One of the things that I dislike when running a session is how a great majority of the items are bland - a short sword is a short sword, a bow is a bow, an arrow is an arrow.

After sitting on it for some time, I decided that the problem doesn't lie in my inability to come up with items with interesting characteristics, but with the fact that the more sophisticated the item ,the longer it takes for players to write it down and the more of a problem it poses later. Sure, I can say:

You find a beautifully crafted sword. The pommel was crafted from a single raw turquoise; the golden hilt is inscribed with letters that form the word "FATE" on one side and "NIGHT" on the other. When you hold it in your hands, the slightly curved blade with irregular fuller slightly glows with a blue light, which gets brighter as you move the sword. Now, write it down!

A smart player would most likely just write Sabre, turq gem pommel, FATE & NIGHT on hilt, blade glow blue in hand, but it still is half a minute (or more) wasted for writing the description of an item which, quite likely, will be sold in a few hours. This would work if it was only employed rarely, but every item you find has its own unique characteristics and I would like to use it more often: this plate mail has lots of dents and has blood on the inside, that knife has a rabbit paw hanging from the hilt, those swords have a cross-guard shaped like wolves chasing each other.

Actually, players writing the descriptions by themselves also creates a problem - more than once, they neither could decipher their own writing nor interpret it correctly, and we had to spend time trying to understand what exactly a given item does.

One solution for this problem I had in mind was to prepare items on small, rectangular pieces of paper (kind of like cards, but not made of cardboard or rigid paper) with the item name and a short description. My players deemed it a bad idea, because such cards are hard to manage.

Lately, I am using a different tactic - I write down on a piece of paper all the items I know the players are going to get at any given moment and then give this piece of paper to them, though I haven't yet used it for items with descriptions. They can keep these pieces of paper for the session and later copy what is left to their character sheets.

Too long, didn't read:

Do you know any good ways or tricks on how to introduce more depth to items to the campaign in such a way that they would be quick to remember and, later, easy to decipher? By quick to remember I mean the players don't have to write down anything beside the name, and by easy to decipher that players after few sessions won't look at the item and think "Is this dm+1, or olmit, or what the funk does it mean?"

In case of doubt: Not where to get inspiration for descriptions, but how to make them a part of the whole campaign, so they are written down somewhere and players can reference them in the inventory.

One of the things that I dislike when running a session is how a great majority of the items are bland - a short sword is a short sword, a bow is a bow, an arrow is an arrow.

After sitting on it for some time, I decided that the problem doesn't lie in my inability to come up with items with interesting characteristics, but with the fact that the more sophisticated the item ,the longer it takes for players to write it down and the more of a problem it poses later. Sure, I can say:

You find a beautifully crafted sword. The pommel was crafted from a single raw turquoise; the golden hilt is inscribed with letters that form the word "FATE" on one side and "NIGHT" on the other. When you hold it in your hands, the slightly curved blade with irregular fuller slightly glows with a blue light, which gets brighter as you move the sword. Now, write it down!

A smart player would most likely just write Sabre, turq gem pommel, FATE & NIGHT on hilt, blade glow blue in hand, but it still is half a minute (or more) wasted for writing the description of an item which, quite likely, will be sold in a few hours. This would work if it was only employed rarely, but every item you find has its own unique characteristics and I would like to use it more often: this plate mail has lots of dents and has blood on the inside, that knife has a rabbit paw hanging from the hilt, those swords have a cross-guard shaped like wolves chasing each other.

Actually, players writing the descriptions by themselves also creates a problem - more than once, they neither could decipher their own writing nor interpret it correctly, and we had to spend time trying to understand what exactly a given item does.

One solution for this problem I had in mind was to prepare items on small, rectangular pieces of paper (kind of like cards, but not made of cardboard or rigid paper) with the item name and a short description. My players deemed it a bad idea, because such cards are hard to manage.

Lately, I am using a different tactic - I write down on a piece of paper all the items I know the players are going to get at any given moment and then give this piece of paper to them, though I haven't yet used it for items with descriptions. They can keep these pieces of paper for the session and later copy what is left to their character sheets.

Too long, didn't read:

Do you know any good ways or tricks on how to introduce more depth to items to the campaign in such a way that they would be quick to record and, easy to decipher? By quick to record I mean the players don't have to write down anything beside the name during the session, and by easy to decipher that players after few sessions won't look at the item and think "Is this dm+1, or olmit, or what the funk does it mean?"

