sword of…” while a high level weapon may be “Glorious sword of…”. This will be an easy shorthand to know whether you are carrying something of great value or just another minor blade.A random item will always give a bonus to one or two stats. The viable combinations are limited by the type of item and the item level. Firtt, the item generator chooses a major stat to modify and then a minor stat is selected depending on the major stat chose and level of the item.The suffixes appended to an item depend on what major and minor bonuses the item has. For the moment, we have more than ten different possible bonuses and a total combination of over 150. I won’t plague you with every suffix we have, but here’ arethe ones where Melee Damage has been combined with the other possible effects:Melee Damage + Melee Damage: "Destruction"Melee Damage + Terror: "Torment"Melee Damage + Health: "the Bane"Melee Damage + Melee Piercing: "Mutilation"Melee Damage + Discipline: "Havoc"Melee Damage + Range: "Carnage"Melee Damage + Armor: "Stoneskin"Melee Damage + Ranged Damage: "Slaughter"Melee Damage + Ranged Piercing: "Butchery"Melee Damage + Magic Damage: "Magic Destruction"Melee Damage + Magic Resistance: "Corruption"A mid-level weapon with double Melee Damage bonuses would then be called a “Fine Sword of Destruction”.Not all items will be randomized loot that you stumble across. As is appropriate for a saga, we will have a lot of unique items you can get through quests as well that aren’t necessarily quest related. Think of these as major rewards for a job well done.You may recognize some of these unique items from the myths, legends and sagas of Norse Mythology, since Norse folklore is rich with signature weapons and jewelry of great value and power. Unique items have set effects that will not vary from game to game. We have Laevateinn, rumored to be Frey’s own sword, and Hofud, Heimdall’s sword, to list a couple of examples. Unique items are often tied to epic quests that will take you to Helheim and back.BONUS: An early concept of the Darkelfs.