Three suggestions for things your intelligent item is doing behind your back

Whether it’s the magical talking sword you’ve found in the dragon’s hoard, or the advanced AI of your gun, many players find themselves holding in their hand an item that is, in a manner of speaking, an NPC. We won’t be discussing the question of how to portray such an NPC – that’s a question for another time – and instead let’s ask the question, what does this item want to do? With an emphasis on the things its already doing, without you knowing about it.

These items can be inserted into the campaign pre-planned, or you can decide to retroactively treat an intelligent item as having such intentions that no one suspected so far (maybe they didn’t even know its intelligent!). These suggestions are suitable both for sentient magical items in fantasy worlds, and for artificial intelligent in sci-fi settings; some of the suggestions are more suitable for “lesser” intelligences, those who aren’t actually sentient, lacking an internal world. In order for the item to be able to further their interests without the character’s knowledge, they must be able to operate by themselves.

In a fantasy setting, the item might be telepathic, with the ability to cast charm person or dominate person, or having an unlimited access to message, thus giving it an access to the world, behind the character’s back. It’s possible the character doesn’t even know the item is capable of casting these spells. Anyway, the item’s declared Purpose is probably quite different from its actual Purpose (which is, of course, to further its secret agenda).

In a futuristic setting, a smart agent software can be installed in cybernetics, equipment, or any other system. Thanks to the prevalence of wireless connection, it’s very easy for the agent to send and receive information, making them a very real risk.