Basically, one of the things I always liked about old school gaming was how easy it was to add this sort of thing, and I think it’s probably similarly possible in Torchbearer, but I think also must be done more carefully due to the nature of BWHQ games.
Not that I’m aware of, but I’m 100% for it! Note that Karl Edward Wagner’s Bloodstone is listed as one of the inspirations for Torchbearer in the bibliography. There’s long precedent for it in D&D as well, from Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor setting and stuff like the (spoilers!) crashed spaceship in Gygax’s S3 - Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.
Thundarr the Barbarian is a great inspiration for this stuff. I’ve also been enthralled recently by Reid San Filippo’s Crawling Under a Broken Moon fanzine for Dungeon Crawl Classics: http://crawlingunderabrokenmoon.blogspot.com/
I’ve actually found Torchbearer pretty robust when it comes to fiddling and adding things; after you’ve played it a while you realize it doesn’t have too many moving parts and those interact in entertaining but not too complex ways.
Also, the way Twists work means that introducing entertaining and odd items doesn’t get out of hand automatically; so your players found a raygun and it obliterates their enemies? Fun! But also, next time they lose a little Disposition in a conflict, that gun has run out of juice and the fun is over.
I’m kinda, sorta,working on something like that. As for now just made the Orc Merc and the Human Miner, and are now working on a “magic system” for the Datacruncher and, eventually, the Space Wizard.
