Research (WAS:Dispel Realm Magi

[Jim Cooper]

Morg wrote:
> Her chance of success is: 20 (base) - 5.5 (1/2 PC level) = 14.5.
> Then the Dm adds/subtracts his estimation of what the player has described. It is deemed 'nasty' and is given a +3 (making it harder) & rounds up, for a success chance of 18+.
> Then she decides to spend 30 rps to reduce the score, which brings it down to 8+. The Dm rolls for success.

Uh ... you meant: " ... she decides to spend _10_ rps ..." right?

> What do you think?

I very much like them. In fact, I'm going to adopt this into MC!
Thanks.

> > Never again, never BR, never magic no more forever! Keep the Realms
> > Forgotten!!!!
>
> That's a catchy phrase D.... we are smart..... we are strong.... we have power.....

heh. Thanks! :)

Cheers,
Darren

[DKEvermore@aol.co]

In a message dated 2/13/99 12:56:16 AM Central Standard Time,
morgramen@home.com writes:



> Thus, the HMA creates a Wand of Conjuration (7000 xp value). He has got a
> 5GB research lab in Abbatour, and spends 50 GBs on the project.
>
> 7000/50/16/5 = 1.75 years = 7 turns to create. (Again, any fractions are
> rounded up.)
> Success chance: 20 - 8 (1/2 level) =12+
>
> What do you think?
>
Nice numbers, but hey, this doesn't track. You're saying you only need a
small pile of gold, an idea, and a bunch of regency and you can make any darn
magic item you want.

Nope. No way. The wizard should _have_ to go out of his way. Want to
enchant a sword? 1) learn weaponsmithing. 2) go find special ingredients
(i.e. Dragon's blood ain't on the open market). 3) make ALL the skills rolls
(i.e. weapon smithing, adventuring, spellcrafting, enchanting, whatever your
gaming system uses).

Then make him spend experience. At least, that's how it's doen in other game
systems.

- -DKE

[Pieter A de Jong]

DKEvermore@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 2/13/99 12:56:16 AM Central Standard Time,
> morgramen@home.com writes:
>
>
>
> > Thus, the HMA creates a Wand of Conjuration (7000 xp value). He has got a
> > 5GB research lab in Abbatour, and spends 50 GBs on the project.
> >
> > 7000/50/16/5 = 1.75 years = 7 turns to create. (Again, any fractions are
> > rounded up.)
> > Success chance: 20 - 8 (1/2 level) =12+
> >
> > What do you think?
> >
> Nice numbers, but hey, this doesn't track. You're saying you only need a
> small pile of gold, an idea, and a bunch of regency and you can make any darn
> magic item you want.
>
> Nope. No way. The wizard should _have_ to go out of his way. Want to
> enchant a sword? 1) learn weaponsmithing. 2) go find special ingredients
> (i.e. Dragon's blood ain't on the open market). 3) make ALL the skills rolls
> (i.e. weapon smithing, adventuring, spellcrafting, enchanting, whatever your
> gaming system uses).
>
> Then make him spend experience. At least, that's how it's doen in other game
> systems.
>
I would never consider this last idea. A wizard should learn from
creating a magical item, not be brain damaged from his work. Consider
the example of the elven smiths in the Lord of the Rings. First they
made lesser rings and then moved up to the rings of power (as they
acquired more skill and experience) then the One Ring with the aid of
Sauron and Celeborn made the Three elven rings on his own.

Pieter A de Jong
Graduate Mechanical Engineering Student
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

[Morg]

Hey all!

DKEvermore@aol.com wrote:


> Nice numbers, but hey, this doesn't track. You're saying you only need a
> small pile of gold, an idea, and a bunch of regency and you can make any darn
> magic item you want.

Actually, no, this is not what I am saying. What I am saying is that the formula
provides DMs with a measure & a rule of how to go about actually creating the
item/spell. All the leg work is left to the Dm & player to figure out before
hand.

> Nope. No way. The wizard should _have_ to go out of his way. Want to
> enchant a sword? 1) learn weaponsmithing. 2) go find special ingredients
> (i.e. Dragon's blood ain't on the open market). 3) make ALL the skills rolls
> (i.e. weapon smithing, adventuring, spellcrafting, enchanting, whatever your
> gaming system uses).
>

I agree 100% with what you have said. Actually, the formula gives the Dm something
to work with, that's all. I assume most Dms do the leg work before hand. If a
wizard wants to create some item or other, the Dm can decide for his own campaign
what all is involved. If the wizard has to go all the way to the Dragon Isles and
recover the eyelash from a Maesentian Noble wearing purple underwear (now that
would be hard to find!!! :) then, this is all done before you roll the formula I
outlined prior. (At least the way I play it.)

