This time around I had a go at what I will be calling Aspects. This is inspired by a designer I very much respect, Clash Bowley over on I Fly By Night. Essentially, Aspects are a free form descriptor that the player can generate and invest experience in. However, it goes a bit further than that allowing the GM to imbue items with an Aspect (or more than one). For instance, the other night a knight got a crit on a bandit that had been plaguing the thoroughfare. The sword cut off the limb of the bandit. After the battle, I told him to write down the Aspect: Vorpal Rank 1 for his sword and to give it a name. He named it Thrond as he imagined it came from the north and had Nordic runes on it. As play progressed, he brandished the sword and made a stirring speech to rally his men against a dragon. I gave him the option to advance his Vorpal to Rank 2 or give it an Inspire of Rank 1. He chose the Inspire.
Now, you might ask, that is fine but how does it play out in the system. This worked so much better than I thought it would. Basically, the Vorpal Rank 1 added 1 to damage roles. I switched back and forth between that and adding 1 die to the damage roll. I could see either working. The Inspire affected his Renown (previously called Honor) allowing him to gain 1 addition Renown point whenever he earned 1 normally. Also, I added it to any skill checks for leadership. This mechanic will have more weight in campaign play.
Finally, I want a method to remove Aspect ranks as well. So, a thought would be with weapons and tools, you could have crit failures do this. Perhaps a save of rolling under the rank on a d20. This means you most likely will loose your Vorpal 1 on a failure but could just as easily gain it back (on a crit success).
I look forward to more play test on this as I think it has applications in Nebuleon, Shades and just about all out games.