MRPG Crafting

The Mage Wars RPG will include a crafting system similar to the PnP game.

Crafting will be available to all players but must be leveled independently. Raw ingredients have to be gathered and there are numerous recipes available. Players must practice crafting in order to improve in skill and produce better items.

Success at crafting will never involve a random chance. If you have the skill required to craft an item you succeed at crafting the item, if you do not have the skill you cannot even attempt to craft. Because equipment in the game is so heavily focused around crafting, the amount of time and resources required to advance will be fairly low.

In order to promote at least some economy, a certain division between casual "I need this for myself" and the professional "I want to make this to sell" crafting must be made possible. Smithing is the most likely candidate for this. Make it simple to craft a blank and then pile on mountains of other stuff, then make it possible with excessive practice and effort to craft much better blanks.

Levels

Each Crafting School has five levels and multiple sub-levels within:

• Apprentice
• Journeymen
• Master
• Grandmaster
• Secret Grandmaster

Recipes

Crafting requires a list of ingredients as well as a recipe. Recipes are single-use and consumed along with the items.

Players who have the Transcription Skill(most mages) will be able to copy recipe cards and, at higher levels, inscribe permanent recipe books.

Crafting Schools

Mage Wars RPG provides five different types of crafting, each with it's own skill-level and experience requirements.

Smithing

Smithing only creates basic items. Weapons, armor, as well as augments(non-magical items that can be added to other items to make them stronger, such as weapon counterweights, chains, etc). Smithing creates only base items which are not magical. However, higher-level smiths can create better bases, potentially with better base stats.

Smithing requires tools that the player must purchase or make(better tools allow for better smithing), as well as crafting devices found in most towns. Additionally, each recipe will have an ingredients list that is consumed along with the recipe.

A basic, smithed weapon can later be improved upon by a smith of higher skill. Thus, the first sword you ever made can be continually enhanced and improved throughout the gameplay experience.

Each smithed item bears the name of its original smith. Additionally, players have the ability to name weapons they have initially created.

Smiths also gain the Repair Ability, which allows them to fix damaged items with damaged Durability.

Smithing Tools

To simplify matters, the smith will just have to carry around a toolbox for each material-type: Woodworking, Leatherworking, and Metalworking. Each toolbox can provide bonuses

Smithing Ingredients

Smithing can use any of the following in various ratios and types:

• Metals
• Leathers
• Animal Teeth
• Woods
• Enchanted Items

Runeing

Runeing is the process of carving magical runes into an item. These runes may make the item itself stronger, or provide stat bonuses to the player it is equipped to. Runes will not typically directly increase the item's damage-level(E.G. a sword my have a Rune of Strength that provides the player a strength bonus, thus increasing damage, but no rune will just add to the sword's base damage).

Runeing requires a special type of recipe called a template and various runeing tools called for by the template. All of these are consumed when the item is runed. Runeing templates cannot be copied by transcription.

Items that can be runed include: all weapons, armor, and shields.

Runic Alphabet

A single, very basic rune(such as a Rune of Strength) can be used, but for more complex effects players must use a runic alphabet comprised of 26 characters. It includes specific all magic-types, stats, weapon-types, armor, etc.

A basic Rune of Strength would add a single point of strength to the wearer. In order to make the bonus stack, the template must also include a rune of damage(for weapons) or protection(for armor), as well as a rune of completion to finish the spell. Thus, the most basic template works with 3 runes(except for single-bonus, non-stacking runes).

Multiples of the same rune can be used within a template. For example a template with Damage, Strength, Strength, Strength, Completion would give a +3 stacking bonus to strength while consisting of 5 runes. An items size determines how many runes it can hold.

Runeing Tools

There are no specific, reusable runeing tools, everything required for runing is used up in the process of making the rune.

Runeing Ingredients

A given template requires one of each of the following and my call for other items:

• Rune Pick
• Rune Hammer
• Preparation Material(usually an alchemical liquid)
• Finishing Rinse(also usually an alchemical liquid)

Basic Enchanting

Basic enchanting is a simple process of adding a magical enchantment to an item. Like runeing, this type of enchanting typically adds stat bonuses and other modifiers, though it can increase the base damage.

