Although it's been years since I did any pen-and-paper role-playing, I'm looking forward to the CRPG Neverwinter Nights being developed by BioWare. I check out the BioWare message boards pretty often for updates. Right now there's a thread on "Silly magic items" -- things that DM's think would be funny to throw into a game to see what their players did with them.

Some examples from the thread so far:

* +1 Towel of Flicking

* Darts of Healing: heals 1-4 HP per dart

* Chocolate Axe: Just like a normal battleaxe, but you can eat it for +10 HP.

* Ring of Wizardry with a catch: Every time the user wants to cast a spell, a form appears in front of him that must be filled out in triplicate, including name of spell, reason for casting spell, personal/business use, etc.

* Arrow of Annoyance: A continually lit arrow which, on a successfully rolled missile hit, perpetually circles its target in place of infilcting damage. The arrow head always points to the targets center of mass, while the arrow itself remains (just barely) out of reach. If the arrow grows bored it may aggressively 'buzz' its target's field of vision - but it will never actually contact the target. It remains locked on its target until a successful dispel magic spell is cast, at which time it functions as a normal arrow until next fired.

* Ring of Spell Turning: When activated, a tiny voice says, "Turning. T-U-R-N-I-N-G. Turning."

* Boots of Moonwalking: When equipped, the user always faces opposite the direction in which he is moving.

* Alabaster Peewee Figurine: Each morning, the figurine announces the "word of the day". The next time that word is spoken in the figurine's presence, everyone within 30' must save versus Spells or spend the next round shouting loudly and inanely.

* Malaprop's Quill: Hovers in the air and takes dictations from its owner, scribing the words in beautiful gold ink. However, there is a 50% chance per page that one of the words will be altered to another word with similar spelling but an embarrassingly inappropriate meaning.

* Amulet of Fanfare: Created by the notoriously vain wizard Carnissus; once per day the amulet permits the wearer to teleport as per the spell. As the user arrives at his point of destination, an illusory swath of red carpet appears beneath him and illusory trumpets blare an annunciation, accompanied by the sound of scattered clapping and some cheering.

Add to the list!

Iss "and see if you can guess which ideas are mine" achar