MAngband

Rings of Power should totally be a ring type. It could work really well. First, it would choose random stats or abilities. Then, baised on how many were chosen, it would have a max number of + that could be generated. It would also have a random +tohit and damage. Then, for hidden power, it would have one ability and one resist. They would be super rare. Just like, if you found one, you would feel a *need* to ctrl+d it to everyone, no matter how crappy it was, cus its just that rare.

TomeNET has something like this implemented to match the concept in LotR: all nazguls drop a randart ring with their name on it (the Ring of Power of Uvatha, the Horseman, ...). A normal flavor for those would be too powerful, since people could scum 6350 and still find many of those.

But if you equip 1 of the 9 rings given to the humans, you should turn into a ring-wraith after a short period of time according to the lore. The rings were made to corrupt the wearer just like the 1 ring if used by anyone but Sauron himself.

That'd be interesting as all heck...if you put one of these rings on, you get X number of hours/days/whatever, and after that time, your save file is queried for data, deleted, and a new unique is created (possibly buffed beyond your personal stats/skills/equipment) of you as a ringwraith.

Hehe... of course the rings would be made permacursed. :)

lol, so then you would prety much need to predict how long it would take you to get to and kill morgy, and then put the ring on when it would be less then how much time you had left!

As mentioned, in Tomenet each Nazgul drops a ring of power, which counts as a "random artifact" with some fixed mods that support the lore:

-each ring turns you invisible, drains your exp, is heavily cursed, cannot be dropped while cursed, can re-curse itself when picked up again
-each ring has random good powers.

We thought that exp drain is sufficient. Having the char go poof after a while or some other very nasty consequence was deemed over the top. A supporting factor for this is, that even despite those rings can be pretty powerful (and sometimes pretty bad), they will most likely eventually get replaced with high speed rings anyway...

We even reduced the annoyance of exp drain, by pausing it while the player is afk in town, so players don't have to log out instead of going afk while wearing those. Oh and wearing 2 would lead to even greater exp drain, although less than actually doubling it.

From our experience, these rings fit in very well. Most won't turn out very good, but sometimes you may get a great one that you'll want to wear despite the exp drain and curse. And toward the end-game, even the great ones are replaced with speed-rings anyway.