In case of doubt: Not where to get inspiration for descriptions, but how to make them a part of the whole campaign, so they are written down somewhere and players can reference them in the inventory.

One of the things that I dislike when running session is how big majority of the items are bland - short sword is short sword, bow is bow, arrow is arrow.

After sitting on it for some time I decided that the problem doesn't lie in my inability to come up with items with interesting characteristics but with the fact, that the more sophisticated the item the longer it takes for players to write it down and more problem it poses later. Sure, I can say:
You find a beautifully crafted sword. The pummel was crafted from a single, raw turquoise, the golden hilt is inscribed with letters that form a word FATE on one side and NIGHT on the other. When you hold it in your hands the slightly curved blade with irregular fuller slightly glows with a blue light, which gets brighter as your move the sword. Now, write it down!

Smart player would most likely just write Sabre, turq gem pummel, FATE & NIGHT on hilt, blade glow blue in hand, but it still is half a minute (or more) wasted for writing the description of an item which, quite likely, will be sold in a few hours. This would work if it was only employed rarely, but every item you find has its own unique characteristics and I would like to use it more often: this plate mail has lots of dents and has blood on the inside, that knife has a rabbit paw hanging from the hilt, those swords have cross guard shaped like wolves chasing each other.

Actually, players writing the descriptions by themselves also crates a problem - more than once they either couldn't decipher their own writing, or interpret it correctly and we had to spend time trying to understand what exactly given item does.

One solution for this problem I had in mind was to prepare items on a small, rectangular pieces of paper (kind of cards, but not made of cardboard or rigid paper) with item name and short description. My players deemed it a bad idea, because such cards are hard to manage. As for lately I am using a different tactic - on a piece of paper I write down all the items I know the players are going to get on any given moment and then give this piece of paper to them, though I haven't yet used it for items with descriptions. They can keep these pieces of paper for the session and later copy what is left to their character sheets.

In case of doubt: Not where to get inspiration for descriptions, but how to make them a part of whole campaign, so they are written down somewhere and players can reference them in the inventory.

One of the things that I dislike when running a session is how a great majority of the items are bland - a short sword is a short sword, a bow is a bow, an arrow is an arrow.

After sitting on it for some time, I decided that the problem doesn't lie in my inability to come up with items with interesting characteristics, but with the fact that the more sophisticated the item ,the longer it takes for players to write it down and the more of a problem it poses later. Sure, I can say:

You find a beautifully crafted sword. The pommel was crafted from a single raw turquoise; the golden hilt is inscribed with letters that form the word "FATE" on one side and "NIGHT" on the other. When you hold it in your hands, the slightly curved blade with irregular fuller slightly glows with a blue light, which gets brighter as you move the sword. Now, write it down!

A smart player would most likely just write Sabre, turq gem pommel, FATE & NIGHT on hilt, blade glow blue in hand, but it still is half a minute (or more) wasted for writing the description of an item which, quite likely, will be sold in a few hours. This would work if it was only employed rarely, but every item you find has its own unique characteristics and I would like to use it more often: this plate mail has lots of dents and has blood on the inside, that knife has a rabbit paw hanging from the hilt, those swords have a cross-guard shaped like wolves chasing each other.

Actually, players writing the descriptions by themselves also creates a problem - more than once, they neither could decipher their own writing nor interpret it correctly, and we had to spend time trying to understand what exactly a given item does.

One solution for this problem I had in mind was to prepare items on small, rectangular pieces of paper (kind of like cards, but not made of cardboard or rigid paper) with the item name and a short description. My players deemed it a bad idea, because such cards are hard to manage.

Lately, I am using a different tactic - I write down on a piece of paper all the items I know the players are going to get at any given moment and then give this piece of paper to them, though I haven't yet used it for items with descriptions. They can keep these pieces of paper for the session and later copy what is left to their character sheets.

In case of doubt: Not where to get inspiration for descriptions, but how to make them a part of the whole campaign, so they are written down somewhere and players can reference them in the inventory.

One of the things that I dislike when running session is how big majority of the items are bland - short sword is short sword, bow is bow, arrow is arrow.

