Alternate enchantment system - brainstorming

[Bruno]

I've got some ideas bouncing around in my head as a result of the current conversation on the enchantment system, as well as the occasional re-occurring thread on how the enchanting system frequently doesn't benefit the enchanter directly unless it's a really big project (normally only indirectly, by selling completed goods for money).

So, brainstorming a variation on the enchantment system, with these starting premises:

* The spellcasting system is "standard" GURPS Magic spellcasting, and I will be recycling the same energy costs for enchantments, which in turn implies that some sort of accumulation of an energy-tally will be involved with enchanting. This is out of pure laziness on my part, and the fact that I may have a list of spell changes, but I still like the system. I may make tweaks but I find the energy values correspond well enough with my ideas about relative enchantment difficulty that I don't want to redo them all from scratch on a new system. The Enchantment and Temporary Enchantment spells may need to be scrapped and rewritten.

* Goal: In a game with 'reasonable' amounts of down time, it should be possible for a PC spellcaster, who probably doesn't have apprentices or business partners, to create reasonably-useful-to-adventurers items, or items that can be sold for money.

* Definition: "reasonable amounts of down time" - it should not take years for a PC spell caster to make modest adventuring-useful items. Weeks is acceptable, days is probably too short. I'm roughly eyeballing 500 energy as my line for "reasonable".

* Note: I don't use the standard spells for armor enchantments, nor the standard rule for piece-maille (ahem) armor enchantments. I have also repriced some of the armor enchantments, so I don't fear players using those few weeks and 500 energy for enchanting everything in the party with +1 or +2 DR and 50% weight and Deflection +1 :)

* Goal: PCs creating items for personal use will be doing this instead of working at a job to earn extra money, or using the time to study more spells and thus improve their point total, so the results should be a reasonable replacement for these other activities. I'd like it to at least not be the obviously-more-efficient option, nor the obviously-inefficient option, so players have a choice about what to do with their PCs time.