Loot-a-Day, Day 3: Staffs, wands and rods
Cane of Learning
Being hit with this cane allows a character to learn more and faster than normally.
In D&D, the character suffers 2d6 of damage per character level from the abuse. The character then gains an additional proficiency with a tool or instrument. A D&D character can only ever gain one additional proficiency from using a cane of learning.
In Unknown Armies, the character suffers damage as for a successful melee attack from the abuse. In addition, a number between 1 and 10 has to be selected. The character is subjected to a violence stress check with a rank equal to that number. When next spending experience, the character may exceed the normal maximum for skill increases by that number for a single skill. An Unknown Armies character may use the cance of learning more than once.
Why D&D and Unknown Armies?
Because such an items works within the context of both games and the game effects are sufficiently different.
Loot-a-Day is a month-long German blogging challenge by fellow German blogger Greifenklaue, who was inspired by ArtifactaDay which we ran last August as a counterpoint to RPGaDay in Germany. We followed up on this with two more marathons of daily content about artificial creatures and science-gone-too-far, respectively, and now Greifenklaue seeks to spread the format.