RPM - Enchantment

[Refplace]

RPM - Enchantments
Currently you can get some pretty long durations for a spell by increasing the energy cost. Also this makes it harder to dispel or change the spell and you can go back and renew a spell later.
This fits many fictional and real life speculative of folklore magics.

However what to do about actual permanent enchantments such as seen in High Fantasy?
I have several ideas and am curious to see other people ideas or comments.

Consideration or base line points.
Duration is +22 points for a year, +1 per additional year.
Energy Accumulation is cumulative but not something that can be held over or stored. So to cast a Ritual you need to accumulate all the enrgy without stopping or resting.

Proposals
Sealing: This fits some flavors of magic and what your doing is locking in a spell so it is harder to dispel or change and makes it independant.
Effects: Sealing increases the final energy cost by *5 (applied after all other modifiers, including Greater effect multipliers) and is used with a Conditional Ritual or Charm.
It makes the spell independant and thus it does not count against the Mages Conditional limit.
Note: Sealing thus gives us a Q&D type process that allows you to create and sell minor one shot (or charged) magic items.
The cost can be pretty high but note that you can replenish your ER and energy accumulation can draw up some pretty decent amounts, especially compared to the standard magic system.

Battery: A Greater Magic effect that is used to create a battery of stored energy for an item. It can be used by the spell the effect is a part of, or it can be added as a separate enchantment to power something else. It can be recharged just as a mage would recharge thier own mana reserve. If it is added as a modifier to the casting cost it then allows 1 charge capacity per Effect (Battery).
If used as a separate enchantment then figure the cost as per Altered Traits using ER and possibly Regeneration (FP only), however the base cost of ER is changed to reflect higher cost of energy. ER is thus 10 energy per pt in the battery with Regeneration at normal price. Compartmentailized Mind (Controls) is sometimes added to an item, especially a larger item and this allows more fine control over casting the spell and it behaves less like a standard conditional Ritual and more like an actual cast spell. The item does not regenerate energy on its own without the Regeneration power added to it (often limited with accessability limitations to reduce cost) but a mage can refill it the same way they can refill thier own reserves.

Enchantment: This is like the Sealing effect above and includes all those rules and modifers except as noted below. You can create an item as a permanent enchantment. Some itmes simply have a long duration and can be recharged by reenchanting them (use bae cost before the Sealing modifier) while others have a separate Battery enchantment built into them. Battery enchantments can be used by any other spell on the item. They are easily recharged however so very valuable to have on a magic item.
This allows you to build an item that can cast a spell useing its own or the wielders energy at the effective skill the item was enchanted with. This is most useful to a mage when it has its own battery but even without that it still gives other mages the ability to use spells faster and with paths they may not know.
The duration method is typically for passive items while a battery is often added for instant type cast items or items where you may activate it for a set duration (using up the casting energy) and then use it again as needed if the energy is available. A trigger condition needs to be met to activate an item howerver most items can be used by anyone capable of activating the trigger.
An item can sense if the bearer has magery and that is allowed as part of the condition without adding another sense to it.

Effects: the cost is the same as Sealing, however it is a separate effect and energy is poured into the item using Daily accumulation Rituals. This means building the item takes signifcantly longer. However a mage may work on multiple items or do other things such as use thier own spells while not working directly on the item. You may put multiple enchantments on an item but can only work on one enchantment for each item at a time. Multiple people may contribute energy and it is worth noting that you do not get a penalty for cumulative efforts as this process is less stressful then the faster energy gathering method.
The primary advantage of the Enchantment effect is that you can build higher cost items then the Sealed method, however they take signifcantly longer.

[Refplace]

Still thinking on this and I kind of want to make it more complicated. Enchantments involving multiple steps and different effects but suspect no one else would like that.

[Langy]

Personally, I think it's best to completely redo the enchantment process so it doesn't work like RPM at all. Basically, I want a new enchantment system that's compatible with RPM but doesn't actually use RPM to perform the enchantments.

I've been fooling around with taking the Imbuement rules from Power Ups 1 and the Trading Points for Money rules and mashing them together into one cohesive enchanting-items whole. You'd have to have a specific advantage in order to create any enchantments, and to make permanent ones you'd need to either spend CP or purchase ingredients for sacrifices, possibly including other magic items. It'd wind up working very similarly to a D&D Artificer, though that wasn't the intention.