Basic enchanting is much simpler and will probably provide a good starting point for most players. Each recipe requires only 3 materials.

Enchanting Tools

Enchanting does not require any special tools, but the ingredients must be mixed in a vial which is either found or bought from a vendor. Once the enchantment is complete, it must be applied to the item.

Enchanting Ingredients

Each recipe requires a number of each of the following:

• Dusts
• Essences
• An Elixir(alchemical)

Alchemical Enchanting

Alchemical Enchanting works similarly to basic enchanting but calls for more alchemical components(things made through alchemy), as well as basic alchemical ingredients. Alchemical crafting is used to add special effects to items, like making flaming weapons or damage-absorbing armor.

Alchemical Enchanting Ingredients

Alchemical enchanting draws from all available ingredient lists and may even require other enchanted items.

Ritual Enchanting

Ritual enchanting is by far the most difficult. Mechanically, its works much like alchemical enchanting, but requires a specific ritual site. These sites may be located on remote mountain tops or deep within dungeons. Each town will have a simple ritual site for grinding experience but the more powerful rituals will require a great deal of travel.

In addition, certain rituals may have to be preformed at specific times of day or under special conditions(full moon, no clouds, etc).

There is a subset of ritual enchanting called Ritual Crafting, which works in a very similar way, but allows players to make unique weapons that cannot be made by smithing(such as a double-bladed scythe or weapons with special metal properties). Ritual crafting uses the same techniques and skill-levels, but does not have the same effect. An enchanting ritual adds a new effect to an existing item where as a crafting ritual creates a new item.

Ritual Enchanting Ingredients

Ritual Crafting is based around the different magic proficiencies and uses ritual elements from these. An exo-magic ritual, for example, might require dirt, water, fire, and a vessel containing air. Ritual elements are largely symbolic, so may not be magical in themselves, but are more dependent on where they come from within the game world(dirt from high atop a mountain is more powerful than dirt from next to a town).

Selling

Smithing

Smithed items can be sold freely at any point along the crafting process. Some items are finished goods while others are just materials to be used in other crafting exploits.

Runeing

Runeing must be preformed directly on the item, however can be done on an item in a trade window if the work is being sold.

Enchantments

All types of enchantment(basic, alchemical, and ritual) can produce a scroll which can be stored indefinitely or sold, allowing the player to make money selling their wares. Enchantments done off of scrolls are no different from those applied directly to the item.

Ritual-crafted items can be sold like any other.

Alchemy

Alchemy products may also be freely sold.

Other Crafting

Alchemy

Alchemy is available to all players and does not require any skill-points or leveling. Instead, the player's alchemy skill is based on their actual level. Raw ingredients may be gathered from adventure areas and combined at an alchemy shop found in every town. Players can choose to ignore this feature all together and instead simply buy potions.

Each alchemy shop will have a recipe book on hand for patrons to use, so collecting alchemical recipes is unnecessary. The book-interface will allow the player to set minimum and maximum levels to display, allowing them to eliminate low-level recipes and view those they cannot yet complete.

The alchemy shop will sell many raw ingredients, allowing players to complete most alchemical recipes with the click of a mouse. Finished potions cannot be sold to vendors.

Mobiru

The ability to craft Mobiru weapons, armor, and stones will be added along with the Wizard Breakers expansion.

Permanence

Permanence is a hidden feature designed to influence the history of the game. Through some combination of factors, weapons that have gone through all 5 crafting schools and received a unique name from their original creator can receive a permanence attribute. When the character holding the weapon is deleted, the weapon becomes unbound and enters the game's random loot-table as a Unique item, allowing it to be found by another player.

Economy

Crafting is the only area where a certain level of player interdependency is called for, and only for those wishing to advance quickly in a specific school while ignoring others

For exmaple: smiths can make rune picks and rune hammers that runers need to rune. Enchanters can enchant specific ingredients that a smith would need in order to make a higher-level item. Alchemists make potions used by all schools of crafting.

Most ingredient-type items can be freely bought and sold on the auction house or in other venues.

See Also:

• Mage Wars RPG
• MRPG Crafted Effects
• MRPG Materials