Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Hard and Fast Alchemy/Crafting with Powers rules?

Pseudonym · 12-26-2015, 11:42 AM

Does anyone know if there are any sources for hard and fast but slightly free-form alchemy/herb lore rules?

http://pseudoboo.blogspot.com/2015/1...game-like.html

I wrote this just a bit ago, and it is based on TL3 Dungeon Fantasy sensibilities, but I feel like it is missing something. In summary, what I have is:

1. Stat power of potion as a sorcery spell.
2. (Totally arbitrary number warning) It felt like the difficulty of a potion could be determined by every ten character points required to pay the full cost of the spell, so for example a 1d healing potion based off of the 32 point heal spell would have a -3 penalty.
3. Scrounging for each component would take 1dx5 minutes/ components (eg, two components, each component would take 1dx5 minutes/2) for a Quick Gadgeteer and 1 hour (or 1dx5 hours, not sure what would feel more appropriate) divided by the number of components for a non quick gadgeteer. Precedent for these time ranges are in Sages. The -3 penalty is applied to the scrounging roll. Naturalist, survival, prospecting, etc, might be used as support skills representing, "I know exactly where blue herbs grow in a mountain biome." Also apply biome penalties according to DF16 if desired.
4. Use the appropriate crafting skill ala pharmacy (herbal), herbal lore, alchemy, etc. with the penalty calculated in step 2. time is calculated similar to time from step 3.

I feel like it's a little flat, but functional. Some changes I was thinking
A) Maybe if a penalty exceeds -5/-10 (totally arbitrary) it necessitates a difficult quest (eg: because a phoenix feather for a resurrection potion is so rare, you can only find it if you search the mountain at the end of the world, the only place in recorded history where man has witnessed a phoenix) with progressive threshold breaches representing more difficult ingredients. Maybe it might be fair to knock the penalties down in this case. Maybe it should be knocked down some but not a lot (EG: a resurrection ability exceeds 200 points as a spell, so it would elicit a -20 penalty. Maybe if they go on the difficult quest described above, it could be chopped down to (-20/2)+remainder = -10 + remainder.
B) Maybe the penalty calculated in step 2 should instead be split as the GM sees fit between the two steps of gathering and crafting. I used the video game franchise "Monster Hunter" as an example, so maybe when creating a potion from a common herb + blue mushroom, and then combining it, the -3 could be allocated between all three of those mentioned tasks. In this case, I (Warning: subjectivity approaching) feel like the amount of the penalty should be doubled, and then allocated. For example, doubling -3 to -6, a GM might decide finding an herb is pretty easy, so that gets a -1, the mushroom gets a -2, and the actual crafting gets a -3.
C) I am not 100% sure if it is balanced against other crafting methods. Sorcery gives time tables in the scale of months, and I'm suggesting hours and minutes... though the minutes are somewhat justified by the big investment in Quick Gadgeteer and lots of difficult skills, as well as what feels like some precedence (at least for the minutes speed).

Any other documented systems similar to this? Any feedback? Does it feel like it could give alchemists/pharmacists/grenadiers a game breaking edge, especially in a Dungeon Fantasy setting?

12-26-2015, 11:42 AM	#1
Pseudonym Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Phoenix, AZ	Hard and Fast Alchemy/Crafting with Powers rules? Does anyone know if there are any sources for hard and fast but slightly free-form alchemy/herb lore rules? http://pseudoboo.blogspot.com/2015/1...game-like.html I wrote this just a bit ago, and it is based on TL3 Dungeon Fantasy sensibilities, but I feel like it is missing something. In summary, what I have is: 1. Stat power of potion as a sorcery spell. 2. (Totally arbitrary number warning) It felt like the difficulty of a potion could be determined by every ten character points required to pay the full cost of the spell, so for example a 1d healing potion based off of the 32 point heal spell would have a -3 penalty. 3. Scrounging for each component would take 1dx5 minutes/ components (eg, two components, each component would take 1dx5 minutes/2) for a Quick Gadgeteer and 1 hour (or 1dx5 hours, not sure what would feel more appropriate) divided by the number of components for a non quick gadgeteer. Precedent for these time ranges are in Sages. The -3 penalty is applied to the scrounging roll. Naturalist, survival, prospecting, etc, might be used as support skills representing, "I know exactly where blue herbs grow in a mountain biome." Also apply biome penalties according to DF16 if desired. 4. Use the appropriate crafting skill ala pharmacy (herbal), herbal lore, alchemy, etc. with the penalty calculated in step 2. time is calculated similar to time from step 3. I feel like it's a little flat, but functional. Some changes I was thinking A) Maybe if a penalty exceeds -5/-10 (totally arbitrary) it necessitates a difficult quest (eg: because a phoenix feather for a resurrection potion is so rare, you can only find it if you search the mountain at the end of the world, the only place in recorded history where man has witnessed a phoenix) with progressive threshold breaches representing more difficult ingredients. Maybe it might be fair to knock the penalties down in this case. Maybe it should be knocked down some but not a lot (EG: a resurrection ability exceeds 200 points as a spell, so it would elicit a -20 penalty. Maybe if they go on the difficult quest described above, it could be chopped down to (-20/2)+remainder = -10 + remainder. B) Maybe the penalty calculated in step 2 should instead be split as the GM sees fit between the two steps of gathering and crafting. I used the video game franchise "Monster Hunter" as an example, so maybe when creating a potion from a common herb + blue mushroom, and then combining it, the -3 could be allocated between all three of those mentioned tasks. In this case, I (Warning: subjectivity approaching) feel like the amount of the penalty should be doubled, and then allocated. For example, doubling -3 to -6, a GM might decide finding an herb is pretty easy, so that gets a -1, the mushroom gets a -2, and the actual crafting gets a -3. C) I am not 100% sure if it is balanced against other crafting methods. Sorcery gives time tables in the scale of months, and I'm suggesting hours and minutes... though the minutes are somewhat justified by the big investment in Quick Gadgeteer and lots of difficult skills, as well as what feels like some precedence (at least for the minutes speed). Any other documented systems similar to this? Any feedback? Does it feel like it could give alchemists/pharmacists/grenadiers a game breaking edge, especially in a Dungeon Fantasy setting? __________________ Blog Running Games on Tuesday (online). Playing Sunday.