It would also allow you to have cool enchantments that aren't currently possible, like switching a gun's damage type to huge piercing when it's normally large piercing.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Langy

purchase ingredients for sacrifices, possibly including other magic items

Nothing to add but a stray thought that this triggered:

How interesting would it be to have a setting with a fixed number of enchanted items? If you want a +3 sword of grue slaying, you'll need to crack open that everburning lantern to get at the magic inside. Seems like it would fit a setting of dying magic.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Langy

Personally, I think it's best to completely redo the enchantment process so it doesn't work like RPM at all. Basically, I want a new enchantment system that's compatible with RPM but doesn't actually use RPM to perform the enchantments.

You are going to love Chapter 3, then. :)

[Lamech]

I've always liked for enchanted item systems simply using the learning through study rules. Apply gadget limitations as needed. Note if it can be stolen or destroyed it needs unique. Also note you can make an impossible to steal, indestructible magic item as well, indeed this is a standard feature with no gadget limitations! The exact conversion rate of hours to CP for making items depends on the characters qualifications.

So sample system for RPM enchantments:
Minor Enchanter:
Requires: Thaumatology, Magery 0
Effects: Can create enchanted items costing 5 CP or less. An enchantment takes 400 hours for each CP the enchantment costs. Finally, the enchanted item must be a lesser effect from one of the existing paths.

Enchanter:
Requires: Path Skill at 12, Magery 0
Can create enchanted items costing 20 CP or less. An enchantment takes 200 hours for each CP the enchantment costs. Finally, the enchanted item must be a lesser effect from the chosen path skill. Alternatively an enchanted item emulating a greater effect from the chosen path skill costing up to 5 CP may be created by spending 400 hours per CP the item costs.

Expert Enchanter:
Requires: Path Skill at 15, Magery 3
Can created enchanted items costing any amount, if the enchanted item emulates a lesser effect from the chosen path skill. Doing so takes 100 hours per CP the item costs. Alternatively an enchanted item may emulate a greater effect costing 20 CP or less. This takes 200 hours per CP the item costs.

Master Enchanter
Requires: Path Skill at 18, Magery 6
Effects: Can create enchanted items emulating any effect from the chosen path, costing any amount. The time taken is 100 hours per CP the item costs.

New Advantage: Natural Enchanter,
Cost: 10/level
Effect: Reduces the time taken to enchant an item by 10% a level. In addition reduces the skill and magery requirements by 1 a level. Maximum 5 levels of this advantage. This is similar to a talent.

RPK is it really needed to taunt us with all the wonderful things we can't have yet? I swear I will give you my money when the book comes!

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

You are going to love Chapter 3, then. :)

You are so lucky there is no middle finger emoticon what with all the teasing.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Langy

...You'd have to have a specific advantage in order to create any enchantments, and to make permanent ones you'd need to either spend CP or purchase ingredients for sacrifices, possibly including other magic items. It'd wind up working very similarly to a D&D Artificer, though that wasn't the intention.
....

I would certainly want rare ingredients to act like energy for the really cool items.
Turning already made items into generic mana batteries could be a whole other magic related skill.

[Refplace]

Well good to know Enchantment is definitively in the book.
As to the others, I don't really like Powers as magic for this.
I am ok with Powers as magic but the limited magic you can make is to my mind an inherent weakness of the powers as magic paradigm and lends itself to low fantasy rather then high fantasy.
Even at the 100 hours per point were talking 2.5 weeks for a 1 point item.
A 10 point power with -80% in limitations would take 5 weeks to make.
Hmm ok 100 hours might actually be ok with me.
Still that is 100 hours and get a free point if your an enchanter. Sure your tossing away those points if you sell the item but is this fair to the other players?
That is the equivalent of Intensive Training except your probably making money rather then spending it.

[Lamech]

Don't forget a character could always spend points on cash and independent income and then pay for intensive training while still getting a surplus of cash. That said some tweaking probably needs to be done. This was fairly off the cuff.