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FASA Games, Inc. • Enchanting
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Enchanting

Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2016 8:42 pm
by The Undying
Player-based Thread Item creation. Has anyone actually incorporated it into their campaigns? If so, how did it go? If not, was a player interested in it and you (GM) decided against it?

I've been talking enchanting with my current GM for a while. He's on board with it, and given that there's plenty of legwork to get it off the ground for a group that meets once a week, we're going to press on it while waiting for the ED4 Player's Guide for updated mechanics. It might help that I'm more in to "interesting" things than mechanical things. For example, the item I'm currently aiming for is heavily themed around the Nethermancy Circle 2 Fog Spirit spells, rather than being "I want an amulet that does +1 Phys Armor, then +1 Mys Armor, then +1 Mys Def, then +1 Phys Def."

From a GM perspective, I'm curious how people feel enchanting fits into how they craft their ED universe. Personally, I see it as players taking some ownership in the crafting of their legend - assuming that they aren't just trying to juice mechanics for targeted, game warping buffs. However, I can see how it would water down that Adept's use of GM created and inserted items, which could affect both how the GM shapes their universe and potentially creates hooks into future stories.

From a mechanics perspective, I'm curious to hear how GMs that allowed enchanting tackled the actual effect selection/enchantment process. I can see a lot of the straightforward/vanilla stuff (e.g., Talent bumps, Armor/Defense bumps) being painfully obvious, maybe either a "you bought the Enchanting talent knack and therefore know how to do these" or "for a few hundred silver, you can buy either training or instructive scroll from Enchanters to explain these things." However, for anything that isn't straightforward/vanilla, but which the GM feels comfortable with at the associated rank and game power level, what (if anything) did you do to enable the Enchanter to figure out how to perform the enchantment? I'm thinking things like experimentation, a story searching for a relevant rumored recipe lost in some kaer, etc.

Finally, from a power level perspective, I'm curious what GMs feel are 'acceptable' rank/cost-tier limits for enchanted items. Scanning thing prior GM/Player guides/companions/compendiums on the topic, the suggested limits seem to bounce around. If you look at thread items in three tiers - Common, Magical Treasure, and Legendary - it seems like enchanting should have simple access to 'common' and difficult access to 'magical treasure.' Common limits to Novice, MAYBE Journeyman with 5 ranks, all straightforward/vanilla effects, whereas Magical Treasure (from an enchanting perspective) limits to Journeyman, MAYBE Warden, but requires significant effort on the part of the Enchanter to figure out how to do stuff, especially for non-straightforward/vanilla effects. I'm basing this on descriptions of Magical Treasures as being non-unique (implying that there is/was SOME formula for making them) and previous flavor/game descriptions talking about how the art of making the items has more or less been lost (meaning that at least some were made through explicit crafting and meaning that what once was lost could be found or developed again).

Re: Enchanting

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 8:00 pm
by The Undying
From a Designer perspective, I'm curious if Enchanting was ever really a major focus space. Looking at the older material, it feels like the system changed VERY little over time, just with nudges to difficulty base and modifiers to (generally) make it more difficult with new game editions. I can understand where it's both a relevant enough space that something SHOULD be there for rules while also just not being significant enough to core, or even ancillary, game play to merit much attention. We'll see what ED4 has for us soon enough, but I'd love to hear some brief commentary on how important they feel it is and why they made any changes they did.