Worlds of Pulp Gemstone Guide

Stones of Power: Eleven Gems for the Spellcrafter and the Forge Master

Years ago I managed a jewelry store. How I ended up behind that counter isn’t important. I didn’t love the job, but I loved the stones. I spent hours with a loupe pressed to my eye, turning garnets under the light and learning the difference between a stone’s price and its value. The two are rarely the same thing.

Price is what a buyer will pay. Value is something older. It’s the weight a stone has carried through centuries of human belief, from the warrior who carried it into battle to the widow who wore it to the graveside.

Plenty of video games link magical power to gemstones and let you press them into swords, armor, and amulets. I’ve always liked that idea. Treasure becomes more than coin. It becomes a link to the bones of the world.

Video games didn’t invent that link, though. People have believed in the power of gemstones for as long as they’ve pulled stones out of the dirt. Games only put that old belief in front of a mass audience.

So let’s bring it home to Worlds of Pulp.

One piece of advice before we start: buy a good gemstone reference. I keep a copy of the Smithsonian Handbook of Gemstones close by. Too many fantasy writers describe gems they’ve never seen. A field guide closes that gap, and your descriptions at the table will be sharper for it.

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How Inlays Work

A gemstone does nothing loose in a pouch except look pretty and invite thieves. Its power wakes only when a spellcrafter or forge master who knows the craft sets it into an item. We call this an inlay, and the space that holds it a setting.

Every bonus below is measured in added successes, applied only under the stated circumstances. A gem’s bonus depends on where it’s inlaid:

• Weapon Inlay: offensive bonuses, set into blades, hafts, bows, and anything else meant to hurt someone.
• Ward/Armor Inlay: defensive bonuses, set into armor, shields, helms, and protective wards.
• Talisman/Focus Inlay: magical or utility effects, set into rings, amulets, staves, wands, and crowns.

Quality matters. The bonuses listed assume a fine stone. A flawed or cloudy gem grants one fewer success, with a minimum of 1. A flawless stone, the kind that makes a jeweler go quiet, grants one more.

Stacking: Several gems of the same type in one item add their bonuses together, up to a maximum of +4 successes from any single gem type. Mixing stones is where clever crafters shine.

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The Eleven Stones

2. Garnet

The Stone: Most people think of garnet as a deep, wine-dark red, and that’s the face it shows most often. But garnet is really a whole family of minerals that comes in almost every color: orange spessartine, green tsavorite and demantoid, even rare stones that shift color under different light. It’s hard, durable, and was used in jewelry long before recorded history.

The Lore: Legend says Noah hung a glowing garnet to light the Ark. Travelers carried it to ward off misfortune on the road and to find their way home in the dark. It’s a stone of light, loyalty, and safe return.

• Weapon Inlay: +2 successes on attacks made in darkness or poor light. The blade seems to catch an ember glow at the moment of the strike.
• Ward/Armor Inlay: +2 successes to resist ambush or surprise. Garnet keeps watch while you sleep.
• Talisman/Focus Inlay: +2 successes on navigation, tracking, or finding your way back to a known place.

3. Amethyst

The Stone: Amethyst is purple quartz, colored by traces of iron and natural radiation deep in the earth. It ranges from pale lilac to a royal violet so deep it reads almost black. It often grows in geodes, crowded cathedrals of crystal hidden inside plain gray rock.

The Lore: The name comes from the Greek amethystos, meaning “not drunk.” Wine goblets were carved from it in the belief that it kept the drinker sober. Bishops wore it as a sign of a clear and disciplined mind.

• Weapon Inlay: +1 success on attacks while under any mind-altering effect, because the stone cuts through the fog.
• Ward/Armor Inlay: +3 successes to resist poison, intoxication, and toxins.
• Talisman/Focus Inlay: +2 successes to resist charm, illusion, or mental domination.

4. Jet

The Stone: Jet isn’t a true mineral. It’s fossilized wood, ancient trees crushed under ages of pressure until they became a light, glossy black. Pick it up and it feels warm, almost alive. Rub it and it picks up a static charge strong enough to lift scraps of paper. The finest jet came from Whitby on England’s coast, where it was carved into Victorian mourning jewelry.

The Lore: Jet has guarded the dead and the grieving for millennia. It was buried with the departed and worn against the evil eye. It’s a stone that stands at the border between this world and whatever waits beyond it.

