I'm looking at making an artifact of sorts that my group will gain access to that's not so much a good thing. The basic idea is that it's a sliver of a Dark Side jewel that looks almost like a coin. The problem is, the jewel is very powerful in the Dark Side and influences those that hold it, providing them with bad luck so long as it's in their possession. It also travels a lot and passes through several hands.

The Coin of Syldrick: According to old lore, the Coin of Syldrick is named so after the fallen Jedi named Gordin Syldrick. During his time in the order, he was corrupted by the Dark Side and offered a large, red jewel as payment to betray his friends among the Jedi. Accepting, the Jedi were all slain, leaving Syldrick with his prize. Feeling guilty, he attempted to return the jewel, but after being denied, he wanted to atone and attempted to bring the culprit's to justice. Instead, he was killed, during which, the stone was shattered into several coin-like discs that have since retained some of the evil force that tempted Syldrick in the first place.

Anyone that comes into possession of such a coin has all their difficulties upgraded by one until they can get rid of it. Alternatively, the coin amplifies anyone who's attuned to the Dark Side of The Force and grants them an upgrade to their abilities instead. Each of the red coins are fairly impervious to damage and always find their way into someone's possession. In the wrong hands, the coin could prove to be valuable and quite dangerous.

Constructive comments are more than welcome.

Interesting idea. A couple things you might think about:

• Who or what corrupted him to the Dark Side, and why is the jewel an embodiment of that corruption?
• It sounds as if Syldrick was conflicted as opposed to truly "dark." The "evil force" sounds much more intriguing and worth your time to develop.
• A jewel would not likely shatter into coin-like shapes. Would it be better to make them shards, or did something forge the discs? How did it shatter?
• Wouldn't dividing the jewel also reduce its potency? You refer to the "Coin of Syldrick," and I think this would be much more interesting as a unique item.
• The game effect would be more interesting if it involved Force Dice as opposed to a simple difficulty increase. Some sort of deceptive benefit would be more in keeping with the Dark Side.
• Likewise, the benefit to Dark Side users might also involve Force Dice, and be unreliable or tied to betrayal, as that's the theme of the item.

I look forward to seeing what you do with this.

Here's an idea: The jewel, being highly force enhanced after sucking in his dark side likeness, became very mythical-esque. The Jedi began to rely on the jewel for power, and actually din't care that he had killed the others. He merely decided to go and kill the people who gave him the jewel, as a reward more preferable than death (death's better than life, that kind of thing). However, the jewel was a tricky and fickle thing, and killed the Jedi. What it didn't expect was that the men he had tried to kill didn't care for the jewel, and just tossed it in a safe.

Eventually, someone cracked the safe open to pay for some debts the organization had acquired. I was sold to another rich man, who was powered by greed. He turned the jewel into multiple small pendants, and sold them off for a large sum (circular gems are rather rare). This is how the pendant got to where it is now.

If you wanted a good kick out of the dreadful thing, you could make it a ring, and have one of the PCs steal it from a shady little creature that lived deep in the bowels of an Imperial base... and it makes you invisible.

Also, just for the idea of such an evil artifact,l you could have it reward people for killing and doing evil, and torment them for doing good.

If I used it, it would be a ring stolen from a nasty creature who loves riddles and only has six teeth.