After sitting on it for some time I decided that the problem doesn't lie in my inability to come up with items with interesting characteristics but with the fact, that the more sophisticated the item the longer it takes for players to write it down and more problem it poses later. Sure, I can say:
You find a beautifully crafted sword. The pummel was crafted from a single, raw turquoise, the golden hilt is inscribed with letters that form a word FATE on one side and NIGHT on the other. When you hold it in your hands the slightly curved blade with irregular fuller slightly glows with a blue light, which gets brighter as your move the sword. Now, write it down!

Smart player would most likely just write Sabre, turq gem pummel, FATE & NIGHT on hilt, blade glow blue in hand, but it still is half a minute (or more) wasted for writing the description of an item which, quite likely, will be sold in a few hours. This would work if it was only employed rarely, but every item you find has its own unique characteristics and I would like to use it more often: this plate mail has lots of dents and has blood on the inside, that knife has a rabbit paw hanging from the hilt, those swords have cross guard shaped like wolves chasing each other.

Actually, players writing the descriptions by themselves also crates a problem - more than once they either couldn't decipher their own writing, or interpret it correctly and we had to spend time trying to understand what exactly given item does.

One solution for this problem I had in mind was to prepare items on a small, rectangular pieces of paper (kind of cards, but not made of cardboard or rigid paper) with item name and short description. My players deemed it a bad idea, because such cards are hard to manage. As for lately I am using a different tactic - on a piece of paper I write down all the items I know the players are going to get on any given moment and then give this piece of paper to them, though I haven't yet used it for items with descriptions. They can keep these pieces of paper for the session and later copy what is left to their character sheets.

Too long, didn't read:

Do you know any good ways or tricks on how to introduce more depth to items to the campaign in such a way that they would be quick to remember and, later, easy to decipher? By quick to remember I mean the players don't have to write down anything beside the name, and by easy to decipher that players after few sessions won't look at the item and think "Is this dm+1, or olmit, or what the funk does it mean?"

In case of doubt: Not where to get inspiration for descriptions, but how to make them a part of whole campaign, so they are written down somewhere.

One of the things that I dislike when running session is how big majority of the items are bland - short sword is short sword, bow is bow, arrow is arrow.

After sitting on it for some time I decided that the problem doesn't lie in my inability to come up with items with interesting characteristics but with the fact, that the more sophisticated the item the longer it takes for players to write it down and more problem it poses later. Sure, I can say:
You find a beautifully crafted sword. The pummel was crafted from a single, raw turquoise, the golden hilt is inscribed with letters that form a word FATE on one side and NIGHT on the other. When you hold it in your hands the slightly curved blade with irregular fuller slightly glows with a blue light, which gets brighter as your move the sword. Now, write it down!

Smart player would most likely just write Sabre, turq gem pummel, FATE & NIGHT on hilt, blade glow blue in hand, but it still is half a minute (or more) wasted for writing the description of an item which, quite likely, will be sold in a few hours. This would work if it was only employed rarely, but every item you find has its own unique characteristics and I would like to use it more often: this plate mail has lots of dents and has blood on the inside, that knife has a rabbit paw hanging from the hilt, those swords have cross guard shaped like wolves chasing each other.

Actually, players writing the descriptions by themselves also crates a problem - more than once they either couldn't decipher their own writing, or interpret it correctly and we had to spend time trying to understand what exactly given item does.

One solution for this problem I had in mind was to prepare items on a small, rectangular pieces of paper (kind of cards, but not made of cardboard or rigid paper) with item name and short description. My players deemed it a bad idea, because such cards are hard to manage. As for lately I am using a different tactic - on a piece of paper I write down all the items I know the players are going to get on any given moment and then give this piece of paper to them, though I haven't yet used it for items with descriptions. They can keep these pieces of paper for the session and later copy what is left to their character sheets.

Too long, didn't read:

Do you know any good ways or tricks on how to introduce more depth to items to the campaign in such a way that they would be quick to remember and, later, easy to decipher? By quick to remember I mean the players don't have to write down anything beside the name, and by easy to decipher that players after few sessions won't look at the item and think "Is this dm+1, or olmit, or what the funk does it mean?"

In case of doubt: Not where to get inspiration for descriptions, but how to make them a part of whole campaign, so they are written down somewhere and players can reference them in the inventory.