Peculiar Curios: A Double Helping of Earrings

Sun and Moon Earrings Level 17

This pair of matching earrings bears a crescent moon near the hook, a starburst in the center, and an arrow point at the bottom. When you wear them, a soft glow shows the time of day.

Item Slot Head 65,000 gp

Property: Gain an innate sense of the time. You know what time it is, down to the second.

Power (Daily): Standard. Make a Primary Ability attack vs Will against a single creature within ten squares of you. If that creature is hit by the attack, choose Standard, Move, or Minor. That creature cannot make that type of action until the end of your next turn.

Something I think I'd like Wizards to do a bit more would be integrating flavor and rules a bit more. Like, it's great that the rules are simple to read and easy to use, but when I read something like the rules text from Legend of the Five Rings, I get all giddy inside. They can write "The troubles of the world take a toll on your soul that only sake can lift," right there in the rules text, and people are like "Yeah, sure, whatever. Card does this," without any difficulty. It would make reading rules descriptions for shit a lot more interesting. So I'm going to re-do the Sun and Moon earrings, and we'll put them side by side, and you can tell me which one is better.

Sun and Moon Earrings Level 17

This pair of matching earrings bears a crescent moon near the hook, a starburst in the center and an arrow point at the bottom. When you wear them, a soft glow shows the time of day,

Item Slot Head 65,000 gp

Property: Even though you can't see the glow, you gain an innate sense of the time. You always know what time it is, down to the second. The glow is not bright enough to betray your position to enemies while you hide, but it allows your allies to tell what time it is just by looking at you.

Power (Daily): Standard Action. You draw strength from the arcane time-magic in the earrings and direct it at your opponent, stealing a few precious seconds from their life. Though it doesn't hurt them directly, they'll definitely notice the inconvenience. Make an attack using your primary ability vs Will against a single creature. If the attack hits, you can choose either Move, Minor or Standard. The target cannot make that type of action until the end of your next turn.

That, to me, makes a lot more sense. Stealing a few seconds away from you is what I was looking at doing with the mechanic, and I think that the mechanic does that, but it's a lot more fun for me as the guy with the words to actually show you what I meant by it. And all it takes to separated a piece of flavor text from the rules text is some italics.