• Weapon Inlay: +3 successes on attacks against the undead, spirits, and ghosts.
• Ward/Armor Inlay: +2 successes to resist fear, curses, and draining effects.
• Talisman/Focus Inlay: +2 successes on attempts to commune with, banish, or command the dead.

5. Onyx

The Stone: Onyx is banded chalcedony, a form of microcrystalline quartz with straight, parallel layers of black and white. Those clean contrasting bands made it the favorite stone of cameo carvers, who cut through the layers to raise white figures against a dark ground.

The Lore: Onyx has a darker reputation. Old beliefs held that it stirred quarrels, brought nightmares, and soured friendships. Others saw it as a stone of discipline and willpower, one that hardens the bearer against grief.

• Weapon Inlay: +2 successes on attacks meant to intimidate, disarm, or break an enemy’s nerve.
• Ward/Armor Inlay: +2 successes to resist pain, stun effects, and attempts to break your will.
• Talisman/Focus Inlay: +2 successes on curses, hexes, and spells that sow discord between enemies.

6. Ruby

The Stone: Ruby is red corundum, colored by chromium. Only diamond is harder among natural gems. The finest rubies, often called “pigeon’s blood,” glow as if lit from within, and chromium gives them a red fluorescence that seems to burn under daylight.

The Lore: In Sanskrit, ruby was the “king of gems.” Burmese warriors were said to set rubies under their own skin, believing it made them invulnerable in battle. It’s the stone of blood, courage, and the heart that refuses to quit.

• Weapon Inlay: +3 successes on damage. A ruby blade hits like a hammer wrapped in fire.
• Ward/Armor Inlay: +2 successes to resist bleeding and to stay conscious when wounded.
• Talisman/Focus Inlay: +2 successes on fire magic and on spells that heal or restore vitality.

7. Emerald

The Stone: Emerald is green beryl, colored by chromium and vanadium. Almost every emerald has inclusions, tiny fractures and trapped crystals that jewelers call the jardin, or garden. A “clean” emerald is so rare that the flaws have become part of the stone’s beauty.

The Lore: Emerald was believed to reveal truth, expose lies, and grant glimpses of the future. The emperor Nero is said to have watched gladiators through an emerald. It’s the stone of sight, of clear eyes looking into murky places.

• Weapon Inlay: +2 successes on aimed or precision attacks, such as finding the gap in the armor.
• Ward/Armor Inlay: +2 successes to detect hidden threats, traps, and invisible foes.
• Talisman/Focus Inlay: +3 successes on divination, prophecy, and spotting lies.

8. Sapphire

The Stone: Sapphire is ruby’s sibling. It’s the same corundum, just colored differently. Most people picture cornflower or midnight blue, but sapphires also come in yellow, pink, violet, green, and white. Some show a six-rayed star when cut into a dome.

The Lore: Sapphire has long been tied to the heavens, wisdom, and divine favor. Medieval clergy wore it as a symbol of heaven, and kings wore it against harm and envy. It’s the stone of the clear sky and the cool, ordered mind.

• Weapon Inlay: +2 successes on attacks against spellcasters and magical creatures.
• Ward/Armor Inlay: +3 successes to resist hostile spells.
• Talisman/Focus Inlay: +2 successes on lore, research, and the casting of complex spells.

9. Agate

The Stone: Agate is banded chalcedony, but unlike onyx, its bands curve, swirl, and ripple like frozen water. It forms in volcanic cavities, laying down layer after layer over thousands of years. No two agates are alike. Some show landscapes, some show moss, and some look like eyes staring back at you.

The Lore: The Greek philosopher Theophrastus named it for the river Achates, where it was found. Warriors carried it for strength. Travelers held it under the tongue to ease thirst. It’s a humble, steady, honest stone.

• Weapon Inlay: +1 success on all attacks during prolonged fights lasting three or more rounds.
• Ward/Armor Inlay: +2 successes to resist exhaustion, thirst, hunger, and the elements.
• Talisman/Focus Inlay: +2 successes on endurance, survival, and staying calm under pressure.

10. Hematite

The Stone: Hematite is iron oxide, heavy and metallic, with a gunmetal-silver shine. It looks like polished steel. Scrape it across unglazed porcelain, though, and it leaves a streak of blood red. That’s where it gets its name, from the Greek haima, meaning blood.

