Poll Crafting

[NESchampion]

Absolutely not.

Any reasons why not, or just your opinion?

I posted my attempt to reason with you.

I checked back 3 pages on your most recent posts, couldn't find it. If you could post a link so that I and those who weren't around for whenever this was could see your opinions, that'd be fantastic.

Or not, whatever.

[NESchampion]

Picking up on Fionn's comment, one of the things that has always seemed silly to me about crafting was mining your own ore and chopping your own wood. Unless it's something really rare, like mithril or whatever, shouldn't you able to just buy basic items like iron ingots and raw wood? I can't imagine every NPC blacksmith has to take a mule into the hills and swing a pick for a day in order to make a cooking pot.

Sure, but if you're buying from merchants second hand, it's going to cost more than the items worth to do it.

[Joos]

OMG a system that might keep people playing even when there is no DM logged on! Quickly, shoot it down before someone actually starts enjoying non-DM'd ALFA!

[Stormseeker]

Well i voted with dm assistance. Just give the pc's a widget that keeps track of the time they are crafting. When a dm show's up they can decide how much was successful. This would be on the mundane things. On the magical have a seperate widget with the same process.
Example would be a blacksmith making a sword or a couple of them. Dm says that for his work only one was a masterwork. Then the pc starts crafting on the masterwork, the final check is done with a dm(gives the chance for a dm to have a magical sword ready) and if it passes player has a magical sword..if not back to the forge.

[Knighted]

Well almost 50% of alfans so far have voted 'yes' to no-dm crafting. Methinks this says something...?

[Nyarlathotep]

Every bearskin must be grown from a cub (and can be hunted to extinction).

Crafting or no crafting I would love to be able to hunt bears to extinction.

[Rick7475]

Yeah!! Scripted crafting!!


DM's have enough to do without having to roll for craft checks. You want to burn em out? Script it!! Make ALFA head of the PW's! The envy of all!

Give PC's something to do when DM's aren't around!

Go for it!!

[Fionn]

Every bearskin must be grown from a cub (and can be hunted to extinction).

Crafting or no crafting I would love to be able to hunt bears to extinction.

Well, one of the basic tenents of Evolution (or FSM:ID) is that something will evolve to fill the gap. It could be Trolls are starving to death because the Bears eat all the succulent njubs. Kill all the bears, you get Trolls everywhere...

[Nyarlathotep]

I bear trolls no animosity, let us finally drive the wicked bears to extinction. Njubs of ALFA unite, you have nothing to lose but your fear of bears!

[NESchampion]

Every bearskin must be grown from a cub (and can be hunted to extinction).

Crafting or no crafting I would love to be able to hunt bears to extinction.

Well, one of the basic tenents of Evolution (or FSM:ID) is that something will evolve to fill the gap. It could be Trolls are starving to death because the Bears eat all the succulent njubs. Kill all the bears, you get Trolls everywhere...

Enter the Realsphere of Penitence... ahh, that was a beautiful thing.

It's a shame the world never took, and the crafting there was horribly useless.

[McJoker]

I bear trolls no animosity, let us finally drive the wicked bears to extinction. Njubs of ALFA unite, you have nothing to lose but your fear of bears!

Hey...and what do you expect us woodsmen to practice wrestling with?! Yes, we had PCs do that on DD...back when I was a play...wow...long time ago.

Personally, I would say yes to crafting w/o DM assistance. Keeping in line with Boom's remarks and Fion's ideas/concepts (aww...means you have to read through the rest of this thread again...no apologies).

I have looked at/tested other PWs where variations of crafting are used...have had the most fun with DM unassisted crafting. Mostly because it gave the character something to do when nobody was on...of course the character should have IC reasons.

Was almost going to go into the semi-rant of let's make crafting PrCs...Weapon-smith, Armor-smith, Bowyer & Fletcher, etc...but that would actually be overdoing it. OTOH, not every character is an adventurer...actually recall a few that did little to no adventuring, lest it was to accompany and record the tasks of others.

[mr duncan]

I voted for crafting without a DM, but i think this should only apply to non-magic items. a DM should be there for any enchanted items made, and all those rare enchantment compenents found RPing. Maybe even masterwork weapons could be made without a DM, but not enchanted.




J

[Blackwill]

I've red alot interesting points of view, I thank you all for them. And keep them comming please. Also, it's becomming clear (at the moment) where this poll is headed. So in the comming days, I'd love to hear more ideas or comments why such a system would or wouldn't be workable in ALFA.

Also availability is something I'd like to hear opinions on. Do you think each craft should be available for 100% of its potential to each PC. Or should we have specialsations, which would limit progression at crafts for a specialist on one certain craft.

What are the thoughts on resources. Should they be findable or buyable, or both? Should these be canonised. With this I mean, have resources spread based on canon. Making some resources extremely rare, or even non-existant to harvest within one server.

Also, to clear up any misconception. This poll and discussion is for mundane crafting only. So magical crafting is not something we're discussing at this time. Potions and scrolls are possibly exempt from this rule.

Many of your ideas will be used as I'll be working on two proposals which I hope to have ready in the comming weekend.

[Rusty]

Player characters are adventurers, they are not bakers, butchers, shoesalesmen, weavers, chefs or anything similar by trade. It's why you dont see the whole village run out to raid that orc stronghold. Also, mundane craftsmen are also very poor, whereas a successful adventurer is by comparison relatively rich.

Word.

Mundane crafting has no place in ALFA; indeed, there's a much stronger case for magical crafting. ALFA claims to be a hard-core RP world, where PCs stay IC all of the time. If something is not "realistic" or even "remotely plausible" - e.g. a bunch of PCs trooping out of Waterdeep to cut down some trees in the Unseelie Fey Forest so they can craft longbows, rather than just /buying/ the damn longbow from an NPC whose entire life and craft-skills are devoted to making longbows - then it is simply not believably IC.

Mundane crafting is not worth the concomitant sacrifice in the level of RP; go find another PW where they have lower standards.

[darrenhfx]

Come on Rusty, if people can figure out how to roleplay an elf from a mystical magical forest you think that finding a way to rp a fletcher is going to that tough? I've seen many pc's who rp being merchants with no noticeable lack of roleplaying skills, so why is being a craftsperson such a leap?
Again if the standards for rp aren't there maybe people should be warned that they can be docked xp for becoming a soulless craft monkey.