The formula is meant for use *after* all this jazz is done. So the Number
Crunching Wizard in the above example returns with said eyelash, now what? The
Rule Book is rather vague on the success/cost of research & item creation. Enter
above formula. So not only does the wizard have to go to the ends of Cerilia to
gather the stuff, but he also has to spend all this GB and RP to actually create
the thing. (Note also, that the Dm has the option of making it ridiculously
difficult to succeed, with the quid pro quo of Dm mods in the formula.)

Also, I realized (and as Darren pointed out) that I failed to mention that the RPs
(at least in my campaign) are used at a 3:1 ratio for helping the success number.
So in my original post, I believe I had said that HMA spends 30 RPs to bring
success down to 8+ from a success of 18+. At a 3:1 ratio, this works. (I use the
'low magic' argument of Cerilia to justify this.) If Dms want to make it easier,
they can do it at a straight 1:1 ration. It's up to them.

Hope that clarifies my intent here.

Morg

[Kenneth Gauck]

I agree with the tone of DKEvermore's post, at least as regards regency.
Its not a cure all. There is a middle ground between having adventurers can
do whatever a regent can do with regency and spending regency to dispense
with adventuring altogether/

- -----Original Message-----
From: DKEvermore@aol.com
Date: Monday, February 15, 1999 3:51 PM
>
>Nope. No way. The wizard should _have_ to go out of his way. Want to
>enchant a sword? 1) learn weaponsmithing. 2) go find special ingredients
>(i.e. Dragon's blood ain't on the open market). 3) make ALL the skills
rolls
>(i.e. weapon smithing, adventuring, spellcrafting, enchanting, whatever
your
>gaming system uses).
>
>Then make him spend experience. At least, that's how it's doen in other
game
>systems.

[the Falcon]

> Then make him spend experience. At least, that's how it's doen in other game
> systems.

Make him _spend_ experience? What, does creating a magical item cause
amnesia in your campaign?
Especially if he went thru all that trouble, I'd say the wizard would
definitely learn something, even if it's only the fact that creating
magical items just isn't worth the trouble. :)

- the Falcon

[Pieter Sleijpen]

Pieter A de Jong wrote:
>
> DKEvermore@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > In a message dated 2/13/99 12:56:16 AM Central Standard Time,
> > morgramen@home.com writes:
> >
> >
> >
> > > Thus, the HMA creates a Wand of Conjuration (7000 xp value). He has got a
> > > 5GB research lab in Abbatour, and spends 50 GBs on the project.
> > >
> > > 7000/50/16/5 = 1.75 years = 7 turns to create. (Again, any fractions are
> > > rounded up.)
> > > Success chance: 20 - 8 (1/2 level) =12+
> > >
> > > What do you think?
> > >
> > Nice numbers, but hey, this doesn't track. You're saying you only need a
> > small pile of gold, an idea, and a bunch of regency and you can make any darn
> > magic item you want.
> >
> > Nope. No way. The wizard should _have_ to go out of his way. Want to
> > enchant a sword? 1) learn weaponsmithing. 2) go find special ingredients
> > (i.e. Dragon's blood ain't on the open market). 3) make ALL the skills rolls
> > (i.e. weapon smithing, adventuring, spellcrafting, enchanting, whatever your
> > gaming system uses).
> >
> > Then make him spend experience. At least, that's how it's doen in other game
> > systems.
> >
> I would never consider this last idea. A wizard should learn from
> creating a magical item, not be brain damaged from his work. Consider
> the example of the elven smiths in the Lord of the Rings. First they
> made lesser rings and then moved up to the rings of power (as they
> acquired more skill and experience) then the One Ring with the aid of
> Sauron and Celeborn made the Three elven rings on his own.

Hey, we do agree some times :-)

Pieter Sleijpen

[DKEvermore@aol.co]

In a message dated 2/16/99 9:11:22 AM, m.m.richert@twi.tudelft.nl writes:

>> Then make him spend experience. At least, that's how it's doen in other
>game
>> systems.
>
>Make him _spend_ experience? What, does creating a magical item cause
>amnesia in your campaign?
>
Of course not. In the game system I use, XP are used to buy stuff. He
doesn't *loose* skills, always gain stuff. You don't spend experience on
magic items you find, just the ones you want to make. Like money.

- -DKE