The Lore: Hematite was tied to Mars and the arts of war. Soldiers were said to rub it on their bodies before battle for protection. Powdered, it became the red ochre of ancient cave paintings and burials. It’s iron that remembers it was once blood.

• Weapon Inlay: +2 successes on attacks and +1 success on damage against armored foes.
• Ward/Armor Inlay: +3 successes on armor rolls against physical blows.
• Talisman/Focus Inlay: +2 successes on strength-based feats and on spells that bind or ground.

11. Tourmaline

The Stone: Tourmaline is a complex boron silicate and comes in more colors than almost any other gem. Watermelon tourmaline has a pink heart and a green rind in a single crystal. Tourmaline is also pyroelectric and piezoelectric, which means heat or pressure gives it an electric charge.

The Lore: Dutch traders called it aschentrekker, or “ash puller,” because a heated tourmaline would draw ash out of a pipe. Mystics see it as a stone of balance and a channel for energy. A stone that holds lightning was always going to draw a crowd of spellcrafters.

• Weapon Inlay: +2 successes on damage from lightning, energy, or shock attacks.
• Ward/Armor Inlay: +2 successes to resist lightning, energy, and electrical harm.
• Talisman/Focus Inlay: +2 successes on any spell. The stone can also store one spell to be cast later, after which it needs a full day to recharge.

12. Staurolite (Fairy Cross)

The Stone: Staurolite is an iron-aluminum silicate, brown to reddish-black, that often grows as twinned crystals crossing at sixty or ninety degrees. Pull one out of the ground and you’re holding a natural cross. Virginia’s Fairy Stone State Park is named for them.

The Lore: Legend says fairies wept when they heard of the Crucifixion, and their tears fell to the earth as tiny stone crosses. Fairy crosses have been carried as good luck charms for generations, against witchcraft, illness, and accidents.

• Weapon Inlay: +2 successes on attacks against fey, witches, and enchanted creatures.
• Ward/Armor Inlay: +2 successes to resist enchantment, fey glamours, and bad luck effects.
• Talisman/Focus Inlay: Once per session, the bearer may reroll any single failed roll and keep the better result.

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Inlay Settings by Item

Not every item can hold the same number of stones. A dagger has little room for ornament. A crown was built for nothing else. Use this chart as a starting point, and let your forge masters argue over the details.

Item	Inlay Settings	Notes
Dagger / Knife	1	Usually set in the pommel
Short Sword	1–2	Pommel and crossguard
Longsword	2	Pommel and crossguard
Greatsword	3	Pommel, guard, and ricasso
Axe	2	Haft and head
Mace / Warhammer	2	Head and pommel
Spear / Polearm	2	Shaft and head socket
Bow / Crossbow	1–2	Grip and limb
Wand	1–2	Tip and grip
Staff	3–4	Crown, shaft, and heel
Shield	2–3	Boss and rim
Helm	1–2	Brow and crest
Light Armor	2	Chest and shoulder
Medium Armor	3	Chest, shoulders, and belt
Heavy Armor	4	Breastplate, pauldrons, and gorget
Bracers / Gauntlets	1 each	Set over the wrist
Belt / Girdle	2	Buckle and band
Ring	1	One stone, one purpose
Amulet / Pendant	1–2	Center stone and accent
Circlet	2	Brow and temple
Crown	4–5	Built to carry power

Talismans and foci such as rings, amulets, wands, staves, circlets, and crowns use Talisman/Focus bonuses. Weapons use Weapon bonuses. Armor, shields, helms, bracers, and belts use Ward/Armor bonuses. A forge master of true skill might be able to cross those lines, but that should cost your players something worth remembering.

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Put Them to Work

None of this needs to stay fantasy, either. A jet amulet works just as well around the neck of a 1930s occult investigator as on a sword-swinging mercenary. A tourmaline set in a ray gun? I’d play that game.

If you like what you see here, use it right away. Hand your players a flawed garnet in a dead man’s pocket and watch them scramble for a spellcrafter. Treasure means more when it does more than fill a purse.

And go pick up that gemstone handbook. Once you’ve held a real fairy cross in your palm, you’ll never describe one the same way again.

If you would like to revisit past articles, look no further than the Geek Opera Index!