Crafting For Dummies

Ideas and suggestions for game mechanics and rules.
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ElCadaver
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Crafting For Dummies

Post by ElCadaver »

Hi Guys,
just did a bit of a search on the forum

Is there any kind of beginners crafting guide? Just how to get started, and how to learn more recipes? One would assume IC that if a player has skills in some type of crafting, they should know the basics, and not have to IC pester players on how to do it. I understand it differs from vanilla NWN2.

Oh, and not a list of everthing that can be made, but how about just a list of properties/items/powers that are NOT ALLOWED, so we know the boundaries to our mad machinations.
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t-ice
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Re: Crafting For Dummies

Post by t-ice »

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Brokenbone
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Re: Crafting For Dummies

Post by Brokenbone »

There's probably several points to tackle here:

(1) Recipes have very little to do with DnD. Sure, a lot of games, one needs to secure a recipe to "do something", but DnD, not so much. Perhaps from time to time a plot could require research IC as to how to, oh, I don't know, unlock the secrets to working adamantine, training under some ancient dwarven master or something, but that's all kind of between DM and player, whatever it is, it isn't a "recipe."

(2) What t-ice provided is a guide to the very new automated consumables crafting system. It only applies to scrolls, wands, potions. It's a technical guide, DMs (and fellow players!) may expect additional RP to support that, not just *stands in place, 10 seconds later, a wand appears in hand.*

(3) Crafting of mundane things (regular or masterwork arms, armor, tools, alchemical junk, jewelry, maybe even fortresses) tends to require skills (often craft, sometimes profession), time, and raw materials. Server teams might express their requirements in places like how BG has its sticky on "Crafting and You." Quite closely parallels PnP in many points, but also traces to some Admin rulings based on years and years ago some crafting thinking a large group seems to have done, for balance in 24/7 PW kinda scene. Link for BG: http://www.alandfaraway.org/forums/view ... 42&t=43921 .... TSM or MS may have their own similar or different ways of handling, I am not sure what stickies they've got.

(4) Crafting of "other magical stuff" also usually something DM teams will define, usually though this is Feats based, not Skills based. Stuff like Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Forge Ring, various other stuff. We even have kind of insane feats like Craft Portal and Craft Construct, not that I expect to see those in use too often. Again, for BG, see that sticky. It will always mean working with a DM, who may spell out their expectations as to how much time, roleplay, etc. goes in, who does the tooling, how to verify pricing (they often need to make calls on things like affinity, or if the math has been done right on multiple powers, etc).

(5) As to allowed / disallowed "powers," our lists are really about what's permitted. We do not list out banned stuff. If we did, we'd be scanning 50 splatbooks and making a list 50 pages long I'm afraid. Basically, if you look at our documentation and CANNOT find pricing for something that the toolset would permit, the idea is, it is banned. So example, ALFA has a pretty short list of "onhit" powers for weapons. Toolset would let you do "onhit: horrid wilting" if you felt like it. We kind of say "no" to that. Scroll of horrid wilting would be fine though.

Details of what is permissible found here (as in, if you can find a price for it, it's good, subject to restrictions sometimes on item type etc.): http://www.alandfaraway.org/node/2186

I'll remind that our guidelines permit combinations unheard of in any published PnP source. Sometimes though they might forbid wonderful PnP items. Take the good with the bad, part of the deal here is at least everyone is subject to same rules, as opposed to "hey, how'd this guy get permanent haste and regeneration (amazing in a tiny world of only so many areas but endless 24/7 fights if desired), when everyone else agrees it's illegal?" Yes, ring of regen is a PnP wonderful item, but for balance reasons (farming concerns), it's no good here. A ring of say, Vigor 5/d would be legal though, poor man version I guess.

(6) DMs are encouraged in the "very old Admin threads" where crafting kind of "passed" (and adopted on servers like BG) to always exercise discretion. Powers that are "allowed", well, if DMs found even a legal power a little outrageous for their game, might find that some of the optional quest type rules come into play. There was an idea in the old Admin stuff that value over 7500, or having 3 or more powers, could mean quest of some CR or other, to even START a project.

Simple example, based on something a fellow player's PC was crafting, for some reason we wanted the head of a hag. Pretty gross. Maybe her hair was being woven into a highly magical robe, darned if I know. Presumably it took some research, knowledge rolls, whatever the DM felt like, to get to that stage. Meant keeping a sharp eye out in the Cloakwood, gunning for a hag. Eventually found one, hurray, now get on with the RP, gold, XP and time investment.

More complex example could be that if a DM had serious concerns about an item, they might set the bar very high on a quest. Need a dragon-slaying sword (slay racial is a legal power, pretty expensive)... DM says all right, the masterwork sword you were hoping to start with isn't enough, you will have to get someone to forge a fresh new sword, but at one point quench it in the fresh heart's blood of a fairly mature chromatic dragon, during the forging process. Presumably this wouldn't be knowledge that just popped into one's head, it could require library access, consulting with sages, this might even be sage A's advice. Sage B might say you need, oh, I don't know, three tears of a high priest of Tiamat used in an oil applied to the blade during its enchantment... so many the crafter decides to go find one and tell sad stories to, don't know.

Net of this point 6, is "hey, what's legal is defined, what a DM will personally permit, is discretionary," though there's also a lot of quest hurdles that could be put up as opposed to a flat out "no, too powerful, or too powergamey." People sometimes forget that, including DMs who struggle with people demanding customer-service.

...

Hope this helps?
ALFA NWN2 PCs: Rhaggot of the Bruised-Eye, and Bamshogbo
ALFA NWN1 PC: Jacobim Foxmantle
ALFA NWN1 Dead PC: Jon Shieldjack

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